In the era of the upcoming climate and energetic crisis, we look for new strategies and alternatives for our current ways of living. Fossil fuels contribute greatly to carbon emissions and the enormous number of private vehicles polluting the Earth and draining our limited raw resources. Out of the combination of switching fuel to green alternatives and limiting the usage of cars the ecological buses were brought to life. The most common type is currently an electric bus that is present in many ACs, offering a new future for shared transport. The researchers were yet interested in a wider range of alternatives as we cannot rely on only one source of green energy, especially when nowadays prices of energy are rocketing. The concept of fueling buses with hydrogen is an innovative idea that would allow buses to travel for longer distances, have shorter loading (or fueling) time and be almost zero-pollution vehicles. However, there are voices that this idea might be too futuristic for our current standards and that most of the ways of producing hydrogen, in reality, contribute a lot to carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
In November 2022, the cooperation of the city of Lublin, the university of Lublin and the german bus company decided to combine forces in inventing their hydrogen bus that would be tested on the streets of Lublin and then after successful results there are plans to create a factory that would be responsible for distributing hydrogen buses all over Europe. The creators are promoting the benefits of the bus as it is quiet and emits almost no pollution. It was stated that it is better than the electric bus because it has a longer possible range, with no problem with the utilisation of batteries (like with electric buses). They claim that buses are the technology of the future and that it is the visionary response of the city in combating the usage of petrol as a fuel. The Chief Technical Officer of the bus company that cooperates with the university said
‘there are different types of hydrogen that can be produced and showed our vision of how would we manage the supply process. We plan to place a photovoltaic farm along with energy storage units and electrolysers so that we will be able to physically produce hydrogen on-site at the depot and use it in public transport’
He predicts that the production of hydrogen which requires nowadays a lot of energy would still be cheaper than using petrol.
The hydrogen used as a fuel is still in its infant phase stage so it should be clear that the technology has a lot to offer but lacks many components to operate well in the real world. The benefits it brings are undoubtedly its environmental cleanness – zero noise, zero carbon footprint, and zero visual pollution. That is crucial in combat with rising temperatures making them a perfect substitution or alternative to electric buses. Secondly, the engine or storing the energy. The huge disadvantage of electric vehicles is that they need to be charged for at least a few hours to be fully charged, whereas hydrogen buses can be tanked in less than 5 minutes. That means the buses can be as flexible as conventional vehicles and ecological at the same time. Quick fueling and stronger engines that provide a similar range to the petrol cars would make them the perfect means of transport of the future – long-distance, carbon-free mass transports. Last but not least, introducing hydrogen buses on a global scale or a national one would mean the democratisation of the power supply. What is meant by that is that it would make countries less dependent on fossil fuels which are required for energy and power and therefore help the many countries with their strong bonds to the main exporters of fossil fuels. That might also be a first step in breaking global cartels like OPEC because, in theory, everybody would be able to produce hydrogen within a country’s borders. This would lead to stable prices if well managed and prevent global fuel prices as it happened to petrol after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On the other hand, critics say that this technology is too futuristic as we miss the key storage infrastructure and our methods of extracting hydrogen are in reality harmful to the environment. Firstly, there are a few ways to produce hydrogen. Currently, most of the hydrogen is being extracted from fossil fuels (grey hydrogen), therefore generating a lot of toxic emissions into the atmosphere. The reason why we don’t use green hydrogen is the method that ‘uses an electrical current to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in the water. If this electricity is obtained from renewable sources we will, therefore, produce energy without emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.’ Unfortunately, this method is highly expensive which is why global companies prefer to extract fossil fuels, which contradicts the green mission they envoy. Secondly, the cost of raw materials required in the early that combine into catalysers and electrolysers like platinum and iridium are high which makes it harder for medium and small companies to enter this market and switch to using this type of energy. There is also a lack of infrastructure required for this technology, as no charging stations or storage are making implementing this technology even more expensive. Moreover, hydrogen is extremely flammable which creates a safety issue for the passengers and the whole industry.
To sum it up, the future vision of hydrogen buses is promising, yet there are many improvements and investments needed. The producers and scientists should focus on extracting hydrogen from pure electrolysis which separates hydrogen from water and their mission should be to achieve this at the lowest cost, so it is more affordable than extracting from fossil fuels. If all of the corrections were implemented, the world could become more energy and power independent and take another step in lowering climate change. The admiration of hydrogen buses, in my opinion, is too optimistic right now but more people will hear about it more investors could be attracted and therefore make the progress of this technology quicker.
Bibliography:
- https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-hydrogen-fuel-cells
- https://www.wired.com/story/future-buses-hydrogen-electric/
- https://www.ibigroup.com/ibi-insights/the-pros-cons-and-other-strategic-considerations-of-battery-electric-beb-versus-hydrogen-fuel-cell-electric-fceb-buses/
- https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/green-hydrogen
- https://radio.lublin.pl/2022/11/to-technologia-przyszlosci-autobus-wodorowy-testowany-na-ulicach-lublina-zdjecia/