Originally published July 3 2005
Study finds many benefits to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study conducted by Stanford University researchers found that if the all on-road vehicles in the United States were hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (HFCVs), air quality, health and climate may be improved dramatically, reports the People's Daily Online.
Switching to vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells instead of fossil fuels will provide significant health and environment benefits, save life and money, according to a new study released on Thursday.
Mark Jacobson, an associate professor at Stanford University, said that converting all onroad vehicles in the United States to hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (HFCVs) may improve air quality, health and climate significantly.
Wind and natural gas HFCVs offer the greatest potential health benefits and could save 3,700 to 6,400 lives in the United States annually.
And among all HFCV types, the wind HFCVs, which means the hydrogen is produced through wind electrolysis, should benefit climate most, the researchers found.
Earlier studies have modeled the effects of hydrogen leakage or reduced emission on global tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry, but no research has examined the effect on urban pollution or health of establishing a hydrogen economy.
Furthermore, no study has examined the likely effects of this switch on aerosol particles, which have a large impact on climate and are the deadliest components of air pollution.
But in this new research, the Stanford group used a computing model to examine the possible effects on ambient gas, particle concentrations, and estimated health and climate costs if replacing all US fossil-fuel onroad vehicles with HFCVs.
They compared the benefits of producing hydrogen by steam reforming of natural gas, wind-electrolysis and coal gasification, and found most of HFCVs' benefits arose from eliminating current vehicle exhaust.
Fuel cell vehicles using hydrogen produced by wind and natural gas offer the greatest potential health benefits, and could save 3, 700 to 6,400 lives annually in the United States by reducing air pollution.
This sum is lower than gasoline price, although the estimates do not include the infrastructure costs of converting to hydrogen, according to the study.
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