GM developing home hydrogen refueling device

 

GM developing home hydrogen refueling device

Publication Date:24-September-2006
08:30 PM US Eastern Timezone
Source:Chris Woodyard-USA Today
General Motors is building a prototype for a home hydrogen refueling
unit in hope of selling fuel-cell cars by 2011. The unit, which would
make hydrogen using either electricity or sunlight, would help sidestep
one of the most vexing problems surrounding the creation of the
pollution-free, alternative-power cars: how to persuade oil companies
to invest in expensive new hydrogen stations that would compete with
their core product, gasoline.

The automaker's goal is an affordable, compact unit that would allow
customers to fill their cars overnight in their own garages, says GM
spokesman Scott Fosgard.

GM would join Honda, which has already created a model for a home
refueling hydrogen unit.

Home refueling makes the possibility of fuel-cell cars "much more
real," especially since building hydrogen fueling stations would be a
"massive undertaking," says Ron Cogan, publisher of the Green Car
Journal.

GM is starting to seriously plan a business case for hydrogen vehicles,
which up to now has been a long-range research project eclipsed by more
market-ready fuel-saving alternatives, such as gas-electric hybrids.

Next year, GM plans to put 100 hydrogen fuel-cell versions of its
Chevrolet Equinox SUV into the hands of consumers - from teachers to
government officials - in Washington, D.C., California and New York.

And Vice Chairman Bob Lutz recently predicted that GM fuel-cell-powered
vehicles could go on sale in as few as five years from now, beating
previous forecasts by a decade.

He said fuel cells could create a new golden age for GM hearkening back
to the 1950s and 1960s.

Fueling is a problem. California, with the most hydrogen filling
stations of any state, has just 23 and another 15 on the drawing
boards. Even GM's oil company partner, Shell, has immediate plans for
only six, two outside New York and four on the drawing board in Los
Angeles.

One big reason: expense. Shell's only existing hydrogen filling
station, in the Washington, D.C., area, cost $2 million.

As for how many it eventually might build, "We haven't hung numbers on
it," says Shell Hydrogen's Tim O'Leary.

GM isn't alone in home refueling. Honda unveiled the third generation
of its home unit last year, created in conjunction with a fuel-cell
company called Plug Power. It produces enough hydrogen from natural gas
to power both a car and a home.

Honda also has a solar-powered refueling station in operation at its
test center in Torrance, Calif. It makes enough hydrogen for 30 miles
of driving a day.

Honda today demonstrated its next-generation hydrogen car in Japan.
Honda says its new FCX, with a smaller, lighter fuel cell, has a range
of more than 270 miles. It's due to arrive in the USA in 2008. Honda
has 15 current-generation FCXs being tested by consumers.

Other automakers have hydrogen programs as well, but aren't as far
along.

 



lkgeo1 wrote:


Pollution-free my ass !

Graham

 

WHY DO YOU HAVE SUCH A FIXATION WITH ANATOMY GAY BOY?
Eeyore wrote:

 



sidestep

Again...fuel cells cars are a fools game, you are going to use solar PV or
solar sterling to generate electricity to electrolyze hydrogen from
water....which will then be used in a fuel cell to do what? Generate
electricity to drive electric motors.... you haven't sidestepped anything.
All you have done is complicated the process. The limitation in electric
cars is related to range and ability to recharge them quickly. If you want
more range you have got to either store more energy on board (which can be
done with more or better batteries, hydrogen and fuel cells,
flywheels...etc.). Hydrogen and fuel cells would make refueling quickly
possible, but at a tremendous cost in infrastructure, electricity is
available now almost everywhere from the existing grid. The recharging
solution can be accomodated in other ways as well, battery swapping being my
favorite. You just have to deliver batteries to the places you want as
fueling stations......

As an aside, you can also burn hydrogen as you would gasoline....and then
what would you do with the fuel cell?

 



beard6801@bellsouth.net wrote:


Indeed.



Amen to that !



Exactly so and for routine journey lengths, the latest battery technology would
seem to fit the bill.


Burning hydrogen in an ICE delivers a bare 5% of the usable energy you started
with !

Graham