Hydrogen and the Fuel Cell of Tomorrow
Any discussion of renewable energy platforms always manages to wind its way back to the concept of using hydrogen for fuel. More specifically, in the form of fuel cells.
Hydrogen is the most common element on our planet. Frankly, it is in just about everything, which means it is abundant beyond belief. Making things even better, at least theoretically, is the fact hydrogen produces excess energy when combined with other common elements. This excess energy is of great interest to many in the energy industry, particularly harnessing it. Most of their focus is on the hydrogen fuel cell.
The hydrogen fuel cell is based on a unique situation what happens when you make water. Yes, water. When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed to make water, the process produces excess energy that can be transformed into electricity. In theory, it is the perfect energy source. We have plenty of hydrogen and plenty of oxygen. The byproduct of the process is water, which is hardly an environmental concern. So, if this is such a good idea, why don’t we all have hydrogen cars and so on? Well, there are a number of problems.
The first problem is the hydrogen supply. While hydrogen is abundant and all around us, it is not in a form we can use. Hydrogen has a bad habit of forming strong chemical bonds with other elements. Separating it from those elements is inefficient and currently takes more energy to do than they hydrogen produced actually supplies. Until we can figure out a way to efficiently isolate hydrogen on a large scale, the technology is somewhat dead in the water.
Ah, but there is another large problem we have to overcome. Although the creation of water produces excess energy, it does not produce a lot of it. Current fuel cell designs and materials are simply not up to the task. One hydrogen fuel cell currently only produces a volt or two of energy. For example, it would take at least six of them to produce the equivalent energy of a 9 volt battery. Obviously, that isn’t nearly enough. If we are going to see the fuel cell become a viable energy mechanism, technology is going to have to drastically improve.
Given these two rather large problems, you might think hydrogen fuel cells are one of those ideas gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, companies are dumping millions of dollars into the technology, particularly auto companies such as Honda. Why would they do this? Well, the company that figures out the solution first is going to be slightly rich and slightly popular.
Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com – information on renewable energy.
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Author: Richard Chapo
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