Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: chuckee
I'd like to see hybrids that are BEV/HEV. In a way that's simpler (read: less chance of mechanical problems) than a normal hybrid because a normal hybrid has the dual complexity of a gas engine and an electric motor. Another problem with a normal hybrid is the dependency on gasoline -- I have yet to figure out how to drill and process my own oil like some us have figured out how to produce our own power.

A hybrid BEV / HEV would be much simpler by being just an electric car with two power sources: battery and hydrogen fuel cell. Right now hydrogen is costly to produce relative to battery power, thus the new hybrid would have a larger battery than today's plug-in hybrids, perhaps as large as today's BEV's (what we usually call EV's, they're Battery Electric Vehicles). You could drive on battery power for local driving and for driving on trips for the first 250 miles after you leave a charging station. But for the long stretches between charging stations you can use the hydrogen to power the car.

Bonus points for those of us who live in the south and own our own property where it's becoming more feasible to have your own solar power. On some days I get such good solar that my 92kWh of home battery storage is fully charged as is my EV, and I still have solar coming in that I have nowhere for it to go (I don't put power onto the grid for multiple reasons). On those days I could run an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen -- a horribly inefficient process so it's the last that I'd do with my solar power after all other things are charged. But one thing hydrogen brings to the table in a car is it adds a lot more miles (powering a hydrogen fuel cell) without adding a lot more weight (like adding more battery storage to a normal EV would do).

So instead of getting just the first 270 miles of a trip free with my own solar power, I could get perhaps the first 500 or 600 miles free (assuming I don't take a long trip every week or so, because like I say running the electrolyzer is horribly inefficient and would be the last priority, so it'd take a while to build up the hydrogen for the next long trip). Or another way to say it, any time I have 500 or 600 miles in between chargers I could use the hydrogen to take me further than the battery would.

The problem would be refuelling the hydrogen fuel cell while on a long trip. As I say, making hydrogen is an inefficient process. That would make a hydrogen refuel more costly than charging the battery or filling up a gasoline tank -- unless the hydrogen is made from burning natural gas, which the warmageddonists won't like. So that one part of the trip makes hydrogen more expensive than battery charge or gasoline fill up.

26 posted on 12/19/2022 1:07:57 PM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies ]


To: Tell It Right

The auto execs know the current approach is not practical short term. But like everything else these days, you step outside the liberal narrative and you get cancelled. The majority of US Auto Mfg will go along.. And once they lose billions, they will go to the government and get reimbursed.


27 posted on 12/19/2022 1:12:51 PM PST by gswilder
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson