What would a hydrogen economy look like? Automobiles and other vehicles would be powered by fuel cells, rather than internal combustion engines, resulting in a drastic reduction of pollution and a massive decrease in dependence on foreign sources of fuel. The first fuel cells that would power vehicles would probably, because of their large size and expense, be used to power buses, large trucks, and similar vehicles.
Larger fuel cells could help power homes, office buildings and shopping malls, supplementing larger, more centralized sources of electricity. This combination would tend to alleviate the prospect of black outs, brown outs, and other power fluctuations. This in turn decreases the incidents of data losses on computers and the shut down of industrial assembly lines.
There are even tinier fuel cells that could, one day, replace the dry cell battery. They can run lap top computers, cell phones, or even CD players.
Hydrogen would be extracted by power plants, running on a number of technologies such as solar, space based solar, nuclear, or even fusion when that technology is developed.
When will fuel cells take their rightful place among other energy sources in the 21st century? While the benefits of fuel cells are undeniable, many hurdles stand in the way of their ascendance however. The high expense when compared to other energy sources, the need for time to warm-up and pressure for efficient operation, the lifetime of the cell as a whole, and the potential for the poisoning of the sensitive catalysts are all issues standing in the way of integration of fuel cell technology into the energy systems of the nation. Technological advances are addressing these problems across the board. It could be that by the second decade of this century, according to some experts, energy derived from the burning of coal or oil will start to become obsolete, revolutionizing the world’s energy infrastructure.