Subscription Center
A look at the infrastructure necessary to make hydrogen hybrid automobiles a reality
June 3, 2008 | 16
The East Coast Equinox fleet is fueled at either the Ardsley, N.Y., facility, which uses "green hydrogen" produced as an industrial by-product, or at a White Plains, N.Y., Shell station, which buys electricity generated by the Niagara Falls hydropower project in western New York State....[More]
Hydrogen travels to the Ardsley station in pressurized tubes. Once at the station, it is compressed to even greater densities of either 5,000 or 10,000 pounds per square inch (351 or 703 kilograms of force per square centimeter)....[More]
Helium is used to maintain pressure in the fuel tanks when the vehicles are prepared for overseas air or sea shipment. The inert gas allows the tanks to retain some pressure and reduces the potential of fuel tank contamination....[More]
Three layers of material guard the Equinox's hydrogen charge: a carbon-fiber tank, metal sheaths and a plated undercarriage to ward off debris. The sleek undercarriage is remarkably clean after 5,475 miles (8,810 kilometers) because of a lack of fluids in the Equinox: no oil, gas, transmission fluid or power steering fluid....[More]
Maintaining the Equinox fleet requires special tools and diagnostic software. The retrofits on this whiteboard are all completed; for the first few months of the road test the Ardsley facility has seen less demand for maintenance than expected....[More]
This spectral camera overlooking the hydrogen pump at the White Plains, N.Y., Shell station watches for hydrogen flames, invisible in daylight. Three more cameras surround the compression area of the station....[More]
Currently, the Equinox fuels with two connectors, as seen here at the Shell station in White Plains, N.Y. The rear cable sends pressure and temperature data to the fuel dispenser, while the side hose conveys hydrogen....[More]
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
World Changing Ideas: 20 Ways to Build a Cleaner, Healthier, Smarter World
Plan B for Energy: 8 Revolutionary Energy Sources
SciAm Test Drives Two Street-Legal Fuel-Cell Cars
Can Algae Feed the World and Fuel the Planet? A Q&A with Craig Venter
Cellulose Success
Pollution-Free Hydrogen SUV Hits the Driveway
Readers Respond on "What Now for Nuclear Waste?"
Video: CES: Day One Coverage
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
16 Comments
Add CommentWhy doesn,t sciam dedicate a several page article to compressed air cars. To me they are the best way to save great amts. of gas and end our dependance on oil. The tech. is already here and they are already being mass produced. Yet few people in the US, even know what they are. Educate us!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt looks like all the right decisions are being made on this project, I just hope they don't drop this like they did with the electric car. (We weren't privy to their reasons for doing so.) By employing "specialists"to perform the refueling tasks they might considerably reduce most of the inherent hazards. We often forget that "self service" gas stations are a fairly recent development, judging from some of the stories I've heard of people driving off with the hose still attached and so on, this would most likely be the way to go, in the beginning at least.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat a joke, did anyone stop to think about how hydrogen is currently made? Hint: think negative EROI with 60+% of electricity coming from fosil fuels.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEnergy density of a fuel cell: 13,000 joules per gram.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEnergy density of gasoline: 47,000 joules per gram.
Quit wasting time on fuel cells and concentrate on making synthetic gasoline.
And remember, children, you all learned in third grade that CO2 is a plant nutrient, not a pollutant.
Energy density of a lithium ion battery: 600 joules per gram.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEnergy density of gasoline: 47,000 joules per gram.
QED.
--
Edited by frgough at 06/03/2008 3:21 PM
--
Edited by frgough at 06/03/2008 3:21 PM
Yes, because the thing I want most in a car is an air tank pressurized to 10,000 atmospheres.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRemember, kids, in third grade you all learned that CO2 is plant food, not a pollutant.
I can understand the obvious as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere is the point:
"Someone is trying to do something positive".
If hydrogen isn't the currently best alternative, ok, what it?
It is all to easy to throw darts in the name of showing how "smart" we are. If we were that "smart" we wouldn't be on the way toward destroying our planet.
Compressed air has issues with condensation/corrosion and combustion from trace amounts of lubricants, solvents, etc. Just think diesel engines here. The Germans tried synthetic gasoline during WW II, remember? Shall we all get together and see if we can't bring buggy whips back into production? Your condescension toward new technology and fresh ideas is tedious and overblown.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn your zeal to dazzle us with your acumen for statistics, you overlooked one salient fact. Batteries, steam, hydrogen, compressed gas et all, are power mediums, not fuel sources. Your argument is baseless; you're simply comparing apples to oranges.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey Frhough,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"And remember, children, you all learned in third
> grade that CO2 is a plant nutrient, not a pollutant"
Yes, it's a plant nutient - but then, Vitamin D is a human nutrient, yet it is poisonous in large doses. Just because something is beneficial at a certain point does not mean it is beneficial in enormous quantities. We are overdosing our planet with C02. Those plants that survive having their ecosystem wrecked will, I am sure, be well fed and happy, but it is not going to do us humans any good.
Additionally, I am sure that a gallon of gasoline contains more joules of energy than a gallon of chlorophyl, so why not teach plants to run on gas instead of sunlight?
Good idea, but according to the laws of thermodynamics ( as every diver knows ) if you fill a high pressure air ( or hydrogen) bottle she will get warm. Every diver puts the airbottle in seawater to cool it down. How about the hydrogenbottle? Is there a heat exchanger after the high pressure inlet ? Best regards Dr.Kamlander@aon.at
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn article about GM and Shell, the only sponsors on this site, nice work SCIAM.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScientific American should not be publishing stories like this, without pointing out the TRUTH, the science. I bought the movie http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/ that tells about the five (5) miracles that would be needed to make the hydrogen car PRACTICAL! I am an engineer and I knew that they were telling the truth and GM and Shell playing the shell game are not telling the truth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot enough range.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee the movie from http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/ that tells about the five (5) miracles that would be needed to make the hydrogen car PRACTICAL! I am an engineer and I knew that they were telling the truth and GM and Shell by playing the shell game are not telling the truth. GM and other car companies, Shell and the other oil companies, Bush and his faith based energy plan, The easily conned California Governor, the California board with a conflict of interests, and ignorant public killed the electric car. The oil companies are fighting the coal companies to run our cars and the coal companies are not at peak coal yet, but the oil companies are.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome kids for a science fair could show that for the same electricity a battery car would go far further than a hydrogen car that used the same electricity to separate the hydrogen from water and to compress the hydrogen to 10000 psi. Then they could show that for the same amount of natural gas and same energy to compress it to liquid you can go far further in a Civic GX than you can in a hydrogen car that had to separate out the hydrogen from the same natural gas and then compress the hydrogen to 10000 psi with the same energy that also had to separate the hydrogen. Your would end up with far less energy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this