Hydrogen Fuel Cell for Transportation

 Hydrogen fuel cell is, 

* What is a fuel cell? In electrolysis of water, when electricity is supplied, water splits into Hydrogen and Oxygen. Fuel cell will be the reverse of Electrolysis. Hydrogen and Oxygen from gas cylinders are made to combine to form water and electricity.

* Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. However it is not very abundant in the earth.

* Most of the Hydrogen should still be separated from the heavier hydrocarbons from crude oil just like Diesel, Petrol and Natural Gas. So hydrogen may be the cleanest fuel giving out water vapour as the only emission, but it will still be dependent on foreign oil and gas.

* However if there is a good supply of Hydrogen by some means, then using them in Fuel cells for transportation will definitely be cost effective and clean energy solution, an alternative for the traditional smoke engines. Cost benefit analysis will determine the viability of using H2 fuel cells.

* Hydrogen fuel cell cars have not been successful may be due to the high pressure Hydrogen cylinders that needs to be carried and also due to the competition from the electric cars, which have been successful.

* Hydrogen can be split from water through electrolysis by giving electricity. This becomes a complicated process because to get electrical energy from Hydrogen, we are giving electrical energy to split the Hydrogen from Oxygen. This will not be cost effective unless the electricity used for electrolysis is coming from a renewable source such as solar power. So that the benefit obtained is more than the cost involved in the entire process.

* Also we need to remember that storing electricity in batteries is not very cheap. So how about converting the available electricity into Hydrogen, which can be stored in high pressure cylinders as long as we want and then, when we need it convert it back to electricity by using it in the fuel cells. So Hydrogen may turn out to be a cheaper storage option for electricity compared to batteries.