Posted on 12/11/2013 3:27:33 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Twelve years ago, Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) began testing a unique — and outlandishly expensive — automobile in California: a car powered by hydrogen fuel cells. This so-called FCHV (fuel cell hybrid vehicle) was an electric car that didn’t need to be plugged in. Its electricity was generated by a stack of fuel cells that ran on compressed gaseous hydrogen, a relatively cheap fuel that gives off no harmful emissions; its only byproduct was water vapor. The FCHV never made it to dealer lots, however. Production of plug-in electric cars proved more viable, partially because the FCHV technology was prohibitively expensive.
Fast-forward a decade, and things have changed. In 2015 Toyota will begin selling a production version of its hydrogen fuel-cell (HFC) car that can refuel in three minutes with enough hydrogen to drive more than 300 miles, the company says. Toyota won’t be alone. Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) (in partnership with Renault), and Chevrolet at General Motors (NYSE: GM) are also all expected to begin producing HFC cars, beginning a new revolution in automobiles that, Toyota estimates, should result in “tens of thousands” of HFC cars on American roads by 2020.
“We think this is the only alternative-fuel technology right now that comes close to gasoline,” says Craig Scott, advanced technology manager for Toyota — and someone who’s been working on fuel-cell cars for the company since the program’s onset. “There are no compromises, unlike with other alternatives.” Scott also works on plug-in electric cars, and loves them, but notes that they are limited by current battery technology; batteries are heavy and expensive, and you just can’t drive very far using them as a power source. An HFC car, however, “looks and drives like a gasoline-powered car” with no range limitations. That is critical, Scott notes. Consumers want to be good environmental stewards — if they can do it without being inconvenienced. “You have to be able to let people drive it like a normal car,” Scott says.
Scott says that politics helped push EVs to the forefront, while relegating HFCs to the back burner, but he also admits that the cars weren’t ready, technologically, for the mass market. “We hadn’t solved durability, or cold weather. These were major engineering hurdles that we spent the past eight years cracking.”
Once Toyota cleared those hurdles, the next challenge arose: making the HFC car affordable for mass production. The original prototypes were valued at $1 million or more per car. “For the last four years or so we’ve been steadily working on how to get the cost out,” Scott says. “That’s what Toyota does best.”
Toyota welcomes competition, Scott says, because HFCs can only be viable if there’s an infrastructure to support them. And convincing the business world to invest in hydrogen filling stations will require volume — enough cars to make those stations profitable.
He understands that consumers are naturally hesitant to take a risk on anything new, but he’s confident that they’ll come around. After all, when Toyota introduced the Prius, now America’s best-selling hybrid, sales were sluggish. “Fuel-cell cars will probably be polarizing at first,” he says. But over time, people will see that a HFC car has the range and convenience of a gasoline-powered car, with absolutely no emissions. “Then they’ll realize, ‘Why wouldn’t I buy this?’”
Oh, the huge manatee!
This is where the green technologies need to go. This offers a viable and economically sound free-market alternative to the very un-green electric and hybrid cars (the extra lead-acid batteries are terrifically polluting in production and disposal, not to mention the coal produced electricity required to charge the full electric models).
Once some of the engineering issues are resolved, the hydrogen engines could be used in the big power pickups like the above and at a much lower cost. Hydrogen and oxygen are easily separated with a small electric current. I am sure some smart engineers are going to come up with a solar/small windmill/rain spout/stationary bicycle powered separator-compressor that will fuel your vehicle in your home. — It could even be transportable to extreme remote locations where all you need is a dirty puddle of water and some sun or wind to fuel your vehicle. Can you spell “FREEDOM?”
Of course, the libs and big oil will hate this because it has the potential to fundamentally transform our economy and eliminates a big source of taxes. But this is the kind of free-market driven change I can live with.
Hydrogen didn’t end well for the Hindenburg.
I hope this will work out better.
Meanwhile, the millions of people out of work and facing a huge rise in healthcare costs are busy pinching pennies to buy one of these new “affordable” vehicles.
Seems to work pretty well in Europe and Asia, with a decent coverage of filling stations. I’m talking about LPG (”Autogas”), not LNG. LPG certainly meets the “alternative fuel closest to gasoline” criterium, or am I missing something?
Why would you want to do that?
“its only byproduct was water vapor”. This just happens to be the number 1 “Greenhouse Gas”.
I know some companies were looking at using gasoline as the fuel source. A reformer heated the gas and extracted the hydrogen for the fuel cell.
Fuel cells are generally twice as efficient as combustion engines so not only was it cleaner but you get more mph.
Also it solves the infrastructure problem.
Hopefully this works.
Sure, and the inventors of the Hindenburg thought hydrogen would revolutionize air travel.
So let me get this straight: We’re gonna burn coal to produce electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then burn the hydrogen to produce electricity to run cars. And this is going to allow us to be energy efficient? Oh, and at the same time we’re going to shut down as many coal-fired power generation plants as possible and run the whole country on windmills and solar cells. When the grid fails, welcome to the 19th century.
The Invisible Flame (1979). NOVA S6E6. You can rewatch it on Hulu.
Water becomes saturated in the atmosphere. Then it self-precipitates as rain or snow. That is why its contribution to the “greenhouse gas” effect would not increase.
The electricity could be produced by nuclear power. The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) seems promising,.
Well, O. K., I could go with nuclear power to produce electricity; try to get over the regulatory hurdles put in the way by the enviro-nuts. I wonder what the cost-benefit ratio of producing hydrogen (and building the corresponding necessary infrastructure) relative to natural gas would be?
I am very interested in developments concerning a rotary engine technology developed by Dr. Nikolay Shkolnik and son in concert with M.I.T. -”Want one!”
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