When you’re interested in alternative-fuelled automobiles, you is likely to be questioning how hydrogen automobiles work. Right here we clarify all the pieces about how various kinds of these automobiles work.
However first, it’s essential to tell apart between the various kinds of hydrogen automobiles. There are two important varieties: hydrogen gas cell automobiles and hydrogen combustion automobiles.
What’s the distinction between hydrogen gas cell and hydrogen combustion?
While hydrogen gas cell automobiles use the component to create electrical energy which then powers the car, the latter burns hydrogen like gasoline to make use of as an influence supply. Each varieties work in barely alternative ways, so we’ll cowl every individually.
How do hydrogen gas cell automobiles work?
Hydrogen gas cell automobiles embody electrical batteries which can be powered by hydrogen. Consider them virtually like a hydrogen-electric hybrid.
That is the commonest kind of hydrogen vehicle available on the market at the moment.
They’ve a number of hydrogen tanks which can be used to retailer the hydrogen when the car isn’t in use. The gas is normally saved as a gasoline at a really excessive stress.
While you flip the engine on, the hydrogen saved within the tank(s) is fed into the gas cell.
What’s a gas cell?
Gasoline cells operate like batteries, besides they don’t want recharging. So long as gas – on this case, hydrogen – is added into the combination, they’ll proceed to provide vitality and warmth, with water as the one byproduct.
A gas cell is made up of two electrodes: a unfavourable electrode (i.e. an anode), and a constructive electrode (i.e. a cathode). These electrodes are on reverse sides of an electrolyte, type of like a sandwich within the following configuration, with the electrolyte appearing because the filling in between two slices of bread:
Anode – electrolyte – cathode
Hydrogen gas goes into the unfavourable electrode, the anode, and oxygen goes into the constructive electrode, the cathode. The hydrogen within the anode is then break up into protons and electrons.
Whereas the protons journey by way of the electrolyte to the cathode and produce water and warmth, the electrons journey by way of an exterior circuit powering an electrical motor. Right here, the motor turns the wheels of the automobile to make it transfer.
The electrons then proceed travelling right down to the cathode, the place they mix with the protons and oxygen to type water as a byproduct. This water is launched out of the exhaust pipe.
This makes hydrogen gas cell automobiles extremely clear (so long as the hydrogen is made utilizing renewable vitality and clear processes) as they emit solely water with no dangerous pollution.
What’s extra, though these automobiles embody electrical batteries, you solely have to refuel them with hydrogen. This implies you don’t need to recharge the car in the identical approach you’d an electrical automobile; as a substitute, you possibly can refuel it in just some minutes, much like a standard petrol or diesel car.
Hydrogen gas cell automobiles are usually additionally in a position to journey additional on a full tank in comparison with their electrical counterparts as most have a tendency to have a spread between 300 and 400 miles. For instance, the Toyota Mirai has a spread of round 402 miles, whereas the Hyundai Nexo has a spread of 380.
How do hydrogen combustion automobiles work?
Hydrogen combustion automobiles, alternatively, work in a lot the identical approach as a daily inner combustion engine (ICE) present in petrol and diesel automobiles. It is because they’ve an ICE that burns hydrogen gasoline to generate energy.
Like gas cell automobiles, hydrogen combustion automobiles have high-pressure tanks the place hydrogen gasoline is saved. Nonetheless, the comparability stops there as these automobiles don’t include a gas cell. As an alternative, the hydrogen from the tanks is injected into the engine’s combustion chamber, identical to gasoline can be.
Contained in the engine, hydrogen mixes with oxygen and the combination is ignited by a spark plug. The ensuing explosion pushes the engine’s pistons, creating the mechanical vitality wanted to maneuver the automobile.
This mechanical vitality is transferred to the automobile’s drivetrain, which turns the wheels and strikes the car ahead.
As an alternative of manufacturing carbon dioxide like gasoline automobiles, hydrogen combustion primarily emits water vapour. Small quantities of nitrogen oxides (NOx), that are air pollution, are additionally produced as a result of the combustion course of takes place at excessive temperatures. That being mentioned, there are measures that can be utilized to counteract the manufacturing of NOx, corresponding to selective catalytic discount (SCR). When utilized, emissions are kept to a minimum.
How is hydrogen for automobiles made?
Hydrogen is probably the most ample component within the universe. It’s present in water (H2O, the place H2 stands for hydrogen and O stands for oxygen), pure gasoline or methane (CH4, the place one carbon atom is bonded to 4 hydrogen atoms), and lots of different substances.
For hydrogen gasoline for use as a gas in automobiles, it should be separated from the opposite components it’s hooked up to because it doesn’t exist on the planet as a separate entity by itself.
Hydrogen might be separated in various methods, the commonest of that are:
- Steam methane reforming (SMR): methane is heated to provide a combination of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. This could ideally be paired with carbon seize and storage (CCS) expertise, which captures the carbon dioxide and shops it underground.
- Electrolysis: when powered by renewable vitality sources, it is a carbon-free approach of separating hydrogen from oxygen so is probably the most environmentally pleasant technique. It makes use of electrical energy to separate water into its element elements: hydrogen and oxygen.
As soon as extracted, the hydrogen is normally saved as a compressed gasoline (or generally as a liquid) beneath excessive stress in hydrogen tanks. This could then be used to energy hydrogen automobiles.
How do you refill a hydrogen automobile?
No matter whether or not you’ve opted for a hydrogen combustion automobile or a gas cell car, each are the identical on the subject of refuelling.
All that you must do is locate your nearest hydrogen refuelling station and refuel the car as you’d with a petroleum or diesel automobile. Filling up an H2 car might be as quick as some other automobile with an inner combustion engine (ICE).
It’s essential to notice that there aren’t many hydrogen gas stations out there within the UK but, however the government is working to improve this.
What do hydrogen automobiles sound like?
This will depend on whether or not you go for a hydrogen combustion engine or a hydrogen gas cell car. Whereas the previous sounds extra like a daily ICE car, the latter is far more much like an electrical car (EV).
Right here’s the sound of a automobile that’s run purely on hydrogen:
And right here’s what a gas cell car seems like:
As you possibly can see, they’re vastly totally different when it comes to the sound they make.
Get hydrogen automobile insurance coverage with Adrian Flux
We’ve been insuring basic automobiles, modified automobiles, and all different kinds of distinctive automobiles for over 50 years, and we all know the world is altering. With the ban on buying new petrol and diesel cars approaching in 2035, we’re championing hydrogen because it precisely maintains the texture and sound of a standard petrol or diesel engine.
We’re one of many only a few insurance coverage corporations providing hydrogen car insurance within the UK. When you’re the proud proprietor of the Mirai, the Nexo SUV, or a car imported from overseas, we may help you get the appropriate cowl in your distinctive automobile. Name us for a quote on 0800 369 8590 or book a callback at a time that fits you.
