Category: Embedded systems

The following are the top 5 Advantages and disadvantages of HFCVs

Advantages:

• Zero emission: Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are zero-emission vehicles, so they are safe for the environment
• Energy efficiency: The fuel energy efficiency of HFCV (Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle) is 65% compared to that of conventional 35% internal combustion engine vehicles.
• Versatility: They can be used for public transport, personal vehicles, military, etc.
• Fast refueling: HFCVs are highly user-friendly as compared to BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) for their fast fuel tank charging. It takes only 5 minutes to fill the tank of an HFCV (Car).
• No mining is required for minerals as done in BEVs.

Disadvantages:

• Infrastructure challenges: Building infrastructure is very difficult for HFCV since the design complexity is high in storing and feeding fuel.
• Cost of fuel: Hydrogen is expensive because of the electrolysis process. $5 of hydrogen and $1.5 of gasoline give the same running distance.
• Limited availability: Hydrogen fuel is limited because of the production process cost. It is not directly available in nature. On top of this, storage and supply costs are also very high.
• Safety: Although it is very safe, hydrogen is extremely flammable. It can ignite in an atmosphere in the concentration range of 4-74%. On top of that, it is not visible, odorless and tasteless. So, detection by the human body is also not possible.
• Till now, no major accident or death has happened with the Toyota Mirai.

• Since electric vehicles have their advantages and disadvantages, there is an alternative to electric vehicles.
• These HFCVs (Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles) do not contain any batteries like electric vehicles.
• Hydrogen is the most fundamental and most abundant element in the universe.
• Hydrogen cells are a type of cell that can produce electricity by the conversion of air (oxygen) and hydrogen into water.

Working principle: A Hydrogen cell usually consists of the cathode (+ve charge), the Anode (-ve charge), and electrolyte in between them.

When a hydrogen molecule breaks down into a proton and an electron due to an electrochemical reaction, the proton travels to the cathode, and electrons travel in the circuit to provide electricity.

Protons, electrons, and oxygen combine at the cathode to make water.

The advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are covered in another link (post). But some of them are covered here.

Advantages:

• Clean energy like conventional battery EVs, but no longer is time required for charging
• No mining process is required, which destroys the natural habitat

Disadvantage:

• Complex design of a car

• Toyota is the most researched company in hydrogen cell EVs
• Toyota Mirai is the most successful hydrogen CEV of Toyota with a range of around 400 miles and costs 50000 dollars in the USA (starting price)
• India has two popular HFCVs: Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo.
• Leh and Delhi are the first places in Ladakh where HFCVs have been introduced in Ladakh for public transportation.
• The government is also interested in the R&D of this field since it covers the major disadvantages of BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles)
• In the future, we will see more and more hydrogen-based vehicles

The following are the advantages and disadvantages of EVs.

Advantages:

• Low running cost as compared to conventional fuel cars.
• Low maintenance cost due to lack of moving parts.
• No carbon dioxide emission, which would ultimately result in the degradation of the ozone layer and contribute to global warming.
• Silent performance and less vibration/ jerkless performance are a great advantage.
• Subsidy on purchases by the government and many rebates.

Disadvantages:

• Higher cost of purchase due to the cost of the battery and motor.
• Limited range of around 300-500 KM due to energy storage density limitation.
• Charging infrastructure is also good in poor and developing countries.
• Battery life is also not high at around 15-20 years or 100000 to 200000 miles, which is very less.
• Mining related to minerals used in EVs also causes bad environmental effects.

EEV has lots of advantages, but there are the top 5 disadvantages that hinder EV growth

• Higher cost

Since EVs are expensive, they are out of the buying capacity of many people in countries like India.

The main reason for being expensive is that battery and motor costs are very high in EVs. This problem would be solved with the advancement in battery manufacturing.

• Limited range

It is one of the main disadvantages of EVs. EVs generally come with a range of about 300-500 km per charge, which is intensified by the fact that it also takes hours to get fully charged again. It will also be solved in the future with more research and development.

• Charging infrastructure

Charging infrastructures are also not available in India, unlike in other developed countries. This thing requires a high investment, which needs to be solved.

• Battery life

Battery replacement is approximately 50% of the complete EV cost. So degradation in the reseller value at a very high rate is also a big problem.

• Bad impact on the environment

The mining of lithium, cobalt, nickel, etc., destroys the natural habitat of many wild species. This mining also affects small kids who are forced to work in these mines as child laborers.

MediaTek is a Taiwanese company and “Helio X30″ is the flagship SoC of MediaTek. This SoC is present in Vernee Apollo 2, Meizo Pro 7 etc. smartphones.

• Lithography– This SoC is based on 10nm FinFET process TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). Helio X30 is the only decacore (10 cores) SoC using 10 nm process. 10 nm process makes it 22% better in performance and saves 40% power over 16 nm process
• CPU – 2x Cortex A73 @ 2.8 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 @ 2.3 GHz, 4x Cortex A35 @ 2GHz
• MediaTek claims X30 has 53% improvement in power saving and 43% in performance than Helio X20
• Support 28MP dual ISP (Image Signal Processor)
• GPU – Quad core IMG 7XTP- Mt4 820 MHz which is 2.4 times better in performance that Helio X20
• LPDDR4 RAM support upto 8GB
• 4K x 2K 30fps H.265w/VP9

See other mobile processors in this series …………..

Thanks for reading. Like, share and comment on this post. Subscribe me to get notifications for new interesting tech posts.