What is a fuel cell? Why didn't hydrogen fuel cell vehicles develop?
Honda's hydrogen energy vehicles are going to be discontinued...
A few days ago, Honda Motor of Japan announced that it will terminate the production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from August 2021. This news is undoubtedly a blockbuster in the new energy automobile industry. At the beginning of the year, Nissan also announced the suspension of the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Suddenly, why is the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that everyone is optimistic about failing?
For this question, let us first understand what is a fuel cell?
A fuel cell is a power generation device that directly converts the chemical energy of the fuel into electrical energy. It is another new power generation technology after thermal power, hydropower, solar power, and nuclear power.
The fuel cell is mainly composed of four parts: anode, cathode, electrolyte and external circuit. The fuel gas enters the anode and releases electrons and ions under the action of the catalyst. The electrons are conducted to the cathode through the external circuit and generate current at the same time; under the action of the electric field, the ions migrate to the cathode through the electrolyte, and oxidize with electrons and oxygen to produce water.
In the past, the active material of the battery was stored inside the battery, thus limiting the battery capacity. The positive and negative electrodes of the fuel cell do not contain active materials and do not store electrical energy. They are only catalytic conversion elements. They are energy conversion machines that truly convert chemical energy into electrical energy. To put it bluntly, it is a generator. As long as the fuel gas is continuously input, the fuel cell can generate electricity continuously.
Hydrogen fuel cells are energy-saving and efficient, with energy conversion up to 80%; energy-saving and environmentally friendly, pollution-free and noise-free, hydrogen fuel sources are wide, and were once considered the ultimate environmentally friendly energy vehicle.
However, since Honda, Nissan and other automobile companies announced the suspension of production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, everyone has wondered: Since hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are so good, why have they not been developed?
In view of this, we have also done some understanding. Although hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have significant advantages, there are also many problems:
Hydrogen is mostly a compound, which is difficult to extract and consumes a lot of energy for extraction;
Hydrogen transportation and storage are not particularly safe, and the number of hydrogen refueling stations is small, and the construction cost is high;
The hydrogen fuel vehicle system has a complex structure and high production cost, and it is also the rare precious metal platinum;
In short, hydrogen is a secondary energy source, and it also faces problems such as "not enough energy saving, not enough environmental protection, not enough safety, and not cheap enough".
According to the current situation, electric vehicles are more in line with the current development needs. It may take some time for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to be used in large-scale applications, and of course it is worth looking forward to...
