Austin (KXAN) – A cars from the University of Texas in Austin made a trip from the state capital to Houston in June. The journey is the journey that many people take every year, but this trip was a little difficult.
The three cars are working on hydrogen fuel. Also, there is only one commercial hydrogen fuel pump in the state, located on the JJ Pickle Research campus in North Austin.
“We only knew that we have one shot,” said Grace Cells, a chemical engineering student at the UT Austin. Chelrers led one of the three cars to Houston.
Students at the Electromechanical Center attended the hydrogen technology exhibition as part of the trip.
“I think this was a trip and forth 365 miles, so we had to reach Houston and return to one filling with all three cars,” said Chelrers. She said that there were only two scary parts of the trip: Houston Traffic and when one student pulled to save a stray curator.
The electromechanical center opened the hydrogen technology facility, hydrogen protohop, in April 2024. As well as the hydrogen fuel pump, the facility also contains hydrogen fuel generation machines and a generator that provides energy for a nearby building.
Hydrogen -running cars are zero emissions. The convoy was made up of Toyota Mirai research vehicles, each of which was designed to use hydrogen fuel.
Traveling on the air
“A similar convoy was implemented 20 years ago in California,” said Mike Lewis, director of the Electricity Center. That trip was very enormous, and the convoy was accompanying the police. Since then, technology has proven itself and is considered safe.
Now, California has many hydrogen fuel pumps throughout the state. Texas still has the platform, but Lewis said that a modern grant from the Council of Governments in the Capital Region and the Texas Committee of the Environment aims to build more.
“I believe in the coming years, these stations will start spreading them, and we will start seeing fuel cell trucks on the road here in Texas.”
Hydrogen against gas against electricity
Cars fed by hydrogen are somewhere between gas and electric cars. Like the gas compounds, they need fuel. In this case, hydrogen gas. Like electricity, it produces zero emissions, only water, and very calm.
“We will need fuel stations spread throughout the country, right? Just as we have gasoline stations today,” Louis said.
There are currently three hydrogen -powered cars on the market, but Honda has completed the production of their models. This leaves cars from Toyota and Hyundai. About 14,000 Mirai sedans have been sold since 2015According to the car and the driver.
These cars use the same engine as the electric car does, but fuel cells instead of the battery. Hydrogen combines oxygen, electricity production and motor conversion. Since the hydrogen combines other elements, it is a good energy holder.
High pressure fuel cells are designed to survive almost alive, making them exceptionally safe.
However, fuel stations are rare, it is difficult to capture hydrogen in a pure air condition, and fuel is more expensive than gas.
The three cars that traveled across Texas from Austin to Houston and the back the full journey with a quarter of a fuel tank.
“We had a number of students who interfered with us this summer. We wanted to be part of it. We wanted to be exposed to the exhibition, companies and industries that work in hydrogen. So we decided to stop talking about it for once and achieve this,” Louis said.