Laying aside the age-old debate of Wars versus Trek, the replicator is one of the most fascinating pieces of could-be technology that the Star Trek franchise introduces. It’s a futuristic device that’s able to pull foodstuff and objects out of thin air through converting energy into matter and vice versa. Surreal, right?

Well, at first glance, the concept of hydrogen engines seems almost as absurd as the replicators of Star Trek. Hydrogen - that hydrogen, first element of the periodic table, most basic diatomic molecule, lighter than oxygen, that hydrogen - powering a car? It seems little more plausible than turning energy into food, which at least aims for the viable goal of ending up with a loaf of bread as opposed to sending 1000 kilograms of steel hulk and chassis hurtling down an autobahn at 143 mph, the maximum speed of the average hydrogen car. 

Electric cars trigger a panorama of images like enormous claps of lightning, aerodynamically perfect bullet-shaped locomotives, and crackling danger. Hydrogen cars remind us of water vapor. Just how do hydrogen fuel cells function? Are they as volatile and unreliable as the watered-down (pun intended) stigma suggests?

Think of vehicle powering in terms of modern-day democratic governments. There are really just two main systems - having a president and having a prime minister - but most countries don’t adhere strictly to one kind of system, but pick and choose what they want from each and create their own. For example, the UK subscribes to the parliamentary system and has a PM, but also appoints a constitutional monarch. Car engines are like that. Most cars on the road today use an internal-combustion engine to burn petroleum-based fuel, generate heat, and use the heat energy to push pistons up and down to drive the transmission and the wheels. Electric cars work in an entirely different way. Instead of an engine, they rely on batteries that feed electric power to electric motors that drive the wheels directly. Hybrid cars have both internal-combustion engines and electric motors and switch between the two depending on driving conditions.

Fuel cells are a bit like a cross between an internal-combustion engine and battery power. Like an internal-combustion engine, they generate power by using fuel from a tank (though the fuel is pressurized hydrogen gas rather than gasoline or diesel). But, unlike an engine, a fuel cell doesn't burn the hydrogen. Instead, it's fused chemically with oxygen from the air to make water. In the process, which resembles what happens in a battery, electricity is released and this is used to power an electric motor (or motors) that can drive a vehicle. The only waste product is the water—and that's so pure you can drink it!

Think of fuel cells as batteries that never run dry. Instead of slowly depleting the chemicals inside them (as normal batteries do), fuel cells run on a steady supply of hydrogen and keep making electricity for as long as they have fuel in the tank.

Because of this special property, hydrogen-powered vehicles don’t need charging like a battery-electric car. Instead, they are refueled with hydrogen gas, pumped in the same way you would a conventional petrol or diesel car. Filling up takes the same amount of time, between 3-5 minutes for a full tank. The only downside to hydrogen vehicles is the lack of compatible stations that make them less accessible than petrol or electric cars, but as hydrogen technology is refined and more and more people start buying fuel cell-powered vehicles, that problem is expected to rectify itself.

If 2020 was good for anything, it taught us all that the world changes a lot in comically short amounts of time - just look at the escalation of COVID for evidence - but still, it seems almost as unlikely as Spock’s hairstyle making a comeback that scientists will be able to mock up a replicator and then make it commercially available anytime soon (they’re all very busy inventing vaccines, or so I’ve heard). So, in the meantime, why not - those of you eligible to buy a vehicle and drive it - throw around the idea of purchasing a hydrogen-powered vehicle? Consider: slapping the roof of your baby white Hyundai Nexo and casually announcing to your companion, “this baby is powered by hydrogen,” and then watching their eyes grow enormous. And then you can buy Samsung’s newest replicator and cement your reputation amongst acquaintances as that guy who has all the newest gizmos.

Spock approves that idea.

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Works Referenced

1. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-do-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicles-work

2. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Matter-energy_conversion

3. https://www.toyota-europe.com/world-of-toyota/electrified/fuel-cell/how-do-i-charge-a-hydrogen-car