Iowa Co. Hopes to Make Gasoline Obsolete

AP on Yahoo ^ | 5/19/06 | David Pitt - ap

[NormsRevenge]

ALGONA, Iowa - While much of the world fumes over escalating fuel prices, a small company in north central Iowa is quietly hoping to make gasoline obsolete as an engine fuel.

Research at the Hydrogen Engine Center Inc. is done in an early 1900s red brick armory at the Kossuth County fairgrounds.

There, a clean six-cylinder engine that looks like it could have been pulled from a Ford pickup has been running for 110 hours, not quite half the 300 hours it must continuously run for certification. The company, led by a retired Ford Motor Co. engineer, hopes to meet Environmental Protection Agency automotive 2007 emission standards.

All 81 parts are original Oxx Power, the brand name the company has given all its engines.

The engine can run on a number of fuels including hydrogen, ethanol, natural gas, propane or digester gas from landfills.

The company, started by Ted Hollinger, 65, is initially focusing on making more efficient, environmentally friendlier engines to replace those used in generators and in forklift trucks, airline ground equipment, irrigation pumps, tractors and buses.

Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have dropped industrial engine production as they've cut costs, leaving what Hollinger said is a ready-made market for his fledgling company.

"Our engine has to bolt in where the old engine went and can't be a thread off," he said. "If you do that and you make improvements in it so that it gets rid of emissions and it's more efficient, then I think people are going to like it."

The company incorporated in Iowa in 2003 and two years later in Canada. It merged with Green Mt. Labs in August 2005 and became a publicly traded company under the name Hydrogen Engine Center Inc.

Hollinger said he insisted that his company have a product to sell from day one instead of starting up as a research and development firm.

The company's products include a six-cylinder engine and a three-cylinder version for small engine applications.

The company has found immediate interest in its hydrogen-powered generators that use five engines.

Brad Van Horn, an engine distributor with Northern Power Productions of Minneapolis, said some orders are already placed for the generators as they approach the production phase.

"The level of excitement is huge," he said.

Van Horn, who sells in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, said he gets calls daily from companies running irrigation equipment in Nebraska. Airports needing to replace the Ford engines in their baggage handling and other ground service equipment will also be a large market.

The company said American Airlines alone has 9,500 vehicles likely to be converted to alternative fuels over the next decade.

While the engines drive a revenue stream for the company, engineers are working to improve the technology of engines that run on hydrogen and other clean fuels.

Bob Mendlesky, another retired Ford engineer, light ups when he describes the potential for the engines his shop is developing.

He said there are obstacles to making cars powered with hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines. To carry enough hydrogen, the fuel tank would have to be under extremely high pressure, he said. In addition, tanks made to that specification cost as much as the engine to power the car.

Hydrogen technology is better suited for generator applications and for industrial uses at its current stage of development, he said.

A better solution may be engines that run on ammonia, Hollinger said.

Development of ammonia as a fuel must include ways to improve its combustibility. Ammonia does not readily spark like other fuels, but Hollinger is determined to overcome some of the obstacles.

"I tell people that I'm no dumber now than when I was at Ford Motor Co. If I can invent at Ford, I can invent here," Hollinger said. "I don't think that there's any reason we can't. Will we? I don't know."

Hollinger said he doesn't expect his small company to make major breakthroughs in the automotive propulsion, but he's willing to work with Ford or any other company working on clean fuel technology.

"I hope in the future the automotive people will look at our stuff and incorporate some of our ideas," he said. "Somebody needs to do something now."

___

On the Net: Hydrogen Engine Center: http://www.hydrogenenginecenter.com

[kinoxi]

if they could somehow how seperate the hydrogen from the nitrogen in a usable state it would work. i don't know if this has happened yet though.

[the invisib1e hand]

i don't think people are going to rush out and buy "environmentally friendly" forklift motors. Besides, they run on propane already.

And what's with the name "Hydrogen Engine," a company that is trying to make engines that burn alternative fuels including hydrogen?

[Husker24]

I didn't think Ammonia was even flammable.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Well, it is not really oil that is the problem, rather that the mechanics of a engine, and the combustion of the fuel in the engine .
Some engines do not do well with other fuels, as someone else said that Hydrogen crystallizes ( kind of like small granular particles ) in a engine ( kind of like trowing sand or grit into the engine ( not good at all ).
Grit, dirt, sand, abrasives in a engine would most surely cause a early end to a engine.
The mechanical parts of a engine must run clean to last and run efficiently.
Crude Oil is not only used to make fuels for cars, trucks, internal combustions engines, but, the oil is also use to make lubricants, to lubricate the metal parts of a engine.
Another problem with engines is heat.
Heat can destroy a engine just as much as it not being lubricated, or dirt, grime, sand, abrasives in a engine.
Maybe the solution will come when a totally new kind of engine or propulsion system is invented, that would do away with the internal combustion engine.
Before the car or internal combustion engine, ... water, wind, was used for propulsion, or harnessing it's power to run things like grain mills, pull ships, push ships.
The steam engine was close to a gasoline internal engine ( as in , it had a piston to push the push rod, and then it would cause the crank shaft to turn ) but it run off of steam.
However, the steam engine it has it's own set of problems, most of all hauling all of that wood, coal, and water around to make it feasible.
And the steam engine had it's safety problems as well.
In a internal combustion engine, you have the cylinder, piston, connecting rod, crank shaft, cylinder head, spark plug, oil pump ( those are the main parts for it to run other than the carburetor or fuel injection system ).
When the engine breaths in the air and fuel mixture, the piston goes down.
Then, when it comes back up, it compresses the air and fuel mixture.
Just before the piston tops out near the spark plug and cylinder head you have ignition ( this is were the spark plug has it's spark ) and the fuel ignites or is combusted, or explosion.
Then the piston is forced down the cylinder at great forces that pushes the connection rod down, and that pushes the crankshaft around and that's were you get the turning movement that turns the crankshaft into the turning force that the transmission receives.
When the piston comes back up the 2 nd time, the valve in the cylinder head opens up and let's out the burnt fuel or exhaust gases so the engine can breath to run the cycle again.

[FreedomPoster]

Bingo.

Had a leftie on another forum ranting about how we should have been developing hydrogen fueled vehicles, instead of going to Iraq. When I asked "where are you getting your hydrogen", I shut him up for a short while.

[FreedomPoster]

Hydrogen embrittlement of steel is an ugly thing, no doubt. And not something the hydrogen shills want to talk about much.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Save the environment and fuel , make the lefties / Liberals / Envirowackos get rid of their cars and walk.

[greasepaint]

nothing new about running a car on propane, natural gas,
or hydrogen gas. nothing

[G-Man 1]

Specular post. Must read. I remember reading about it in the news paper. Good old boy Johnson must have been slick willies teacher. Cover up your corruption by murder. I'll bet things out in Texas and Ark. haven't changed much.

[G-Man 1]

Specular post. Must read. I remember reading about it in the news paper. Good old boy Johnson must have been slick willies teacher. Cover up your corruption by murder. I'll bet things out in Texas and Ark. haven't changed much.

[sopwith]

this one is at .68 cents a share jump on board now.
make $$$$. (sarc.)

[preacher]

"And the motor in the Ford made the wheels go around."

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Hydrogen Embrittlement.
How do they work around it?

[babygene]

"and still uses other fuels to produce."

It will ALWAYS use other power sources to produce...

[Thermalseeker]

BMW is doing pretty well with hydrogen combustion engines.

I have an engineer friend who is working on hydrogen injection into gasoline and diesel burning engines. From what he tells me by injecting a small amount of hydrogen in the intake cycle the efficiency goes way, way up. He claims the cost to convert any gasoline or diesel engine will be less than $1000.

[toddlintown]

Almost forgot Billie...and Bobby Baker. Blasts from the past.

And yes, LBJ was as crooked as they come. The more I hear, the more I believe he did have something to do with Kennedy's murder.

[Right Wing Assault]

as someone else said that Hydrogen crystallizes ( kind of like small granular particles ) in a engine ( kind of like trowing sand or grit into the engine

No, the hydrogen doesn't crystallize. It's a gas. It is not abrasive. The iron in the cylinder walls is changed by the hydrogen, becomes more brittle, and it cracks.

[layman]

Don't you have to burn a lot of coal or natural gas to generate the electricity to make the hydrogen?

Yes, but you can also use solar energy. Do a search on 'Solar Water Splitting'.

[MainFrame65]

A fuel cell/electric motor combination is certainly the most efficient way to obtain motive power from hydrogen - probably twice the output of any internal combustion engine burning hydrogen in air.

Hydrogen is easy to use as fuel, but expensive and difficult to extract, store, transport, and distribute. Hydrogen cannot be liquified at any temperature above MINUS 400 F, a very expensive temperature to reach and maintain. Cryogenic storage and distribution is not practical, so we are left with chemical storage or compressed hydrogen gas.

As the lightest molecule in existence, gaseous hydrogen can leak through almost anything, including solid steel. Increased pressure means increased leakage. Also, hydrogen gas is explosive in air at a mixture of as little as 8 percent. Monitoring and venting will be critical. Also, distributing a gas is far different from distributing a liquid. Is the distribution system at a high or a low pressure? As a gas expands, it cools; as it is compressed, it heats. Allowing gas to flow from a hi-pressure supply tank into an empty vehicle tank is energy intensive. And it would have to be pumped into the tank, because if the supply pressure were low your vehicle tank would not be filled. And how do you measure the fuel?

Let's consider the standard for the energy content of vehicle fuel, which clearly is gasoline. But gasoline has a secondary characteristic - it is nature's method for storing hydrogen at a density not found elsewhere in nature anywhere closer than 90,000,000 miles from here - (the Sun). The average molecule in gasoline is almost 16% hydrogen, over 40% greater than water. In fact, in order to match the number of hydrogen atoms per gallon of gasoline, gaseous hydrogen would have to be pressurized to over 19,000 PSI in the same volume. HALF that pressure is remarkable.

So I believe that the only practical way to use gaseous hydrogen as a common vehicle fuel will be by tank exchange, using standardized tanks. That is how most of us buy fuel for a gas grill today.

But I don't think we will do that. I think that the fuel of the future will be ... GASOLINE! Perhaps we will no longer be able to find the crude oil we make it from today, but we will make it from other sources of carbon, hydrogen, and energy, and distribute it the same way we do today.