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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 10/08/2002 6:37:56 AM PDT by hoosierskypilot
Edited on 04/13/2004 1:55:30 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The first retail zero-emissions car available in the United States will be delivered to the city by the end of the year by Honda, officials said Monday.
The hydrogen-powered Honda FCX prototype will be used by city employees in a program designed to give the car manufacturer feedback on the clean-air vehicle, said Art Garner, a spokesman for American Honda Motor Co. in Torrance.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
Still, this may be the wave of the future. If it will break our dependence upon Middle East oil, I'll buy.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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I want to see Barbra Streisand and all her leftist nutjob Hollywood friends selling their limos and showing up at the next Oscars in one of these things.
The Honda FCX will be renamed the Honda Hindenburg after the first crash.
Thursday, January 5, 2003 -- LOS ANGELES (AP) - "The first retail zero-emissions car available in the United States and delivered to the city two weeks ago by Honda exploded in a huge fireball this morning several blocks from city hall.
The hydrogen-powered Honda FCX prototype was being used by city employees in a program designed to give the car manufacturer feedback on the clean-air vehicle, said Art Garner, a spokesman for American Honda Motor Co. in Torrance.
After the first hydrogen Honda was delivered, four more were to be made available for leasing by the city by the end of 2003, Garner said.
The mishape occurred at 9:13 AM local time, as city employee Millicent Treehugger was driving the vehicle past a construction site. Apparently, sparks from a welder's torch ignited the vehicle as it was passing the site. The explosion was heard as far as 20 blocks away. The remains of the car were placed in a shoe box and are are being sent to the NTSB laboratory on Washington. A finernail and one badly scorched denture -- presumably those of Ms. Treehugger -- were placed in a standard interoffice mail envelope and sent to the city's medical examiner.
"She was so proud of that car," said a tearful Terry Owlkisser, Ms. Treehugger's nephew, who works for People for the Etical Treatment of Plants (PETP), a local non-profit organization, as he ate his lunch of sea weed and recycled cat litter. "I guess she died doing what she believed in."
An investigation is ongoing. Calls to American Honda went unanswered."
You know nothing about me and you make a statement like that. I grew up during the days of the Ford Pinto. I saw plenty of gasoline explosions in cars and what that does to the occupants.
We're talking double the fuel tank capacity of a volatile vapor in a vehicle capable of 96 mph on a crowded highway, not alone in the air or in outer space. The Honda engineers will be hard pressed to defend exploding cars as caused by the paint.
BTW, how many would have died if the Hindenburg used helium?
That's it?!? Sorry, won't be buying one
I guess the question comes down to: Do the environmental benefits of using Hydrogen in this way offset the obvious economic absurdity?
And where do you think we will get all the H2 from?
Based on the 5 mpg in the article I would not think that it is liquid H2.
They used KWh because KW is power, not energy. You are assuming the H2 is liquid in the tank. It may not be.
Along with that, what is the energy balance? That is, what was the cost in energy units to produce the hydrogen and transport it to its end use? Remember, most hydrogen-based technologies are basically energy transport systems. You make the material using another energy source and capture some of that energy in the form of hydrogen, for use in another application.
One exception is the methane or NG-based fuel cell. But, even with that, I wonder if you'd be better off, from an energy-balance viewpoint, to just burn the fuel in the vehicle's engine, rather than using it in the fuel cell. You going to have losses no matter what, but I guess using the fuel cell avoids the combustion process at high temperatures (greenhouse gases, NOx, and the like).
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