Q&A: Can anyone give me information on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars?

There are two types of hydrogen fuel cars.

The first type uses hydrogen gas in an internal combustion engine. The engine is very similar to today’s engines, yet requires some engineering changes. There are no large production of these cars, however many of the automakers have working prototypes. BMW has the Hydrogen-7, and there are others.

The second is the hydrogen fuel cell car, which stores hydrogen and interacts it with oxygen to make water and electricity. The electricity goes to battery storage and powers electric motors. You cannot get one of these yet, and if you could you would spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly millions.

Remember, it takes energy to create diatomic hydrogen (H2), which is the product needed for these cars. The energy would have to come from electrolysis (splitting water from electricity), which has to come from some source.

Also, SMR or steam methane reforming is the main way hydrogen is achieved–also dependent on fossil fuels.

Renewable energy such as wind or solar can make clean hydrogen, however the scale of production is limited. However, hydrogen production from nuclear energy is somewhat promising, and is currently being pursued by various think tanks.

Hope this helps!!