Internal combustion engines hydrogen effects

Another problem is cost-effectiveness, hydrogen must be able to compete with alternative strategies including more fuel- efficient internal combustion engine vehicles. The Shell studies estimate that the cost in the U.S. to supply 2% of cars with hydrogen by 2020 is about 20 billion. 

The biggest attraction of fuel-cell-powered vehicles for car manufacturers is the fact that they no longer emit nitrogen oxides or hydrocarbons (or carbon dioxide if they are fuelled with pure hydrogen). (Burning hydrogen in internal combustion engines results in NOx emissions fuel-cell vehicles emit only water.) This effectively does away with one of the main environmental discussion points about traffic. In California, these zero-emission cars have been demanded since the foundation of the California Fuel Cell Partnership in 1999. 

Hydrogen vehicles have no effect on the development of congestion, land use due to transport infrastructure and accidents. Whereas the first two points are behind any discussion, some people argue that the introduction of hydrogen vehicles could increase the level of accidents because these propulsion systems produce less noise than internal combustion engines. Up to now there is no empirical evidence to confirm or reject this point. Further, this argumentation seems to be critical because -as the discussion in Section 19.3 has clearly shown - noise is a serious social problem of transportation and much better technical solutions may exist to reduce the level of accidents instead of producing a permanent level of noise. An example is the development of video-based assistant systems, which warn the driver of pedestrians and bikers. 

Summarizes the known hydrogen effects on internal combustion engine and fuel cell components, suggesting surface modifications that improve stability and performance... 

Figure 9-1 shows the four phases in a transition to a hydrogen transportation energy economy in the United States. Wide adoption of fuel cell vehicles will most likely not take place before 2020, and a minimum of 20 years will be required for the majority of petroleum based internal combustion engines (ICEs) to be effectively replaced. The DOE s time line takes technological unpredictability into account but seeks to make a commercialization decision on fuel cell vehicles possible by 2015. 

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