Hawkeye,
Good encouraging article: I have pasted it below:
Monday, December 21, 1998
Science Watch
The Auto's Road to the Future
By LEE DYE
Scientists and engineers around the world are creating radical
technologies that could revolutionize the automotive industry.
But there's a catch. No matter how dramatically the family
car is altered, it's supposed to act, look and perform about the same
as the cars of today, but with equal convenience, far greater
efficiency and far lower emissions.
In a sense, we are on the cusp of a revolution that isn't supposed to
feel like one--or cost like one, either. But rest assured that the car
you buy in the decades ahead will be a very different beast.
The internal-combustion engine that has been the mainstay
throughout the history of the auto industry will undoubtedly be around
for a while, but it is undergoing something of a transformation itself.
Experts predict that its role will diminish as time passes. It has sealed its own fate by leaving too much room for improvement. For
example, it needs a lot of power some of the time, thus making it
inefficient most of the time.
"You've got an engine that is designed for the 10% of the time that
you are accelerating," said Ed Wall, coordinator of the U.S.
Department of Energy's role in a joint federal-industry program called
Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. "So you're driving at
17% efficiency." Those performance figures have led to a deplorable waste of natural resources, along with the kind of air pollution that prompted California to lead the nation in mandating "ultra-low" emission standards.
Although there is considerable debate about the exact course this
revolution will take, many experts agree that the immediate future
should see significant improvements in the internal-combustion engine
through "direct-injection" fuel systems and more. Unlike the fuel
system used in today's cars, which deliver gasoline when the piston is
on its down stroke, a direct-injection system forces fuel into the
combustion chamber at the precise time needed for maximum
combustion efficiency. But simply improving the gasoline engine won't satisfy the needs of the future, and many experts believe hybrid vehicles will play an increasingly important role in the next decade. These vehicles will draw the best from two different worlds, relying on a combination of high-tech gasoline or diesel engines for clout and electric motors for efficiency during normal driving conditions. Hybrids can recharge their batteries while operating, thus vastly
improving the range that now limits pure electric vehicle But as promising as hybrids may seem, many experts view them as a
transitional phase in the march toward the true car of the future,
which will be powered by fuel cells.
Long the dream of automotive engineers, fuel cells use hydrogen to
generate electricity through an electrochemical process. Hydrogen is
broken down into protons and electrons, and the electrons are
channeled into a stream that provides the electricity to run the motor. The protons then combine with oxygen to form water, the only waste product.
Such a benign system could satisfy all our needs, but until recently, it faced a nearly impossible hurdle. Where does a body go to fill up the fuel tank with hydrogen? There is no mass distribution system in place that could supply the hydrogen needed to fuel vast numbers of such vehicles. And the creation of such a system without a ready market is out of the question. But you can get gasoline just about anywhere, and researchers have found the answer to their dilemma right under their noses. The Department of Energy, working with Arthur D. Little of Cambridge, Mass., and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, announced what it called a "major breakthrough" last year that would allow the existing infrastructure to support vehicles powered by fuel cells. The researchers found that hydrogen could be extracted from fuels ranging from gasoline to methanol. With an onboard processing unit, the driver of a fuel-cell car could pull into any gas station and fill up. The waste from the conversion process would include about half as much carbon dioxide as a typical car emits today, but other pollutants, such as particulates and nitrous oxide, would be almost negligible. Patrick Davis, a program manager for fuel-cell technology at the Department of Energy, said such a vehicle would go at least twice as far on a gallon of gas, with far lower emissions, because the gas would be used only to produce hydrogen to run the fuel cell. Davis added that such a vehicle would easily meet the strict controls adopted by California last month.
"That's the Holy Grail we're all reaching for," Davis said.
The new process removes "fuel infrastructure as an issue" because
owners would be able to get fuel just as easily as they can buy
gasoline today, Davis said. "That's pretty critical."
* * *
There are still some technological hurdles to be overcome. The
processing unit that extracts hydrogen from other fuels is too big, thus requiring too much space on the vehicle, for example, but Davis says that's chiefly because it is first-generation technology designed more for research than for practical deployment.
The ability to extract hydrogen from other fuels paves the way for
the introduction of fuel-cell vehicles within a decade or so. Once
there are thousands of such vehicles on the road, the infrastructure
will probably change to accommodate them.
In time, Davis said, it might be possible to buy hydrogen as easily as it is to buy gasoline today, if enough cars with fuel on the
road, and that would eliminate even the carbon dioxide emissions.
In the meantime, other technologies will undoubtedly come on line,
including lithium-ion batteries that could offer performance in an
electric car that would rival that of an internal-combustion engine.
All of these innovations face technological barriers, but progress is
being made today on many fronts. Before long, the car you may be
driving really won't be your father's Oldsmobile.
Lee Dye can be reached via e-mail at leedye@compuserve.com.
Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
Search the archives of the Los Angeles Times for similar stories about: AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY, TECHNOLOGY, AUTOMOBILES, PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT, ALTERNATIVE FUEL VEHICLES, HYDROGEN.
You will not be charged to look for stories, only to retrieve one.
As a former 23 year California resident, and an escapee from the automotive repair business, I would add that one can't underestimate the power of environmental bureaucrats in California. They drive the federal government with their excess. This alone has the power to insure success in fuel cell technology.
Bill Peavey |
