Autoblog

From an emissions standpoint, hydrogen is one of the cleanest fuels available. Unfortunately, our most abundant source is water, and with current technology, breaking those two H atoms away from that one O atom (electrolysis) uses more energy that it creates.

But water isn't the only hydrogen source. A Virginia company, H2Gen, makes a hydrogen-extraction device that basically (very basically) sucks the hydrogen right out of nature (see the graph for a somewhat more detailed explanation). An Orlando Chevron station has acquired one of their units and is currently testing the viability of using it for producing hydrogen right at the point of purchase. If the test works out, one more stumbling block, transportation of hydrogen, would be removed.

H2Gen claims the process is as much as six times more efficient than conventional electrolysis.

Now let's hope automakers' hydrogen programs, like BMW's test of its Hydrogen 7, work out. Then stand back and watch gasoline-powered cars go the way of the dinosaurs.

More details can be found in the press release after the jump.

[Source: H2Daily via EvWorld]

This year's Los Angeles auto show will see the debut of Honda's third-generation fuel-cell powertrain, ensconced in its FCX cab-forward concept car (pictured), which debuted at last year's Tokyo Motor Show.

The FCX five-passenger sedan, not to be confused with the small FCX fuel-cell hatchback currently being road-tested in California and other states, will go into production "within three years" according to Honda. A system that Honda dubs the "vertical gas flow" fuel cell stack delivers more power in less space, and is compact enough to fit into the sedan's center tunnel.

Real-world testing of the FCX hatchback, coupled with the company's efforts to simplify infrastructure technology for hydrogen refueling (including its Home Energy Station), has probably put Honda well in the lead in the race to roll out the world's first production hydrogen-fueled car.

[Sources: Inside Line, Honda]

A number of automakers, notably General Motors, are holding out hydrogen fuel cells as the ultimate solution to everything from global warming to the world's dependency on increasingly expensive oil. But does a hydrogen automobile future really make sense? Ed Ring, editor of EcoWorld, doesn't think so.

In a summary piece posted at the AlwaysOn site for technology entrepreneurs, Ring enumerates the flaws in the seductive vision of a hydrogen highway:

• Efficiency - Hydrogen is produced from something else, either electricity and water, biomass or fossil fuel. A fossil fuel source doesn't address the problem, and there isn't enough land to produce enough biomass hydrogen to meet the need. That leaves electricity and water. The problem here is that engineers are using hydrogen as an awkward and inefficient electricity storage medium - consuming electricity to generate hydrogen, which drives an auto fuel cell to produce electricity to run the car's electric powertrain. The end-to-end efficiency of this process is an unimpressive 40 percent.
• Storage - No immediate solutions for storing useful amounts of hydrogen in a car exist, and a viable commercial solution is a long way off. We're a lot closer to viable electricity storage solutions for automobiles (better batteries, ultra-capacitors. Also see "efficiency," above.)
• Opportunity Cost - This is what drives Ring crazy. He asserts that companies are looking at spending billions of dollars on hydrogen research (not to mention the cost of a hydrogen infrastructure) when other, more viable solutions exist.

Read Ring's rant here, and follow the links for a look at the viability of biodiesel and fuel cells in cars. Much more information can be found at the EcoWorld site.

Oh, the photo? It's a hydrogen-powered toy car from Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies.

[Source: AlwaysOn]