What are the technical challenges in building a hydrogen-powered car?
Basically, there are no real technical challenges to overcome for the vehicles. Technology exists for all components of hydrogen powered vehicles. The largest hurdle now is the lack of an infrastructure to produce, distribute, and deliver hydrogen to where people with hydrogen powered vehicles will need it – right down the street. Someone is going to have to go out on a limb and invest in this delivery system, gambling that it will become utilized to the point of profit. Another interesting application of hydrogen fuel cell energy is for home and commercial use. There are homes in upstate NY that are powered by fuel cells experimentally. Rather than revamping the power distribution grid of the country, stand-alone fuel cell power generators could be utilized, making obsolete much of the aging power grid. This would also provide a stable customer base for a company considering investing in hydrogen distribution and delivery.
There are two very obvious problems with the concept of hydrogen-powered vehicles. First of all, it is very difficult to store enough hydrogen to provide very much energy, especially within the limits that that would have to apply to a vehicle the size of a typical car. (Contrary to a response that was posted to one of my comments on another answer, a fuel cell is *NOT* a device for storing hydrogen; it is a device that can convert hydrogen and oxygen into electrical energy.) As of this point, there is no technology that will allow a hydrogen-powered car to be built that will be able to travel nearly as far between refuelings as a conventional gasoline-fueled automobile. There are some various directions in which research is being performed, but in any direction, we’re still a long way from making hydrogen-powered vehicles that have a long enough raneg that most people would consider them feasible. The other, as has been pointed out in other answers, is that hydrogen is not a source of
Perhaps the biggest technical challenge remaining is how to store the hydrogen on the vehicle. Hydrogen just doesn’t stay in typical tanks, the tiny molecules just leak through most tank materials so you can’t keep a multiple-day supply in a light-weight tank. The most promising solution is currently a tank full of stuff that the hydrogen is more comfortable staying in – kinda like a hydrogen friendly sponge. I don’t think they have a tank you can fill and use for days yet, and I don’t think they can get nearly as many miles out of a tank of hydrogen as a tank of hydrocarbons – the volume/energy density is too low. Don’t believe the comments about energy companies preventing new technologies. If it was possible to market hydrogen at a profit they would do it. If a car company could sell H powered cars at a profit, they would. As soon as the technology is viable there will be plenty of new and old energy companies anxious to serve the market. The other big hold-back is probably the cost
