Which is the better fuel source - lithium ion or hydrogen fuel cell?

Question

Which is the better fuel source - lithium ion or hydrogen fuel cell?

Answer 1

Thor is correct, they're both storage devices, not fuel sources but the media often gets that wrong. Fueling a hydrogen fuel cell requires a converter to turn natural gas (the most common method) into hydrogen which is then put into tank for use by the fuel cell. You carry a large tank of highly combustible gas in your car, a worse risk than gasoline in my opinion. The fuel cell has a fairly short life-span, but it's still in the early stages so that could be extended. It would be workable if you could produce hydrogen on demand thru electrolysis rather than carrying a tank of it with you.

The lithium-ion cells the Chevy Volt will use are much better than current batteries, they can survive damage and still operate and even when crushed they don't leak toxins all over you and your car. They utilize nano-materials to achieve this and nano-materials may also make hydrogen fuel cells more useful by making electrolysis 85% efficient, a big increase from current levels.

Which one is better depends on what you want. The refueling system for the Honda FCX uses natural gas to produce hydrogen, emitting (if I remember correctly) 4 pounds of fossil fuel emissions for every pound of hydrogen produced. But on the upside, the refueling station could power your home as well during a power outage by utilizing the hydrogen in it's tank. It's not a great leap to see that with a small amount of electricity and a source of natural gas you could be much less dependent on the electric company.

The Volt won't be very practical until it's a hybrid, with at least  a small engine to recharge the batteries on the go, giving it a more comfortable range. People just won't buy a car that is limited to 100 or so miles, especially when it's likely to cost a lot more than current hybrid models. But the battery tech will hopefully be adopted by other manufacturers, giving hybrids a nice boost.

Ideally you could pair the two, using the lithium-ion cells to power electrolysis to provide hydrogen for a fuel cell. A bank of batteries and a tank of water could take you a very long ways for very little expense and your only emission would be water, assuming you charged your batteries from a renewable energy source like solar or wind.

Answer 2

Neither is a fuel source.   Hydrogen fuel cells are unlikely to ever be in wide use because we don't have the infrastructure to handle hydrogen.   Other fuel cells that extract the hydrogen from hydrocarbons from methane to heavy fuel oil are more promising and would be more convenient than charging a vehicle battery.    As long as people want to continue driving the way they do now battery powered vehicles aren't going to be a major part of our transportation makeup.

Answer 3

OK so if we powered all 600 million vehicles in the world with lithium ion fuel cells what do we do when all of these fuel cells start to go bad. Now you are really green but from acid-lead.

Race - read up on green house gas most of it is water vapor in the atmosphere.

Answer 4

I know they are working on Hydrogen currently.. which would actually make our environment 'better' by adding water into the air instead of CO2..  but it's tricky since it's an extremely reactive chemical.  Let's hope they can figure it out soon enough-

TC

-http://ExecutiveHomeBody.com

Answer 5

remember 3 years ago..all the lap top computers catching fire from LITIUM batterys....and the hydrogen fuel cell? gas at 10 dollars a gallon will seem cheap..