Electric cars have competition...

As I’ve grown up I’ve witnessed the three main sources of green energy become more and more popular. Electric cars are taking over the roads, fields of solar panels have become a more frequent sight, and hydrogen is creeping its way into society as one of the purest and powerful forms of energy around.

The latter is the least known about, but some car manufacturers have chosen hydrogen over electric, and with research showcasing its potential in other areas, it could be dominating the future of clean energy.

I first saw hydrogen power for myself at school. We took part in a workshop to build a toy car with Meccano-like parts, competing in teams to come up with a design that travels the furthest once powered with hydrogen.

When we were happy with what we built, the experts inserted a syringe filled with hydrogen into the car, and we would test how far it would travel. For two hours we kept changing the design to see if we could make our cars travel any further.

At one point one of the experts said "The girls are in the lead". The girls being myself and two friends, somehow were the ones to beat despite not having a clue how to build a car, let alone make it travel the furthest. We ended up finishing second, and despite not having any real interest in the workshop, it was pretty amazing seeing something you built move purely based on hydrogen and physics.

Real hydrogen-powered cars are bit more complicated than this, but follow the same principal. They use a fuel cell to convert hydrogen and oxygen into energy that powers a battery and ultimately makes the car move. So these cars don’t need charging the same way as electric cars. Instead you refuel with hydrogen.

But at the moment this is one of the main problems. There are less than 20 hydrogen fuelling stations in the UK, making it harder for customers to see their appeal. But with more car brands developing hydrogen-powered cars, the number of fuelling stations will hopefully increase, or will be added to standard petrol stations.

Hyrdogen cars emit water vapour, but producing hydrogen can be a polluting process. Image courtesy of Unsplash

And what about the environmental impact of this energy? The only byproduct of hydrogen-powered cars is water, which is emitted from the exhaust as water vapour. This is released back into the air and has no negative effects on the Earth.

What some experts do have concerns over though is where the hydrogen comes from to fuel the cars. If it’s made using clean energy, there’s no problem. But if it’s created using fossil fuels then the production of hydrogen-fuelled cars will still have a negative effect on the environment.

This is one of the most important factors when investigating the environmental impact of any product. Tracing every stage back to the source is vital to know exactly what, if any, implications there are to the planet and society. Hydrogen cars may offset some of the carbon produced using fossil fuels. But if it is made with clean energy, it would be an entirely clean source of power.

Do electric cars have competition?

You might now be asking how this compares to electric cars, or what differences there would be for drivers. The main positive of hydrogen is that there’s no charging involved, just refuelling in a similar way to filling up a petrol car. And with research showing hydrogen cars can also travel further than electric vehicles on a full tank or charge, it’s all looking good.

The negatives come from costs of hydrogen, the cars themselves, and the lack of fuelling stations available to drivers. These are things that can be resolved with popularity; the more people buy hydrogen cars, the more fuelling stations will appear, the more likely costs of hydrogen, and the cars, will go down. This takes time, and with climate change a ticking clock, electric cars are currently the most accessible and affordable clean energy vehicles around.

But in a few years we don’t know what the car industry will look like. Petrol and diesel cars will no longer be sold in the UK by 2030, only nine years away. And the hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo are already on sale. So somewhere in the near future there may be more models on sale, and more options for drivers to choose cleaner cars.

To learn even more about hydrogen power:

• Read the IEA's report, The Future of Hydrogen

• Learn about BMW's perspective on hydrogen fuel cells

Featured image courtesy of Unsplash