Finding room for hydrogen storage tanks may be difficult in a compact vehicle like a car see below but vans and trucks have a great deal more potential.
Hydrogen fuel storage in vehicles.
For those drivers hydrogen cars could be the easy answer as fueling is pretty.
So unlike in fully electric or plug in hybrid vehicles the vehicle doesn t get its power from a built in battery that can be charged from an external power source read more.
The most commonly used method for hydrogen storage in fuel cell vehicles is compressed hydrogen tanks.
In the uk industry bodies estimate that some 40 of households don t have access to off street parking to charge.
Electric cars and plug in hybrids explained.
Honda fcx clarity toyota fcv mercedes benz f cell and gm equinox with such tanks are already in test use for sale in the near future and manufacturers have estimated the fuel economy using epa test procedures.
On board hydrogen storage in the range of approximately 5 13 kg is required to enable a driving range of greater than 300 miles for the full platform of light duty automotive vehicles using fuel cell power plants.
Indeed several prototype vehicles e g.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are superior driving machines compared to traditional vehicles jackie birdsall senior engineer on toyota s fuel cell team told abc news.
For starters the nexo s trio of storage tanks which in total hold 41 4 gallons 156 6 liters of hydrogen at more than 10 000 psi 700 bar are heavily reinforced to prevent puncture.
Their stop start duty especially if a significant amount of time is spent queueing in heavy traffic lends itself particularly well to fuel cell operation coupled with battery storage to allow the fuel cells to generate at a fixed rate ie base load.
Hydrogen storage is a significant challenge for the development and viability of hydrogen powered vehicles.