Hydrogen

Shell Hydrogen station supplied by Air Products and hosted by Toyota on 190th Street in Torrance, California

The terrific promise of hydrogen fuel cell cars — the promise of full-size vehicles with the range of gasoline or diesel but ZERO emissions — tantalized the green transportation industry in the late 1990s and into the early years of this century. California, in fact, backed off on its zero-emission electric vehicle mandate as automakers intimated that fuel cells were a better bet.

But both the fuel and the cell proved more challenging than expected. Hydrogen has to be produced and stored (with all of the drawbacks, only worse, of natural gas), while economical fuel cells have proved elusive.

A handful of companies claim hydrogen fuel cells to be economically viable now for forklifts, but better technology for batteries for electric vehicles has taken most today’s attention to the battery EV and PHEV areas.

Hydrogen is still viewed as the long-term future of clean transportation, but its widespread adaptation is widely understood to be years if not decades away.

FCHEA, the new Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association resulting from the merger of the National Hydrogen Association and the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, will hold its next annual meeting in Washington February 13-16.

Industry Meetings