Hydrogen-powered automobiles: Problems and solutions

The development of hydrogen power for switching the most energy-intensive segments of industry and transportation to a qualitatively new energy carrier - hydrogen - as a strategic direction for decreasing the acuteness of the problems of environmental pollution and the growing shortage of petroluem-based fuel for automobiles is examined.It is concluded for vehicular transportation systems in megalopolises and large cities that the main solution is to develop an ecologically safe means of transportation powered by an electrochemical generator operating on hydrogen and atmospheric air. A preliminary conclusion is drawn on the basis of a comparison of various types of electrochemical generators that electrochemical generators with a solid-polymer membrane have merit.Various systems for storing hydrogen in an automobile are examined. The system which is closest to practical implementation is a system for storing hydrogen gas at high pressure in a tank made of composite materials. An assessment is made of the danger that the hydrogen stored in a high-pressure tank in an automobile will catch fire or explode.Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 97, No. 5, pp. 380–387, November, 2004.