From the company's press release:
"Degradation has long held back the potential for the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells in the automotive sector. Breaking the 10,000 hour threshold during rigorous automotive testing is a key reason our hydrogen fuel cell design and chemistry has been selected for trial by a number of the 6 top automotive OEMs."I wonder how much a tank of hydrogen will cost, though...
He continued: "With our technology, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can drive over 500 miles per tank of fuel, and can be refuelled in less than five minutes, emitting only water. For a driver, the only difference from driving an internal combustion engine car is what's going in the tank, but for the environment the significance of zero carbon emissions is enormous".
This article Honda, GM plan to establish alliance for fuel-cell vehicle development indicates that quite a few car companies are pursuing the technology, so maybe there is something to it.
It's a ridiculous idea. How are we going to get all the hydrogen to fuel these cars? Hydrogen doesn't just float around the planet in large quantities on its own. So the engineers will get it from water, and to do that you have to put in more energy than you'll get when the car engines recombine hydrogen and oxygen to produce water - ie, stupidly inefficient. Initiatives like this presumably only exist because they're looking for a shortcut to 'sustainability' which, after all, is just a buzzword to satisfy a government department. /grump
ReplyDeleteTonight on Fox: watch the master of cheese, chickens and pub poetry lay waste to the automotive industry and energy scientists on "When Grumpy Poets Attack!"
ReplyDelete:)
By the way, can you explain to me why I should worry about how energy inefficient a process is, as long as I have plenty of clean energy and the process is not very expensive compared to comparable ways to get my car moving?
ReplyDeleteThis article from The Guardian on the potential for hydrogen may correct some of your antagonism, by the way:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/11/hydrogen-economy-climate-change
A USA scientist has a prototype technology using home based renewables to generate hydrogen, which can then be used in the car. Have no idea how this technology is progressing.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, just checked, already going commercial prototype design stage.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/03/26/hypersolar-to-build-renewable-hydrogen-generator-f/
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/home/blog/the-pathway-to-hydrogen-cars/1013978.article