00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.600 This episode of DNews is brought to you by Toyota’s Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Leave 00:00:04.600 --> 00:00:05.600 your mark. 00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:07.180 Toyota, let’s go places. 00:00:07.180 --> 00:00:12.080 It's 2015, Hollywood prophecy says we should have flying cars, and though we don't have 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:22.220 those… how about hydrogen cars? 00:00:22.220 --> 00:00:24.530 Fueling your car with hydrogen is weird. 00:00:24.530 --> 00:00:26.490 Hydrogen, number 1 on the periodic table. 00:00:26.490 --> 00:00:29.759 It's a powerful combustible element, it blew up the Hindenburg after all! 00:00:29.759 --> 00:00:33.610 But it's also part of water, and carbohydrates, and so many other things in nature. 00:00:33.610 --> 00:00:38.430 The thing is… hydrogen is a lot of things, and IN a lot of things, because it's a super 00:00:38.430 --> 00:00:44.620 simple element; one proton, one electron and it makes up SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT of the universe. 00:00:44.620 --> 00:00:48.390 Yeah, three quarters of everything is hydrogen. 00:00:48.390 --> 00:00:52.730 Hydrogen is used for food processing, petroleum refining and in a variety of industrial applications. 00:00:52.730 --> 00:00:56.820 The U.S. already creates more than 9 million metric tons of hydrogen annually! 00:00:56.820 --> 00:01:02.470 So I say again, fueling your car with hydrogen is weird, but not THAT weird. 00:01:02.470 --> 00:01:05.970 You've probably heard of hydrogen fuel cells, they've been around for a while. 00:01:05.970 --> 00:01:07.540 They were first invented in 1839. 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:12.800 They use oxygen and hydrogen to power a car with no moving parts, and only emit clean 00:01:12.800 --> 00:01:14.510 water vapor when burned. 00:01:14.510 --> 00:01:19.330 And according to many car companies, 2015 might be the year the rubber meets the road 00:01:19.330 --> 00:01:21.110 for hydrogen as a fuel. 00:01:21.110 --> 00:01:25.530 When you think of creating hydrogen, you probably think of this[a] but 95 percent of America's 00:01:25.530 --> 00:01:29.420 hydrogen is produced using natural gas steam reformation. 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:34.770 Factories use high temperatures and pressures to break the natural gas into hydrogen (YAY!) 00:01:34.770 --> 00:01:36.480 and carbon oxides (BOO!). 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:41.300 You can also make it using electrolysis -- essentially running electricity through water to split 00:01:41.300 --> 00:01:42.790 the hydrogen from the oxygen! 00:01:42.790 --> 00:01:44.220 Two great things! 00:01:44.220 --> 00:01:50.570 But something has to GENERATE that electricity, and in the U.S., that's usually coal power. 00:01:50.570 --> 00:01:53.770 But if we used wind, or solar -- then we'd be onto something. 00:01:53.770 --> 00:01:59.110 Once it's made, it has to be cooled and stored, which uses MORE fossil fuel energy; and then 00:01:59.110 --> 00:02:02.720 you have to ship it to pumping stations using trucks and trains… you get it. 00:02:02.720 --> 00:02:06.910 The HYDROGEN is great, but we suck at making it and moving it around. 00:02:06.910 --> 00:02:11.470 For now we're stuck making hydrogen using fossil fuels, which might not be ideal, but 00:02:11.470 --> 00:02:15.560 that could all change once hydrogen vehicles get on the roads! 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:18.040 Why buy a hydrogen car if there's nowhere to fill it up! 00:02:18.040 --> 00:02:23.569 The government and private companies are partnering to get fuel stations out there… 00:02:23.569 --> 00:02:27.970 California has a goal in place to have more than 15 percent of all cars in the state be 00:02:27.970 --> 00:02:32.460 zero-emissions vehicles by 2025 -- and to hit that goal they've pledged 200 million 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:36.310 dollars to build 100 more fueling stations before then. 00:02:36.310 --> 00:02:41.840 There are already 10, though I don't imagine they're very busy since there aren't too many 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.820 cars on the road yet, but that'll change soon too. 00:02:44.820 --> 00:02:48.640 In tandem with this momentum, a bunch of auto companies have pledged to release hydrogen 00:02:48.640 --> 00:02:54.500 fuel cell cars this year, and with 100 more stations coming too, filling them up should 00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:55.670 be a cinch! 00:02:55.670 --> 00:02:59.290 According to research from the University of California Davis, those 100 stations should 00:02:59.290 --> 00:03:04.240 be able to make fuel cell vehicles cost-competitive with gasoline! 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:08.670 We'd like to take a second and give a shout out to Toyota for supporting DNews. 00:03:08.670 --> 00:03:14.000 They were at CES this week and released their patents for new fuel-cell technology, and 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:17.320 revealed THEIR fuel cell car to the world, the Mirai. 00:03:17.320 --> 00:03:21.870 They’re hoping these royalty-free patents will spurn a hydrogen-fuel-based future and 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:25.910 spent the last decade reducing the cost of fuel cell production 95 percent. 00:03:25.910 --> 00:03:28.730 Have you ever seen a hydrogen fuel station? 00:03:28.730 --> 00:03:41.129 Would you want a 00:03:41.129 --> 00:03:44.910 hydrogen car?
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