Context: Aimed at a significant push for hydrogen vehicles in the country, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified standards for the safety evaluation of hydrogen fuel cell-based vehicles. 

• “The ministry of road transport and highways has notified the standards for safety evaluation of vehicles being propelled by hydrogen fuel cells through an amendment to central motor vehicles rules, 1989.
• Adding that Standards, would facilitate the promotion of Hydrogen Fuel Cell based vehicles in the country which are futuristic, energy efficient and environment friendly, while being compliant to international standards.

About Hydrogen Vehicles

• A hydrogen car is a vehicle that uses hydrogen fuel for motive power (energy used to drive machinery).
• Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen-fueled space rockets, as well as automobilesand other transportation vehicles.
• The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energyof hydrogen to mechanical energy either by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, or by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to run electric motors.
• Widespread use of hydrogen for fueling transportation is a key element of a proposed hydrogen economy.
• India is looking closely at Japan, which has made progress in this field.

How does the hydrogen fuel cell work?

• At the heart of the fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) is a device that uses a source of fuel, such as hydrogen, and an oxidant to create electricity by an electrochemical process.
• The fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to generate electric current, water being the only byproduct.
• Like conventional batteries under the bonnets of automobiles, hydrogen fuel cells too convert chemical energy into electrical energy.
• From a long-term viability perspective, FCEVs are billed as vehicles of the future, given that hydrogen is the most abundant resource in the universe.

Uses of this Technology

• The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market is dominated by Japan’s Toyota and Honda, alongside South Korea’s Hyundai.
• The successful development of hydrogen would provide energy for transportation and electric power.
• The advantage is the wide availability of resources for producing hydrogen fuel cells.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of fuel cells?
Advantages

• They produce much smaller quantities of greenhouse gases and none of the air pollutants that cause health problems.
• Pure hydrogen fuel cells emit only heat and water as a byproduct. Such cells are also far more energy efficient than traditional combustion technologies.
• Unlike battery-powered electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles do not need to be plugged in.

Disadvantages

• The process of making hydrogen needs energy — often from fossil fuel sources that has raised questions over hydrogen’s green credentials.
• Questions of safety are of great concern as hydrogen is more explosive than petrol.
• The vehicles are expensive, and fuel dispensing pumps are scarce. But this should get better as scale and distribution improves.

Mechanism: The Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) combines hydrogen and oxygen to generate an electric current and water is the only byproduct.

• Hydrogen + Oxygen = Electricity + Water Vapour
• 2H2 (g) + O2 (g) → 2 H2O (l)

What is Hydrogen fuel?

• Hydrogen is the lightest and first element on the periodic table. Since the weight of hydrogen is less than air, it rises in the atmosphere and is therefore rarely found in its pure form, H2.
• At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a nontoxic, nonmetallic, odorless, tasteless, colorless, and highly combustible diatomic gas.
• Hydrogen fuel is a zero-emission fuel burned with oxygen. It can be used in fuel cells or internal combustion engines. It is also used as a fuel for spacecraft propulsion.

Occurrence of Hydrogen

• It is the most abundant element in the universe. The sun and other stars are composed largely of hydrogen.
• Astronomers estimate that 90% of the atoms in the universe are hydrogen atoms. Hydrogen is a component of more compounds than any other element.
• Water is the most abundant compound of hydrogen found on earth.
• Molecular hydrogen is not available on Earth in convenient natural reservoirs. Most hydrogen on Earth is bonded to oxygen in water and to carbon in live or dead and/or fossilized biomass. It can be created by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Storage

• Hydrogen can be stored physically as either a gas or a liquid. Storage of hydrogen as a gas typically requires high-pressure tanks. Storage of hydrogen as a liquid requires cryogenic temperatures because the boiling point of hydrogen at one atmosphere pressure is −252.8°C. Hydrogen can also be stored on the surfaces of solids (by adsorption) or within solids (by absorption).

Potential of clean hydrogen industry in reducing greenhouse gas emissions

• Hydrogen as a fuel has long been touted as an almost magical solution to air pollution crisis. The only by-product or emission that results from the usage of hydrogen fuel is water — making the fuel 100 per cent clean.
• Hydrogen is considered an alternative fuel. It is due to its ability to power fuel cells in zero-emission electric vehicles, its potential for domestic production, and the fuel cell’s potential for high efficiency.
• In fact, a fuel cell coupled with an electric motor is two to three times more efficient than an internal combustion engine running on gasoline.
• Hydrogen can also serve as fuel for internal combustion engines.
• The energy in 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of hydrogen gas contains about the same as the energy in 1 gallon (6.2 pounds, 2.8 kilograms) of gasoline.

Benefits of hydrogen as a fuel

• It is readily available.
• It doesn’t produce harmful emissions.
• It is environmentally friendly and is a non-toxic substance.
• It can be used as fuel in rockets.
• Hydrogen is three times as powerful as gasoline and other fossil fuels. This means that it can accomplish more with less.
• It is fuel efficient. Compared to diesel or gas, it is much more fuel efficient as it can produce more energy per pound of fuel.
• It is renewable. It can be produced again and again, unlike other non-renewable sources of energy.

Limitations to Hydrogen production

• Hydrogen does not occur in deposits or reserves like fossil fuel. It needs to be actually produced using chemical reactions.
• Hydrogen, using renewables, is far more expensive to produce. And hydrogen-fueled vehicles are also more expensive than even battery-electric ones.
• It is highly flammable. It is difficult to store.
• The clean hydrogen industry is small and costs are high. There is a big potential for costs to fall, but the use of hydrogen needs to be scaled up and a network of supply infrastructure created.

Status in India

• In India, so far, the definition of Electric Vehicles only covers Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs).
• BEVs have no internal combustion engine or fuel tank and run on a fully electric drivetrain powered by rechargeable batteries.
• The Government of India has launched FAME India Scheme with the objective to support hybrid/electric vehicles market development and manufacturing ecosystem. It also covers Hybrid & Electric technologies like Mild Hybrid, Strong Hybrid, Plug in Hybrid & BEVs.
• The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, under its Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) Programme, has been supporting various projects on hydrogen and fuel cells.
• The Ministry of Science and Technology has supported two networked centres on hydrogen storage led by IIT Bombay and Nonferrous Materials Technology Development Centre, Hyderabad.

Road Ahead

• Hydrogen's proponents point to how clean it is as an energy source as water and heat are the only byproducts and how it can be made from a number of sources, including methane, coal, water, even garbage. However, lack of refuelling stations, which are costly to build, is usually cited as the biggest obstacle to widespread adoption of FCVs. On the other hand, electric vehicles provide a satisfactory alternative to the problems of internal combustion.
• While battery-powered electric vehicles may have a head start on fuel cell vehicles, both technologies are advancing rapidly. It will be interesting to see where they are five years from now.