The public authorities are not the last to believe in it. France and Germany support their H sectors2 (hydrogen) with billions. Japan and South Korea make them national priorities. If we refer to the multiple announcements (nearly two hundred initiatives in France!), Each should run on hydrogen in ten years … Except that in reality, nothing is less certain.
But what exactly are we talking about? Hydrogen is the simplest of materials, very present in nature but almost never in its pure state. Produce – or rather isolate – hydrogen (molecule H2) – for example from water (molecule H2O) – requires energy. The operation called hydrolysis makes it possible to store this energy which can then be restored in the form of electricity thanks to a fuel cell. The machine running on hydrogen then emits nothing other than a little water vapor.
These vehicles are far from science fiction. To get an idea, head for the foot of the Eiffel Tower, where at the end of May a hydrogen “village” was installed on the initiative of Toyota and the H ship project.2 Energy Observer. There were several prototypes and solutions gathered around the fuel cell of the Japanese manufacturer. The opportunity was good to review the modes of hydrogen mobility and their development potential.
Passenger cars
Some manufacturers (Toyota therefore, but also Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes) market hydrogen cars. These vehicles combine the advantage of a battery-powered electric car (zero emissions in use) without the drawbacks (recharging of hydrogen is done in three minutes). However, the solution remains confidential for individuals and will probably remain so for a long time.
First problem: the production of H gas2 is still very expensive when it comes to green hydrogen produced by hydrolysis from a wind turbine or solar panels. Currently, the only somewhat affordable way to make hydrogen is to “crack” methane (we talk about vapor reforming), which not only burns a lot of carbon energy but also releases CO.2 contained in methane. Climate balance: catastrophic.
Second problem: the large-scale deployment of hydrogen stations is very expensive (around 1 million euros per station) and complex. H2 is super-explosive, difficult to store and transport on a large scale. However, without a large supply network, it is not possible for motorists to adopt this technology.
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