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Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
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With global warming
no longer, something that can be pushed under the carpet, the world is racing
to retire ICE-run vehicles and replace them with vehicles that run using
technologies that are way gentler on the environment. The leading contenders
for that space are electric vehicles or EVs and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles or
FVCS, both of which offer environmental benefits over traditional fossil fuel-burning
internal combustion engine vehicles.
While both EVs and
FCVs are undoubtedly kinder for the environment than conventional vehicles,
choosing one of the two as being better is not as easy and straightforward, as
one may imagine. There are a lot of
factors that go into that and one needs to consider them one by one to try and
arrive at a definitive conclusion.
Both EVs and FCVs
possess the ability to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions. While EVs can
draw power for their batteries from a power grid that obtains its electricity
from renewable sources of power, FCVs use hydrogen fuel cells to generate
electricity with water and heat being the only emissions. The production and transportation
of hydrogen can result in greenhouse gas emissions, depending on where the
hydrogen is sourced from. If it is
manufactured using green energy, then there is a case of it being a zero-emission
technology as well.
The cons in the
case of EVs also include the problem with the production as well as disposal of
batteries, which clearly can be a source of environmental pollution. These
require the mining and processing of raw materials like lithium and cobalt which
is resource-intensive with the resultant negative social and environmental impact.
Also, if the electricity used to charge EVs comes from a fossil fuel-reliant source,
there will be greenhouse gas emissions.
The environmental
impact of both technologies, therefore, depends on how clean the source of
electric power is in the case of EVs and hydrogen in the case of FCVs. That
being stated, there is no denying the fact that both technologies can
reduce emissions and improve air quality significantly if used to power
vehicles in place of conventional ICE technology using ones. The extent of
improvement will depend upon the circumstances in which these technologies are
deployed.
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| Photo by Mike B: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-car-instrument-cluster-panel-945443/ |
Which one is better?
A study carried out
by Argonne National Laboratory, suggests that creating and using hydrogen for use
in fuel cell vehicles is environmentally friendlier than sourcing electricity
from the grid to power EVs.[1]
However, considering the fact that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are still in the
early stages of development, they are a long way away from being widely available.
That means it is going to be battery electric vehicles that will have to step
up to the plate and replace ICE vehicles and help in saving the planet and its
people from choking on bad air-at least in the foreseeable future.
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