Pros+and+Cons

Pros and Cons by Gabriella Schneider

Pros The powering of cars with fuel cells has many positive benefits. The most beneficial aspect would be the small amount of pollution produced. Today, many people are concerned with the increasing amount of green house gasses in the earth’s atmosphere. A main contributor to the emission of green house gasses is car emissions. Car’s that run on gasoline emit large quantities of carbon dioxide and other green house gases. Cars powered by fuel cells, alternatively, produce zero pollution. When fuel cell vehicles operate on pure hydrogen, the only byproducts are heat and water; no green house gasses are emitted. If the hydrogen used is produced from fossil fuels, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted is still relatively low, nearly half that of gasoline-powered cars. Another advantage to using fuel cells is their fuel flexibility and availability. The hydrogen used to power the fuel cells is able to be produced from many different sources. The hydrogen can be extracted from natural gas, propane, gasoline, methanol, ethanol, biogas, and many more. Hydrogen can also be obtained by using electrolysis, wind power, and solar power. Conveniently hydrogen can be produced locally. With the use of fuel cells, theUnited States would not need to rely on foreign countries for energy. If simply 20% of cars switched to fuel cells instead of gasoline, it would cut oil imports by 1.5 million barrels a day.

Cons

There are, however, hindrances to using fuel cells. One issue is the storage and handling of hydrogen. Although hydrogen is abundant, it is difficult to store large amounts of hydrogen in small spaces. Also, hydrogen, like any gas, must be handled carefully when being transported. At the moment, there is no ready way to deliver hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles. In other words, there is no hydrogen station down the street where a driver can pump hydrogen into their car. However, after further research and development storage, handling, and availability of hydrogen could become feasible. Another issue is economics. At the moment, fuel cell vehicles are far more expensive than gasoline-powered vehicles; but this is simply because few fuel cell vehicles are available. Presently the cost of hydrogen fuel exceeds that of gasoline. However, the Department of Energy has set a goal for hydrogen to cost $1.50/gasoline gallon equivalent. Again, with further development fuel cells vehicles could become more economically favorable than gasoline-powered vehicles.