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Posted on 10/10/2002 2:11:29 AM PDT by MadIvan
If you are wondering how we will all get around once the oil wells run dry, you might take comfort from Ford's latest hydrogen fuel-cell electric Focus. It goes into limited service with commercial fleets in 2004.
It currently exists as a one-off prototype valued at about £2.65 million but while its price might make an insurance broker blush, its performance won't have the same effect. It has the kind of urge usually associated with a 2.5-litre Mondeo and its refinement is surprisingly convincing.
Appearing at this year's Challenge Bibendum, an event described by organiser Michelin as "a rolling roadshow for environmentally friendly vehicles", the Focus joined more than 50 other contestants ranging from a vegetable oil-fuelled VW Golf to a standard petrol-powered Alfa Romeo Brera. Inaugurated in 1998, the event ran from Los Angeles to Las Vegas last year, via the cloying dust and dry heat of the Nevada Desert (Motoring, Nov 10 2001). This year's soggier route - from Heidelberg to Paris - gave us a glimpse of what we can expect to be driving in future.
For many, the end-game is the fuel-cell engine that consumes hydrogen and air to generate electricity, with heat and water as by-products. Using pure hydrogen, fuel cells produce no planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and, assuming the hydrogen is also manufactured on a CO2 -free basis, guarantee a guilt-free trip.
But with the hydrogen economy a way off yet, short-term plans to reduce exhaust emissions in conventional cars include alternatives such as natural gas and bio-fuel made using rapeseed oil or even alcohol. The European Commission is advocating the use of these eco-blended fuels as a matter of urgency and this year's Challenge Bibendum reflected that. With so many different kinds available, however, life could become complicated. So far the most taxing decision car buyers face is whether to stick with the standard radio or splash out on a six-CD autochanger. Will we cope with choosing between ethyl-tertiary-butyl-ether or vegetable oil methyl esters? Probably not.
Hybrid entries, such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight and new Honda Civic IMA (due in the UK next year), will play a role in cutting fuel consumption and CO2 but fuel-cell lobbyists insist the global car population is expanding so fast that CO2 levels will be back where they started in just a few years. For them, the fuel cell is the only answer and work is progressing quickly. In fact, the improvement in Ford's Focus FCV (fuel-cell vehicle) Bibendum entry beggars belief when you compare it with last year's version.
Accompanied by fuel-cell programme marketing manager (and former F15 pilot) Phil Chizek, test engineer Brian Gillespey and planning analyst Mark Sulek, the Focus endured a two-hour fuel consumption test around the Hockenheim grand prix circuit, near Heidelberg, and outpaced a production Toyota Prius in the process. Later, it completed a three-day trip from Hockenheim to Paris in the hands of sceptical hacks. "This is no hand-built mule cobbled together in a research lab," said Chizek. "It's the first prototype from the production programme and the first to be made using production processes and production tooling."
It also has a unique body made from aluminium, stainless steel and carbon-fibre, which saves 300kg compared with a standard Focus and partially offsets the extra weight of the new 902 fuel-cell engine from Canadian company Ballard.
From the driving seat, the Focus FCV starts silently and is a revelation compared with its predecessor. The irksome rasp of a hidden compressor forcing air into the fuel-cell engine has been all but replaced by subdued sighs and whispers of discreet aerospace technology when the throttle is squeezed. The electric motor characteristically underwrites its modest 88bhp with substantial torque of 170lb ft, roughly equivalent to that of a 2.5-litre V6 and easily enough to cope with the cut and thrust of Strasbourg's rush-hour traffic. Later, in gathering gloom and humming along at 60mph on the open road, the most intrusive sounds were the wind and tyres rolling over tarmac. But with a potential top speed of 115mph and the ability to accelerate to 62mph in 13.5 seconds, the performance of the Focus is already on a par with a conventional family car.
We stopped for fuel after 50 miles, in the informal surroundings of a French transport cafe car park. Pure compressed hydrogen was piped from a tanker into the Ford's boot-cramming, cylindrical fuel tank at a pressure of 5,000 pounds per square inch. Minutes later, we were on our way, carrying enough fuel to take the Focus 200 miles. Stringently tested 10,000psi tanks are in the offing and will double that range, so it almost seems as if the future has arrived sooner than expected.
Despite the huge strides being made, manufacturers agree that significant numbers of fuel-cell vehicles won't appear in private driveways until at least 2010. Given the rate of progress demonstrated by Ford in the past 12 months, however, that possibility becomes more believable by the minute.
We are. Hydrogen has many advantages. Building the support infrastructure will take time, and since we would replace a huge, expensive oil-based infrastructure it will be expensive. It's going to take years, decades to convert over whether it is a national defense priority or not. Not a quick solution, but inevitable.
Dude, he works for a fuel cell company. Fuel cells typical store hydrogen in a solid matrix. No high pressure, no large volumes of hydrogen and oxygen being mixed.
The downsides to fuel cells right now is longevity, reusability and operation efficiency, not combustability.
This, from the article.. 10,000 psi tanks and an invisible flame (if ignited) ?!.
As mentioned earlier, H2 might not be too safe in an underground garage or tunnel, etc (nowhere for the gas to rise to).. I don't know , but these sound like reasonable safety issues that would have to be addressed,... right?
Where are you proposing to get this "Cheap" H2? It does not grow on trees!
Actually, U can be used very efficiently in heating via warm water. Did a project on this in college.
Then it is NOT cheap energy as you previously posted.
Yes, but no new technology needs to be developed for the gasification. A chemical company I worked for had a contract with the DOE (during the days of the Carter-induced "oil shortage"), gasifying coal, using combined-cycle gas turbine-steam turbine generators to generate electricity, and capturing the low-grade steam to use for process heat. Overall cycle efficiency of energy capture was on the order of 80% (note that is NOT electrical efficiency, but combined cycle efficiency including the use of the process heat). They could start building these plants tomorrow.
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The principle requirement is engineering creativity and brainpower. That's where we are lacking.
Does it make more sense to extract the coal in our great western deposits and burn it in situ? To generate hydrogen there and somehow transport it to where it's needed?
Or to mine the coal and ship by rail (by barge?) to distant power and hydrogen generation plants?
"Or to mine the coal and ship by rail (by barge?) to distant power and hydrogen generation plants?"
REAL hard questions. Gasifying in-situ takes a lot of water, which most western sites are pretty short of. I suspect it would come down to whether the decision was made to actually go for the total "hydrogen economy". I think then one could justify building pipelines to the coal sources, pipe water in and hydrogen out. But it would take a really good, complete economic analysis to chose between the two cases.
Maybe not, but there is a researcher who has convinced a microscopic organism (algae, I think?) to produce H2. If his research pans out, then all you need is nutrients (probably from the effluvia of any city) and sunlight.
I don't have a problem with big oil getting in on the action. I'm just speculating that they may try to throw a wrench into the works to prevent others from getting in first.
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