2. Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cell and Hybrid Automobiles of the Near Future

Currently, providers of energy utilities are presented with the challenges of increased energy demand and the need to immediately address environmental concerns such as climate change and decreasing the pollution produced by transportation vehicles burning gasoline, for example. Due to population and economic growth, the global demand for energy is expected to increase by 50% over the next 25 years. This significant demand increase along with the dwindling supply of fossil fuels has raised concerns over the security of the energy supply. In view of the increased energy demand and environmental pollution, different approaches such as distributed generation and demand-side management have been proposed and are widely being put into practice. However, optimal utilization of the existing energy infrastructure is an issue that also needs to be addressed properly to deal with the major challenges that energy utilities are facing. A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen-fueled space rockets as well as automobiles and other transportation vehicles. The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy either by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine or by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to run electric motors. Widespread use of hydrogen to fuel transportation is a key element of a proposed hydrogen economy.