Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Fuel cell technology

It seems that the use of hydrogen fuel cells is finally starting to get attention. There are several experimental trains now running and also buses in various parts of the world. Now it appears that small aircraft could soon be using fuel cells for zero emission flight. Even Airbus is planning the use of hydrogen in the future.

This one made started making test flights in Germany in 2016



And now this one in the UK. Clearly not the first, as claimed, but perhaps the nearest to practical reality.



Perhaps with this we will start getting more interest in automotive fuel cell technology.

It is still not zero emissions. You cant get ougth for nought and the hydrogen comes from some process. But I understand the desire to show it is greener.

I’ve always believed that hydrogen is the way forward so engines will remain with real noise not like the Tesler milk floats that are available.

I could never understand how Hydrogen power development got left behind against battery power. Both produce pollutants in their production but how the option of being able to pull into a fuel station, filling up and driving off lost out to worrying about range, pull in, hope there is a free charging point then wait a few hours before repeating the exercise beats me.

If you have enough green electricity, from nuclear, solar, wind, wave or hydro then hydrogen produced by electrolysis is about as green and carbon free as is possible.
Another reason hydrogen is "suddenly" attractive is that by converting unused electricity into hydrogen it can be easily stored and converted back to electricity by burning it in a gas turbine generator.

Hydrogen is the future, not lithium ion or any other chemical battery storage system.

There is a problem with hydrogen that is being slightly forgotten here.

The only tailpipe emission from burning hydrogen fuel is water, which will exit the tailpipe at high temperature and be dispersed into the atmosphere , right?

In a warm climate , no problem, but there is an issue in cold climates where the air is already saturated with water vapour, now the water will rapidly condense and form "clouds"

In the 80s I witnessed a Mercedes winter testing programme in Finland, and one 300E C Class was fuelled with hydrogen. When it drove along a road at any sort of speed the cloud of water vapour didn't just exit the tailpipe , it enveloped the whole car , the road, and a fair part of the surrounding countryside as well. The following vehicles had to stop and wait for the clouds to disperse before visibility was restored. The testing with that vehicle was stopped.

This was a while ago of course, and technology will have advanced since then, but I would be very wary of buying a hydrogen fuelled vehicle if you reside in the cooler parts of the world until the manufacturer can show that they have a solution to this.

Energy density, storage, and delivery are major stumbling blocks with hydrogen
Can you imagine trusting your typical backwards baseball cap wearing yoof, to fill his car up with hydrogen gas....

Hindenburg anyone

We have a storage and delivery system for liquid fuels already in place

Using carbon monoxide/dioxide pulled out of the atmosphere and hydrogen from water- both of which processes can be solar or wind powered we could have an achievable low emission low cost fuel

And what comes out of the tailpipe? Water and carbon monoxide/dioxide mostly...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer–Tropsch_process

The Swiss (and other nations) and Hyundai are carrying out a test using a small fleet of HGV’s so I have a feeling the issues around a 1930’s airship May have been resolved.
I believe the connector from pump to tank has been designed to deal with numpties who I hasten to add we already trust to use one of the most flammable liquids known which also produces flammable gas and can be put into take home containers

Hydrogen is far less explosive than petrol. It really isn't an issue. The Hindenberg was an issue as the leak built up a stochiometric mix inside the outer envelope. So bang. Any gas will do that

It's a matter of when not if, it's the only logically alternative if we deem travel necessary, battery power is sheer folly and an environmental disaster.