Update on JCB's pursuit of Hydrogen as their fuel of the future

[malvolio]

All the previous discussion seemed to be about hydrogen for ICEs, and I'd forgotten about fuel cells.

I don't know much about fuel cells but presumably there's a reason why they're not currently in widespread use?

Lack of hydrogen filling stations would be a goo limitation. That said, my motorhome has a refillable LPG tank and that is fairly similar in terms of storage and handling

[d000hg]

That's one car. Sometime in the not so distant future there will be 3 or 4 outside a house.

Maybe houses will be limited to one charging outlet

Ok, you've an interview 175 miles from home, the interview lasts for an hour and you have to drive 175 miles home. Which car would you drive?

That is an edge case. One coming idea is that for atypical journeys you would rent a vehicle suited to that task. I don't daily drive (or own) a van because twice a year I need to buy things that I can't fit in the car.

A fuel cell is a catalysed reaction between hydrogen and oxygen (from the air) resulting in electricity and water. No burning required. No emissions created. A point that seems to be totally lost in the argument...

There's no emissions burning hydrogen either, technically

[malvolio]

There's no emissions burning hydrogen either, technically

There is, but it's very low level from burning stuff in the air taken into the engine, and probably negligible in the real world.

[Zigenare]

There is, but it's very low level from burning stuff in the air taken into the engine, and probably negligible in the real world.

Did you miss the part in the original post where the "lean" burn keeps the temperature below the threshold where emissions are created? Thus the only output from the process is dry steam.

[d000hg]

There is, but it's very low level from burning stuff in the air taken into the engine, and probably negligible in the real world.

As in crud in the air? Or non-O2 gaseous components getting involved in the reaction (nitrides/nitrates, etc?)

[Gibbon]

Lack of hydrogen filling stations would be a goo limitation. That said, my motorhome has a refillable LPG tank and that is fairly similar in terms of storage and handling

Only in terms that they are both a gas, hydrogens low weight and density are problematic. When a flight line tech we were constantly topping up the emergency O2 bottles and that's 8 times the size of hydrogen.

Gases - Densities (engineeringtoolbox.com)

[malvolio]

Only in terms that they are both a gas, hydrogens low weight and density are problematic. When a flight line tech we were constantly topping up the emergency O2 bottles and that's 8 times the size of hydrogen.

Gases - Densities (engineeringtoolbox.com)

I did say similar. Temperatures are a lot different as well for example.

Another key factor is you can make H2 fairly simply, given clean water and electricity, compared to the fairly robust industrial production and other hardware needed to get LPG to a point where you can use it.