Honda's latest concept car, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell engine
Posted on 06/29/2007 9:01:15 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Getting behind the wheel of any new car is a tad nerve wracking, but being entrusted with something worth around £5 million is enough to induce a cold sweat.
Honda's latest concept car, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell engine
Somewhat rashly Honda invited me to get behind the wheel of its latest concept car, a vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell engine. The car is filled with hydrogen rather than petrol and is the world's fastest high performance zero emissions car.
The hydrogen is pushed through a "fuel stack" somewhere beneath the arm rest between the driver and passenger, where it is converted into electricity which powers the engine. While conventional cars give out varying amounts of C02, this rather sleek beast emits only water vapour.
Transport for London has been part of an EU project testing the technology on buses and many of the major companies are trying to develop the ultimately ecologically friendly car.
There are already hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic, which are powered by a combination of petrol and electricity and, though their carbon emissions are much lower, there is some debate about their fuel economy.
Cars such as Saab's dual fuel car run on any bio-fuel, but they are losing ecological brownie points from some who argue that they are merely depleting another valuable resource.
The latest Honda car is their third crack at the technology. The previous two sounded a bit like high-technology washing machines, with a tendency to hum rather than roar. Now the fuel stack - the box which converts the hydrogen and oxygen into electricity -has shrunk, making the new version radically different to drive.
The Honda car can travel up to 100 mph and is due to go into production in small numbers in Japan next year, where owners will be able to lease one for upwards of £250 a month. Unfortunately, the only hydrogen fuel station in Britain is in Hornchurch, east London, (20p a litre) meaning that Honda's green machine may never take to the roads in its present form, but the engine technology could become commonplace, perhaps within a decade.
My contribution was not to crash the concept car.
AWESOME.
< /s>
The Hindenberg caught on fire because the paint used to make the envelope silver was flammable - and all it took was one lightning strike to set it off. The hydrogen was a secondary conflagration.
That is a beautiful machine.
Is Hydrogen more dangerous than other fuels?
Hydrogen is not more dangerous than any other fuel. Hydrogen’s hazards are usually managed easier than hydrocarbon fuels because hydrogen is lighter than air, and it burns upward and disperses. Hydrogen can however, cause brittleness in some materials, including metals, and can generate electrostatic charges and sparks through flow or agitation.
For a concept car, that’s pretty good.
You do realize that most concept cars can’t exceed about 20mph, right?
LOL, my thoughts exactly!!
Yes, like the Prius, most of the pollution comes from making the danged thing in the first place.
No range? So it can go 100mph for what 20 miles?
I drove the DaimlerChrysler fuel cell vehicles at the Mercedes test track in Stuttgart in 2000. I was there on election night.
The other issue with hydrogen is containment. It tends to eventually leak out of anything it’s placed in.
On the other hand, it’s still far less of a problem than decaborane...
Actually, this is the way to go. First to market hydrogen fueled autos are going to win big. There is a reason why the top US auto makers are losing money in the US. Lack of innovation is part of the problem. Laugh all you want, but this is market based reality.
Maybe I am just dense today but does that sentence make any sense?
Hydrogen is NOT a fuel. It is a battery.
It’s not zero-emissions unless the electricity to make the hydrogen is zero-emissions.
That was a good Mythbusters episode.
i’m tired of concept cars.
used to look at gm’s concept cars
and go “wow”.
but they didn’t build those,
they built pos.
I think that has been pretty well busted the paint (cellulose acetate butyrate) will burn ok if is in the presence of a fire but it is not readily ignited on its own. The component chemicals are the same as thermite but the proportions are all wrong.
The fire had to start elsewhere.
Automobile is powered by non polluting hydrogen but how is the hydrogen fuel generated? Probably by oil gas coal burned to make electricity. Or by hydro generated electricity or nuclear generated electricity
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