tejek,
re:Do you know what the advantages of hydrogen are?
No emissions at all when burned, downside is cost and is explosive. Also, fuel cells run on hydrogen via another process that only creates water as a byproduct.
Wall Street Journal Article on various fuels - a lot to choose from:
online.wsj.com
HYDROGEN
In two or three years, BMW is supposed to add another kind of engine to the mix -- one you can fill up with either gasoline or hydrogen. The premium car maker has been developing the technology at a research center and test track in southern France. There its V-12 experimental car, the H2R, has hit speeds of 186 mph. A hydrogen-burning version of its 7 Series sedan is supposed to be launched by 2008.
Although burning hydrogen would essentially eliminate tailpipe emissions, it has other problems. Hydrogen is highly flammable. There are only a handful of hydrogen filling stations in the country. And hydrogen isn't cheap: A kilogram, which produces about the same amount of energy as a gallon of gasoline, costs more than $3.
Hydrogen-combustion vehicles also go only about two-thirds as far as gasoline vehicles on a tank of fuel. And while BMW's experimental car is achieving great speeds, it's not clear whether the same kind of power can be achieved in models that will run on gasoline as well as hydrogen.
FUEL CELLS
This is the technology auto makers are counting on for the long term. Fuel cells run on hydrogen and a chemical reaction that produces electricity and, as a byproduct, water. Put enough fuel cells together and you can generate enough electricity to power a vehicle. Just about every car maker has developed test vehicles. In June, DaimlerChrysler showed off its F-Cell in Washington, D.C. It takes perhaps 10 seconds to reach 60 mph, but the F-Cell showed pep at cruising speeds. And there's no shifting. Its electric motor has so much torque that the car only has one gear.
Like other manufacturers, DaimlerChrysler is testing a small fleet of fuel-cell vehicles in the U.S. and elsewhere, but it will be some time before they arrive in showrooms. Test models like the F-Cell cost more than $1 million to make and have limited range. BMW's H2R goes a bit over 100 miles on a tank of fuel.
Doahn Tran, who manages a fleet of F-Cells in Michigan, says commercial fuel-cell vehicles are still five or 10 years away. "And even then," he says, "they'll be in limited quantities for pretty specialized uses." |
