Viability and Impacts of Hydrogen Economy in Mobility- A Review 2017-36-0291

Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources of energy, being one of the largest fractions of the greenhouse gases (GHG). Hydrogen is indicated as a fuel with potential to replace fossil fuels in the future, mainly because the combustion products are environmentally friendly, with high specific energy, in comparison with other sources of fuel. However, to use hydrogen as a fuel in internal combustion engines (ICE) or in fuel cell vehicles (FCV), it is necessary to separate it from primary elements (water, biomass, natural gas, etc.). It´s also need to consider storage and transport in order to handle a fuel like hydrogen. All of these phases require energy, which may be from renewable or non-renewable sources, causing environmental impacts. In order to investigate if the hydrogen is economically viable, aspects such as environmental impacts, safety and technological feasibility need to be studied. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the viability of hydrogen as a fuel, considering the whole economy involving hydrogen in mobility. The hydrogen economy still needs to be developed in a number of ways to be viable, especially in terms of storage, due to the low energy density per volume To the hydrogen economy become competitive in terms of mobility, there is a great need of improvement in aspects such as storage and production. The production needs advance in terms of costs, including availability at filling stations. Advances are also needed in the durability and reliability of the fuel cells, saving costs.