Hydrogen vehicles use hydrogen as fuel and do not produce carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions. However, producing a practical and affordable hydrogen vehicle has proven difficult, and hydrogen is typically produced from fossil fuels. There are no production-scale hydrogen vehicles on the market, and interest in developing them has waned since the financial crisis of 2008. Hydrogen is less dense than other fuels, expensive to store, and requires a national network of service stations. Projects are underway to produce zero-emission hydrogen vehicles using renewable energy.
A hydrogen vehicle is a fuel-powered car, truck, plane, boat, or other mode of transportation in which hydrogen serves as fuel. This has been achieved by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine or by converting the chemical energy of hydrogen into mechanical energy via a fuel cell. In any case, a hydrogen vehicle does not produce carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions. However, to the extent that hydrogen is typically produced from natural gas or other fossil fuels, a hydrogen vehicle is not considered a truly “zero emission” mode of transportation. The challenges associated with producing a practical and affordable hydrogen vehicle have so far proven insurmountable, as has the production and storage of hydrogen safely, economically, and in sufficient volume for it to be considered a mass-market alternative for transportation fuels derived from petroleum.
The development of a hydrogen vehicle has attracted interest from the US government, major auto companies, a variety of other private sector companies, and academic researchers and hobbyist enthusiasts. Hydrogen cars, trucks, buses, ships of various sizes, airplanes, and submarines have been developed and tested. All have been experimental or demo models and yet, when available to the public, in very limited numbers as demo vehicles.
To date, there are no production-scale hydrogen vehicles on the market. Interest and investment in developing a hydrogen vehicle began to wane after the financial crisis and economic downturn of 2008, along with a shift in public and private interest and funding in favor of electric and hybrid vehicles. The high cost of development led Ford Motor and Renault-Nissan to scale back, and General Motors to significantly scale back their respective development initiatives in 2009.
Hydrogen test vehicles have achieved outstanding results in terms of fuel efficiency; Hydrogen itself has a much higher energy per unit mass than gasoline and other fuels. However, it is much less dense than other fuels, the net result being that a gallon of gasoline contains more than 3.5 times the energy of a gallon of uncompressed hydrogen. It is also difficult, relatively expensive, and potentially dangerous to store, particularly in on-board vehicles. In addition, increasing the production of hydrogen fuel and hydrogen vehicles to levels where it could be considered an alternative mode of transportation for the mass market would require the construction of a national network of service stations.
Hydrogen is technically considered a fuel carrier rather than a fuel source, since it does not occur naturally and its production requires the use of primary fuel sources. Generally speaking, hydrogen has been and continues to be produced from natural gas or other fossil fuels, processes that do produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. However, projects have been and are still being carried out to produce a zero emission hydrogen vehicle by producing hydrogen by electrolysis of water using renewable wind and solar energy systems.
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