Of course, most cars today do not get 40 mpg, either…The point is, fuel-flexible SOFCs using traditional fuels like natural gas make less CO2 than hydrogen-burning PEMs (PEMs cannot operate easily from hydr…
Is Hydrogen Fuel the Answer?
Today, powering fuel cells with hydrogen can create more greenhouse gasses than powering directly from fossil fuels, because hydrogen is most often made using traditional gas- or coal-fired electricity. Today, renewable sources produce only 2% of the world’s electricity. Consider the math for a PEM based fuel cell car:
Burning coal to generate one megawatt-hour of electricity produces about 2100 pounds of carbon dioxide. Using that electricity to make hydrogen would yield enough fuel for a fuel-cell [PEM] car to travel about 1,000 miles. But driving those 1,000 miles in a gasoline-powered car that gets 40 miles per gallon would produce just 485 pounds of carbon dioxide.
From “Hell and Hydrogen”, David Talbot, Technology Review, March/April 2007
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