How much water would the U.S. use to fuel the entire light-duty vehicle fleet (cars and small trucks) with hydrogen?
Conversion of the current U.S. light-duty fleet (some 230 million vehicles) to fuel cell vehicles would require about 110 billion gallons of water/year to supply the needed hydrogen1. For comparison, the U.S. uses about 300 billion gallons of water/year for the production of gasoline2, about three times the amount needed for hydrogen. Domestic personal water use in the United States is about 4800 billion gallons/year. Source Turner, John A., “Sustainable Hydrogen Production” Science, Vol 305, Issue 5686, 972-974, 13 August 2004 1 For an estimate of the amount of water needed for hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, assume a vehicle fuel economy of 60 miles per kg of H2 (the Honda FCX Clarity gets 72), that vehicle miles traveled = 2.6 X 10^12 miles/year, and that you can make 0.38 kg of H2 from 1 gallon of water using Proton Energy System’s H6m Electrolyzer. Total water required for the U.S. fleet = (2.6 X 10^12 miles/year)(1 kg of H2/60 miles)(1 gal H2O/0.38 kg of H2) = 1.1 X 10^11 ga
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