The key to using hydrogen fuel cells electric vehicle lies in the almost perfect and highly desirable working principle and mechanism of its power source, the hydrogen fuel cells, which are nominally called a “battery” but is essentially an electricity generator based on the chemical principle of converting chemical energy into electricity by reacting hydrogen gas as a “fuel” with an oxidising agent in the air – a hydrogen generator.
Table of Contents
Early on, hydrogen fuel cells were mainly used for aerospace and military purposes. Later on, given their great potential advantages and in response to the increasingly serious environmental pollution in transportation, there was research into its application in automotive power units.
Today, the world is witnessing rapid technological advances and remarkable results in hydrogen fuel cells, which are already showing bright prospects for development. With the key technical obstacle of electric vehicles still burning cars for a long time, hydrogen fuel cells do bring a kind of hope to people.
After years of trying out a variety of new energy vehicle technology options in the world’s automotive industry, some in the academic community have asserted that hydrogen fuel cells are likely to be the ultimate goal of the world’s automobiles and the ultimate solution for new energy vehicles, based on their superior environmental friendliness and high energy efficiency.
The main advantages of hydrogen fuel cells vehicles
Basic advantages
Excellent environmental friendliness. Let’s take the Toyota MIRAI, which emits only pure water and no other harmful substances during the driving process. In addition, the dual carbon policy, global environmental health requirements and abnormal climate change have prompted us to focus our attention on the development of new energy vehicles on hydrogen fuel cells, which in the end are more important for hydrogen fuel cells outstanding environmental friendliness.
But also because there are not yet many hydrogen refuelling stations and hydrogen energy vehicles, and the costs are still high.
The energy efficiency is particularly high. In terms of the working principle of the hydrogen fuel cell, he generates power without going through a heat engine process, is not subject to a thermal cycle and has essentially no heat release or loss of heat energy. As a result, the energy conversion efficiency can reach 60% or 70% or even higher.
Hydrogen energy resources are abundant. Hydrogen is also ubiquitous on the planet and there are abundant resources and diverse ways to produce it.
In terms of the technical means that can be used to achieve this, hydrogen can be produced either by electrolysis of water from clean renewable energy sources, including wind and solar energy, or by direct hydrogen production using light. hydrogen fuel cells have a high level of ride comfort.
Compared to conventional vehicles, fuel cell vehicles do not have mechanical vibration and heat radiation problems in the powertrain, which not only ensures a longer service life and higher reliability of the relevant parts of the vehicle, but also smooth operation of the vehicle.
Unique advantages compared to pure electric vehicles
Based on the scientific and rational working principle of fuel cells, hydrogen fuel cells fundamentally avoid some of the major defects of pure electric vehicles, such as range limitation and the safety hazard of easy fever.
Small range limitations. The so-called “battery” of a fuel cell car only generates electricity, but does not store it. On the contrary, as long as the hydrogen is continuously supplied to the hydrogen fuel cells, the drive system can obtain enough electricity to drive the car.
The density of hydrogen energy is about 2-3 times that of gas and diesel, and 10 times that of lithium ion for electric vehicles. 5 kg of hydrogen storage can support hydrogen fuel cells for 400 km, while a pure electric vehicle with the same mileage would have a half tonne of battery weight.
Hydrogen fuel cells are safe and environmentally friendly. The hydrogen fuel cells consists of a thin lithium battery separator sandwiched by a pole plate. Theoretically, the maximum temperature of hydrogen fuel cells will not exceed 100 degrees Celsius in practice, and with battery cooling, the temperature will be even lower.
With regard to the environmental impact of hydrogen fuel cells over their entire life cycle, as a whole, the constituent materials are essentially non-toxic and there is no question of any environmental contamination in their preparation, use and recycling.
Difficulties in the development of the hydrogen fuel cell
Despite the many advantages mentioned above, hydrogen fuel cells are after all a completely innovative and revolutionary technology product, and inevitably there will be imperfections and areas for improvement.
The technical performance of hydrogen fuel cells engines needs to be significantly improved
At the early stage, the technical performance of the hydrogen fuel cells battery engine was poor and needed to be greatly improved to meet the actual requirements, mainly from the following aspects.
First, the power density of the hydrogen fuel cells are low, and the power output of the whole hydrogen fuel cells engine is limited.
Secondly, the durability of the hydrogen fuel cells engine is poor. At the preliminary stage, the service life of hydrogen fuel cells engines internationally generally does not exceed 3,000 hours, and the target for 2020 is 5,000 hours, which is not a small gap from the actual application.
Thirdly, the hydrogen fuel cells engine has poor environmental adaptability, especially in low temperature, which makes it more difficult to start and reduces the range.
High system reliability requirements
In order to make the hydrogen fuel cells engine have a large enough power output, hundreds of individual hydrogen fuel cells need to be integrated in one to form a fuel cell stack, which not only requires each part to have a consistent quality in advance, but also batteries in parallel vs series when no error is allowed.
Conclusion
In March 2022, China issued a report on hydrogen fuel cells energy as a strategic development focus, and local governments responded positively, with many places issuing subsidy schemes for hydrogen fuel cells and the eight core components that need to make breakthroughs.
And capital investment and M&A deals mostly focused on hydrogen fuel cells, power stacks, membrane electrodes and proton exchange membranes.
The future of hydrogen fuel cells
Early on, hydrogen fuel cells were mainly used for aerospace and military purposes. Later on, given their great potential advantages and in response to the increasingly serious environmental pollution in transportation, there was research into its application in automotive power units.
Today, the world is witnessing rapid technological advances and remarkable results in hydrogen fuel cells, which are already showing bright prospects for development. With the key technical obstacle of electric vehicles still burning cars for a long time, hydrogen fuel cells do bring a kind of hope to people.
After years of trying out a variety of new energy vehicle technology options in the world’s automotive industry, some in the academic community have asserted that hydrogen fuel cells are likely to be the ultimate goal of the world’s automobiles and the ultimate solution for new energy vehicles, based on their superior environmental friendliness and high energy efficiency.
The main advantages of hydrogen fuel cells vehicles
Basic advantages
Excellent environmental friendliness. Let’s take the Toyota MIRAI, which emits only pure water and no other harmful substances during the driving process. In addition, the dual carbon policy, global environmental health requirements and abnormal climate change have prompted us to focus our attention on the development of new energy vehicles on hydrogen fuel cells, which in the end are more important for hydrogen fuel cells outstanding environmental friendliness.
But also because there are not yet many hydrogen refuelling stations and hydrogen energy vehicles, and the costs are still high.
The energy efficiency is particularly high. In terms of the working principle of the hydrogen fuel cell, he generates power without going through a heat engine process, is not subject to a thermal cycle and has essentially no heat release or loss of heat energy. As a result, the energy conversion efficiency can reach 60% or 70% or even higher.
Hydrogen energy resources are abundant. Hydrogen is also ubiquitous on the planet and there are abundant resources and diverse ways to produce it.
In terms of the technical means that can be used to achieve this, hydrogen can be produced either by electrolysis of water from clean renewable energy sources, including wind and solar energy, or by direct hydrogen production using light.
hydrogen fuel cells have a high level of ride comfort.
Compared to conventional vehicles, fuel cell vehicles do not have mechanical vibration and heat radiation problems in the powertrain, which not only ensures a longer service life and higher reliability of the relevant parts of the vehicle, but also smooth operation of the vehicle.
Unique advantages compared to pure electric vehicles
Based on the scientific and rational working principle of fuel cells, hydrogen fuel cells fundamentally avoid some of the major defects of pure electric vehicles, such as range limitation and the safety hazard of easy fever.
Small range limitations. The so-called “battery” of a fuel cell car only generates electricity, but does not store it. On the contrary, as long as the hydrogen is continuously supplied to the hydrogen fuel cells, the drive system can obtain enough electricity to drive the car.
The density of hydrogen energy is about 2-3 times that of gas and diesel, and 10 times that of lithium ion for electric vehicles. 5 kg of hydrogen storage can support hydrogen fuel cells for 400 km, while a pure electric vehicle with the same mileage would have a half tonne of battery weight.
Hydrogen fuel cells are safe and environmentally friendly. The hydrogen fuel cells consists of a thin lithium battery separator sandwiched by a pole plate. Theoretically, the maximum temperature of hydrogen fuel cells will not exceed 100 degrees Celsius in practice, and with battery cooling, the temperature will be even lower.
With regard to the environmental impact of hydrogen fuel cells over their entire life cycle, as a whole, the constituent materials are essentially non-toxic and there is no question of any environmental contamination in their preparation, use and recycling.
Difficulties in the development of the hydrogen fuel cell
Despite the many advantages mentioned above, hydrogen fuel cells are after all a completely innovative and revolutionary technology product, and inevitably there will be imperfections and areas for improvement.
The technical performance of hydrogen fuel cells engines needs to be significantly improved
At the early stage, the technical performance of the hydrogen fuel cells battery engine was poor and needed to be greatly improved to meet the actual requirements, mainly from the following aspects.
First, the power density of the hydrogen fuel cells are low, and the power output of the whole hydrogen fuel cells engine is limited.
Secondly, the durability of the hydrogen fuel cells engine is poor. At the preliminary stage, the service life of hydrogen fuel cells engines internationally generally does not exceed 3,000 hours, and the target for 2020 is 5,000 hours, which is not a small gap from the actual application.
Thirdly, the hydrogen fuel cells engine has poor environmental adaptability, especially in low temperature, which makes it more difficult to start and reduces the range.
High system reliability requirements
In order to make the hydrogen fuel cells engine have a large enough power output, hundreds of individual hydrogen fuel cells need to be integrated in one to form a fuel cell stack, which not only requires each part to have a consistent quality in advance, but also batteries in parallel vs series when no error is allowed.
Conclusion
In March 2022, China issued a report on hydrogen fuel cells energy as a strategic development focus, and local governments responded positively, with many places issuing subsidy schemes for hydrogen fuel cells and the eight core components that need to make breakthroughs.
And capital investment and M&A deals mostly focused on hydrogen fuel cells, power stacks, membrane electrodes and proton exchange membranes.