Honda Fcv

[Coss]

With an intercooler, no doubt....

One in each ear; whiskers are directional guidance

 

[AriLea]

Is hydrogen the future? http://automobiles.honda.com/honda-fcv/

(ICE: Internal Combustion Engine)
I did multi-fuel vehicle research starting in 1982 with a published paper in 1984. Back then H2 was more of a problem of infrastructure and safe storage(both ground and mobile), which was possible but hefty. It's easier now, but still huge scalable ground infrastructure is required.

It's a big gamble to say exactly what or when something will happen with H2. Or if ever. And, concerning fuel cells, it's very sensitive to the capacities that battery technology reaches. And, of course, the H2 considerations change dramatically should inexpensive and lite batteries give us EV drives comparable to how ICE drives serve us now. It's easier to discuss what is possible with the technology then when or how it would be adopted.

My research involved converting an ICE to be switchable in use to Methane/Propane or back to petrol. (No technical limitation from being H2 as well.) The VRI(Vehicle Research Institute) where I worked, had previous (and later) experiences with H2.

The H2 investment is a political, capital management and business problem, that's what drives the where and when. The public perception is easily won if the government, business and technical community would swing with it. Since the technology works, they would fall in line if there was a serious push to implement. But doing so would cost a lot of political and money capital. So it's a bit of a chick/egg problem.

So what is possible with the technology now? Fact: a fuel cell vehicle IS an EV. It's just a matter of how much H2 storage vs battery power you have. And the two power sources could be modular and swap-able, even in stepped amounts. With the right design, you could easily switch from EV to Range Extended or all H2 powered. Or many and varied vehicles could be based on shared hardware designs and capacities.

At a price, all fossil fuels(methane, propane, butane + ) could be converted to H2. And the technology for water and other conversions is getting better and cheaper. The question is, on the balance of things when is it worth it? Only when the existence of the infrastructure is imminent. Again, chicken and egg.

The ICE conversion to use H2 or other gas, or even multi-fuel is not as flexible. And it divides the mobile population into dependence on a different infrastructure for each fuel. So ICE Multi-fuel is only workable for fleet uses. ICE will always compete with EV(and H2), into the future. So I would think only H2-EV is the ultimate future when (and if) petrol dedicated infrastructure is left behind. We have between 20 and 50 years of dependable oil-fossil fuels left(including tar sands and fracking up to 100+). And then there's shale at an even higher cost. That leaves a lot of wiggle room to consider a change.

 

[Dave PalmBeach]

There's FUD about hydrogen in FCVs being explosive, even compressed air has FUD around it, but compressed propane and butane in on highways, etc. yawn.

And ask Hollywood how wonderfully inflammable and explosive plain old gasoline is.

All the cabs in Japan are propane powered and the ones in Australia are duel fuel petrol and NG. We could realy make a diffrence here because NG burns so clean and we have a ton of it. Use it as a transition away from gas and coal.