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Perhaps the only time you’ve heard about fuel cell vehicles is when Hollywood stars roll up to the red carpet. A star with a green streak is more than happy to lend his or her name to the cause of emission-free motoring, and car companies will do what’s necessary to promote their forward-thinking advanced technologies.

Top: Jamie Lee Curtis with Honda FCX Clarity.
Bottom: Brad Pitt with BMW Hydrogen 7.

Separating Hydrogen Truth and Fiction

But there’s evidence that hydrogen fuel cell cars—largely dismissed as fantasy in recent years—might one day become more than just the stuff of science fiction movies. Ironically, Tinsel Town and Greater Los Angeles—a town where fiction and gritty realities collide—is becoming the location for real fuel cell cars, although still on a limited basis. Los Angeles enjoys the support of state and local government agencies and a budding infrastructure for refueling—including 20 hydrogen stations and another seven in the planning stages. The lack of a refueling network is perhaps the biggest obstacle to the deployment of hydrogen-powered cars.

And then there was the large showing of fuel cell cars at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show—demonstrating that fuel cell technology remains an important area of research and development focus for automakers, along with the hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and full electric vehicles that are likely to appear on the market sooner.

Hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars are essentially electric vehicles—producing their electricity onboard instead of having it supplied from the grid. Compressed hydrogen passes through a fuel cell membrane that produces electricity to power the car.

Fuel Cell Highlights from the Los Angeles Show

Kia unveiled its second-generation fuel cell vehicle, the Borrego FCEV at its press conference. This vehicle has a power stack that is almost 50 percent more powerful than the previous generation and uses a supercapacitor for energy storage, but also delivers an impressive 54 miles to the gallon.

Nissan had its fuel cell vehicle, the X-Trail FCV, in the ride-and-drive. The new fuel cell stack in the Nissan doubles the power density of the previous generation stack and also achieves a 35 percent cost reduction mainly due to using half the platinum of earlier versions.

General Motors also had its Chevy Equinox FCV in the ride-and-drive program, one of 100 being used in its Project Driveway program that has thousands of regular citizens as well as key influencers evaluating daily life with a fuel cell vehicle.

Fuel cell vehicles certainly face challenges before becoming a mainstream product, but many in the industry and government still see them as the “holy grail,” capable of delivering all of the convenience and performance of an internal combustion engine without the pollution and greenhouse gases, or dependence on fossil fuel.

The post Hollywood Pushes for Fuel Cell Cars appeared first on HybridCars.com.

“The BMW Hydrogen 7′s emissions were only a fraction of SULEV level, making it one of the lowest emitting combustion engine vehicles that have been manufactured,” Thomas Wallner, the Argonne lab’s lead hydrogen vehicle testing engineer, told Science Daily Magazine. “Moreover, the car’s engine actively cleans the air. Argonne’s testing shows that the Hydrogen 7′s 12-cylinder engine actually shows emissions levels that, for certain components, are cleaner than the ambient air that comes into the car’s engine.”

Instead of using hydrogen to generate electricity in a fuel cell, the BMW Hydrogen 7— essentially a 7 Series sedan—burns hydrogen in its conventional V-12 engine. The version of the Hydrogen 7 tested by the Argonne Lab is a mono-fuel vehicle, only capable of running on hydrogen. Previous versions can switch to straight gasoline at the driver’s whim. Think of it as a dual-fuel gasoline-hydrogen hybrid. A full tank of liquid hydrogen will grant a vehicle range of more than 125 miles. Add a full tank of gasoline for another 300 miles of interstate driving. Put those two together and the BMW Hydrogen 7 can drive about 450 miles on a full supply of fuel.

There’s little hope that the BMW Hydrogen 7 will be put into production. Instead, the idea is for BMW to get more experience using hydrogen fuel in real world. The BMW Hydrogen 7 runs on liquid hydrogen, not gaseous hydrogen. There are only about 50 hydrogen fueling stations in the United States, and just a handful of those dispense liquid hydrogen. The temperature of hydrogen must be maintained at about 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit to remain in a liquid state.

The findings of these independent tests will be presented on April 2 at the National Hydrogen Association Annual Hydrogen Conference in Sacramento, California.

The post BMW Hydrogen 7 Beats SULEV Standard appeared first on HybridCars.com.

For a nearly a generation, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles have been championed as the long-term solution to auto emissions. Vehicles like the Honda FCX Clarity and the Chevrolet Equinox have brought that dream a little bit closer to reality. But the BMW Hydrogen 7 steers through the hydrogen highway in a different direction—because it isn’t a fuel-cell vehicle at all.

Instead of using hydrogen to generate electricity in a fuel cell, the BMW Hydrogen 7— essentially a 7 Series sedan—burns hydrogen in its conventional V-12 engine. And it can switch to straight gasoline at the driver’s whim. Think of it as a dual-fuel gasoline-hydrogen hybrid. A full tank of liquid hydrogen will grant a vehicle range of more than 125 miles. Add a full tank of gasoline for another 300 miles of interstate driving. Put those two together and the BMW Hydrogen 7 can drive about 450 miles on a full supply of fuel.

Whether using an engine or fuel cell, burning hydrogen produces only water vapor at the tailpipe. But the Hydrogen 7 faces a number of obstacles that fuel-cell vehicles—already challenged enough—don’t have to consider.

Cool Idea, Very Cool

The BMW Hydrogen 7 runs on liquid hydrogen, not gaseous hydrogen. There are only about 50 hydrogen fueling stations in the United States, and just a handful of those dispense liquid hydrogen. Even if you happen to have access to liquid hydrogen station, you’ll still face a number of other drawbacks and obstacles. First, the BMW Hydrogen 7 has a zero-to-60 time of almost 10 seconds, which is about 45 percent slower than a conventional 7 Series with a V-12. Trunk space has been cut in half to make way for the bulky hydrogen fuel tank.

Speaking of the tank, it’s more accurate to think of it as a giant thermos, because the temperature of hydrogen must drop down to about 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit before reaching a liquid state. If that chilly temperature is not maintained, then you face the problem known as “boil off,” a process which is difficult to avoid. When the car is not in use—for as little as one day—the liquid hydrogen begins boiling off. Half the fuel is gone in eight days time. Therefore, this car is actually more efficient on the road than in parked in a garage.

For now, the problems of the Hydrogen 7 belong to very short list of people. BMW has leased a limited number to high-profile individuals interested in touting the green attributes of hydrogen fuel.

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