Hydrogen Cars (8/14/2008)

Hydrogen cars are, in my opinion, the best new fuel option for replacing current gasoline powered vehicles. There is currently a procession of Hydrogen fueled cars making its way across the country. The fuel cells were produced by companies such as UTC Power in South Windsor and was lead by a CT Transit hydrogen fuel cell bus. The purpose of the tour is to raise awareness of automobiles as a significant application of fuel cell technology.

To give an idea of the capabilities of these vehicles, the Hyundai Tucson vehicle has a range of 180 miles on 4 kg of compressed hydrogen - which is roughly equivalent to 4 gallons of gas. The water produced as emissions is clean enough to drink. Other cars in the armada included BMW, Daimler, GM, Honda, Kia, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagon. (BMW had to be special and use liquefied hydrogen in a bi-fuel standard combustion engine versus the others which used hydro-electric engines.)

Wondering where a cross country caravan of Hydrogen cars will fuel up? California has 25 hydrogen fueling stations. Outside of that, Linde North America, one of the largest producers of hydrogen and the supplier of technology and liquid hydrogen to BMW, is part of the convoy with a fueling truck. However, a 2 meter solar cell array can produce enough electricity to run an electrolyzer that can take hydrogen out of water. Right now the US produces 9 million tons of hydrogen a year - enough to fuel 34 million automobiles. Most of which currently goes to producing ammonia used for fertilizer and hydrogenated oils in such edibles as shortening.

Fuel cell technology goes back to the 50's where it was being looked at for use in space travel (fuel that becomes water the astronauts can drink - nice benefit!). UTC Power and Union Carbide were both ground breakers in Fuel Cell technology. FuelCell Energy makes fuel cells large enough to power and heat convention centers - but those run off of bio-fuels. Proton Energy Systems gets its hydrogen from water and has more than 1200 commercial hydrogen systems around the world. It has helped to set up fueling operations in the US and Europe.