Ford says hydrogen cars close to production
USA Today - July 11, 2007
This is great news. Regardless of your personal feeling on global warming, you probably want us to start using alternative fuels that are cleaner, safe, and don’t adversely affect our trading balance with the world (if you are in the US).
Hydrogen has been discussed for a long time as a great alternative fuel. This article discusses burning hydrogen (as opposed to using hydrogen fuel cells). I think that may actually be a more cost effective method of using hydrogen but I will let market economics dictate that.
Obviously, a big issue with any alternative energy source is the distribution and marketing engine that gets the product into the hands of the consumers. I am not a big believer in government involvement in most cases but I think this may be a case where the government needs to push private industry into doing the right thing.
About 30 E-450 Hydrogen shuttle buses are working across the U.S. and Canada, and Ford engineers are monitoring them electronically in real time, Lapetz said. The vehicles, powered by a modified gasoline engine, have near zero emissions and get up to 13% better fuel economy than their gasoline counterparts …
Nearly every automaker is testing hydrogen-powered vehicles across the world, touting them as a renewable alternative to gasoline.
We’re not really talking about invention, that’s the thing. We know how to manufacture this kind of technology in high volumes.
Internal combustion hydrogen could be a bridge toward the ultimate hydrogen vehicles powered by fuel cells, which are as far off as 2015 or beyond, said Scott Staley, chief engineer of Ford’s hydrogen and fuel cell technology department.
Internal combustion hydrogen engines give off a small amount of pollution because they burn lubricants ….
Despite the small amount of pollution the internal combustion hydrogen engines have another advantage, and that is a far lower cost than fuel cells….
You can read the entire article here.
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[…] or bio-diesel car! Then we would have a real solution to the portable liquid fuel issue. Ford appears to have a hydrogen car in the works so maybe this is a possibility. The car was a Toyota Prius modified, by the addition of a 72.5 […]