or else of incinerate fuel like schematic railway locomotive , hydrogen fuelcells crop through an electrochemical process . To produce electricity , atomic number 1 atom are ionize on one side of an electrolyte membrane . While protons splay through , negatron must take the long way around through an externalcircuit , creating an electric stream as they move . Once the electrons arrive at the other side and pair off with the protons , the atomic number 1 coalesce with O in the air , result in a short fleck of heat and pee as byproducts .
Hyper-efficient Hydrogen
At the introductory storey , the process is pretty efficient . Depending on the character of hydrogenfuel cellular phone , the efficiency proportion tend to average out around 60 percentage of the total amount of zip being turn by the process above . However , large - scale leaf H fuel cells with molten carbonate or solid oxide for their electrolyte membrane can use both the heat and electricity produced for extra efficiency , obtain as high as 85 percent . Meanwhile , portable fuel cell like the polymer electrolyte membranes ( PEM ) used in fuel cellphone cars get anywhere from 50 percent to 60 pct efficiency , according to the U.S. Department of Energy .
OK , but how does that equate to a regular car ? Incredibly well . As cool as it is to run our cars on what essentially amounts to ensure explosions and swimming dinosaur , inner burning engine are anything but effective . Not counting time spent idling , energy passing along the driveline , air drag and friction , most gasolene engines lose around 62 percent of their fuel energy just to wasted oestrus .
The Problem of Production
But there ’s always a catch when you fiddle around with thermodynamics and energy efficiency . In hydrogen ’s case , it ’s a job of yield . atomic number 1 may be the most plentiful element in the universe , but unless you feel like dropping by the surface of the sun ( play a moth-eaten drink and thick - resole shoes ! ) , you ’re not exit to retrieve the element anywhere for free . Hydrogen here on Earth is always bonded to something , which mean it needs to be extracted , a process that ’s expensive , time - squander and takes an enormous amount of Energy Department .
Currently , most of our hydrogen is produced through electrolysis or by stripping it from innate gas in a appendage calledsteam reforming . ( Natural petrol is a fossil fuel , too . ) While steam reforming is the most coarse method of industrial H product , it requires a good deal of heat energy and is wildly ineffective . Hydrogen produced by steam reforming really has less energy than the instinctive accelerator that steam reforming begins with . Plus , unlike hydrogen fuel cellular telephone , the process produces pollution – so it ’s actually more vigor efficient just to use the hydrocarbon themselves as fuel .
However , there ’s hope . While we still have n’t witness a viable way to get H on the tinny , things are getting better . The cost of materials is falling , and there are several potentially easier fashion to collect it , like draw rein H - produce algae and using methane from landfills . A atomic number 1 - power future may be in sight , or it ’s at least a jot on the horizon .
