Critical problems with Hydrogen as a consumer fuel
Hydrogen as a fuel has an excellent energy density per mass, roughly 33.3kWH/kg. But hydrogen at standard temperature and pressure is a gas. As a result, it has an energy density of 0.53kWH/L
In comparison, diesel fuel has an energy density of 11.6kWH/kg and 9.7kWH/L. Gasoline is a little lower on both accounts.
So in order to get enough hydrogen at standard temperature and pressure to do what we're doing with diesel or gasoline, we would be driving dirigibles instead of cars.
The solution to this is to, of course, compress the hydrogen for storage, with optimum results being the production of liquid hydrogen. Even pressurised hydrogen gas is too dangerous a commodity for the average car owner. Liquid hydrogen would be even worse!
Also, I think it was Stanford Univeristy that found that hydrogen caused its containment systems to become brittle.
This is not to say that H2 doesn't have any uses, but those uses will need to be industrial, not consumer. So for everyone else, you might as well forget the hydrogen economy dream. H2 just isn't practical for the average Joe and never will be.
