Hybrid Cars and Fuel Savings – Feasible Options

As an engineer I have been studying and following the renewable energy debate and developments for well over 30 years and many useful as well as useless inventions/solutions have crossed my road of discovery.

One tendency, which always seems to stand out, is the all or nothing approach.

All wind power or all nuclear power or all wave, solar etc. and lately all hydrogen, rarely ever a composite/combination of current conventional and renewable energy resources.

The latest fads seem again all nuclear or all hydrogen and the most laughable of them all “Carbon Sequestration”.

CO2 Sequestration, i.e. compressing CO2 and pumping it to the bottom of the oceans or into some geological cavity is as costly in energy consumption as the building, as well as decommissioning of nuclear power stations and the storage of radio active waste and equally hazardous.

Using Bio Fuels, with its current technology, is a bit like incinerating your breakfast, lunch & dinner to drive your car.

Even more fascinating is that all of these latest offerings are not feasible for another 10 to 30 years, requiring huge amounts of funding to prove or disprove their viability. So it seems that invariably concepts are being promoted which have no immediate application when there are ample and proven concepts that can be implemented now with considerable immediate benefits.

Methods such as co-generation (recovery of waste heat) or preheating by renewable resources rarely rate a mention. Both methods are only a few of the many options guaranteeing substantial reductions in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Again, the aspect of the hydrogen as fuel debate is the all or nothing approach. It is nothing new that cars (and planes) can run on hydrogen. The catch here is the, currently, enormous cost of the fuel storage and the non-existing infrastructure. It is even proposed to generate the hydrogen from, would you believe it, carbon based fuels or nuclear power.

One can only wonder why the viable and relatively low cost conversion of existing means of transport is so rarely being considered as an option. For many years now the conversion of petrol powered vehicles to LPG/CNG was feasible, economical and aided the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Hybrid cars, powered by a combination of internal combustion engine, batteries and electric motor can be another, but still very expensive, option to lower fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

So why not use hydrogen in combination with conventional fuel to reduce your fuel consumption and your environmental footprint? It is a proven technology. A low cost on-board hydrogen generator produces small quantities of hydrogen serving as a combustion enhancer. This hydrogen generator only operates while while your petrol/diesel engine is running making it perfectly safe, saves substantial amounts of fuel and does not require any hydrogen storage. In other words no hydrogen is produced when the engine is not running.

Are Hydrogen Fuel-Cell automobiles even feasible?

It seems to me that this technology, escpecially when compared to electric powered automobile technology (www.teslamotors.com), is a fairly far-fetched technology to actually implement. Why then, is there such a political push for this solution rather than pursuing an electric solution?

Hydrogen Vehicles – Are they Feasible?

The importance of developing new methods of powering a vehicle is becoming more and more of a focus for manufacturers. Although the research and development of new methods comes at a price, the damage being done to the environment by the established methods is reaching such a level that it has now become necessary for governments to pass legislation penalizing those who continue to produce damaging vehicles. Faced with the choice between developing less sustainable methods and being fined, and putting the money in now to ensure a more stable future, it makes sense to move to newer, cleaner methods of vehicle production. 

The hydrogen fuel cell is a method that has come under some scrutiny in recent times. With some debate over the feasibility of hybrid and electric cars at the present time, not least in terms of refueling while there are so few enabled service stations, hydrogen is seen by some as the savior of the motor car. Noted “petrol head” Jay Leno has said that the hydrogen car may well even be the savior of the old cars we know and love – by using the cleaner, more efficient models such as the Honda Clarity for our day-to-day journeys, we will still be able to enjoy the likes of the Bugatti Veyron and Porsche Carrera for “weekend driving”. However, there is a growing body of criticism for the hydrogen-powered car, with some sources arguing that the technology is currently imperfect, and perfection so far off that it could be up to forty years before we can expect a feasible large-scale solution. 

Some argue that hydrogen powered vehicles will not have a meaningful impact on gasoline use nor on the environment for so long that any money spent on the development of such vehicles will simply divert resources away from more immediate solutions. The government has gone to the lengths of cutting off funding for the development of hydrogen fuel cells, and as of the present time the number of public vehicles powered in this way in the United States is in the region of two hundred – most of those being in California, where the support for the technology, both emotionally and logistically, is at its highest. 

While none of this means that companies should cease research into the production of hydrogen-powered vehicles, there is a growing belief that other methods of powering cars, such as biodiesel, may well be a better bet for the future. The problem with the hydrogen dream is that, as yet, it simply is not a technology which is ready for mass production, and that alternative, equally clean and even cleaner methods are further ahead in their development. While, some years down the line, hydrogen fuel cells may well be a viable answer to the many problems we face, companies will need to pick a point to focus on and follow it through if we are to have cleaner motoring any time soon. As things stand, Honda is pressing ahead with the Clarity FCX, and if there are positive outcomes on that front, things are still prone to change.