When Economy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled the UK’s first hydrogen strategy last month, he said fuel “has the potential to change the way we power our lives”.

Such a transformation can already be observed in the automotive industry. Engineers have been using hydrogen gas to power vehicles as a cleaner alternative to gasoline since World War II.

Interest and investment in hydrogen technology for use in automobiles have increased significantly since the 1990s. And since the government has confirmed that sales of new gasoline and diesel cars will be banned in the UK from 2030, more funds will flow in.

The technology

Hydrogen powered cars do not contain internal combustion engines. Instead, “the key to a hydrogen car is the fuel cell,” says Driving Electric.

The gas enters the fuel cell from a tank and mixes with oxygen to create water in a chemical reaction that “creates electricity that is used to power the motors that drive the wheels,” explains Hydrogen Hub, one industry-led community of stakeholders in the hydrogen and fuel cell supply chain. “Hydrogen tanks are refueled in a similar way to a gasoline or diesel car,” added the company.

Hydrogen vs. electric cars

Hydrogen and electric vehicles have similar carbon footprints, but the former can travel a lot further without refueling – and when they do, the process takes “minutes instead of hours,” said Driving Electric.

Nevertheless, “the first argument that skeptics against hydrogen vehicles” is efficiency, according to Auto Express. To make hydrogen for use in power plants, electricity is converted to gas, usually through electrolysis – a process that loses about 25% of the energy from the source, says Tom Baxter, a senior lecturer in chemical engineering at Aberdeen University.

The resulting hydrogen is then “compressed, cooled and transported” to a hydrogen filling station that loses another 10%, Baxter explained in an article on The Conversation. And “once in the vehicle,” another 25% of the source’s energy is lost when the hydrogen is converted back into electricity and used to power the engine, he wrote.

Baxter has calculated that only 38% of the initial energy, or 38 out of 100 watts, is ultimately used in this wire-to-gas-to-wire process. In comparison, electric cars are almost twice as efficient, consuming around 80 out of 100 watts of initial energy.

Auto industry leaders have also lined up to “pour cold water” on hopes for the mass adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the Financial Times said. Volkswagen, “the world’s second largest in terms of sales, has all but given up its hydrogen plans,” the newspaper reported. And German rival Mercedes tacitly put its last car fuel cell project on hold last year, while BMW only retains a pioneer in technology.

However, Toyota and Hyundai are “continuing to invest heavily” in the technology, with the latter aiming to cut the cost of key fuel cell car components by more than half by 2030.

Willingness to invest

Despite the various disadvantages, “for truly sustainable mobility, hydrogen is a fuel that should not be neglected,” says Auto Express. Hydrogen cars do not produce any CO2 emissions from their exhaust gases.

Nonetheless, “references to hydrogen as a clean energy source remain a problem,” said the FT, pointing out that not all hydrogen is created equal.

“Green” hydrogen is made using electricity from renewable energy sources, while “blue” hydrogen uses natural gas, with all carbon emissions captured and stored or reused.

On the more damaging end of the spectrum, “gray” hydrogen uses natural gas with no emissions being captured, and “brown” hydrogen is made from steam coal. Both are comparatively cheaper, but have a greater impact on the environment.

However, that does not mean that electric vehicles will inevitably perform better in terms of emissions. “Lithium-ion battery production is very energy-intensive,” Jon Hunt, Toyota’s director of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle commercialization, told Auto Express.

According to Hunt’s estimates, a typical 100 kWh battery “has a potential range of 250 miles and it takes about 20 tons of CO2 to produce this battery”.

“A typical battery lasts 150,000 miles, which corresponds to around 83 g / km CO2. If you then factor in charging over the same distance, the same battery car will emit 124 g / km of CO2 over its lifetime, ”he said. For comparison: According to Hunt, the emissions of a hydrogen car could be only 60 g / km.

Game Status

Sales of hydrogen vehicles are currently significantly lower than that of electric cars, also because the infrastructure for widespread use is not yet available.

Hydrogen vehicles need to be refueled at specialized filling stations, of which only 11 have been operating in the UK, according to the latest data from government advisor UK H2 Mobility. On the other hand, there are more than 42,000 connections for electrical charging points recorded by EDF Energy.

Investing in hydrogen infrastructure will therefore be an important part of the government’s hydrogen strategy.

Another problem with hydrogen cars is cost. A Hyundai Nexo hydrogen vehicle costs more than £ 68,000 while the Toyota Mirai costs more than £ 54,000.

The average cost of an electric car in the UK is £ 44,000, with some price tags as low as £ 17,350, according to finance website NimbleFins.

Hydrogen cars are currently also relatively expensive to refuel.

However, as auto giants like Toyota work to cut hydrogen car production costs, fans of the technology are hoping a lower-cost generation of new vehicles will hit the market shortly.

Experience at the wheel

Toyota’s Mirai is “quiet and sleek,” said Matilda Boseley of The Guardian Australia. In fact, “as long as you live near a gas station” the experience is “amazing”.

That could be a big ‘if’ for drivers in the UK right now. However, wrote Alastair Dalton of The Scotsman, “driving the same vehicle down an Aberdeen bypass”, “it took many miles to dent the fuel gauge”.

And when he had to stop to refuel, the process was “easy” and quick – even though the fuel costs were “surprising”.