Monday, February 27, 2023

HYDROGEN CARS - the future is here?

 

-  3894  -    HYDROGEN  CARS  -  the future is here?


            ---------  3894  -     HYDROGEN  CARS  -  the future is here?

-   Gary is looking to buy one of these.  Sure hope he gives us a ride?  Fuel cells seem to be the solution to every problem that everyone has ever had with an Electric Vehicle. They'll do upwards of 400 miles on a tank, refuel in only a few minutes, and use about 90 percent less heavy metals than an EV.

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-  So what's the problem Gary? The problem is the fuel. There are literally more Tesla Superchargers in San Francisco alone than there are hydrogen stations in the entirety of the U.S.

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-    Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and plenty of others have been showing off fuel cell cars for decades, none of which have gone into mass production.

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-   Hydrogen itself can be produced in a number of ways, some more environmentally conscious than others, but in an ideal world the stuff can be pulled straight out of water by a process called electrolysis, where renewable energy (typically wind or solar) is used to split the H from the O, emissions-free.

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-   That hydrogen can then be run through  a “fuel cell” to generate power.  An array of fuel cells combine the pure hydrogen with oxygen from the air. From that reaction, you get back out what you put in: electricity and water. The electricity powers the car, while the water goes back to the earth out the tail pipe.

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-   The process is more complicated than a battery-electric car, but fuel-cell cars are still Evs,  still driven by electric motors. They still have batteries, too, but tiny ones, about 95 percent smaller than that on a Tesla Model S.

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-   That battery only serves as a bit of a buffer. The fuel cell array itself can directly provide enough electricity to drive the BMW iX5 in normal conditions.   BMW has partnered with Toyota to develop the fuel cell technology. In the case of the BMW iX5, 383 individual fuel cells are arrayed together to provide the near-400-horsepower performance.

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-   Driving the BMW iX5 is just like driving any other electric BMW. Pull the shifter into D, push on the right pedal, and the car glides forward silently. It's only under full-throttle acceleration that you get just the slightest bit of a whooshing sound from the fuel cell as it sucks in air and hydrogen as fast as it possibly can.

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-    All 396 horsepower is available instantly, making this SUV feel like a much sportier car.  The iX5's handling is relaxed and a 0-to-60 mph time of under six seconds is respectable.

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-    BMW estimates over 300 miles of range on a single tank of hydrogen, which puts it on par with big-battery luxury EVs like the Mercedes-Benz EQS. But, there's a major difference: the iX5 refuels in just a few minutes.

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-    The process is really no more complicated than gassing up a traditional car. You just pull up to a pump, connect the pressurized line, and press a button to start. Filling a three-quarters-empty tank took three minutes and five seconds.

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-   Even the fastest of fast charging for an EV these days takes a good 15 to 20 minutes for an 80 percent charge, and about an hour to go to full. Cost? About $75 for that hydrogen, but prices are extremely elevated now thanks to energy shortages stemming from the Ukraine war. Normally, they'd be closer to half that.  $35 for a fill up.

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-   The hydrogen is stored in a pair of tanks, cleverly packaged to run along the central transmission tunnel in the car and beneath the rear seats. This means that the iX5 gives up neither cargo capacity nor legroom.

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-    Those tanks are made of carbon fiber and are incredibly hard to damage in a crash. They also have safety valves to ensure that, in a situation like a vehicle fire, the hydrogen is vented safely,  more of a hiss than a boom.

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-  Gary says the car is great to drive, the range is more than adequate, and the fast refueling makes it a practical solution for anybody with a long way to go.

-   It comes down to supply and demand. Specifically, the lack of supply. There are only about 70 refueling stations in the entirety of the U.S., all in California. We've seen pilot programs like the Toyota Mirai in small numbers for years, but nobody wants to invest in building more hydrogen stations elsewhere without more cars on the road. Meanwhile, nobody will buy cars without filling stations.  A catch 22!

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-    In the U.S., but Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York have all signed on to an agreement to create a series of "Hydrogen Hubs". Support for hydrogen doesn't have to come at the expense of building out EV charging networks. In fact, it might be cheaper to build both, saturating urban and main travel routes with high-speed battery chargers while leaving the more rural areas to hydrogen.

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-    The most efficient way forward is not relying on ever bigger, ever heavier batteries in EVs, but instead smaller, more practical city EVs complemented with fuel-cell-powered cars for those who need to go farther or tow more.

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-   Hydrogen not only solves many EV problems like range and recharging, but that fuel cell cars will thrive when the world's lithium supply chain hits its breaking point. "You already see that in '27 and '28, there will be a scarcity. So that is where hydrogen comes in. It uses less raw materials in a much, much smaller battery.

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-   An ideal future is where areas bathed in sunlight use solar cells to generate hydrogen, which will be loaded onto next-gen tankers and shipped to countries around the world, emissions-free from the air and back to it.

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-   It sounds like an impossible dream, but Japan is already importing hydrogen from Australia, and there are plenty of other places in the world where this could happen. I hope Gary gives us a ride in his new car.

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February 27, 2023          HYDROGEN  CARS  -  the future is here?                3894                                                                                                                         

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