Hydrogen+Fuel+Cell+Economics

Hydrogen fuel cells have the potential to double the efficiency of cars and reduce air pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases. There are many problems caused by our dependence for fossil fuels such oil spills, ozone alerts, and global warming.

Reasons why we need to switch to Hydrogen fuel cell[[image:http://www.evworld.com/images/filling_necar5.jpg align="right" caption="Fueling a car"]]
1.Health concerns: 1 million + people die every year from pollution alone 2.Enviroment: Acidic rain, destruction of the ozone layer, polluted lakes and soil 3.Lack of resources: Oil exists.. but where..having alternative fuel sources is key and the hydrogen technology has been developed for use. 4. Reputation: Top ten polluted cities in the world are found in, China, Dominican Republic, India, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Ukraine, Russia, and Zambia. This repuation affects business, and if other countries continue to increase pollution, they reputation will also be tainted.

Click [|HERE] to watch a video

Advantages of hydrogen economy
1. elimination of pollution caused by fossil fuels: Cars that burn gas are a main source of smog and ozone. It produces the poisonous gas, carbon monoxide. Hydrogen is completely clean with its only byproduct being water. 2. elimination of greenhouse gases: Carbon dioxide is slowly increasing the Earth's temperature. Hydrogen adds no greenhouse gases to the environment. 3. elimination of economic dependence: Most countries do not produce enough oil to meet the high demand. We are economically dependant on areas like the Middle East. When the price of oil is raised, we have no choice but to pay these higher prices to satisfy demand. Hydrogen is very abundant. In a pure hydrogen economy, it is renewable and we have access to it anywhere. We would no longer have to rely on the Middle East or other countries with oil reserves. 4. Distributed production: Hydrogen can be produced wherever there is electricity and water.

Two ways of obtaining hydrogen
1. Electrolysis of water: splitting water molecules to create pure hydrogen and oxygen. Advantage: can be done anywhere.

2. Reforming fossil fuels: splitting hydrogen off carbon from hydrocarbons contained in oil and natural gas. This process reduces air polution, but does not reduce greenhouse gas emissions or solve the problem of economic dependence on foreign countries since you still need oil. This process might be viewed as a transition towards pure hydrogen economy. Until we have as many "hydrogen stations" around as we do gas stations, this is the easiest way to obtain hydrogen to power

Barriers to Hydrogen Economy
Currently, it is very difficult to penetrate the market of hydrogen technologies in Canada. The biggest obstacle preventing us from having a pure hydrogen economy is having enough electricity for the process of splitting hydrogen from water molecules. All the energy for transportaiotn that currently comes from oil will have to be replaced with electrically generated hydrogen.Electrical generating capacity will have to double to meet the demand if we were to use hydrogen for transportation. We need to find a way to generate this electricity without the use of fossil fuels.

Other Barriers
- Cost of hydrogen production: There are several factors contributing to the high cost including limited economies of scale. There is not enough demand for manufacturers to mass produce to cut costs.

- Consumer Acceptance: will depend on the product and supporting infrastructure; must be convenient. Consumers will need to be made aware of hydrogen technologies and become familiar with it.

When will we see hydrogen fuel cells being used?
Because of the many barriers, it will be a long time before fuel cells are commonly used. The technology will need to be refined and it will need to be less expensive. Power-generating plants will have to switch over to renewable sources of energy and the global marketplace will have to agree on ways to store and transport hydrogen.

**Demand and Supply of Hydrogen Fuels Cells**
- Supply in hydrogen fuel cells is unlimited because we’re using heat, water, and electricity to power the fuel cell, - All these resources are either free or very easy to produce. - We’re not in any energy crisis to switch over to these new sources basely you can said HFC is not necessary at this point.
 * Supply**

- Demand in hydrogen fuel cells is very limited because many experts agree on that this technology is at ahead of our time - Not saying that HFC vehicles are bad but It’s still in the early stages of this new technology - HFC technology is moving forward quickly with the recent release of a couple HFC vehicle, I think the demand for it is highly elastic. - First it will be too expensive to buy for an average person and secondly where are we going to fill our car with hydrogen.
 * Demand**

Associated Costs
Hydrogen seems unlikely to be the cheapest carrier of energy over long distances. Advances in electrolysis and fuel cell technology have not addressed the underlying cost problem. To set up a hydrogen economy we require huge investments for: - Hydrogen pipeline, they are more expensive than long distance electrical lines and three times bulkier. - Store and distribute hydrogen to vehicles - Building hydrogen stations Here are some of the many costs: · 600 billion dollars to supply 100 million fuel cell vehicles via construction of a pipeline system · GM’s estimates to support 1 million fuel cell vehicles and to place a refueling station within 2 miles of the homes of 70 percent of the United States population, also every 25 miles on the interstates. This will cost 15 Billion. · Hopefully, it will all weigh out if suppliers can make money on this big investment. · In the end the estimated market for fuel cells could be as large as $1.7 trillion ($2.6 trillion Canadian)

There are two charts that I have been trying to input, but it's not been working 1. To see the Cost per mile, and cost per kilogram please visit [|This Link ....1] and go directly to page 6. 2. This is from the United States; it shows the numbers of what would need to be paid to reach the goal of using hydrogen fuel cells, with one of these technologies. Please visit : [|This Link ....2]

Fuel Cell Facts
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 * If just 20 percent of cars used fuel cells, we could cut oil imports by 1.5 million barrels every day.
 * 10,000 fuel cell vehicles running on non-petroleum fuel would reduce oil consumption by 6.98 million gallons per year.

Sources:
www.howstuffworks.com/hydrogen-economy.htm [|www.nrtee-trnee.ca/eng/publications/fiscal-policy-hydrogen-development/baseline-5-framework-hydrogen-case-study-eng.html] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obs2tAq57j8 http://www.fuelcells.org/info/library/QuestionsandAnswers.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_fuel#Costs http://www.fuelcells.org/

=Images used= [|**http://www.evworld.com/images/filling_necar5.jpg**] [|**http://www.emergingearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/hywire.jpg**] http://www.fuelcells.org/info/library/QuestionsandAnswers.pdf