Hydrogen Powered Vehicles

Shaunot Dutta1, Varun Nair2, Shivam Pandey3, Abhay Kumar4

1,2,3,4
Bharati Vidyapeeth’s College of Engineering, Lavale, Pune, India.

Abstract: The hazardous effects of pollutants from conventional fuel vehicles affects the scientific world
and to move towards environmental friendly energy sources. Though we have so many types of renewable
energy sources, the perfect one is to use as an energy source for vehicles is hydrogen. Same as electricity,
hydrogen is an energy carrier and is capable to deliver huge amount of energy. Onboard hydrogen
storage is an important factor that has to be considered while designing fuel cell vehicles. In this study, a
recent feat in hydrogen fuel cell engines is reviewed to study the dependency of using hydrogen as a
major fuel in transportation systems. A fuel cell is an electrochemical hardware that can produce
electricity by using gases and oxidants as reactants. With anodes and an electrolyte, the fuel cell splits
the reactants into cations and anions and produces electricity. Fuel cells use reactants, which do not
affect the environment and releases water as a by - product. Hydrogen is one of the most efficient energy
carriers, the fuel cell produces direct current (DC) power to run an Electric Vehicle (EV). By combining
a hydrogen fuel cell with batteries and the control system with strategies, one can produce a sustainable
hybrid car.
Keywords: fuel cell; battery; hydrogen; electric vehicle; electricity

1. INTRODUCTION
In previous years, due to the rapid improvement in the world economy, people's living standard is getting
increased, that’s why people's purchasing power is also greatly increased, so people are capable of
purchasing car. So the question is raised. First: the majority of the world's cars are driven by internal
combustion engines; fuel used is petrol, diesel, or gasoline and the world's oil resources are decreasing
day by day and becomes expensive so the cost of fuel vehicles is increased. Second, the internal
combustion engine causes environmental pollution problems, since the fuel used is petrol, gasoline or
diesel, so the emission of exhaust gases includes a lot of harmful molecules, and the environment we live
is on a great amount of pollution, and there is great threat to our health. By considering these two points it
is important that new energy vehicle research be widely acknowledged. Now how one can find
alternatives to internal combustion engine, there are two things to consider: 1: Efficient energy
consumption. 2: less emission and low pollution. Electric cars should meet these two requirements, and
the advantage of electric cars is less noise and low pollution, vibration and high energy efficiency. Fuel
cell electric vehicle is one of the leading technology of electric vehicles, fuel cell is used for
electrochemical power generation in a power generation device, with constant temperature in accordance
with the chemical way, in this case electricity is directly converted from the chemical energy with the
help of carnot cycle limit so the energy utility rate is very high and pollution is very less, which converts
it as an ideal energy, and will be accepted by people, and the fuel cell technology is more and more
mature, fuel cell vehicles will certainly be a great idea, fuel cell vehicles will hold for more market share.
Now, the trend of new energy vehicles with zero emissions of electric vehicles and low emissions of
electric vehicles. In previously years, since China's rapid economic growth, but the environment has also
been a serious damage, great reduction in the air quality and the destruction of the ozone layer is a reason
since traditional fuel vehicle emissions, of the exhaust gases contains harmful molecules, these molecules
greatly affect our health. Hence, new energy vehicles are widespread concern, at present Nissan, Toyota,
BYD and other well-known companies have their fleet of electric vehicles on the market. Weber and
Newman designed a one-dimensional model in order to study the stress development in the fuel cell. They
laid out that hygro-thermal stresses may be an important reason for membrane failure also that
mechanical stresses might be important in systems that are non-isothermal. However, since the model is
one-dimensional, hence cannot include the effects of property mismatch among PEM, GDL, and bipolar
plates.

2. PRINCIPLE OF FUEL CELL

There are different types of Fuel cell systems. However, their principle and function is similar. For a
fuel cell system, three components are required: anode, cathode, and an electrolyte. FCs is categorized by
the type of electrolytic material used. FC can be composed of hundreds of individual cells, but each has
three fundamental components. An electrolyte is situated between the cathode and the anode. Fig. (1)
shows a schematic of a polymer electrolyte FC (PEMFC) operation diagram. This FC type is also called
as a proton exchange membrane FC. The PEMFC is most commonly used in mobile power applications,
such as vehicles. While the electrolyte material used depend on the type of FC, the general function of the
FC is as follows—fuel (pure hydrogen) is fed into the anode compartment of the fuel cell and air or pure
oxygen is placed into the cathode side of the FC. On the anode side, electrons are separated and the gas
tries to make its way through the electrolytic membrane. The electrolytic membrane acts as a filter to
separate the electrons and the hydrogen ions which only allow the hydrogen ions to pass through. In the
cathode compartment, the hydrogen ions are passed through the membrane combine with the oxygen
atoms from the air supply to produce H2O as a by-product; heat is also a by-product. Unlike internal
combustion engines, where the fuel is mixed with air, there is separation of the fuel and the oxidant with
no combustion. Therefore, FCs does not produce the harmful emissions that internal combustion engines
produce.

Figure 2. Reactions In a Fuel Cell

 3. TYPES OF FUEL CELLS
Table 1. Comparison of Different Fuel Cell

PEFC AFC PAFC MCFC SOFC

Electrolyte Hydrated Mobilized or Immobilized Immobilized Perovkites
Polymeric Ion immobilized Liquid Liquid Molten (Ceramics)
Exchange Potassium Phosphoric Acid Carbonate in
Membrane Hydroxide in in SiC LiAlO2
asbestos matrix
Electrodes Carbon Transition Carbon Nickel and Pervoskite and
metals Carbon Nickel Oxide pervoskite/metal
cement
Catalyst Platinum Platinum Platinum Electrode Electrode
material material
Interconnect Carbon or metal Metal Graphite Stainless steel Nickel, Ceramic,
or Nickel or steel
Operating 40 – 80oC 650 - 220oC 205oC 650oC 600 – 1000oC
Temperatures
Charge Carrier H+ OH- H+ CO3- O-
External Yes Yes Yes No, for some No, for some
Reformer for fuels fuels and design
hydrocarbon
fuels
Prime cell Carbon- based Carbon- based Graphite- based Stainless- Ceramic
components based
Product heat Process Gas + Process Gas + Process Gas + Internal Internal
management Liquid Electrolyte Liquid cooling reforming Reforming +
Cooling Circulation medium or Process Gas Process Gas
steam
Medium generation
.
5. CFD Technology in developing fuel cell
A three–dimensional, multi–phase, non-isothermal unit of a PEM fuel cell that includes in it the
significant physical processes and some key parameters that affect fuel cell performance has been
developed using CFD technology. The model had been developed to enhance fundamental perception of
transport phenomena in PEM fuel cells and to deduce the impact of various operation parameters on
performance. The model takes into account both gas and liquid in the same computational domain, and
thus allows for the application of phase change in the gas diffusion layers. The model includes the
transport of gaseous, liquid, protons, water, energy, and water dissolved in the ion-conducting polymer.
Water is assumed to be transported between three phases; vapor, liquid, and dissolved, and equilibrium
state among these phases is assumed. Water transport in the porous gas diffusion layer and catalyst layer
is explained using two physical mechanisms: viscous drag and capillary pressure forces, and is explained
by advection within the gas channels. Water movement across the membrane is also explained by two
physical mechanisms: electro-osmotic drag and diffusion

Figure 4. Liquid Water Velocity Inside GDLs

 Figure 5. Temperature Distribution In The Cell

Figure 6. Water Content Profile Through The Membrane

 6. PEFC Stacks

When you first consider your fuel cell stack design, you will need to calculate the following:

• Stack size
• Number of cells (MEAs/CCMs)
• Stack configuration (flow field plates, GDL, etc.)

8. CONCLUSION
Hydrogen storage is a major research problem. While progress has been made, existing systems are
inadequate or insufficient. On-board storage of H 2 most likely will be as compressed gas. Prototype
vehicles have used 5000-psi carbon-fiber unwrapped tanks, and tanks have been certified at pressures of
10,000 psi. Liquid hydrogen as well as cryo adsorption storage are almost certainly not practical for
vehicle use. Metal hydration and metal-N-H systems give good result, but much research is still required
for these systems. Advanced carbon materials are interesting, but contradictory research results, with low
reproducible storage capacities, have been discouraging and much remains to be done. Unresolved
research questions, like hydrogen storage, make the fuel cell vehicle understanding a long-term issue. It is
not a quick solution to energy or emissions problems. For the next twenty years, vehicles running on
hybrid-electric internal combustion engine can well prove to be just as beneficial, from a perspective of
life-cycle, as fuel cell vehicles. A MIT study finds that fuel cell vehicles do not have consequential
advantages (in terms of energy consumption or CO 2 emissions) over vehicles powered by hybrid-electric,
internal combustion engines.

9. REFERENCE
[1] GM et al.: Well-to-Wheel Analysis of Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Advanced
Fuel/Vehicle Systems - A European Study, 2002.
[2] Hermann, A., Chaudhuri, T., Spagnol, P. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 30(2005.)
[3] Tröbel, R.: Development of stack components for the PEM Fuel Cell. In proceedings: F-Cell
Conference, 27.10. 2005, Stuttgart, Germany.
[4] Energy Security Strategy and Energy Policy. Current Approaches in the European Union and Internationally.
[5] SW. Luo. China's new energy automotive industry development strategy research [D]. Shanghai: Fudan University, 2008.
[6] Max Ahman.Government policy and the development of electric vehicles in Japan [J]. Energy Policy.
[7] Advance in fuel-cell development. Kevin Jost, Kami Bucholtz, Ray Gehm, Automotive
Engineering International.
[8] Hydrogen separation and the direct high-temperature splitting of water. J. W. Warner
and R. Stephen Berry, Int. J. Hydrogen
[9] Webber, A.; Newman, J. A. Theoretical study of membrane constraint in polymer-electrolyte fuel cell.