The second variant of the Chevy Volt is designed to use a hydrogen fuel cell to keep the battery charged. This means no gas is needed at all. Of course, a hydrogen infrastructure to deliver the hydrogen is required (no small task). Furthermore, issues of energy expenditure both to create the hydrogen and to compress it into the car’s tank have to be worked out.
Nonetheless, today’ announcement that a Ford Fusion 999 hydrogen fuel cell car hit a record 207.297 mph is no small matter. This beast has a 574 KW (770 hp) electric motor (the Volts’ goes to about 140 kw peak power).
This event is similar to what happened with the initial combustion engine cars in the early 20th century as they too passed land speed records.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 11:07 am and is filed under Hydrogen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Aug 16th, 2007 (12:38 pm)Every analysis I’ve looked at has indicated that hydrogen is a really nutty way to go.
Assuming hydrogen is created without genrating carbon emissions, the energy losses getting it created, stored and transported are forbidding – it comes out to be about 30% as efficient as electricity and cost about the same or more than $3.00 gasoline. I don’t think we really solve anything by replacing expensive fossil fuel with expensive hydrogen. The cost of an infrastructure is also forbidding, especially compared tothe already in place electrical infrastructure. It would be very inefficient to maintain two separate energy
systems, especially when one is hydrogen. I would judge hydrogen as a “last resort,”
and highly unlikely given the rather marked advancements in batteries, especially in terms of lifespan, which has effectively reduced their per mile costs an enormous
amount, even if the initial costs are still high. My bet is on batteries.
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Aug 16th, 2007 (2:43 pm)My bet too is on batteries, particularly given the recent advances in battery technology and the prospects of even more to come.
GM must have a reason for building a Volt powered by hydrogen. Could it have anything to do with the research going on at Purdue University?
http://www.physorg.com/news98556080.html
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Aug 17th, 2007 (3:06 pm)As I see it, hydrogen is an alternative fuel for a future still coming. If transport electrification comes at a significant pace, then that means that there will be increase in coal prices which will make unsubsidized wind power more cost effective than coal power. Issues of intermittency, etc. that come with wind power will mean that there is liable to come a steady surplus of wind power. Producing hydrogen through electrolysis of water at the times when electricity is cheapest will mean that hydrogen will be available at lower costs than gasoline or ethanol. That will mean, then, that using hydrogen as a range-extending fuel along hydrogen highways will be a good, clean alternative. The fuel cell Volt, then, for some people in certain places will be a winning alternative to other vehicle technologies, including a flex-fuel Volt. At that point, a fleet change-over toward hydrogen range-extending plug-in cars will occur. Hydrogen is the fuel choice of the future. But obviously not the immediate future. As far as I can tell.
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Aug 18th, 2007 (11:26 am)As the wags like to say: Hydrogen is the fuel of the future and always will be just that!
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Aug 19th, 2007 (10:07 am)As the way things stand right now, H2 will only serve to keep us addicted to big oil because it is most cheaply and efficiently produced by reforming hydrocarbons… at least as far as WE know.
However, there is MUCH ongoing research into improving the efficiencies of water dissociation via electricity combined with vibration.
I’m betting on batteries too, but you just never know. Maybe we don’t know EVERYTHING about energy and matter. Maybe the world is NOT flat, maybe man CAN fly, maybe we CAN go to the moon, control genetics, make computers… and yes sometimes miracles DO happen.
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Aug 19th, 2007 (2:01 pm)I agree with Tim, as they are ways to produce H2 that do not require to reform fossil fuels.
It seems that at Purdue University they have taken a major step to get rid of a lot of problems.
If you are intersted look for instance on the Purdue University site, link :http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/2005/050828.Varma.fuelcells.html
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Aug 20th, 2007 (6:04 am)Jean-Charles Jacquemin said: If you are intersted look for instance on the Purdue University site, link:
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/2005/050828.Varma.fuelcells.html
That was a Aug. 2005 article reporting on research at Purdue University.
There has been progress since that time. A May 2007 article reported on an aluminum alloy pellets (aluminum & gallium) that can be used to extract hydrogen from water. The link is:
http://www.physorg.com/news98556080.html
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Feb 17th, 2009 (7:41 am)cmon go ahead kick those asian carmakers who play an unfair cometition
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Feb 17th, 2009 (7:42 am)cmon go ahead kick those asian carmakers who play an unfair competition
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