Just the information that I need. I am so glad I found this post. Thanks :)…

Finally, a criticism. And now, a response. Peer review says you’ve got it backwards:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V2S-4M04DW9-1&_user=440026&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000020939&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=440026&md5=e7b3b8bfb288aaed28ee38d247e49a24

Your typical “green” electricity from a thermal source will be less efficient than natural gas, but let’s use natural gas-fired electricity as our example. This would be case P9 - PEMFC with natural gas power plant and CO2 capture: 13% well-to-wheels efficiency. This is the analog of P10 — wlectric car with natural gas power plant and CO2 capture: 35% well-to-wheels efficiency. This even beats case P5 — PEMFC with natural gas reformation, at 25% (which obviously doesn’t map to non-natural gas thermal sources).

Don’t want to use a thermal power source for your green electricity? Then let’s compare hydropower. The comparison is P12 (PEMFC) to P14 (Electric Car). P12 gets 26%; P14 gets 74%. In each case, so long as electricity is your initial input, EVs get three times what the fuel cell vehicles get. Meanwhile, the fuel cell vehicles are getting numbers only similar to conventional cars — 14% gasoline ICE, 27% gasoline ICE hybrid, 17% diesel ICE, 16% CNG ICE, etc.

The fact that you’re getting your stats backwards is, once again, not a good start to this blog.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I have something against fuel cells. I have something against them being used for *this application* due to their inefficiency in this application. I’m all for fuel cells in stationary power generation, where cogen makes them more efficient than conventional power plants. I’m all for fuel cells providing auxiliary power for aircraft, and for hydrogen as a next-generation “green” jet fuel. But for automotive applications, it’s trying to wedge a square peg in a round hole.

The misconceptions and misinformation about fuel cells is probably too general because I was also including hydrogen in that thought. Most people read articles saying that hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars will never happen, so they don’t learn about the thousands of fuel cells already installed around the world in stationary applications or the numerous fuel cell forklifts already in deployment in the warehouses of Wal-Mart, GM, Ace Hardware, Michelin and the DoD Defense Logistics Agency.

When a proponent of biofuel or plug-in electric vehicles bash hydrogen fuel cells, they usually only present half an argument like ‘it takes too much energy to create hydrogen’, leaving out that a fuel cell is 2-3 times more efficient so the well-to-wheels overall is better than comparative technologies and fuel sources. When they say creating hydrogen makes emissions, they leave out that our electric grid is powered by dirty coal, things like that.

Still waiting for examples of “misconceptions and misinformation about fuel cells being perpetuated by critics”.

For example, REI’s statement is quite passionate about pollution. Fuel cells will be used in multiple applications, including both power generation and transportation. In transportation, hydrogen fuel cells, like batteries, generate zero emissions. This is as significant as it is technically true.

I will agree that under today’s electricity and H2 generation schemes, the amount of pollution reduction is not as great as it will be at such a time that we significantly reduce use of fossil fuels. However, we are seeing great strides in zero pollution generation - solar, wind, hydro, etc. These techniques cannot be used in transportation, unfortunately. Further, due to the intermittent nature of solar and wind, fuel cells which are high efficiency power generation techniques will be used in concert for load leveling, local generation and more. Their high efficiency means significantly less pollutants in the generation stage - certainly better than the relatively low efficiency of internal combustion engines (15-25%) or even coal power plants (<40%). Finally, any pollution during the product creation stage must be weighed against similar measures for more highly polluting technologies. I am certain you’ll find this difference to be minimal.

Thus, having a transportation power technology that is zero polluting during operation is a significant benefit to society.