Summary
The fuel cell in the Honda Clarity is the source of electricity for the electric motors that drive the car. The fuel for the fuel cell is hydrogen gas, which can be plentifully produced either by the simple electrolysis of water or by chemical processing of natural gas or ammonia both of which chemicals are widely distributed throughout our society. Why then is no one moving to create a hydrogen production and distribution system so that fuel cells of the type used by the Honda Clarity can be mass produced? It's simple; there isn't enough platinum to make such a move practical now or ever.
Analysis
The global production of platinum group metals reached an annualized all time high in early 2008; it was running at a total of nearly 474 tons for all of them added together; individually we had platinum (220 tons), palladium (220 tons), rhodium (27 tons), and ruthenium (27 tons) being produced in Southern Africa, Russia, Canada, and the USA in descending order of percentage of the total.
In ounces, the unit in which platinum group metals are usually counted, this was around 16,000,000 troy (3.1grams each( ounces, the traditional measure for 'precious' metals.
There is no way to substantially increase the production of platinum group metals to any higher level; their ores are too rare, the levels in the best of those ores are tiny, and the cost of energy, the largest expense in platinum group metals mining and refining is going up and there is no end in sight to a growing global energy shortage to ameliorate the ever increasing cost of energy.
A fuel cell with the capacity of the one in the Honda Clarity uses a platinum membrane catalyst upon which at a range of temperatures that includes those typically found in most of world hydrogen will combine with the oxygen in the air to produce free electrons and water. The electrons can be made to flow through a wire and the result is an electric current that can be converted to mechanical motion by an electric motor.
So far, so good. We have an electric motor propelled car that 'burns' hydrogen, so that the only exhaust emission is steam, i.e., water.
Now comes the problem. It is with the limited maximum production of platinum.
A current fuel cell of the type on the Honda Clarity uses between 1 and 3 ounces of platinum.
The global OEM automotive industry today consumes about 1/2 of the newly mined platinum each year for exhaust emission control by catalytic converter.
There are 750 million motor vehicles on the road in 2009 and between 50 and 75 million are manufactured new each year while less than that are scrapped so that the total is creeping up; it is expected to reach the level of 1 billion units on the road by 2015.
If in the extreme no catalytic converters were produced next year and there were no other use for platinum other than for fuel cell catalyst it would be possible to build at most between 2 and 6 million fuel cells for motor vehicle power trains. This would be at most 10% of the new production.
Of course we cannot stop using platinum group metals in catalytic converters and diesel particulate filters or we would immediately raise the carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, diesel particulate, and nitrogen oxides (acid rain forming gas) to levels that would swamp the tradeoff from just a few million fuel cell powered cars.
No matter how you do the calculations fuel cells using platinum will always just be a niche technology.
This is the main reason that no one is investing in hydrogen production and distribution for use as a motor fuel.
If and only If a practical and economical fuel cell that does not use platinum group metals is developed will there be a path to a fuel cell powered motor vehicle future.
Until then it is just a Hollywood production done with no smoke but plenty of mirrors.
