Posted on 11/18/2021 10:02:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Cummins Inc., a century-old maker of truck engines powered by diesel and other fossil fuels, may not seem like the most likely attendee at the UN Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, but CEO Tom Linebarger was there this week telling industrial partners and customers the company is working to help them shift to low- and no-carbon vehicles powered by batteries and hydrogen.
As battery-electric passenger models gain market share in the U.S., Europe and China, attention is shifting to electrifying larger, dirtier commercial vehicles including semi-trucks, construction and mining vehicles, as well as trains, ships and aircraft. Currently, no single type of electric power train can easily scale to handle light and heavy-duty vehicle categories, so it’s necessary to use both, Linebarger tells Forbes.
“If you’re flogging one thing and you trash the other, it's not a good plan for meeting the challenge of climate change,” he said from Glasgow. “Climate change is the existential crisis of our time. It’s just not a good idea to argue about whether batteries are better than fuel cells.”
Shifting away from carbon-based fuels was a key topic for negotiators at COP26 and appeared to have made historic breakthrough with first-draft agreement calling for the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies. But a second draft appeared to soften the wording as major oil and gas producers fight to save subsidies.
Rather than storing electricity as batteries do, fuel cells make it as needed in an electrochemical process involving hydrogen and oxygen that emits only water as a by-product. Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins is far from alone in pushing hydrogen to power heavy-duty vehicles. Toyota, Hino, Hyundai Motor, Volvo, Daimler, Nikola, General Motors and Navistar have their own hydrogen-fueled plans. They say the technology is better suited for heavy trucks that drive hundreds of miles
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company has become synonymous with electric cars, is among the most vocal critics of using hydrogen as a transportation fuel, citing its inefficiency relative to batteries and the high cost of the fuel cell stacks that make electric power from hydrogen and oxygen.
Yet makers of trucks and commercial vehicles that need to travel long distances aren’t convinced that multi-ton, lithium-ion battery packs that need relatively long recharge times are the best option. (Notably, Musk also doesn’t launch his SpaceX rockets with batteries, but instead a blend of kerosene and liquid oxygen that spew climate-warming black carbon, or soot.)
What climate crisis? I think they are making it up.
I want to see the solar powered D-11. Upgraded RC memorial edition with faux corinthian leathet interior.
How are you gong to generate the electricity for all those electric cars and trucks?
And no, wind, biomass, solar etc do not, and will never, generate enough, power to supply the needed electricity.
Well, the tech for ‘splitting the electron’ is rolling out in the next couple of years, and the energy ‘gain’ is 100x to 200x over that of simply burning Hydrogen. So, there is that.
Fun fact:
There are electric dump trucks which never need external charging - they go uphill empty, fill up, then use regenerative braking hauling cargo downhill, getting enough energy to repeat.
Very narrow use case, yes, but interesting/amusing.
re: “Hydrogen is the next big energy storage push. “
Are they digging any new Hydrogen mines?
Cummins makes mostly the engines in RV’s and based in Indiana, the mecca of RV’s.
BIG PROBLEM though: when there are many YT vids of ‘DONT BUY AN RV” (Steve Lehto h/t) , Cummins was mostly the culprit. So if the engine-maker of RV’s which is notorious for breaking down faster than a Chevy, then this idiot lost his credibility and hit rock bottom. Even Scotty Kilmer laughs at Cummins Engines.
Did he really say that. Because if he was talking from the cab of a truck with a Cummins idling, then it's likely nobody could actually hear him.
Luckily strip-mining the raw materials for batteries is good for the environment. 🤡
Imaginary solutions for an imaginary problem.....
Millenials, Metros and queers populate a great deal of the upper cadre of many major US institutions
Then again the cynic in me might think this is just another CEO positioning their company to be near the front of the line for the impending flood of government funding for climate change?
“How are you gong to generate the electricity for all those electric cars and trucks?”
Not a believe in AGW, but there is a solution to this. 70% of our power production is idle overnight. As long a vehicles are scheduled to charge then, there is not need for extra production.
Did you miss the part about shutting down all the coal and natural gass fired electrical plants?
Hydrogen is itself a battery. You use power generated by other sources to split water into oxygen and Hydrogen. The Hydrogen is then used as a fuel where and when you need it and converted back into heat or electricity.
Water vapor is a greenhouse gas. They are holding that card back until a few trillion has been spent on hydrogen infrastructure.
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