Oh, the humanity!
dotcom era fuel cells? I think the statute of limitations on investent fraud has long since run out on those.
Home fuel cell system ran from around $35,000 to $100,000 or more , ran ? so are they gone now ? LOL
For example, last year my home solar stored a total of 12,066.7 kWh (12 megawatt hours) to the solar battery bank, and 10,880.5 kWh was pulled from the batteries at nights and rainy days. So, in other words, my batteries gave me back 90% of what I gave them.
I don't think the production of hydrogen, storing it (either as gas or compressed), then using it to produce power with fuel cells can provide anything close to 90% of the energy used to produce and store the hydrogen.
HYZON hybrid trucks
https://www.hyzonfuelcell.com/vehicles/hyhd8-200kw
Toyota 2024 Mirai
https://www.toyota.com/mirai/
The problem with fuel cells is that they would be a wonderful source of energy if there were abundant sources of elemental oxygen and hydrogen. Unfortunately, there are not. Plants do produce elemental oxygen, which will remain abundant in the air until anti “global-warming” CO2 depletion schemes are put into effect, at which point, plants will start dying off and will no longer produce oxygen. Hydrogen, on the other hand, must be separated from whatever other elements it is covalently bound to. This takes energy. The energy gained by the combination of H2 and O2 to form water (and other molecules) will always be less than the energy required to produce elemental H2.
I’m not an engineer but the subject interests me. So take the following with a big block of salt...
I think their has been some discussions of vehicles with fuel cells. But, as I understand, there are some big problems with it that still need to be overcome before the technology could be safely delivered to the automobile industry. Such as keeping the two gases under the pressures needed.
Apollo 13 had a fuel cell failure that destroyed/mission-killed the service module. Imagine millions of cars on the road, knowing if there was a similar failure, the vechicle would be destroyed and could cause collateral damage to structures (a garage) or another vehicle (if it happened on a drive.
...Other FReepers will steer you right on this subject! :-)
The basic issue is cost, and energy efficiency.
Electrolysis is approx 50 percent efficient, and currently costs $10 / kg.
More efficient H2 production is based on methane, so it just adds to greenhouse gases.
Since there isn’t enough renewable electricity supply, you have to run natural gas generators to generate electricity to power generators for H2 ...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016236122001867
The Laws of Thermodynamics Must be Followed
For further explanation, see “energy vector transition”
later
Same thing that happened to flying cars. 🤡
The effluent from fuel cells is dihydrogen monoxide, a dangerous gas that contributes the most to climate change.
Micro Fuel Cells: A Novel Breakthrough in Portable Power
By Smita Shukla
March 31, 2013
Oh, the humanity!
It’s not ‘dead’ at all. At least for where it makes sense - which is Class 8 trucks. The loads they’re required to pull is not well suited for EV solutions on batteries alone. They’re too heavy and limited in range, requiring far too long a recharge cycle.
Hydrogen fuel cells make an interesting technology intersection in this space. Toyota and PACCAR are still working on them (which is public). There’s other, less public, things I’m aware of.
https://www.imarineusa.com/Efoy151-000-210.aspx?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhLvv8bXWhQMVfRCtBh00kgpGEAQYASABEgJzVPD_BwE (alcohol, marine rated)
sells RV/boat fuel cells. Off the shelf.
Google is your friend, if you bother to use it.
Government subsidies ended and the business gave up. They just don’t work in any practical sense. The ones I worked on were methanol based. Worked in a lab setting. But too hot, too cold, too anything, they didn’t work. Not sure how the NASA ones worked. But they would have been planned and proved to the gram of fuel.
As for off grid RV... Stick with a trusty old style absorption system. My friend had the Dometic 12v compressor and it had nothing but problems with the control electronics. There’s nothing to break on absorption units other than the occasional clogged orifice.
I’m not going to a DC fridge for the reason you give, but I sure wish someone other than those European pricks Dometic would make a decent one. They quoted me over $1000 for the controller module I’m replacing today, which I finally got for a bit over $200 but had to ask a buddy in the UK to put and re-ship it as the distributor evidently had never heard of international shipping. Pisses me off to be at the mercy of some outfit that owns the market but doesn’t give a damn about service after the sale.
There several kinds of “ Fuel Cells” out there. Fuel cell is a generic term. Race cars have a fuel cell that is basically a fuel tank. You can use hydrogen and air to run an internal combustion engine but why? You can use dc electrical current to produce hydrogen and water in a fuel cell. I would use propane as there are propane or 12 volt absorption refrigerators and propane generators.
Thirty years ago there was a flurry of excitement about fuel cells. Plug Power was supposed to be an up and coming player. Its stock was about 5 dollars iirc, so I bought some.. Sold later in the year, as they didn’t perform much. Today they are 2.50.
I have an invention I call “Densified Hydrogen” that solves the fuel cell problems. What you do is bond hydrogen to long chains of carbon and it will turn into an energy dense room temperature liquid. Genius.