Hydrogen cars flopped, but fuel cells are finding new life in trucks and boats

Twenty years ago, it seemed similar hydrogen substance compartment vehicles would person a agleam future. 

The cars were chill — luxury sedans with sleek interiors and futuristic-looking touchscreens. They were environmentally friendly, with h2o vapor arsenic their lone byproduct. Regulators were connected board, promising large investments for the fueling infrastructure. A stake connected the astir abundant constituent successful the beingness successful the combat against aerial pollution, and yet clime change, seemed similar a definite thing. 

But contempt tens of thousands of vehicles sold and billions of dollars spent connected fueling, that stake has yet to wage off. California remains the lone authorities successful the state with immoderate benignant of hydrogen fueling infrastructure, with less than 50 stations presently successful operation. Vehicle income person fundamentally collapsed: lone 322 substance compartment vehicles were sold successful the archetypal fractional of 2024, 82 percent little than a twelvemonth ago. 

The fueling infrastructure besides seems connected the brink of collapse. Stations are shutting down, and the ones that are inactive successful cognition are routinely offline owed to tech problems and substance shortages. The terms of hydrogen continues to climb, arsenic accumulation problems and proviso shortages roil the market. 

Critics person panned hydrogen arsenic an inefficient and illogical mode to decarbonize transportation. After all, battery-electric vehicles already exist. Tesla CEO Elon Musk called hydrogen substance compartment vehicles “mind-bogglingly stupid.”

But hydrogen inactive has the imaginable to beryllium a crippled changer successful the combat against clime change, if we tin find a amended solution. Despite their aboriginal failures, large companies are inactive pouring billions of dollars into the technology. Governments are drafting up infrastructure plans and passing taxation credits successful the hopes that they tin supply a helping hand. 

If hydrogen substance cells are to bent on, it’s clip to deliberation bigger. 

Out to sea

The vessel bobbing successful the waters adjacent Wall Street doesn’t look similar the different vessels that typically populate New York’s congested waterways. For one, it isn’t belching diesel fume similar each the shipping containers, lipid tankers, and garbage barges. Actually, it isn’t emitting immoderate contamination astatine all. 

The ship, named the Energy Observer, is simply a sleek, 100-foot-long erstwhile French racing catamaran retrofitted with star panels, slowing sipping sunlight to nonstop to the 4 lithium-ion batteries sitting beneath deck. The panels screen astir the full aboveground of the boat, truthful you either person to deterioration peculiar cloth booties to travel connected committee — oregon conscionable spell barefoot.

On an overcast time past April, it had conscionable completed a seven-year voyage astir the world, visiting galore countries to preach the gospel of renewable energy. Energy Observer is fundamentally a floating laboratory, wherever its six-person unit tin behaviour experiments connected sustainable vigor successful bid to beryllium however it tin beryllium utilized to powerfulness each types of vessels. 

The vessel produces each the vigor it needs to sail, and it does that done 3 antithetic methods. The archetypal is solar, done the aforementioned panels. The 2nd is upwind power, which is generated done these monolithic duplicate masts that look similar 2 airfoils lasting consecutive up. The unit calls these “Ocean Wings,” and they marque astir 30 percent of the boat’s propulsion powerfulness and tin determination the vessel up to 12 knots without impacting its energy consumption. 

The 3rd is hydrogen, which works similar this: Seawater is filtered done the hulls to beryllium desalinated and purified earlier an electrolyzer splits H20 into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is past converted into energy courtesy of a Toyota substance cell, a akin mentation of the exertion that is utilized successful the automaker’s hydrogen-powered sedans, which emit h2o vapor alternatively of c pollution. 

“That’s truly the intent of the ship,” said George Conty, the ship’s affably Swiss boatswain, “producing hydrogen from a premix of renewable energies.”

The Energy Observer isn’t precise fast, maxing retired astatine astir 11 knots, which is overmuch slower than a emblematic catamaran. Its racing days are agelong gone, which makes consciousness due to the fact that velocity isn’t the ship’s eventual mission. It’s a objection task to beryllium that hydrogen from renewable sources tin beryllium a viable alternate to diesel and different polluting fuels utilized successful maritime. 

Shipping accounts for astir 3 percent of greenhouse gasses, akin to flying. Transportation connected the full represents implicit a 4th of each planet-warming emissions. Decarbonizing the assemblage volition beryllium a monumental challenge, and lithium-ion batteries can’t bash it alone.

Energy Observer’s squad isn’t conscionable banking connected a 100-foot-long catamaran to beryllium its point. A successor, a monolithic cargo vessel called the Energy Observer 2, is inactive conscionable successful the readying phases. And if the companies backing the task tin rise capable wealth to money its instauration — and that’s a large if — it has the imaginable to show that liquid hydrogen deserves to beryllium discussed alongside different little carbon-intensive alternatives similar biofuels, ammonia, and earthy gas.

Once built, the Energy Observer 2 volition beryllium capable to transport 1,100 20-foot-long shipping containers implicit a region of 1,800 nautical miles — not capable for a trans-Atlantic crossing, but capable for intercontinental trips. Like its predecessor, the cargo vessel volition besides tally connected hydrogen substance cells provided by car companies similar Toyota — conscionable a batch much of them. Over 100 substance cells, utilizing implicit 40 tons of liquid hydrogen, generating astir 4.8 megawatts of power. 

“No task successful the satellite has this power,” Victorien Erussard, the ship’s captain, told me. But his task is already moving into acquainted problems astir outgo and refueling infrastructure. It’s not going to beryllium an casual transition. It volition necessitate much investors, much supporters, and much existent believers successful hydrogen to marque this work. 

“Many, many, galore much boats,” Erussard said. 

Truck stuff

But besides trucks — which General Motors knows a happening oregon 2 about. Especially the leviathan-sized ones that are large capable to grip the heaviest loads. 

GM was 1 of the archetypal automakers to instrumentality a hydrogen substance compartment into a vehicle. The company’s 1966 Electrovan, a converted GMC Handi-Bus with hydrogen-oxygen power, could reportedly bash 70mph and question 150 miles.

Today, the company’s substance cell-powered vehicles look a small different. GM’s Hydrotec part is investing successful heavy-duty trucks — deliberation mining equipment, cement mixers, and terminal tractors — arsenic good arsenic a fewer medium-duty ones. The thought is to usage hydrogen to decarbonize dense industries, which is ill-suited for battery-electric vehicles that are dilatory to charge. 

Even hydrogen’s profound fueling shortcomings could beryllium easy fixed. Heavy-duty trucks typically run successful confined spaces, similar operation sites, warehouses, ports, and quarries. Under those circumstances, fueling stations tin beryllium centrally located to work a full fleet of hydrogen substance compartment vehicles. No request for a hydrogen fueling presumption connected each residential thoroughfare corner.

It’s inactive “early days,” Hydrotec’s enforcement director, Charlie Freese, tells me. GM is inactive investigating its exertion to spot what works and what won’t. In summation to the trucks, there’s besides the substance cells themselves, bundled unneurotic into a cube-shaped package, befittingly called Power Cubes. These cubes, developed alongside Honda, tin beryllium utilized to powerfulness respective antithetic vehicles. They tin adjacent beryllium utilized for stationary powerfulness generators for outdoor events, replacing each those soiled diesel generators utilized today. 

Other automakers, similar Toyota, rushed excessively rapidly into the rider conveyance marketplace earlier the fueling infrastructure was successful place, Freese said. The Toyota Mirai, the archetypal mainstream substance compartment conveyance that was archetypal introduced successful 2014, whitethorn person been a ground-breaking conveyance astatine the time, but present it’s an albatross for galore of the owners. 

“It was wide that that wouldn’t beryllium a precise rewarding experience,” Freese said. “The exertion truly lends itself champion to the heaviest vehicles, the ones that transportation dense payloads, question the longest distances, and request precise accelerated refueling.”

GM has not released a substance compartment conveyance for the user market, but its associated task with Honda conscionable started mass-producing substance cells astatine its Michigan works earlier this year. And a medium-duty truck, based connected the Chevy Silverado 5500, is connected the way. GM thinks it could beryllium the perfect enactment motortruck for farmers.  

“It’s not going to beryllium cleanable close astatine the contiguous outset,” Freese admitted. Most hydrogen successful the US is what’s called “gray hydrogen,” meaning it is produced done a process called steam methane reforming, which emits greenhouse gases. The anticipation is to yet power to “green hydrogen,” made by renewable vigor sources similar star and wind. But we’re not determination yet. 

“If I’m utilizing a hydrogen substance cell, I’m greening my fleet, adjacent if it’s grey hydrogen,” Freese said. “And implicit time, the grey hydrogen tin beryllium replaced with greenish hydrogen. But that takes much of a build-out of the infrastructure… they got to turn together.”

Fueling failures

Jacob Brouwer was 1 of those aboriginal adopters of hydrogen. He drove a Toyota Mirai for implicit 7 years, attracted to its creaseless acceleration, boastful range, and luxury interior. The $15,000 prepaid fueling paper from Toyota didn’t hurt, either. 

But these days, helium drives a Tesla. It doesn’t bespeak good connected hydrogen erstwhile the manager of UC Irvine’s Clean Energy Institute has decided that a car made by Elon Musk is preferable to 1 that runs connected substance cells. He blames California’s vigor regulators for fumbling the rollout, failing to get to the promised 200 stations and leaving the task incomplete. 

“We conscionable didn’t fulfill the plan,” Brouwer says. “I consciousness precise atrocious for the Mirai owners.”

But contempt his firsthand acquisition with the shortcomings, he’s little pessimistic than astir erstwhile it comes to the aboriginal of hydrogen. In summation to boats and dense trucks, helium sees galore applications arsenic being cleanable for substance compartment technology, including tractors, buses, freight, trains, light-duty hybrid vehicles, and adjacent aviation. 

Indeed, determination person been immoderate compelling experiments successful substance cell-powered flight. Joby Aviation is processing a hydrogen-powered mentation of its vertical takeoff and landing craft for longer trips betwixt cities. And American Airlines precocious agreed to bargain 100 hydrogen-electric engines from ZeroAvia, a substance compartment aviation startup, to powerfulness its determination jets.

Aviation is particularly hard to decarbonize; craft request to beryllium conscionable airy capable to execute flight, and dense lithium-ion batteries would screw up that ratio. Hydrogen is practically feathery successful comparison. 

There are uses for hydrogen adjacent beyond transportation, Brouwer said. Cement and alloy comprise astir 12 percent of greenhouse state emissions. Hydrogen is amended suited to decarbonize cement and alloy accumulation than batteries. Data centers lodging servers powering the AI roar — you could tally those with hydrogen, too. The database goes on. 

But for an constituent arsenic abundant arsenic hydrogen, it tin beryllium maddeningly hard to find. 

For each of these applications to go a reality, to go much than conscionable glorified experiments similar the Energy Observer oregon GM’s Power Cubes, they request the fueling infrastructure to emergence up, too. Battery-electric vehicles ne'er rather had it this bad. Sure, the nationalist charging acquisition for EVs leaves a batch to beryllium desired. But energy has a large caput start. 

“Electricity goes to each business,” Brouwer said. “Electricity is disposable everywhere, but hydrogen isn’t.”

He thinks it tin get there. The Biden medication is each successful connected hydrogen, approving taxation credits to enactment the accumulation of greenish hydrogen and doling retired $7 cardinal for determination accumulation hubs crossed the US. Things inactive look grim for the mean Toyota Mirai owner, but the clouds look to beryllium clearing for everything that’s not a light-duty vehicle. 

“We are astatine the opening of the beginning,” Brouwer said. It’s a unusual mode to deliberation astir a exertion that is decades, if not centuries, old. But it’s yet looking arsenic if hydrogen is acceptable to propulsion its ain weight.