The truth about hydrogen fuel cell - a future beyond cars?

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#hydrogen #renewableenergy #truthabout #undecidedwithmattferrell

[UndecidedMF]

What do you think about fuel cells? Any use cases I missed? And if you liked this video, be sure to check out "The truth about graphene

[arrrrr]

One of the most refined channels on youtube. Always high quality information and production.

[Sedrs]

I think you might have missed an important factor in why fuel cells may be impactful in certain fields, the energy density of a Hydrogen fuel cell system is 10 times that of a Lithium Ion battery system, which makes Hydrogen Fuel Cells an attractive option for air travel and shipping, where weight and space are the limiting factors preventing those industries from switching to Lithium Ion batteries and electric motors.

[colinburfeind]

The use case of hydrogen fuel cells on large ships is really interesting. I hadn't thought of it, but that would be awesome. Many ships use some of the dirtiest fuels, this would certainly change things. Awesome video!

[TheByErkin]

I'm a researcher on the topic of fuel cell catalysts and can say that you made some nice content! On a side note, platinum catalysts make up most (around 40%) of the FC's production cost, so that's one challenge to be solved.

[deepinmind]

As a person who works on H2 Fuel cells you might say I’m biased, but I feel there is so much pushback on H2 from everyone. But I’m watching the efficiency climb closer to 90% every year. No one mentions the green aspect of H2 if we can move away from using natural gas as a source. It’s also much less cost and maintenance overhead than lithium battery storage for practical solar storage. Plug Power just took the biggest investment buy from Morgan Stanley in history to the tune of $1.75B. That’s not a foolish investment I promise you.

[hyperdrivee]

The timing of this video is genius. At the pinnacle of the drama, losses, investigations & law suits, Matt just takes us back to the basics and cleans things up.

[oisiaa]

I'm 100% in on home solar and EVs. We have a 10kW system and my wife and I both have EVs. Not only is it sustainable, but I LOVE being a part of this revolution and being an example / mentor to my friends & neighbors who may be a few years behind.

[BenSullinsOfficial]

Interesting, hadn't considered that use case. The cost is what is an absolute killer for most use cases it seems

[jasgsxr]

Batteries are very environmentally damaging to dispose of, are fuel cells able to be recycled or safely disposed of ?

[v.e.]

Storage was always a question when thinking about hydrogen fuel cells. Unless you can figure out a way to compress the hydrogen on-board, fuel cells would need to be excessively large/bulky. A stationary hyhdrogen fueled engine would be semi-feasible, as large storage tanks wouldn't be so much an issue like on a vehicle. As always, life is the art of compromise.

[hhhotyg]

There's one thing we miss. It is a comparison of the energy and costs used to mine lithium, cobalt for batteries and platinum catalysts for fuel cells.

[acmefixer]

I think you missed something. The fuel cell is not limited in range, like a battery is. The fuel cell can have greater range without increasing its size. Just add a bigger fuel tank. The fuel cell vehicles can be fueled in a few minutes, not a half hour or more for a battery electric vehicle. This is very important for heavy commercial vehicles which have to be on the road or else lose money, and which could take hours to recharge.

One other thing that I'd like to know. Batteries have a limit on the charge/discharge cycles. Do fuel cells have a limitation on their lifetime? As Tesla has shown, batteries have made progress by research and development. Will fuel cell technology also be improved by R & D?
Thank you for the balanced, informed viewpoints.

[DerekVuong]

I'm still in the camp of if you don't drive a luxury sport car than bev isn't for you. FCEV is the way to go for most people because its more practical, last longer and its easier and cheaper to replace the fuel cell than the battery. Going BEV on cars will make cars too disposable and will hurt the poor because of high barrier to entry cost and nonexistent used car market for cars over 10 years old due to battery degrading. Plus BEV uses too much rare earth martials and the more people switch to BEV the more those martial will cost but fuel cell is the opposite because it uses common martials and there will be more economy of scale.

[steventayman]

If you ask me hydrogen will in the big scale because it can have cheaper economies of scale. Lithium ion is great for smaller things like cars and maybe home storage but hydrogen can be stored infinitely in tanks while lithium ion loses its charge over time. I think for industrial scale energy storage, hydrogen could become cheaper than lithium ion easily. And if all we cared about was efficiency, remember we wouldn't all have an internal combustion engine sitting in our driveway

[nathanielanderson]

We should use use Hydrogen as battery storage for solar and wind systems.

[nolan]

As another use case, since these cells produce heat as they produce energy, imagine if every household or business then starts using them for combined heat and power. If their primary purpose is used for heat, producing intermittent power as a byproduct, then almost all of that fuel energy is utilized.
The efficiency losses don't look so bad then once the heat becomes part of the product, and then we don't have to worry about energy storage and backup as much for heating due to relying on a fuel rather than electricity.

[bigdraco]

Right about to start my internship on fuel cells.

[ShieTar_]

I think one big reason why companies keep betting on Hydrogen is the fact that at least in Europe there is already a much better distribution system in place than transporting cylinders: The Natural gas distribution net. A lot of homes and industries use gas from the pipes for heating (and sometimes small-scale power generation), and the pipes are already capable of transporting Hydrogen as well as Natural Gas. As a matter of fact, a lot of regions are already mixing H2 into the Natural Gas Mix whenever it becomes available at reasonable prices.

As soon as the generation of hydrogen becomes more commercially viable than natural gas at a large scale (and everybody has heating elements that are capable to run on pure Hydrogen), the whole network can be switched to run purely on H2, and immediately most households have a easy access to Hydrogen in their home. Shouldn't take much effort than to implement a Hydrogen Fueling System. And indeed, there already are a significant number of Hydrogen-Fuel-Stations in Europe (mostly in and near Germany):

[roygardiner]

I had a hydrogen fuel cell company next to mine 20 years ago. They spent a fortune trying to develop a feasible hydrogen system for passenger cars. After numerous attempts over many years they gave it up. When asked why? they explained that the amount of storage required for the tanks (to give a half-decent range) would mean hardly any room for occupants or luggage in a large sedan!. Coupled with the total absence of any practical re-fuelling infratructure, it's easy to see why Elon dismisses the concept, especially as many videos of the HIndenburg disaster are so readily available to exacerbate safety fears, and batteries just continue to get better and cheaper, thanks to Elon.