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A team at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have revealed a potential revolution in hydrogen cars, after driving 650 miles on one tank of liquid hydrogen. In a recent test, the scientists set a new world record after they installed a super-insulated hydrogen gas tank in a standard Prius hybrid that was able to keep a full load of the liquid without evaporating for six days.
The tank, weighing in at around 300 pounds, removes a heck of a lot of obstacles to the advancement of hydrogen-powered cars. Current versions, such as the fleet of hydrogen-electric Toyota Prius’s used by various city governments across Southern California, run on compressed hydrogen gas, and have a limited range of around 80 miles between refuels. Even a pretty unambitious three-gallon tank fills the entire trunk of a Prius, yet still only enables a range of approximately 200 miles, not really enough to compete with gasoline-only vehicles.
By Nick Chambers •
June 18, 2008
Honda has started rolling the first US specification FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell sedans off a production line in Japan to be delivered to a small group of hand-picked high-profile California test customers. Leases to these customers, including Jamie Lee Curtis, are scheduled to begin in July.
The combined sales plan for the US and Japan calls for a few dozen to be leased the first year with about 200 total units leased over the next three years.
Tiguan HyMotion Fuel Cell Concept Car
Last Thursday I had the opportunity to attend a VW press event showing off the new hydrogen fuel cell powered Tiguan. The vehicle (above) is one of only two concept prototypes in the world, and this one was flown in from Germany for its US debut.
The event was originally intended to be a test-drive of the HyMotion Tiguan, but the vehicle was having “electrical problems” that kept it out for display only. A VW spokesperson assured us that it had nothing to do with the fuel cell, but whatever the problem was they didn’t want it to happen to us in mid-day San Francisco traffic.
Despite claims to the contrary, it seems like General Motors is getting more and more involved in the refueling business. GM has already invested heavily in two different cellulosic ethanol companies (Coskata and Mascoma), and has now partnered with Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to open a hydrogen fueling station near the Los Angeles Int’l Airport (LAX). The station will be located at Clean Energy’s compressed natural gas (CNG) facility and should be operational by the fall.
There are more than 5,000,000 heavy duty trucks running up and down US highways each day. Every one of those trucks gets an average of 7 mpg, carries upwards of 200-300 gallons of diesel, and spews out potentially harmful emissions.
Like it or not, we depend on them to bring us our food, fuel, and products for everyday living. It’s a connection that most of us often forget about, only remembering it long enough to curse them as they slow us down on the highway.
It’s also an industry that has recently been hit hard by soaring fuel prices, and now, with the average price of diesel in the US at $4.70/gallon and climbing, it’s sure to get worse.
Needless to say, there’s a rising cacophony of voices within the trucking industry clamoring for relief. Most of this noise currently comes in the form of wanting a break in fuel prices, but really that’s just a temporary fix. Any solution with sticking power would have to offer both economic and environmental benefit — you know, win-win.
I can’t claim to be a car type person at all. I’m nearly 24, and in a country where the license to drive is provided at 18, let us just say that my friends have fun with my lack of desire to drive. However, I would like to think that, if I were a driver and had enough funds, I would spend my money wisely on Toyota’s new fuel cell hybrid.
Toyota Motor Corporation has announced that the Toyota FCHV-adv will be powered by a new fuel-cell hybrid system, which is powered by hydrogen and electricity. This improves the models cruising range to a maximum of 516 miles, or 830 kilometers for the rest of the world who decided to go metric. This compares favorably to the previous fuel cell model, which only provided for a 205 mile (330 km) range.
Well, here it is folks. A company has finally gone and built the controversial hydrogen hybrid system (or hydrogen injection, or Water4Gas or HHO system – choose your poison) into what appears to be a true production car. Not only that, the car looks, well, stunning… to put it mildly.
Fuel saving scams, er, devices, have been around for a long time, and now that fuel prices are soaring again, we decided it would be a good time to take a look at a few of the most popular and interesting ones out there.
Since the start of the Iraq War in 2003, oil prices have jumped from $28 per barrel to over $130, with most of that rise occurring in the last year. This fact is made even more stark considering that for all of the last century prior to the current meteoric rise, crude oil prices have averaged about $20 per barrel (adjusted for inflation).
By Deb Hiett •
May 23, 2008
Testing the New Equinox Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle
GM’s new Equinox hydrogen fuel cell electric cars are on the road. Well, one hundred of them are, and you can apply to become a test driver for three months.
The Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell has been honored with the Green Car Journal’s Green Car Vision Award, the first time the magazine has recognized a limited-production vehicle for its forward-thinking technologies. “Project Driveway” is the first large-scale market test of fuel cell vehicles with real drivers.
Yamaha Tesseract: Green Bike or Decepticon?
The future of transportation is in no way restricted to cars, considering that most of the world’s population gets by on some sort of bike. If you want to see what the future of individual transport might look like, take a look at the Yamaha Tesseract (above), and a slideshow of 11 other green motorcycles put together by Wired.
Clean Burning Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs) are hot commodities in some parts of the country, where fuel can sell for as low as $0.63 per gallon.
Unlike the world’s most fuel efficient car (VW’s 285 MPG bullet), the Honda Civic GX looks like a standard passenger vehicle. What makes it special is what you don’t see: tailpipe emissions that are often cleaner than ambient air.
The Civic GX is powered by compressed natural gas—methane—the simplest and cleanest-burning hydrocarbon available. With an economical 113-hp, 1.8-Liter engine, the EPA has called the Civic the “world’s cleanest internal-combustion vehicle” with 90% cleaner emissions than the average gasoline-powered car on the road in 2004.
And get this: in Utah, natural gas can be purchased for $0.63 per gallon.
