Liquid Hydrogen for Automotive Application Next Generation Fuel for FC and ICE Vehicles

Abstract

Recent progress in fuel cell technology development for automotive application urges the need of an appropriate fuel for the next generation of cars. There has a basic consensus emerged within the engineering community and the environmentalists that hydrogen as an energy carrier should be the successor of fossil fuel derivates for both the new fuel cell vehicles as well as for the conventional internal combustion engines. On a gravimetric basis, hydrogen is an excellent energy carrier and when used in a fuel cell the only tailpipe emission is water. As the hydrogen gas density is very poor at ambient conditions, liquid hydrogen has become of great interest for automotive application. Consequently, a new infrastructure should provide liquid hydrogen at the pump for refuelling purposes. In regard of economically viable gas transportation and bulk storage at the refuelling station there are significant advantages using liquid hydrogen. A future scenario is likely to be realized by a liquid hydrogen supply system dispensing the gas in liquid and compressed form at the refuelling station.