Hydrogen Fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles are both vehicle technologies that have their advantages and disadvantages. Some people think electric vehicles are better than fuel-cell vehicles while some people believe fuel-cell vehicles are far better than electric vehicles.

It is no secret that electric vehicles are still a more expensive option than regular cars but if money was not a problem would you buy yourself an electric car? Is a hydrogen-powered car an even better option than the electric one that is what we are going to see further in this article? Although both these options seem to be environmentally friendly there are so many hidden factors involving that change in the whole tide of the situation except for the environment. There are a lot of key differences in how the two types of cars function and this definitely affects the usability of the car giving one a clear edge over the other. 

To find out which vehicle technology has more advantages and benefits for our mother Earth, let's start a detailed analysis and comparison between these two vehicle technologies.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car How does it work?

A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has a hydrogen tank that feeds a fuel cell with high-pressured hydrogen gas that will mix with oxygen, this mix starts an electrochemical reaction that produces electricity to power the electric motor. Here the stored hydrogen gas mixing with oxygen produces electricity, this electricity is then used to power an electric motor to run a fuel cell vehicle.

Battery Electric Car How does it work?

While in an electric vehicle, there is no such thing as a Fuel Cell it essentially relies on a battery that is charged up just like we charge our laptops and phones. Electric motors pull current from a rechargeable battery or any other source of electricity and once it is moving there is no chemical reaction happening either there is only an electric reaction. Electric vehicles are powered by electric motors that get current from a rechargeable battery allowing the vehicle to run.

How many Hydrogen Refueling stations are present around the world?

Till the end of 2021, there were 432 hydrogen refueling stations in the world. Europe has 177 hydrogen stations and 87 of them are in Germany, and France has 26. There are 178 hydrogen stations in Asia. 114 of them in Japan and 33 in Korea, North America has 74 hydrogen stations, and most operating stations are located in California. 

What about India India’s first hydrogen fuelling station?

India India’s first hydrogen fuelling station was opened on Sunday 9 October 2005 by the former minister of petroleum and natural gas Mr. Manishankarayer. In 2015 India inaugurated its first solar-powered hydrogen fueling station located at the solar energy center near Delhi. It generates 100% green hydrogen from solar energy through an electrolyzer. Later in 2018 Indian oil corporation, IOC demonstrated the successful trials of India's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered bus in collaboration with Tata Motors.

How many Charging stations are available worldwide?

With more than 5 lakh public chargers China has the most charging stations available in the world, the United States has around 78,000 charging stations, and the Netherlands has 50,000 charging stations. Whereas in India currently there are 250 charging stations operational. In 2020 central government sanctioned 2636 charging stations.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Efficiency

If we talk about Hydrogen Fuel cell vehicle efficiency, take an example 100 watts of electricity produced by a renewable source such as a wind turbine. To power, a fuel-cell electric vehicle this energy has to be converted into hydrogen by an electrolysis process. Around 25 % of the electricity is automatically lost after the electrolysis process. 

So energy efficiency is reduced to 75 %. The hydrogen produced has to be compressed chilled and transported to the hydrogen station and this process is around 90 % efficient. Inside the vehicle, the hydrogen needs to be converted into electricity which is 60 % efficient. Finally, the electricity used in the motor to move the vehicle is around 95 % efficient so it's only 38 % of the original electricity which is 38 watts out of 100 watts used.

Battery Electric car Efficiency

On the other hand, in electric vehicle battery efficiency with electric vehicles, the energy runs on wires from the source to the car, the same 100 W of power from an electric grid lost about 5 % of efficiency and another 10 % of energy loss from charging and discharging the lithium-ion battery plus another 5 % from using the electricity to make the vehicle move. So electric vehicle batteries use 80 watts out of 100 watts. This means hydrogen fuel cell requires double the amount of energy compared to an electric vehicle.

The range covered by Hydrogen and Electric car

A Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with a full tank can travel up to 500 km

Electric vehicles on a full charge can travel between 160 to 320 km 

Refueling Time of hydrogen vs. electric car

Hydrogen vehicles have a huge advantage when compared to electric vehicles because a fuel cell car can be refueled in 5 to 10 minutes (presently Toyota Mirai), on the other hand, an electric car takes hours for a full charge. Even the Tesla Model S can take 1 hour for a full charge with a supercharger.

Comparing these two technologies in terms of refueling comfort, in the case of electric vehicles most EV owners prefer to charge at home. rather than visiting a charging station, EV users feel comfortable charging their vehicles at home rather than at a charging station. But in the case of hydrogen vehicles, the owners should visit a hydrogen refueling station.

Fuel cost of Hydrogen and Electric car

An FCEV uses $8 (Rs. 600) per kilogram of hydrogen fuel and the running cost of a hydrogen vehicle is about $0.08 (Rs. 6) per kilometer. So the Fuel Economy is 6 Rs/km

On the other hand, electricity tariff prices range from 0.15 per kW/hr in the world it is Rs. 11 according to Indian rupees. In India, the electricity tariff starts from Rs. 7 so the running cost of an electric vehicle is Rs. 1.6 per kilometer. So the Fuel Economy is 1.6 Rs/Km.

Specific Energy of Hydrogen vs. Gasoline vs. Lithium ion

We also must not ignore the fact that the specific energy of Hydrogen is 142 MJ/kg (compared to gasoline: 46.4 MJ/kg, Lithium-ion batteries: .6 MJ/kg) which is 3x that of gasoline and 200x as compared that of lithium-ion. Thus less fuel is required to produce the same energy as lithium.

Do FCEVs or EVs create pollution? 

Both these vehicles don't produce pollution at the tailpipe but they both have the potential to cause pollution when their fuel is created the electricity will mostly come from power plants. That is the majority of cases are burning fossil fuels to produce that electricity and those fossil fuels. The hydrogen for the fuel cell vehicle will be produced by electrolysis which involves passing electricity through water.

Green Hydrogen Concept

But both these vehicles have the wonderful potential to produce electricity and hydrogen from non-polluting forms the best examples are hydropower, solar power wind power, and nuclear power only then a hydrogen vehicle or an electric vehicle can be completely accepted as green.

The Reality of Hydrogen vs. Battery

And also statistics related to cost, as the production of hydrogen will increase, it will gradually decrease the cost. Whereas as lithium reserves are reduced, it will raise its cost, and exploitation of lithium from the surface of the earth will result in environmental problems. Thus we should focus more on production and hydrogen storage technology than on lithium. 

Fuel Cells vs Batteries: Which One is the Better Energy Storage Solution?

Electric vehicles are currently the widely accepted technology in most countries The world's electric vehicle sales are nearly 2 million in 2021 basic charging infrastructure is a widely available wide choice of Sedan'sand SUVs are some of its advantages. Range constraints, slow charging batteries, and recycling difficulties are some of its disadvantages.

On the other hand, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric vehicles are at the early stages of adoption with lower environmental impact and 95 % recyclability are the advantages of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Very few vehicles are available expensive refueling networks are some of its disadvantages.

According to IHS Marque reports Fuel Cell vehicle sales will reach half a million vehicles per year by 2032 and as per the International Energy Agency, electric vehicle sales will reach 44 million vehicles per year by 2030. These vehicles will be keeping the earth a safer place to live for the next generations.

That's all the complete analysis between fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles comment on your favorite vehicle category in the comment section below. Is it a fuel cell vehicle or an electric vehicle? 

Go green Go electric!

 Most of the mishaps with vehicles take place because the driver is unable to see objects around a vehicle in the blind spot zone. Any vehicle traveling in the blind spot is under serious threat as its presence is entirely unknown to the driver. Road collision deaths of pedestrians, cyclists, and bikers are intolerably high and amount to most deaths globally.

Introduction

With the rapid development of vehicle technology and more attention to driving safety, driver assistance systems are making driving easy and safe. With traffic accidents occurring frequently in recent years, safe driving assistance systems have become one of the hottest and most critical technologies. It can improve road transportation efficiency and decrease accidents. Blind Spot Detection Warning (BSDW) is one of the methods through which we can solve the issue.

Recently, car manufacturers have started designing blind-spot monitoring systems to avoid collisions due to blind spots. There are many blind spot systems, like radar-based, ultrasonic-based, and camera-based detection systems.

Presently in the Indian auto market, blind spot detection technology is only present in extravagance automobiles with narrow features. Yet, the majority of Indian roads consist of mid-range cars which do not have this technology. As 10-20% of the total road accidents happen due to blind spot crashes, devising a reliable system that prevents collisions and warns the driver is a necessity of time. Here's where the proposed model solves this problem.

What is a Blind Spot in a vehicle?

A blind spot in a vehicle is an area around the vehicle that cannot be directly observed by the driver while at the controls, under existing circumstances.

Because of the vehicle's blind spot area, especially the rear spot area, and the driver's weak vision, traffic collision accidents easily occur when the driver changes lanes.

What is Blind Spot Lidar Monitoring(BLiM)?

The Blind Spot Monitor using Lidar alerts drivers of vehicles in their blind spot and the rear cross-traffic alert warns drivers of approaching vehicles when backing up. The Blind Spot Monitor enables alerting the driver to the presence of a car that might evade detection in side-view mirrors, improving conviction and helping to optimize safe operation.

Blind-Spot Lidar Monitoring and alert system that is devised to provide an early warning about the proximity of surrounding vehicles to the driver using the Lidar technology.

The presented system is highly accurate and most importantly cost-effective. Such systems are only available in the higher segment vehicles. Most mid-range cars that comprise a central component of vehicular traffic ignore these systems. Thus the system is a solution for the mid-range segment.

The objective of the project

The focus of this project is to identify the causes of automobile collisions, notably the side collision impact caused by the blind spot.

To develop a system that can accurately monitor the rear blind-spot area of the vehicle which is also affordable for normal car users.

So with this system, accidents can be avoided.

System Components

The system mainly consists of 2 parts 

1. Hardware 2. Software,

The hardware component consists of the Lidar sensor, the microcontroller & the Bluetooth module.

A lidar sensor is a light-emitting sensor. That calculates distance using Time of Flight(ToF). So here in this project, the TF Luna Lidar sensor is used which can travel distances up to 8m. It can perform steady, accurate, sensitive, and high-frequency range detection.

The second component is Arduino Uno is a microcontroller Other variants of microcontroller Arduino Uno, Arduino Mega, and Arduino Nano can be used and can work perfectly having no issue with latency. But used for single-operator use.

HC-05 Bluetooth Module is an easy-to-use Bluetooth. Enabling the Arduino to exchange data with other Bluetooth devices. It works between the baud rate of 9600-115000.

The software component consists of an application (BLiM) on which the data collected from the Lidar sensor (Distance) will be displayed and seen by the driver.

What is Lidar? How does Lidar work?

Lidar Sensor (Light + Radar) stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It means a sensor that works on the principle of light. Here we have used the TF Luna Lidar sensor which is a single-point ranging sensor that has having FOV of 3 degrees. TF Luna Sensor emits infrared waves for detecting objects. It uses the Time of Flight Principle. It calculates time by measuring the phase difference between the original and reflected pulse and using that time to get the relative distance.

𝑫 = 𝒄/𝟐  ∗  𝜟𝝋/𝟐𝝅𝒇 

where,

c = Speed of Light

f = Signal Frequency

Δφ = Phase Difference.

The detection range of TF Luna is up to 8m.

Now, why didn't we use an ultrasonic sensor over lidar in this project because,

Ultrasonic-based systems are relatively inexpensive, while their detection range tends to be fairly short, and they take more time to detect cars when in use, their resolution is also quite low.

Speed of Light = c = 3x108 m/s

Speed of Sound = 343.2 m/s

Disadvantages of Ultrasonic sensor:

• Air temperature has the greatest impact on the measuring accuracy of an ultrasonic sensor.
• Noise can also affect the performance
• Dust rain snow

Overall Look of the System:

The hardware devices are on the left with a wired connection and on the right is the software BLiM opened in Mobile which is connected wirelessly. 

On the left In the hardware section. There is a box containing Arduino and HC-05. Beside it is the Lidar(TF Luna) sensor and connecting to it there is a power source.

All this hardware has having wired connection. But the BliM app connects it wirelessly via Bluetooth and the output can be displayed.

Working on the system

If we go in-depth into the topic then thought must have appeared in the mind How will this system work?

The system starts when the car runs above 20 kph with the detection of the vehicle in the blind spot zone by a LIDAR sensor, detecting the car sends the signal to the microcontroller. Further, this data is sent from the Arduino microcontroller wirelessly to the application (BLiM) on which the alert is shown via the HC-05 Bluetooth module.

The data is then processed and displayed on the BLiM App and displayed in front of the driver. If the approaching is at a critical distance then the driver will get an alert sound will be activated and the distance will be shown in red on the distance dial.

Working on App BLiM

The App comes into the picture when data is received. The App is named BliM(Blindspot Lidar monitoring). Having a clean user interface. When we enter the Application We come across the Start interface where user can set their minimum, moderate, and maximum values as per their convenience. Where the minimum distance is critical and the rest is safe.

Then connection Bluetooth is done connecting with the hardware so that we can receive the data.  Then we land on the main interface. Here there are two main components the color dial which has red, green, and blue, and the other is the real-time distance.  The red color is for minimum distance blue is moderate and green is for maximum safety.

Now whenever the car is approaching our car the Lidar sensor will detect the range of the approaching car. And send it to the App. Then the App segregates whether the distance is in minimum moderate or maximum If it is minimum then it is considered as a critical range and in that case, the color dial will be red with the distance highlighted in red and a chime will sound (beeping) will be activated and as the projected car goes far away (outside the blindspot area) then the color on the dial will be green or blue and the buzzer will stop Beeping.

What if the car is in the critical range (Red) for a long time?

If the car is in the critical range (Red) for a long time then there is an off button on the header of the app. By pressing it in the Red area, the buzzer will stop for an instant and it will automatically turn ‘ON’ when the distance is i.e. when it reaches the green and blue areas. The buzzer sound stops and the driver will be less irritated.

The reason behind making the app was to show the output wirelessly to the driver. Instead of having the LED display with the tangled wire.

Advantages of the System

Of all the existing research covered, many systems using the Ultrasonic sensor were found to be less accurate during bad weather conditions. It also has a lower detection range (2-4m) & is not good at detecting fast-moving objects.

A lot of existing systems warned the driver through audio (buzzer) & a very basic visual aid (LED) which failed to provide the driver with sufficient information.

System installation on car

The sensor was placed above the fuel tank lid of the car (Wagon-R). The horizontal viewing angle of the sensor as noticed from the top was about 45°. The sensor’s detection zone is 8m to 9m. The flat distance from the bottom to the sensor was 104 cm. The absolute arrangement of the LIDAR sensor and the screen on which the warning would be displayed i.e., the BLiM Application in the mobile placed on the dashboard is pictured in the above image. 

Conclusion

The proposed system is highly accurate and most importantly cost-effective. Such systems are only available in the higher segment vehicles. However, most mid-range cars that form a major component of vehicular traffic skip these systems. Thus the system is a solution for this segment.

This project model is Patented under Indian Patent and has a Research Paper published in the Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Series C [Springer Journal] (Scopus Index) (UGC approved)

To read more details about this system the entire Research Paper is available on the Springer website [Click Here]

This was our Final year Project model of Engineering. Please let me know about it in the comments below.