Driving Clean Renewable Energy Forward
Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, also known as HFCEVs, are driving us towards a sustainable future with zero emissions, 3-5 minute fuel time, and a range of up to 300 miles in one fill.
Welcome to the new era of transportation technology.
THE HYDROGEN INFRASTRUCTURE
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHTon hydrogen myths and perceptions
For over 40 years, hydrogen has been used in vast quantities for industrial applications, such as powering forklifts and space shuttles. During that time, an infrastructure had been developed to safely produce, store, transport and utilize hydrogen.
Like most industrial gases, hydrogen is a gas that must be managed and handled safely.
Hydrogen is everywhere and can be seen in industries such as refining, aerospace, food and beverage. In the food industry, hydrogen is used in the hydrogenation of amines and fatty acids and when combined with Sorbitol it creates Mannitol, a food sweetener found in chocolate, candies and chewing gum.
In the case of transportation, hydrogen has an extremely low-density and dissipates almost instantaneously. In the unlikely case that hydrogen were to leak from a vehicle and catch fire, it would burn up into the air in seconds unlike gasoline, which pools on the ground and is extremely difficult to extinguish.
Hydrogen can be produced and transported in a number of ways including on-site electrolysis, tube-trailer delivery, and pipeline transport. Hydrogen generation is not dependant on a limited resource, which makes a hydrogen infrastructure a practical long-term solution. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element on earth, we are able to shift our energy security to a post-carbon era that relies on renewable energy to fuel our cities.
Energy created from windmills and solar panels must be stored to consistently provide energy that can be used at the user’s convenience. Using the electricity that windmills and solar panels produce to create hydrogen that can be used whenever, wherever makes wind and solar power efficient and viable as a solution to power our vehicles, homes, and communities.
Hydrogen has been used for a multitude of purposes in various industrial settings for over 50 years. In the 1960’s, NASA was already using hydrogen in a fuel cell that supplies electricity to the Apollo series of rockets, which ultimately reached the moon. The US Navy has used hydrogen fuel cells to power submarines since the 1980s. As far as vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are already on the road. Toyota released its HFCEV, the Mirai, in 2015. Honda’s HFCEV model, the Clarity, has been available for lease since 2008 and will be on the market this year for buyers.
California has paved the way and invested $200 million dollars to build a hydrogen highway that would consist of 100 hydrogen fueling stations by 2020. Hydrogen infrastructures can easily be established across the nation with the proper investment of time and resources.
But alternative vehicle manufacturers and energy companies can’t do it alone – it takes the support of local and state regulations and funding to help continue to build the infrastructure needed.
Petroleum fuels accounted for 92% of the total energy used by the transportation sector in the United States. Introducing multiple types of zero-emissions vehicles to the market will make this percentage decrease faster than with one type alone.
All energy sources require fuel conversion. However, hydrogen created through electrolysis, natural gas reformation, and bio-gasification retains more energy than when oil is converted into gasoline. Hydrogen is 2-3 times more efficient at running a car than traditional gasoline, further justifying the energy initially required for conversion. Hydrogen also makes for an efficient electricity storage medium allowing us to make use of electrical energy that would previously go to waste or cause inefficiencies in the electrical power grid.
Infrastructures to support Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles have been under development since 2003!
There are many hydrogen partnerships and initiatives both nationally and globally with the purpose of cultivating a growing hydrogen infrastructure for a clean world.
California Hydrogen Business Council
Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program
Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association
The California Fuel Cell Partnership
The Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association
AFHYPAC Association française pour l’hydrogène et les piles à combustible, the French Association for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
HyER, the European Association for Hydrogen and fuel cells and Electro-mobility in European Regions
Hydrogen Link Denmark
The Clean Energy Partnership Berlin
SUPERIOR SUSTAINABLE POWER HOW HYDROGEN STACKS UP
|HYDROGEN:||stored in hydrogen tanks and converted using fuel cells|
|ELECTRIC:||stored in lithium-ion batteries|
|GASOLINE:||stored in gas tanks|
|HYDROGEN:||travel 300 miles on one complete fueling|
|ELECTRIC:||fully charged travels 265 miles|
|GASOLINE:||travel 300 miles on a full tank|
|HYDROGEN:||fuel in a mere 3 to 5 minutes|
|ELECTRIC:||30 - 60 minutes to fully charge|
|GASOLINE:||3 minutes to fill|
|GASOLINE:||emit CO², CH₄, N₂4, HFCs|
|HYDROGEN:||vehicles contain 5 Kilograms of fuel|
|GASOLINE:||average holds 15 gallons - this number may vary substantially|
DRIVE YOUR COMMUNITY FORWARD
An early American industrial powerhouse, Connecticut is now one of the nation’s strongest supporters of fuel cell technology: it’s the only state in the nation so far to rely on hydrogen fuel cells for its backup power system, and Connecticut’s Zero Emission Bus Implementation Plan has the goal of replacing 25% of public transit vehicles statewide with zero emission vehicles by 2025. Connecticut has signed on to the Multi-State Zero Emissions Vehicle Plan, an initiative to put 3.3 million zero-emissions vehicles on the road by 2025.
BE A MEMBER OF THE HYDROGEN GENERATION