ON MARCH 15, 2024 BY PHOTOMOTOMAN WAWAIN MOTORCYCLING
The issue of which fuel makes sense for use in motor vehicles of all types is a highly complex issue, not helped today by the variety of interests in either creating change or maintaining as close to the ‘status quo’ as possible. Fossil fuel companies would like nothing more than to see fossil fuel usage maintained as long as possible, for obvious reasons, particularly where excessive profits can be generated through their usage.
The question becomes, which type of vehicle design both helps deal with environmental issues, while providing the least cost and sustainability to the end-user? Should the choice be EV’s, HEV’s, FCEV’s or H2 ICE designs?
Confused? Well, many are, and that’s before we get into the complications that each technology has to wrestle with. Not only does each face specific downsides in terms of either cost, efficiency, lack of a truly green end product, limitations of distance, availability of the commodity, geography, infrastructure availability and ongoing costs, but each manufacturer places their own ‘spin’ on the technology of their choice, while denigrating alternate options.
This article will attempt to answer some of the more obvious issues and concerns with each form of technology, however, this topic in depth could take a book to explain. At the moment, electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) have inertia, infrastructure and government backing. The question is, do the long-term costs of electrical vehicles and the true costs of providing electricity, and the environmental costs due to the extraction of necessary elements for batteries and their disposal, outweigh the advantages?
Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) could potentially have the upper hand, but they also come with inherent issues. The cost and lack of availability of hydrogen, along with the high price of vehicles that run on hydrogen, are some of the major hurdles. Moreover, to produce hydrogen through Hydrolysis – the most eco-friendly method – is quite expensive. Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV’s) may well prove to have the advantage; however, FCEV has inherent problems as well, not the least of which is the cost of hydrogen, its lack of availability and the cost to deliver hydrogen itself. Additionally, the purchase price of the vehicle’s burning hydrogen is high by comparison. Plus, to be truly ‘green’, Hydrolysis is a very expensive way to create hydrogen.
Today hydrogen sells for approximately 36 per kilogram, and manufacturers are stating that the costs will increase again by about 20% to 25% through 2024. For $46 US a kilogram, (its projected price) filling an FCEV would cost as much as 5.6 kg x 46, or $257 a tank, which will take that vehicle 400 miles. As mentioned, add to the price of hydrogen the cost of the vehicle, (which to date has been subsidized, and will lose the subsidy at some point in the future) and you have a cost of $50,150 US, or $67,889 in CDN funds.
Creating hydrogen is expensive. Today, just its production cost is around $16 kg US. However, due to its lessened efficiency, the transportation costs are much higher, which when factored into the equation, means a final price north of $36 kg US. Hydrogen ICE engines have an additional problem associated with the creation of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contributes to air pollution.
Worse, only 5% of hydrogen produced is Green Hydrogen. The vast majority of hydrogen created comes from its extraction from fossil fuels via steam methane reforming.
Blue hydrogen is hydrogen produced from natural gas with a process of steam methane reforming, where natural gas is mixed with very hot steam and a catalyst. It’s controversial because natural gas production inevitably results in methane emissions from fugitive leaks and in the transportation process. One ton of methane is considered equivalent to 28 to 36 tons of carbon dioxide according to the International Energy Agency or IEA.
The New York Climate Action Council stated, “The bottom line is that blue hydrogen has huge emissions and cannot be used except at low percentages in the current gas system…It is far cheaper to instead move to electrically driven heat pumps for heating.” And this emphasizes that its use as a fuel for motor vehicles is also, highly suspect.
According to Paul Martin, a chemical process development expert and member of the Hydrogen Science Coalition, “It’s worth putting up with a battery because, for every joule you put in, you get 90% of it back. That’s pretty great, Martin told CNBC. In producing and storing hydrogen, you get only 37% of the energy back out.” So, 63% of the energy that you said, is lost. And that’s the best case.”
Martin thinks pursuing green hydrogen is important for all other uses, but it’s also super important to use it for the right things and not dumb things.”
According to the Washington Post, “hydrogen produces ‘substantial methane, which may hinder COP26 pledges.” It would seem that creating hydrogen requires that it be done as “green hydrogen” only. Otherwise, the impacts of methane creation make the use of hydrogen irrational.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/18/hydrogen-fuel-greenhouse-gas-cop26/
This brings us full circle, back to electric vehicles and HEV hybrid electric vehicles for those countries that have good electrical distribution systems like North America and Europe. In places where the electrical distribution systems are weak, such as India, FCEVs may be a better choice. The advantage of HEV vehicles is that it gives you the freedom to drive like you always have, while helping to reduce fuel consumption of fossil fuels, and where there is no need to place a strain on the existing electrical system. This lowers both the costs of infrastructure development and reduces fuel costs and emissions.
Whichever solution is used, it appears that there will be a variety of possibilities, with EVs and HEVs still holding a substantive edge in the long run. When combined with initiatives already in place in North America and Europe, it would look like Hydrogen is by far the dark horse in the race.
Ciao…
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