Monday, May 21, 2007

68 mpg Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hybrid...


That's a whole lotta buzz words to describe this. I am not sure where the 'hybrid' part comes in because I am assuming the fuel cells supply electricity to the electric motor, the only motor in this vehicle.

Here is Honda's own take on it.

My favorite technology to poke holes in (no pun intended) is hydrogen fuel cell transportation technology. While I do believe the technology is viable, there are some serious concerns and huge engineering challenges that face this tech. Safe hydrogen storage is, of course, the first concern, but if Honda says they have it figured out, I believe them. Next is sourcing the fuel. Hydrogen can really be thought of as a storage medium for energy, sort of like electricity. Even though hydrogen is technically everywhere, it takes energy to get it into it's elemental form needed for the operation of these fuel cells. When it is utilized it is actually converted into electricity. Each conversion generally loses energy and it does take energy to get things started. This takes money and a source of energy to start with. We are working on producing hydrogen from biomass in our lab with biomass but it will likely start out from an easier process using, electricity, coal or natural gas.

Here is a nice little primer on the real issues and advantages of fuel cells it is a little dated, but it gets the major facts correct.

No comments: