Hydrogen - fuel of the future
Around the globe, the demand for electric vehicles is growing. But more and more batteries also mean less and less lithium, which could actually be used up faster than expected. A dilemma that could be solved with hydrogen.
Electromobility is seen by many as the solution in the fight against air pollution; after all, almost 20 per cent of CO2 emissions are due to road traffic (pre-pandemic values). But the bigger and heavier a vehicle is, the bigger and heavier the battery and the more tyre wear, which in turn creates more particulate matter in the air. For example, a Tesla S with a range of 615 kilometres has a battery that weighs 750 kilos. In principle, only vehicles with a smaller battery are clean, but they also have a shorter range.
In addition, an important component of the batteries, the light metal lithium, could soon run out, even if lithium that has already been used is recycled. Calculations by the Fraunhofer Institute suggest that this could be the case by 2049, and the UBS Bank even expects it to be the case by 2025. One solution is sodium-nickel chloride batteries, but it will be several years before they are ready for the market.
A real alternative, on the other hand, is hydrogen as a fuel. However, hydrogen cars are still much more expensive than e-cars. Nevertheless, the German government wants to give hydrogen a significant role. First of all, trucks and buses are to be converted to hydrogen.
Even though air traffic only accounts for three percent of CO2 emissions (pre-pandemic values), hydrogen is also to be used for air travel, because a battery is simply too heavy for a plane. To this end, the British Aerospace Technology Institute has developed an aircraft that burns hydrogen without producing any pollutants, unlike paraffin. The hydrogen is stored in three tanks and ensures a long range, so that any place in the world can be reached with only one stopover. Best of all, no exhaust gases are produced during combustion.
This sounds like a good alternative to lithium batteries, but just as with electromobility, there is still a lack of a reliable infrastructure with which one can quickly and easily recharge one's vehicles. So which alternative fuel is actually better depends on many factors, but an electric battery is not the most suitable means of dealing with air pollution everywhere.