Recently, Hyundai Motor announced a recall of 54 Nexo hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the United States, the reason for the recall is that hydrogen may leak, causing a fire.
The cause was that in March of this year, when a car owner was refueling at the hydrogen refueling station, because there was static electricity on his hand, he touched the hydrogen filling port and ignited the leaked hydrogen gas, causing a fire.
The final reason for the investigation showed that the supplier "stole the beam for column" to replace the laser welding filter specified in the original design with an epoxy bonding filter.
And just when I was inquiring about the information, there were several shocking big words "hydrogen refueling station explosion".
Static electricity in the hands can cause fires, hydrogen refueling stations that store hydrogen can explode, and hydrogen energy is still the future that people say?
Before reaching the final conclusion, we may wish to look at the new energy source with the highest popularity at present - electric.
Electric, "obsolete" new energy
Strictly speaking, electric vehicles are not new energy sources at all, because in 1835, the American Thomas Davenport built the first "electric car". However, due to its load on a non-rechargeable battery, this "historical first" is not very recognized.
With the birth of the first gasoline car, fuel became the theme of the times. It is only in the last decade that electric vehicles have re-emerged.
However, xiongqi electric vehicles cannot solve the problem of endurance anxiety.
An electric car that wants to reach an endurance of 600 km requires at least 70 kWh of battery capacity without taking into account discounts. If the model is larger, it requires more battery capacity. If the model is smaller, the battery pack it carries is limited, and the battery life is difficult to do longer.
The A0-class Fit fuel tank in the fuel vehicle has 40L, and the fuel consumption is about 6L, which can travel nearly 700 kilometers, and it is a solid endurance.
On top of that, it only takes a few minutes for the tanker to refuel. At this time, the two-dimensional code of electric vehicle charging may not have been swept well.
Therefore, electric vehicles can only desperately pile up endurance, until they pile up models with a range of 1,000 kilometers, or even longer.
But the charging problem is still not solved, the longer the battery life, the larger the battery pack capacity, the longer the charging time required. Even though there is now an 800V fast charge, or even a 900V fast charge, the final trickle charge of electric vehicles is very slow.
The most fatal problem is that the battery life shrinks. You see, no one in the northeast dares to drive an electric car at all.
Hydrogen fuel, another breakthrough
Compared with electric vehicles, the biggest advantage of hydrogen fuel vehicles is in energy replenishment and endurance.
The time for hydrogen fuel vehicles to refuel takes 3-5 minutes, which is basically the same as refueling, and it is easy to 700 to 800 kilometers. And hydrogen fuel is more environmentally friendly than electric, and the "exhaust gas" discharges water, which truly achieves zero pollution.
Although the solid-state battery can also have the advantages of rapid power replenishment and ultra-long endurance, everyone is still in the stage of technical verification and PPT, and the prospect is still debatable.
Hydrogen fuel, however, has been used for many years in other industries, such as aviation.
Since the aviation industry uses hydrogen fuel, it proves that the safety of hydrogen fuel is definitely not as alarmist as the opening chapter.
In fact, hydrogen fuel is indeed a very safe source of energy.
The density of hydrogen is only 1/14 of that of air, and it has a large buoyancy and strong diffusivity, even if a leak occurs, hydrogen will immediately diffuse into the air. The unit explosive energy of hydrogen is also the lowest among common gases, only 1/22 of gasoline. And only in a closed environment rich in hydrogen, hydrogen can cause fires or explosions.
Therefore, hydrogen can only be stored improperly, and hazards such as explosions and fires will occur.
The probability of thermal runaway of lithium batteries is much greater.
The squeezing, deformation of the battery pack, and even the long-term high-power fast charging, the temperature is too high may cause thermal runaway. And due to the problem of shrinking the endurance of lithium batteries, repeated charging and discharging exacerbates the aging of the battery, which is more likely to cause fire.
In particular, to pursue higher endurance, when using a cell with a larger energy density, the stability of the cell will be reduced, and the potential harm will be greater.
Lithium batteries have many problems, but they can't afford to be "cheap" (for hydrogen fuel).
A hydrogen refueling station mainly includes a hydrogen production system (a hydrogen refueling station with internal hydrogen production capacity), a purification system (hydrogen prepared in the internal hydrogen production station to meet the use standards), a compression system, a hydrogen storage system, a hydrogen refueling system, a safety monitoring and so on. Hydrogen production and storage materials are quite expensive, and the investment in the construction of a hydrogen refueling station far exceeds that of a charging station. And now hydrogen energy vehicles are not popular, and hydrogen refueling stations are almost all operating at a loss.
Returning to the title, will hydrogen fuel be the future? In my opinion, not in recent years. The penetration rate of pure electric is growing amazingly, the development of the industrial chain has been driven, and solid-state batteries have also been put on the agenda. Once the endurance anxiety is solved, hydrogen fuel may not have a head start.