Hydrogen-powered road vehicles - The health benefits and drawbacks of a new fuel

Because of the political, social and environmental problems associated with dependency on fossil fuels, there is considerable interest in alternative energy sources. Hydrogen is regarded as a promising option, particularly as a fuel for road vehicles. The Dutch Energy Research Centre (ECN) recently published a vision of the future, in which it suggested that by 2050 more than half of all cars, in the Netherlands could be running on hydrogen.

Assuming that the hydrogen is produced from renewable energy sources, migration to hydrogen-powered vehicles would also curb carbon dioxide emissions. In the United States, Japan and Europe, considerable public and private investment is therefore being made with a view to developing the technologies needed to make the creation of a hydrogen-based economy possible within a few decades.