​​How Do Hydrogen-Powered Cars Work?

 ​​How Do Hydrogen-Powered Cars Work?

Hydrogen is considered a fuel of the future. So how do hydrogen-powered cars work? Molecular hydrogen is a gas. As a chemical element, hydrogen is the most common element on Earth. And it contains a lot of chemical energy.

The fuel cell is a device that takes chemical energy, in the form of hydrogen, and turns it into electricity that can power an electric motor, just like a battery. So, a hydrogen-powered car is powered with an electric motor.

First, hydrogen stored in a tank (that is thick-walled and crash-tested, and usually under the rear seat) is mixed with air and pumped into the fuel cell. Inside the cell, a chemical reaction extracts electrons from the hydrogen.

The leftover hydrogen protons move across the cell and combine with oxygen from the air to produce water. Meanwhile the electrons create electricity, which charges a small storage battery used to power an electric drivetrain (just like in an electric vehicle). 

This is why the vehicles are called Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV), as compared to the battery electric vehicles (BEV) which are seen increasingly on our roads already.