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Environmental impact minimized.
Finite fossil fuel resource demand reduced.
When does one-third equal 100 percent? Fuel-cell vehicles could replace all our current cars and be refueled by one third of the 55 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day produced in America.
Now with those claims standing, who would like to drive a fuel-cell vehicle? Amazingly, I got the chance to drive six different hydrogen-powered vehicles on the morning of Aug. 22. And I have RITA to thank. RITA (Research and Innovative Technology Administration) of the U.S. Department of Transportation took the initiative to coordinate 8 automobile manufacturers with 2 portable refuelers to visit 31 cities in 13 days.
From Maine to Southern California, the general public, media and educators were encouraged to drive the best solution for transportation — hydrogen-powered fuel cells. Thanks again RITA!
As the host of the Thinking Green News Moment and founder of Green Drinks of La Crosse, I had conflicts with the Hydrogen Road Tour ’08 in the nearest location of Rolla, Mo. So I journeyed to Phoenix, where my daughters live. I was up early Friday morning as a result of my excitement and the fact that Gateway Community College was about 25 minutes from my hotel in Scottsdale.
Fortunately, my daughter, Sabrina, loaned me her Honda Civic hybrid for the adventure. I arrived at 8 a.m. as the media was beginning its coverage of this event and began taking notes on the vehicles that were there. The absence of the Honda Clarity as well as GM’s Equinox FCV was disappointing, but with 6 other hydrogen-powered vehicles, my note-taking was just beginning.
One of the first generalizations I noted were the Toyota Highlander FCHV, the Mercedes A-Class F-Cell, the BMW Hydrogen 7 and the Nissan XTrail FCV were all silver blue. And the Hyundai Tucson FCEV was silver while the VW Touran Hymotion was blue. So, all the vehicles present were silver blue or silver or blue.
The other generalization was that the fuel-cell vehicles were all pressurized to 5,000 PSI. Since the BMW Hydrogen 7 is not a fuel cell, it had an innovative and highly sophisticated liquid hydrogen storage system capable of storing 8 kilograms of hydrogen.
By the way, 1 kilogram of hydrogen is equal energy to one gallon of gasoline, but since the fuel cells are about 2.5 times more efficient than gas engines, only 40 percent storage is needed for the same driving distance.
At this point, Bill Shaeffer, the director of Valley of the Sun Clean Cities introduced Kim Riddle with RITA in the U.S. Department of Transportation. Roy Kim of the California Fuel Cell Partnership introduced Phil Brubaker, research administrator for the U.S. Depart-ment of Transportation. And finally, Arizona Congressman Ed Pastor commented on the related efforts in the Phoenix area.
Then the gentlemen-start-your-engines moment took place, and the excitement of actually driving these advanced machines was going to realize. At first, your place in the driver’s line determined the hydrogen-powered vehicle that you got to drive. Some others returned to the line to experience the one particular brand that they wanted to experience.
But I was not going to waste the opportunity by not returning to the line in order to experience all six vehicles. Quiet operation would be my first impression, but good performance was a close second. The zero-emission tailpipe part of the experience was an afterthought.
Range was one of the hot topics. Most Americans do not drive more than 100 miles round trip to work but seem to think they need a range of over 250 miles. Only the Honda Clarity and the BMW Hydrogen 7 have ranges above 250 miles. The BMW accomplishes this with a bi-fuel internal combustion engine that has a range of 125 miles on 8 kilograms of liquid hydrogen and 300 miles on the 16 gallons of gasoline.
The amazing part of the BMW was the switch on the steering wheel that allowed you to seamlessly alternate between fuels with no hitches. Obviously, burning gasoline does not produce zero tailpipe emissions but burning hydrogen is nearly zero emissions. At this time my daughter, Veron-ica, was able to take some photos as the vehicles were being stowed for the next showing.
The bottom line of this unique experience is that hydrogen-powered vehicles work well and are energy efficient as well as environmentally friendly. The fact that this event could traverse our entire country is an indicator that it is a matter of when rather than if hydrogen-powered vehicles will be a reality. Hydro Jen is Air Products’ animated spokesperson for the amazing world of hydrogen energy, and she tells us, “The United States produces 55 billion standard cubic feet per day of natural gas. If we used a third of this production for fueling H2 vehicles, we could support all the cars in the country.”
And that eliminates our dependency on foreign oil, minimizes our environmental impact while reducing our demand on finite fossil fuel resources. That makes hydrogen as easy as D-E-F!
Chris Schneider is president
of International Motorwerks in La Crosse. He is heard on Wisconsin Public Radio as the “Hybrid Guru.”
