- A few weeks ago, Wheelhouse made an episode about how
hydrogen cars were supposed to be the
future of automobiles. (engine revs)
And in that episode, Nolan, he made a pretty good
economic argument for why they failed.
An argument that everyone's favorite billionaire,
Elon Musket, (dings) might agree with.
X-A-E-A-X-I-I Senior,
he hasn't had the best things to say
about hydrogen powered cars.
But like all things car related,
I get curious about the engineering side of things.
Outside of the politics,
why couldn't the car of the future be hydrogen powered?
Well, today on B2B, we're going to take a look
at hydrogen fuel tech and explain why Elon Musk
might just be wrong about hydrogen cars.
Let's a-go.
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- Now before we get into why exactly Elon Musk is wrong,
let's talk about how hydrogen powered cars actually work.
Hydrogen cars use something called a fuel cell
to power the car.
And a fuel cell is as a power source
that converts chemical energy from fuel,
in this case hydrogen, and an oxidizing agent,
usually oxygen, into electricity
through a series of chemical reactions.
This specific type of reaction
is called an oxidation reduction reaction.
And these types of reactions,
there's a transfer of electrons between elements.
Certain elements, or as chemists call it, species,
are the reducing agents.
Those are the ones that lose electrons,
while other chemical species are the oxidizing agents.
Those are the ones that gain electrons.
Those electrons, those are important.
Their movement is what's going to create electricity
which is what's creating (electricity buzzes)
the power in a hydrogen car.
There are a lot of different kinds of fuel cells,
but they all consist of a few key components.
A positive terminal, the anode,
a negative terminal, the cathode, and an electrolyte.
Now I'm going to learn y'all something today,
boys and girls.
- [Character Voice] Yee-ha! (whip cracks)
- This is how I remember, so I don't panic.
Positive is anode.
Negative is cathode.
It really should be pain-neck, (drum strikes)
but I didn't create it, that's just how I learned it.
Okay, and quick disclaimer,
this mnemonic works for fuel cells like this,
but there are other types of cells where there's flops.
It's confusing, I know.
But it's best to remember that regardless of the polarity,
the electrode where oxidation takes place
is called the anode.
Oxidation equals anode.
Therefore reduction takes place at the cathode.
At the positive terminal, we have our hydrogen.
When hydrogen atoms come in contact with a catalyst
at the positive terminal, it's electron gets removed,
leaving you with a bunch of positively charged hydrogen ions
and negatively charged electrons.
Hydrogen ions, they're just hydrogen atoms
without their electrons.
Those positively charged hydrogen ions,
see the negative terminal across the way
and pass through the electrolyte to get there.
That electrolyte, it's a material that allows
for hydrogen ions to pass through
but blocks the passage of electrons.
But those electrons, okay,
they still want to get through
and meet back up with their hydrogen ions.
So they pass through a set of wires
that's connected to a motor,
and it's that flow of electrons,
that movement of electrons that powers the motor.
Once they pass through the motor, they end up
at the negative terminal.
At the negative terminal,
something a little different happens here.
Here we have another catalyst,
but this catalyst causes the ions, electrons,
and oxygen to react together, and form water.
That is the waste of the fuel cell.
I always find it difficult to remember this stuff.
So here's a good analogy, okay.
You got a girlfriend, right,
and together you're a perfect little happy hydrogen atom.
And one evening you decide to go out to
LA's hottest nightclub, La Bouffe,
where things take a turn.
Alcohol, the catalyst, creates an argument
between the two of you and you break it off,
right there on the dance floor.
You guys split.
Okay, now you're not a happy hydrogen atom anymore.
No, you're an electron, and your girlfriend,
she's a hydrogen ion.
Well, she looks up and she sees some hot boy in VIP
and starts making her way over to him.
So naturally, you follow her
because you're instantly regretting your decision
and you're jealous.
But there's a bouncer there,
okay, he's the electrolyte.
He's not letting you in, your girlfriend, oh yeah.
Yeah, she can pass through.
But you, no way Jose,
Got to get in some other way.
Now you don't like being a free electron.
You need someone.
You're negative and needy,
and you've got to get to her positivity
before something bad happens.
So you sneak around through the outside fire escape,
and it leads to a rafter that you can walk over,
that will drop you right down into VIP.
You get there, and luckily your mutual friend, oxygen.
Aw, and oxygen's there, and she's mediating
and helping you guys work it out.
And with her help,
you guys get back together and you make water. (laughs)
They say the perfect analogy was impossible.
And I say to you, nothing's impossible.
Now up to this point you might be thinking
this all sounds pretty similar to batteries and EVs.
So what's the difference here?
The main advantage of a fuel cell vehicle
is that it doesn't run down or need to be recharged.
The fuel cells are built into the chassis
in what's called a fuel cell stack.
Inside these stacks are groupings of individual cells
that sit side by side.
A single fuel cell produces less than one volt,
which doesn't do you too much.
But combining these cells in series and parallel
you can create enough voltage and current
to power your electric motor or electric motors.
Every time you wire a cell in series,
you double the voltage.
Every time you wire cell in parallel,
you double the current.
So by creating combination of various cells
wired in these configurations,
you can optimize your cell configuration
to meet the demands of your motors.
Now we all know where good old fashioned
electricity comes from, the wall.
Okay, and it got there
from a transformer outside your house.
And it got there from a distribution substation.
But before that, it came from a transmission substation,
and it got there from towers,
and it got there from step-up transformers,
to those transformers from the power plant.
Now, if that's how EVs get their juice,
where does hydrogen come from?
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe,
but you just can't suck up hydrogen
like you can't crude oil from a pump jack.
There are a couple ways in which hydrogen fuel can be made.
And the two most common, are natural gas reforming,
and electrolysis.
Natural gas reforming is a thermal process
in which you get superheated steam to react
with a hydrocarbon fuel,
like methane, (cow moos)
(cow farts) to produce hydrogen.
But this reaction releases carbon dioxide
and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere,
which contributes to climate change.
That negates the whole idea
behind using a more eco-friendly fuel.
And I'll just say it right now,
if you need some super heated methane,
look no further than this guy. (Nolan farts)
In electrolysis, electricity is run through water
to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
This method can use wind, solar, geothermal, hydro,
fossil fuel, biomass, nuclear,
and many other energy sources.
Now tainting hydrogen from this process
is being studied as a viable way to produce it domestically,
at a very low cost.
Electrolyzers, they come in all different shapes and sizes.
Some are small, about the size of a kitchen appliance,
say a toaster. (Toaster dings)
But they can also get huge, like the ones used
in these production facilities.
If we're talking about powering cars using hydrogen captured
via electrolysis, we're talking about this larger scale.
Although it would be pretty sick,
if we had a toaster sized electrolysis machine.
We did an entire episode here on B2B,
a few weeks back on Porsche's E-fuel,
where we talk about this.
If you want, you should watch it after
you finish this episode.
Also, if you like this kind of stuff,
hit that like button and subscribe.
It lets me know that you guys like these videos
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If you don't want to see more of these videos
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It's okay, it won't hurt my feelings.
Don't do it.
Similar to gas powered cars,
pressurized hydrogen is sold at special hydrogen
refueling stations, so you can fuel up
with hydrogen in less than four minutes.
Fill her up, (engine revs)
and then ring her out.
The infrastructure of hydrogen refueling stations
is something we're already accustomed to.
Okay, great.
So we know how hydrogen powered cars get their power.
We know where they get their fuel from,
but let's get down to the important stuff.
Can hydrogen cars
(engine revs) snap your neck back?
I mean, there are a slew of EVs being sold
that will tickle your speed bone,
but can hydrogen technology make fast cars?
We know that there are some slow ones.
The 2021 Toyota Mirai goes zero to 60 in
(vinyl scratches) 9.1 seconds.
That's not good.
That's terrible.
So not good,
that I'd like to hold a 9.1 second moment of silence.
As there's a Mirai out there
merging onto a highway, terrifying other drivers
as it gets up to 60 miles per hour.
Everyone, please join me.
(odometer pops)
(engine revs)
(timers rings) (person laughing)
Luckily there's the Hyperion XP-1
to show the world the potential
for high performance hydrogen.
The XP-1 claims to get from zero to 60 in 2.2 seconds,
with a top speed of 221 miles per hour.
Not only that, it has a range of a thousand miles.
Now I would love to dive deep into the science
of how they're getting all this speed and performance
out of a hydrogen power car,
but unfortunately there's not a lot
of information out there on it.
But what I do know is that
if electric vehicles can create high-performance,
hydrogen electric vehicles can do the same thing.
It's the electric motors
that's causing them to be able to go so fast,
and produce a lot of speed.
You're just using hydrogen now to create the electricity
to power those electric motors.
So how does this compare with gas cars?
In gasoline engines, you have fuel,
which are hydrocarbons, and oxygen that are combusted,
and the waste is carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide,
nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and any unburned fuel.
With hydrogen cars, you get waste so fresh
you can actually drink it.
(spits)
Oh, I'm sorry.
Fuel cell cars are no more dangerous
than the car you're currently driving.
When you transport hydrogen to refueling stations,
if poses a safety risk.
The industrial sector has already been
transporting hydrogen like this for decades.
So we know how to do it,
and we know how to do it safely.
Right now, there aren't many hydrogen stations
to refuel at.
If anything is holding back fuel cell cars,
it's a lack of infrastructure.
But people made this same argument when the current wave
of electric vehicles were still in their infancy.
So, I'm not super worried about that never changing.
"If we want to build it, we're going to build it!"
Franklin D Roosevelt.
Kannan, our editor.
Even the pros are board.
Execs running the world's major car companies agree
that fuel cells may very well be the way of the future.
In the 2017 Global Automotive Executive Survey,
78% of auto executives were found to believe
that hydrogen fuel cells have a better longterm future
than electric cars.
And 62% said that the infrastructure challenges
could result in the collapse
of the battery powered electric vehicle market,
leaving space for hydrogen to swoop on in.
Ooh, Elan, oh, are ya nervous?
So do they work? Yes.
Are they successful? Yes.
Does the technology
have a promising future? Yes.
Is this all happening in the new future?
Well, we'll see.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
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And until next week, bye for now.