How Do Hydrogen Fuel Cells Work?

Hydrogen fuel cell cars seem great: hydrogen and oxygen in, nothing but water out. But if that hydrogen comes from dirty, carbon-emission spewing power plants, your sustainable car might not be so green after all. #fuelcell #electriccars #emissions

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Credits:
Executive Producers:
George Zaidan
Hilary Hudson

Producers:
Elaine Seward
Andrew Sobey
Darren Weaver

Writer/Host:
Alex Dainis, PhD

Scientific consultants:
Michelle Boucher, PhD
Jay B. Benziger, PhD
Leila Duman, PhD

Sources:
How internal combustion engines work

Hydrogen combustion engines

Fuel cell chemistry

Natural gas reforming

96% of hydrogen made from fossil fuels

The production of hydrogen for all kinds of industries, not just fuel cells, is responsible for 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year

Energy production more efficient at a central plant

EV more efficient than fuel cell

Benefits of hydrogen powered cars

Green methods of producing hydrogen

What is U.S. electricity generation by energy source?

[ACSReactions]

If you’re going to drive a fuel cell car, you need a way to carry around all that hydrogen. Currently, that’s done with big, bullet-proof gas canisters. But metal organic frameworks (MOFs) could someday be more efficient storage solutions. We talked about MOFs in our recent video on extracting gold from seawater:

[ClarkyXPH]

Just started looking at this subject and I found that you covered a large array of topics very succinctly making it easy to understand and consume. Thank you very much.

[dwaynezilla]

I wasn't expecting that fan to start up so quickly and spin so quickly as well! Very nice. Sure it used up all the hydrogen, but there wasn't very much to begin with, and at the power level shown it makes sense that it was used up fast!

[alec]

This was super helpful to me, I'm into electronics and know quite a bit but I guess hydrogen fuel cells just passed me by. I never paid any attention to them thinking they were out of my realm of obtainability. I never knew I could just buy a small one to play around with and this was a very good in depth introduction 🤙

[albertolando]

Great video as always! Really engaging and with the right amount of detail to help understand the topic while still going straight to the point. Personally, exactly as I wouldn't give up on hydrogen even though (as for now) much of it is made from steam reforming, I also wouldn't give up on carbon as an energy carrier; I really hope that projects like Eni's Ecofining (hydrogenating oils up to actual green diesel) take off (as processes they go with a single reaction straight from biomass to fuel, so they are also quite energy efficient), but maybe some breakthroughs in mass oil production (like algal oil mass production) are still needed to render carbon-neutral carbon-based fuels an economically viable option!

[jacobekker]

I work for a transportation agency as part of a group researching our future fleet (alt fuel busses). Fuel cells have very appealing traits, but from the perspective of building out infrastructure, this technology has a lot of maturing to do. A transit agency using this to power a fleet would need either very convenient hydrogen stations nearby (3rd party operated), or the agency would have to build out infrastructure to make their own fuel. That raises questions about mission creep for a transit agency's role and quite a few sunk costs for safety provisions alone. Keep in mind as well, compressed natural gas busses must be re-certified by a qualified 3rd party before returning to service for any collisions over 4-5mph. I'd imagine similar safety requirements for vehicles carrying compressed hydrogen. That's just one more drop in the bucket where fuel cells' impressive initial features are 'watered' down in real world operating conditions.

[robienjustinedejesus]

Great simple explanation of how Hydrogen Fuel Cells work and a little bit of an overview of the process of Electrolysis. Great vid as well!

[udonwadon]

Love your explanation and I feel like there are definitely optimizations we can do to make it efficient for hydrogen fuel cell unlike how a lot of people are being downers at Toyota investing into hydrogen without understanding.

I like how you broke down the cost of producing and transporting hydrogen but if we could make those efficient, i think the future is looking amazing.

[d.i.y.erjohn]

This is a great video. I am in the auto supply industry and heavily involved in electrification. We are also tracking Hydrogen, as it will be more sustainable for long haul trucking. I would love to see a similar video breaking down the true carbon footprint and effect on the earth that EV is creating. We seem to only be looking at zero emission output from the vehicle, but ignore the impact on the front end.

[XtroTheArctic]

I wonder... Have I ever watched a better explanatory video on any subject than this video??? I don't think so. At least, I don't remember one. Thank you for the amazing video!

[StrapDLBStyle]

Great video. It's easier for regulatory agencies to stay on top of power plants than individual vehicles. Also in power plants we can capture / filter/ scrub pollution's from the plants much easier than individual combustion engines. Electric, hydrogen electric, renewable fuels like biodiesel are all what's needed. We have areas in the US the naturally exhausts a ton of hydrocarbon gas, might as well use it to produce power then to just have it gas off into our atmosphere. All in all leaving the O&G to shift it's focus into power or newable fuel generation is the absolutely correct thing we should have been doing decades ago instead of trying to immediately replace them. Especially with the fear of losing our hydroelectric dams in the water states of US.

[fatsquirrel]

I work for a green hydrogen producing company. Pretty exciting. Hopefully this becomes huge (I'll be rich 😂).

[cruisinonmybizzle]

The efficiency of the power plant is true but what she did not mention is that there are considerable transmission and distribution losses from electrical power plants. Their efficiency and a car’s efficiency wind up being about the same.

Excellent video none the less!

[shannone]

Another good outcome of replacing combustion engine cars with hydrogen fuel cell cars that wasn't mentioned could be reduced vehicle pollution within cities --> better health outcomes and quality of life. Maybe the future is to switch all shorter distance city driving to EV/hydrogen, but we keep combustion vehicles for long haul transportation.

Thanks for the super informative video, in just 8 minutes you answered most of the questions I came with! Also loved the demo!

[saltydogg]

By pumping oxygen into oil wells we can oxidize the crude and separate hydrogen from carbon while its still in the ground. The hydrogen can be extracted through a filter and mineral ions can be added to the carbon dioxide to create a solid carbonate that just stays in the ground. Does anybody have any ideas to get rid of some billion dollar oil refineries?

[jameswhatsit]

Please more hydrogen fuel cell content!!! As methane is a greenhouse gas itself, are the CO2 emissions of the conversion process to H2 less than just burning the methane? If so, it could actually be an amazing tool to allow governments to convert gradually (ie. build bulk hydrogen fuel cell infrastructure, and supply it with H2 produced via methane conversion, but gradually convert your H2 production to solar/electrolysis and bio-production over time).

[hafizzulqarnain]

Thanks for explaining fuel cell in the easiest way

[MrTruckTube]

Great Video, don't worry about the existing way we use H² clean ways are available and are scaling up rapidly.
It will all be made using 100% Green methods eventually.
This will take time but none the less we are finally heading in the right direction to 100% Green which is the ultimate goal!
Renewable resources are growing everyday.
Thanks for such a fun and great learning video.

[sureshkanna]

Nice DIY fuel cell you have shown. So how many minutes it took to produce the required hydrogen from solar.

[devluz]

0:24 That is some great commitment by the presenter. Almost lost an eye to showcase some chemistry!