If I told you about a new car hitting the market that emitted only water, yet could go 650 kilometres between fill-ups, which took no longer than a few minutes at a time, you'd either check what I'm drinking or ask me where to sign. Well, those stats relate to the new Toyota Mirai, a spacious, stylish and luxurious rear-drive model that also happens to be powered by a hydrogen-powered fuel cell. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, by quite some margin. Combine it with oxygen in a fuel cell and the result is electricity generation with the sole by-product being water. Put in such simple terms, you'd wonder why the world hasn't long ago replaced all forms of energy production and fuel with hydrogen, creating the so-called hydrogen economy. It could eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels and dramatically reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, which would go a long way to slowing down climate change.
The thing is, fuel cells are not a new idea. Sir William Robert Grove, a Welshman, is credited with its first implementation, in 1839, while the first vehicle powered by a fuel cell was created in 1959 (a very low-powered tractor). Fuel cells have also been used extensively in space exploration, providing power and drinking water to NASA's astronauts. Actual billions of Euros have been spent on research and development of the fuel cell. And the car industry, contrary to popular belief, has been a major part of all that. Indeed, I tested a Kia Sportage prototype powered by a fuel cell back in 2008, which felt eerily normal, though it was, in reality, very far away from production.
At the time, Kia's engineers cited two major hurdles to overcome: the cost of the fuel cell manufacturing and the supply of high-purity hydrogen. It predicted that it'll be 2025 before fuel cell vehicles have any impact on the market. That's only five years away and, honestly, we don't appear to be any closer, despite many other car makers looking at the technology. Or are we?
Only this week, Toyota revealed its more-or-less production-ready Mirai, the second generation of its fuel cell powered car. Concurrent with the evolution of Toyota's Mirai (we drove the first iteration a few years back), the cost of producing fuel cells has dropped significantly, from above €1,000 per kW to less than €100 today. So, for example, a 100kW (134hp) fuel cell stack used to cost €100,000 to make; now it's 'only' €10,000. That's still a hell of a lot more than a traditional engine, of course, and a fuel cell vehicle still needs at least one electric motor to drive the wheels and probably a battery pack to balance out the energy flow. In short, we don't believe that Toyota is going to break even on the Mirai project, never mind make a profit. Still, the costs are going the right way, and it's conceivable that they'll reach a point where they do make financial sense.
Which brings me onto the second major challenge, supplying hydrogen. You see, even though hydrogen is the most abundant thing in the world, it's almost never available on its own - it's always combined with other elements. And that poses a challenge, as it takes energy to extract the hydrogen. Many techniques have already been looked at, though most of them involve using fossil fuels and result in carbon dioxide as a by-product, which kind of defeats the purpose. The best theoretical solution seems to be electrolysis of water (passing an electrical current through water), which separates the hydrogen and water. Obviously, it takes energy to do that and, apparently, the most efficient electrolysis plants today operate at 80 per cent efficiency - i.e. the energy value of the hydrogen released is 80 per cent of the energy it takes to release it.
It therefore only makes sense to do if the energy used in electrolysis is, effectively, 'free', and of course, completely sustainable. E.g. such a plant would have to be operated by wind, hydro or solar power. And, to reduce the costs (in terms of money and energy consumption) further, it potentially makes sense to have lots of small hydrogen-producing plants dotted around the country, as that would reduce the need for transportation of the hydrogen.
Taking that idea to the extreme, imagine if every Circle K and Applegreen (other service station brands are available) had its own little electrolysis plant, producing hydrogen for the local market. No oil rigs or oil tankers on the sea, no fuel tankers on the road and, crucially, no greenhouse gas emissions, from the production of the fuel to its use. Sounds idyllic, I know, and there are massive hurdles to get over before a fraction of that is possible, but it is possible.
Indeed, plans are already afoot to start producing hydrogen in a sustainable way in Ireland. For example, the Valentia Island Energy Co-operative (yes, that island off the coast of Kerry) is hoping to produce hydrogen for their own use and is in the midst of a feasibility study. What's more, there's a significant amount of development being done in the world of heavy goods vehicles to move to hydrogen power, a move that could start with centralised transport hubs where the hydrogen is produced locally for a given fleet of vehicles. Maybe they'll let you top up your Toyota Mirai there if you ask nicely...