Each morning in a transit facility in Cleveland, Ohio, more than a dozen buses pull up to a fueling station and then air out to their routes in this city south of Canton, Ohio.
The buses — owned by El Dorado National and designed by Stark Area Regional Transit Authority — look like any other. However, collectively, they reflect the cutting edge of a technology that could play a key role in producing cleaner inter-city transportation. In place of hydrogen fuel, one-fourth of the agency's buses use diesel fuel to run pollution-admitted vehicles. They emit nothing but harmless water vapor.
Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is becoming one way to reduce the devastating impact of electric vehicles, coupled with the 1.2 billion nuclear cars, on the environment. The majority of these vehicles burn fuel and diesel fuel, which are found to be very dangerous for the environment. Manufacturers of commercial trucks and large trucks are beginning to adopt hydrogen fuel cells as a method to accelerate development. Is the same thing true about planes, trains and passenger vehicles as manufactures.
Caring is the single largest contributor to climate change, which is why hydrogen and liquefied gasses are seen as the potential way of controlling emissions in the long term.
To be sure, hydrogen remains far from a magic solution. For now, the hydrogen that is produced globally every year, mainly for refineries and fertilizer manufacturing, is made using natural gas or coal. That process pollutes air, potentially warming the planet rather than saving it. Indeed, a new study from researchers from Cornell and Stanford universities found that most hydrogen production emits carbon dioxide, which means that hydrogen-fueled transportation cannot yet be considered clean energy.
But supporters of hydrogen-powered transportation say that hydrogen production is destined to become environmentally safe in the long run. They envision an increasing use of electricity from wind and solar energy, which can separate hydrogen and oxygen in water. As such renewable forms of energy gain a larger use, hydrogen production should become a cleaner and less expensive process.
Within three years, General Motors, Navistar and the trucking firm J.B. Hunt plan to build fueling stations and run hydrogen trucks in several U.S. freeways. Toyota, Kenworth and the Port of Los Angeles have begun testing hydrogen trucks for delivering goods from ships to warehouses.
Daimler Trucks AG and other manufacturers have also announced partnerships. The companies hope to commercialize their research, offering zero emission trucks that save money and meet stricter pollution regulations.
In 2018, a hydrogen-powered train began operating in Germany and more are coming. Airbus, the world's largest manufacturer of airliners, is considering hydrogen as well.
This is about the closest I've seen us get from that real turning point, said Shawn Litster, a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied hydrogen fuel cells for nearly two decades.
Hydrogen is a long term feedstock for the production of fertilizer, steel, petroleum, concrete and chemicals. It has also been running vehicles for years: Around 35,000 forklifts in the United States, about 4% of the nation's total, are powered by hydrogen. Its eventual use on roads, to haul heavy loads of cargo, could begin to replace diesel-burning polluters.
When hydrogen will be adopted for widespread use, or even whether and when it will be implemented. Craig Scott, Toyota's head of advanced technology in North America, says the company is about two years from having a hydrogen truck ready to sell. Further, it is highly important to construct many fueling stations across the country.
Kirt Conrad, CEO of Canton's transit authority since 2009, says other transit systems have shown so much interest in the technology that SARTA takes its buses around the country for demonstrations. Canton's system, which purchased its first three hydrogen buses in 2016, added 11 of the 45. It also built a fueling station. Two California transit systems, in Oakland and Riverside County, have hydrogen buses in their fleets.
We've demonstrated our buses are reliable and cost-efficient, and as a result, we broke down barriers which have slowed the adoption of the technology, Conrad said.
The test at the Port of Ontario, California, started in April when the first of five semis with Toyota hydrogen powertrains began hauling cargo to warehouses in Los Angeles, about 60 miles away from the station location. The $82.5 million private-public project ultimately will have 10 semis.
It is included in President Joe Biden's plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. The Senate Bill passed this week includes $9 billion for research to reduce the cost of making clean hydrogen, and for regional hydrogen manufacturing hubs.
The short-haul trucking industry appears to be the best option for adoption of hydrogen. Fuel cells that convert hydrogen gas into electricity, provide a longer range than battery-electric trucks, fare better in cold weather and can be recharged much faster than electric batteries. Proponents say the short refueling time for electric vehicles gives them an advantage over long-term electric vehicles for use in taxis or delivery trucks.
That advantage was important for London-based Green Tomato Cars, which uses 60 hydrogen fuel cell-powered Toyota Mirai cars in its 500 car zero emission fleet to transport corporate customers. Co-founder Jonny Goldstone says his drivers can travel over 300 miles on a tank and refuel in three minutes.
How does one spend 40, 50 minutes, an hour, two hours plugging a car in the middle of the working day?
For now, Green Tomato is among the biggest operators of hydrogen engines in what is still a small market in Europe, with about 2,000 car fuel cell batteries, garbage trucks and delivery vans on the roads.
About 7,500 hydrogen fuel cell cars are on the road in California, mostly in U.S. California has 45 public fueling stations, with more planned or under construction.
The future of passenger vehicles in the U.S. lies mainly with electric battery power, not hydrogen, unlike buses and heavy trucks. Fully electric vehicles can travel farther than the average human body needs to go on a small battery.
And for now, hydrogen production is adding to rather than reducing pollution. The World produces about 75 million tons a year, most of it in a carbon emission-creating process involving steam reformation of natural gas. So-called Blue hydrogen, made of natural gas, requires an additional step. Carbon dioxide is emitted in the process and sent to storage below surface level for storage. The Cornell and Stanford study found that making blue hydrogen emitted 20% more carbon than burning natural gas or coal for heat.
That's why industry researchers focus on electrolysis, which uses electricity to separate hydrogen and oxygen from water. Hydrogen mixes with oxygen in a vehicle’s fuel cells to produce power. The amount of electricity generated by wind and solar is increasing worldwide, making electrolysis cleaner and cheaper, said Joe Cargnelli, director of hydrogen technologies for Cummins, which makes electrolyzers and fuel cell power systems.
Currently, it costs more to make a diesel engine and produce fuel than to put a hydrogen-powered truck on the road. Hydrogen costs approximately $13 per kilogram in California and 1 kilogram can deliver slightly more power than a gallon of diesel fuel. In the U.S., diesel fuel is less expensive than gasoline (spending $4.25 per gallon) in comparison to gasoline (about 350 gallons) in Canada and Canada.
However, experts say that the disparity will narrow.
As they scale up the technology for production, the hydrogen should come down, said Carnegie Mellon's litster.
While a diesel semi can cost roughly $150,000 depending on how it's equipped, it is unclear how much fuel cell trucks would cost. Nikola, a startup electric and hydrogen fuel cell driver maker, estimated last year that it would get around $235,000 for each hydrogen semi it sells.
Clean electricity could eventually be used to make and store hydrogen at a rail yard, where it could refuel locomotives and semis with zero emissions.
Cummins is anticipating the widespread use of hydrogen in the U.S. by 2030, backed up by stricter diesel emissions regulations and government zero emission vehicle requirements Already, Europe has set ambitious goals for green hydrogen to accelerate its use.
That's just going to drive the market and kind of blow it up, Cargnelli said.