Whatever happened to Hydrogen powered cars?

[valkyrie013]

Reading a few articles on Electric cars, and how GM and other companies are moving to be entirely Electric by 2030 or so, with a good push/shove by government standards.
Now I have no problem with Electric cars, I would like one myself, my daily commute is around 40-50 miles a day, which is well within most electric car ranges, hell I could go most of a week before recharging. ( lot better than even 10 years ago with 40-50 mile ranges).
My problem is with it is if I need to go long distance over 200 miles, it doesn't happen often, but I'd say around 4-5 times a year I need to go to other cities, sometimes overnight. Now I know there are charging stations, and you can plan your trip accordingly, I know there getting better, but the charging times are still a problem for long distance.

So my question is, whatever happened to the Hydrogen/fuel cell powered cars and the "Hydrogen Economy" that was being promoted say 10 years ago? Toyota even sold a fuel cell car, the Mirai, for awhile, and GM had a prototype that was up and running. But they both canned it.

I know the problems of transporting and storing of Hydrogen and how its not that efficient.
Seen this article, and think that it is a possibility, its early days, but looks interesting.
https://newatlas.com/energy/powerpa...V9687vd8VEFDZP8Xzw9wMWfK2H_edM2KEUnfWUDZS-GKI
Store hydrogen in a metalic paste. It doesn't say what happens to to the paste, if its recycled, how much it costs to make, etc. but its a step in a direction that I was thinking of, of storing it in some type of gel or paste, like the Capacitance Gel from Demolition man. Now in that vein, if scientists can think of some way to store electricity in a gel form that can be dispensed like gasoline, that would solve the range/charge problem.

So?
Thoughts on Hydrogen cars? Thoughts on Electric cars and how to solve the range/Charging problems?

 

[Scott Kellogg]

I think that Electric cars might help clean up the air quality in our cities,
Folks who only need a Smart Car would probably be fine with electric vehicles.

But for more rural areas the distances involved and the power required, will not be well served by electric pickup trucks.

My personal thought: If you only need a 2 wheel drive car, then, you'll be okay with electric.
If you need 4 wheel or all wheel drive in your area, you need a conventional powered car.
Trying to run a farm without a pickup is hard.

Then there's the question of affording it.
I'm not sure if working class people who normally rely on buying used cars, can suddenly afford electric ones.
Thing is: Elon Musk, of Tesla Motors, was estimating that if, the US converted their cars to all electric,
they'd need to Double the electric generating capacity of the entire country. So, who's going to build all those new power plants? Where are they going to get the fuel to build 'em? Solar and Wind power? Those are all built in China, and they wear out and need to be replaced (As well as cleaned.)

 

[Oddish]

That's the real issue... clean energy isn't truly clean until and unless we've removed all conventional powerplants or gasoline engines from the equation.

The energy is certainly there: the sun alone pummels the earth with hundreds of times the human race's energy needs, and will keep doing so for another six billion years. It's just a matter of it sometimes being inconveniently located behind clouds, or on the opposite side of the planet.

 

[valkyrie013]

Interesting is that one can use Ethanol, or even regular gasoline in a fuel cell, granted with pure hydrogen, there's only water, that Ethanol/gas does produce CO2 like a regular engine, but it is more efficient in using the fuel, and there is no monoxide or other pollutants from burning it. And if you use ethanol, you have a carbon loop instead of extracting carbon and burning it in regular gasoline, adding to to the atmosphere.
On the other side, there is research on burning Hydrogen in a regular combustion engine.
Sad thing is hydrogen, if you can find it, is more expensive than gas, $6 a gallon equivalent, I believe. and the cars themselves are north of $60,000.. sooo.. got some distance to go..

 

[Scott Kellogg]

My Memory is no longer pretty,
but doesn't putting carbon compounds in a fuel cell contaminate the catalysts?

 

[Oddish]

It's just a matter of making the demand high enough for large scale production, which reduces the per-liter cost of hydrogen. It's certainly more plentiful than any fossil fuel: the oceans are full of it.

 

[Non Sync]

The Toyota Mirai, Honda Clarity, and Hyundai Nexo are still available, but sales dropped off significantly last year. The pandemic may have more reason for that, but installation of hydrogen refueling stations seems to have stalled.
Another major factor is that it is more efficient to use electricity to recharge batteries instead of generating hydrogen. For every 1kW of electricity, battery electric vehicles are able to use 800W, while fuel cell vehicles are only able to use 380W. The loss for the FCV is the creation of hydrogen/compression/storage/transportation of the hydrogen.

 

[publiusr]

It’s all about energy density. Now Roger Gordon wants cheap ammonia as fuel. For a grand, you can get an old truck to run on NH3.
Silicon carbide advancements are making for better charging.
Saudi Arabia’s OXAGON looks to be a floating green miracle

https://greekreporter.com/2022/07/26/saudi-arabia-75-mile-long-desert-skyscraper/

The future?
https://www.studyfinds.org/future-technology-2050/

 

[arch101]

Toyota ran a hydrogen car at the Fuji 24 hours this past weekend:
https://www.motorsport.com/super-taikyu/news/toyota-corolla-hydrogen-fuji-future/6514557/