Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars
By Ed "Redwood" Ring
December 4, 2000
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about Fuel Cells In the western corner of West Sacramento, in a
promontory of light industrial buildings that runs along the south
frontage of Interstate 80, is the home of the California Fuel Cell
Partnership. They are a depot for most of the hydrogen fuel cell powered
cars in North America. In a new building on Industrial Boulevard, are
spaces for auto makers and other partners from all over the world. When
we visited last week, in front of the building the flags of eight
nations snapped in the Pacific breeze, and across the street the vast
floodplains of the Sacramento Delta stretched away to the south.
Although the facility opened up on November 1st, most of the suites are
still vacant. Only Daimler-Chrysler and Honda actually have cars and
crews on site. According to Linda Ortiz, the office manager, the
California Fuel Cell Partnership has eighteen partners, they are auto
manufacturers, energy and fuel providers fuel cell companies and
governmental agencies.
There
are eight suites for auto manufacturers, two of them occupied already by
Daimler-Chrysler and Honda, as well as vacant ones for Volkswagon, Ford,
Nissan, Hyundai, Toyota, and General Motors. Cars delivered here will be
demonstrated from this site and will be open to the public. The cars
won't stay there all the time, they'll be moved around on a regular
basis to go to shows and events around the US and around the world.
So where are these cars? We headed into the back of the property, where
the bays for the auto makers faced onto a back lot that looked out onto
the freeway. On our way, we ran into the Chief Engineer for Honda, Shiro
Matsuo, standing in the parking lot behind the building, watching for
incoming cars while his team tested a fuel cell car. The car was doing
laps across the length of the back lot.
We asked him what the car was doing, going in circles around the lot,
and his answer indicates the cars are still very much in a development
stage, "This fuel cell is not very good at lower temperatures, so we do
not want to start the fuel cell system on a public road." The car in
question, Honda's V-3, is one of the most advanced hydrogen fuel cell
cars in the world, but it can not run on the open road before being
warmed up for at least 5 minutes. So much for a quick start.
Honda's other models of fuel cell cars are the V-1, which uses a metal
hydride fuel tank, and the V-2, which runs on methanol using a reforming
device to convert the methanol to hydrogen. The systems on these cars
are so big, particularly the reformer on the methanol car, that both
versions are only able to have two seats. Matsuo mentioned that
California is building another depot, probably in the Bay Area, that
will house new cars that use reformer technologies, such as Honda's V-2.
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Shiro Matsuo
Chief Engineer, Honda |
From a technological standpoint, methanol cars are further from being
ready for the road than hydrogen cars because of the weight added by the
reforming system. But there are technical obstacles to be overcome
before hydrogen cars will be seen on the roads. In addition to the
problem of slow warm-up, hydrogen fuel cell cars have a short range.
Honda's V-3 only has a range of 110 miles, a defect which can only be
partially offset by designing a larger hydrogen tank into the car, since
a bigger tank adds weight and takes up more space. A higher efficiency
vehicle is still in development and won't be ready for another year.
Moreover, progress is incremental, so next year's model will not be a
breakthrough, just an improvement.
When asked about diesel cars, Matsuo had definite opinions, since it
turned out he had a background in diesel engineering. His comments were
interesting: "The efficiency of the diesel engine is very good, but the
bad point is that it can't get rid of some of the pollutant material,
especially the particulate matter. The newest carburators produce
precise high pressure injection into the cylinder which greatly
increases combustion."
Like others we talked with that day, Matsuo's comments reflected a
perception that the U.S. market, and California in particular, is more
committed to zero-emissions than the rest of the world. When asked how
close the new diesel cars have come to complying with ultra-low
emissions standards, Matsuo wasn't sure. He said "there are new
catalysers being developed to absorb more particulate matter, it's
getting better year by year."
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Hydrogen Fuel Station
West Sacramento
California USA |
Toxins from methanol leak into the soil from bad tanks and accidental
spills, particles from diesels foul the air, even methanol reformers
emit some pollution, about 20% of what a typical gasoline automobile
produces. Nothing is perfect, except hydrogen, which can be made from
electricity and water and can be produced in limitless quantities using
nothing more than solar energy and water. If hydrogen burns, it leaves
no trace in the air, except for a bit of water vapor.
This pristine appeal to environmentalists, combined with the fact that
fuel cells really aren't technologically ready to power a car on any
fuel but hydrogen, is why California built this facility before any
others and why the major auto makers of the world are trying to make
sure they keep their foot in the door. Opposite the back parking lot,
just in front of the wire fence that separated us from the whizzing
eastbound traffic on I-80, was a giant hydrogen fuel station. Hydrogen
is stored under great pressure, 3600 and 5000 PSI in the big tanks, 7000
PSI in the smaller distribution tanks.
Hydrogen may be ecologically and technologically the logical fuel right
now for fuel cell cars, but there is no consumer distribution system in
place. While methanol, a liquid, can be piped, trucked and stored in the
existing network for gasoline with minor conversion costs, hydrogen will
require an entire new fuel distribution infrastructure. Partly for this
reason, fuel cell vehicles even in California, where government
subsidies and regulations are the most favorable to fuel cell
development in the world, fuel cell vehicles are not expected to be on
the road in significant numbers until 2004. Even by that time, most of
them will be in commercial and government fleet use, where they will
have a hydrogen station on site. Don't expect to see hydrogen stations
on the freeway off ramps for the next several years, if ever.
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Hydrogen Storage Tank |
But hydrogen retains its appeal, and the prospect of gas stations that
require no fuel deliveries, just solar electricity and water to convert
to hydrogen to recharge their storage tanks, is a seductive vision. On
vehicles that can be refueled often or have low range requirements,
setting up a fleet that would run on fuel produced in limitless
quantities at an on-site station will probably be a competitive economic
investment within five years or sooner. Fleets of buses, which can
tolerate a bulky power system, will probably be one of the first places
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be strongly competitive. As Matsuo
said, "in the long run, fuel cell vehicles will gain a percentage of the
market but I don't know if they will ever dominate."
What will be the next generation car? Diesels, hybrids, or
ultra-efficient & ultra-clean gasoline or methanol powered cars using
combustion engines? The answer is all of the above. Will one type
dominate? The correct answer to that question will make a lot of people
rich, but it's probably safe to bet it will not be fuel cell vehicles
that dominate. What about hydrogen combustion engines, since they burn
so clean?
We talked with Richard Tuso, an Electrical Technician at
Daimler-Chrysler. He reiterated that the fuel cell vehicle is preferred
because it "does a molecular conversion of hydrogen to electricity which
causes zero emissions to the atmosphere." He noted that methanol
vehicles use a reformer which catalyses the methanol to separate the
hydrocarbon from the hydrogen, but the reformer puts out emissions that
are still at about 20% of an internal combustion engine. Richard
acknowledged that "Methanol is easier for the fuel infrastructure, but
where we're heading for in the long run is zero emissions, not low
emissions."
When asked about the possible dangers of distributing and stockpiling
huge amounts of hydrogen, which is highly pressurized and explosive,
Tuso downplayed the dangers. Most of the supposed problems with hydrogen
are based on a public perception that it is much more dangerous that it
really is. "The perception is evident when you take into account the
precautions we take here," said Tuso. "The fueling station we built here
cost five times what a comparable station cost in Germany. We have
hydrogen alarms and air ventilation systems that are constantly
running."
In reality, said Tuso, "The only real problem is the pressure that's
involved, and that's not a problem with proper tanking systems." He
showed us pictures of cars that had been dropped from 45', then from
90', and in all these test cases the hydrogen tank did not explode, in
spite of being under pressure. Moreover, he said, "the tanks are
designed to blow up, not out. If, for example, that tank back there
exploded," said Tuso, referring to the hydrogen station in the lot
behind the building, "90% of the debris would fall within the fence
around it."
The danger from accidental hydrogen fires was even less of a problem,
according to Tuso, because "Hydrogen is a very clean fuel, it would
ignite easier than gasoline, but the likelihood of it igniting is still
slim. If it did ignite, the flame doesn't put out much heat. Gasoline
fires usually consume the whole car." He cited tests where hydrogen gas
tanks were exploded and ignited, and invariably the flame went upwards
and didn't burn very hot. The back windows, for example, would not
typically be damaged in a hydrogen tank fire, whereas in a gasoline tank
fire, the back windows usually melt.
Notwithstanding the cost of building an entire fuel infrastructure for
hydrogen, the biggest problem hydrogen fuel has may end up being a
public perception that it is too dangerous to handle. "People here think
of the Hindenberg and Hydrogen bombs," said Tuso, "Some people think we
have a hydrogen bomb back here."
We left that day not sure whether or not we'd found the car of the
future. Hydrogen fuel cell powered cars will be part of the market, but
they probably won't sit in everyone's garages, owning the car market the
way gasoline powered cars do today. Hybrids have better range and
overall performance, and they're already cheap to manufacture. Expect to
see more of them in the near future. What will emerge in the long run is
anybody's guess. Outside the U.S., cleaner burning cars using
conventional fuels such as diesel and gasoline will probably stay on top
of the market. How clean can they get? How clean is clean enough? Stay
tuned.
California Fuel Cell Partnership
3300 Industrial Blvd., Suite 1000,
West Sacramento, CA 95691.
916-371-2453. |