Here comes the hydrogen car

Nick M

Nick M

Black Rifles Matter
Sep 9, 2005
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060912/bs_nm/autos_bmw_hydrogen_dc_1

BMW did not say in the Yahoo news story that it was a fuel cell. BMW had working fuel cells for car in the 80's. Problem is, who will pay the million bucks for one.

The car will be the 7 series. 0-60 in 9.5 seconds, much like an 87 Ford Taurus.

It will only be leased to selected customers due to the very high price. Price was not listed in this story.
 
B

bluemax

The Family Man
Mar 30, 2005
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Orange County, CA
Hydrogen fuel has been explored for decades. I remember reading a Popular Mechanics article on hydrogen powered airplanes. There are huge benefits from using hydrogren as fuel. However, there are a lot of problems. One of the biggest problem is how do you keep the explosive hydrogen under control when the fuel cell ruptures in a crash.
 
Dirgle

Dirgle

Conjurer of Boost
Mar 30, 2005
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Believe it or not hydrogen is safer than gasoline. The simple fact is if gasoline were introduced today as a fuel source, it would be dismissed, simply because it is unsafe and far to combustible. Yet we have become so accustomed to it we don't think twice about how dangerous it really is.

The tanks for hydrogen they have today are very robust. If gasoline tank and a hydrogen tank were placed in the same wreck the gasoline one would explode first. And the gasoline explosion would be bigger and burn hotter than hydrogen, simply because there is more energy in hydrocarbons(this is why when running on petrol the BMW gets almost twice as much MPG, the hydrogen just doesn’t have as much energy. It's the same principle as IJ running LPG in his car; he would get more MPG if he ran petrol).

And once these hydrogen cars get more popular expect to see the infrastructure grow very fast, as hydrogen is far cheaper to produce than gasoline. Just don't expect to see it over here very soon, as we Americans do love our Texas Tea. Sad we miss out on another cool technology.
 
Dirgle

Dirgle

Conjurer of Boost
Mar 30, 2005
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Hydrogen may be cheap to produce but the technology to burn it isn't. From what I heard about that car, the reason the price is so high isn’t necessarily because of the ability to burn hydrogen. It was building a motor that could burn both hydrogen and petrol in the same engine efficiently. A LOT of R&D time went into getting a decent mpg out of both the hydrogen and petrol. They had a good system but they wanted to make it better. And it took a lot of money and a lot of time to get that little extra. That’s BMW for you.
 
J

JCP

The Big Unit
Apr 6, 2006
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wow.. tech of the future.. I bet a 2007 7 series beemer bout 20 years ago would be far more than 1,000,000 ... just some food for thought.

Natn'l gasoline $ per gallon avg: $2.67
Burning this fuel.. and other fuels like it: Harmful

Having a Car produce nothing but water out of the ass end... Priceless

;).. seriously though.. its technology of the future... and eventually we have to innovate and improve to move forward as a society... Or we could just sit back and watch things deteriorate.. Hell we could even form tribes and take the women of our rivals and chop their breasts off in anger..

Regression is the real danger.. Progress will save us all :).
 
Nick M

Nick M

Black Rifles Matter
Sep 9, 2005
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I am hoping for prices to drop. Not for me to buy, but for consumers. If a hydrogen car comes that is affordable, there will be non hippies that buy it too. Many will buy it just because it is new. For gas prices and crude to lower permanently, there has to be a viable, readily available alternative fuel. Not just a pipe dream.
 
bonus12

bonus12

Backroads Driver
Jul 15, 2006
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i wonder why bmw decided to go hydrogen before electric?

correct me if i'm wrong, but isnt electric more advanced, cheaper, and better for the environment (more effiecient to produce)?

this is an extremely expensive car that really isnt that fast (0-60 in over 9 sec).
there is an electric car, the tesla, that goes 0-60 in 4 sec and is cheaper. its fuel economy is equivalent to 135 mpg, and this is a sports car we're talking about!

so, my question is why did bmw decide to head in the hydrogen direction rathee than electric?

Tesla Motors: http://www.teslamotors.com/reservations.php
 
3p141592654

3p141592654

90T
Oct 11, 2005
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Hydrogen (H2) does not exist in great quantities in nature. Yes, there are lots of hydrogen molecules in water, but it takes energy to convert water to hydrogen H2 gas.

The classic way to get H2 is by electrolysis of water. So where do you get the electrical energy needed to convert it? Solar could be a possibility, but in the quantities needed to fuel the entire US fleet of vehicles, you would need to at least double the electrical generating capacity of the country, most of which is coming today from fossil fuels (coal and natural gas).

So does hydrogen really solve our dependence on fossil fuels? Not really, unless we can move our electrical plants from the current mix of coal/gas to solar/wind/nuclear.

Now if fuel cells are proposed, then we could run them on methanol or ethanol derived from plant matter, but again in the quantities need to replace fossil fuels it is unclear there is enough land to support the crops.
 
3p141592654

3p141592654

90T
Oct 11, 2005
3,819
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Thousand Oaks, CA
By the way...currently, global hydrogen production is 48% from natural gas, 30% from oil, and 18% from coal; water electrolysis accounts for only 4%.

The majority of merchant hydrogen is produced by a process called steam methane reforming. Hydrogen is generated from a hydrocarbon (such as natural gas) and water at high temperatures in catalytic reactors. The hydrogen is typically purified using pressure swing adsorption.
 
Nick M

Nick M

Black Rifles Matter
Sep 9, 2005
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www.ebay.com
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe...but really only found in complex compounds.

Namely water and hydrocarbons. We already use hydrocarbons.
 
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