Hydrogen Fuel Cells - The Future of Clean Energy?

A diagram of how a hydrogen fuel cell would work in a car

Hydrogen fuel cells are an alternative energy format powered by, you guessed it, hydrogen. They are typically used in stacks to help increase efficiency and power. Hydrogen fuel cells have three parts: an anode, a cathode, and a proton exchange membrane between them.  Hydrogen enters the anode and oxygen enters the cathode. The hydrogen is then split into an electron, which provides energy to a motor, and a proton, which continues to move through the fuel cells. The electron and proton join up again at the cathode side, join with the oxygen, and water is released. Water is the only by-product of a hydrogen fuel cell, making it an environmentally-friendly alternative with potential to solve fresh water problems. In fact, hydrogen fuel cells used on space shuttles were used to supply fresh water to the astronauts on board.

How hydrogen fuel cells work in a space ship

Hydrogen releases less CO2 than gas

In order to work, a hydrogen fuel cell needs a continuous supply of its energy source, in other words, hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen can be pulled from the air outside the fuel cell, but obtaining hydrogen is much harder. Hydrogen can be difficult to obtain. Currently, hydrogen is collected from industrial waste, propane, methane, and other sources that require high power to generate, but hopefully in the future hydrogen will be harvested from renewable resources. There are fuel cells that can potentially run on water, but the concept is very controversial due to Stanley Meyer’s falsified water fuel cell. An easy to access hydrogen source would need to be found or created before we can power the world on hydrogen fuel cells alone. Plus, fuel cells are still relatively expensive to manufacture, however their price is expected to drop dramatically in the future.

The Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell car

To make hydrogen fuel cells work on a large scale, some sort of hydrogen infrastructure needs to be developed to distribute hydrogen where needed. Hydrogen fuel storage and conversion methods are currently in development, yet they still need a lot of work. Hydrogen can be transported as a gas or liquid through current energy transportation methods like pipelines and trucks, but for the most part hydrogen could be produced on-site at power plants, fueling stations, and anywhere else it may be needed for fuel cells. Integration into currently existing structures may be somewhat difficult and places requiring hydrogen for power may need to be retrofitted to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells could be part of either a centralized or decentralized system, it just depends upon the decisions of those who implement it. Hydrogen fuel cells can be modified to run off-grid, they just need to have some source of hydrogen in order to work.

Hydrogen fuel cells have already been used for transportation, from powering space shuttles to prototype cars like the Toyota FCV or the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell. For the hydrogen fuel cell cars, there is a problem with lack of hydrogen fueling stations, but that is something that can easily be remedied by a change in infrastructure. Already steps have been taken to encourage people to adopt hydrogen fuel cell technology. There are currently a federal tax incentives and credits for people who use residential hydrogen fuel cells, businesses who invest in hydrogen fuel cells, and stations who build hydrogen fueling stations. Many companies who manufacture hydrogen fuel cells are actively working to lower manufacturing times and increase their output in order to make these products cheaper and more available. Many people are motivated to invest in hydrogen fuel cell technology because of their concern for the environment and the promise this fuel type holds for the future. Overall, many believe that a “hydrogen economy,” or a world where hydrogen is the main source of fuel, is in our future, and hydrogen fuel cells help to bring us closer to that future.

A video of a DIY hydrogen fuel cell. This man is NOT a professional, so I don't recommend actually attempting to use his prototype to power your car, but it's still interesting how he got it to work.