Invisible Mercedes brings James Bond technology to life

Yahoo via Motoramic ^ | 7 Mar 2012 | Justin Hyde

[shove_it]

In a promotion for its first production fuel-cell vehicle in Germany, Mercedes-Benz turned a B-Class hatchback invisible -- at least, from a distance, using the same idea behind the invisible car in the James Bond film "Die Another Day." See if you can see it before it sees you.

The invisibility cloak had its tryout this week on the streets of Stuttgart, Germany. To make Q's idea of an invisible car real, Mercedes employed dozens of technicians and some $263,000 worth of flexible LED mats covering one side of the car. Using a camera mounted on the opposite side of the vehicle, the LEDs were programmed to reproduce the image from the camera at the right scale, blending the vehicle into the background from a few feet away. Doing so required power sources, computers and other gear totaling 1,100 lbs. of equipment inside the B-Class.

Mercedes' point was to show how the F-Cell hydrogen fuel cell powered car would be invisible to the environment, producing only water vapor and heat for emissions. For an invisible car, it's getting a lot of stares.

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[thackney]

I’m guessing the appeal of hydrogen is its abundance, but as you point out, you still have to process to get it.

The appeal of hydrogen is the lack of understanding what it takes make hydrogen fuel.

You have to use way more energy contained in another source to make the hydrogen, then significantly more energy to compress it down to a usable volume. Because of the low specific gravity, it creates more waste heat (additional lost energy) than compression of something like natural gas. What I’ve heard about hydrogen is that it’s quite a different proposition to push it through pipelines

We have hydrogen pipelines in places like Houston. It is used in hydrocracker and other some other refining units. The compression related to moving it in a pipeline.

I believe it had to do with corrosion or leaks or maybe something else.

Many talk about embrittlement in steel piping and other equipment. But we have learned to deal with hydrogen safely over many decades of use in pipes and other equipment. We don't make them out of simple carbon steel but more sophisticated alloys.

Hydrogen is also more difficult to prevent leaking because the molecule is so small. I often specify explosion-proof rated equipment. If it is to be rated for hydrogen as well as say natural gas, the mating surfaces of a "lid" and "box" have to have a very fine finish.

Hydrogen introduces additional expenses, but we are well past technical issues of knowing how to transport and store it. At least in the refining industry, it is no big deal, just added expense.

[D-fendr]

Thanks much for your reply, you covered what I couldn’t remember. It does sound like natural gas fuel cell is making more sense.

I’ve never seen a price comparision, and don’t know if one is possible; but, before we got too far down the line it would make sense to at least estimate the price/mile.

[thackney]

I’ve never seen a price comparision, and don’t know if one is possible;

Are you talking about fuel cells using either hydrogen or natural gas? If so, the technology is too new and limited in use for a meaningful price comparison. Both have been built many times but not in significant commercial production.

About a decade ago I tried to get into a pilot program for using a natural gas fuel cell as a stationary generator for reducing electric demand. One of the waste products of the fuel cell is heat. I had a swimming pool and was proposing a system to heat the pool. It never went anywhere and I wasn't willing to spend any significant money on my own.

[D-fendr]

Are you talking about fuel cells using either hydrogen or natural gas?

Yes. For the reasons you mention, I don't know how one would estimate it, but obviously if by the time you got it into a car it was the equivalent of $20/gal gas...

[wolf78]

I’ve never seen a price comparision, and don’t know if one is possible; but, before we got too far down the line it would make sense to at least estimate the price/mile.

I'll try to do one using Mercedes' price projections and fuel consumption numbers. Mercedes estimates that they can get a fuel cell B-Class compact MPV into showrooms for about 35,000 euros after taxes within the next 3 years or so. That's about 9.000 euros more than the gasoline base model (which is 26.000 Euros) , but in line with a hypothetical diesel hybrid or a top-of-the line AMG sports variant.



Gasoline is about 1$ or 75 eurocents per liter in the US, or around 2$ / 1.50€ in central Europe (again, after taxes). The standard gas variant needs about 6 liters (~1.6 gallons) for 100 kilometers (or 62 miles), whereas the fuel cell vehicle needs only 1 kg of hydrogen per 100 km (because it's vastly more efficient). At an estimated ~ 4€ or 5.3$ per kilo of hydrogen, the costs would be the following:

4€ / 5.3$ per 100km or 6.4€ / 8.5$ per 100 miles for the hydrogen fuel cell car.
4.5€ / 6$ per 100km or 7.2€ / 9.6$ per 100 miles for the standard gasoline model in the US.
9€ / 12$ per 100km or 14.4€ / 19.2$ per 100 miles for the gas variant in Europe.

[thackney]

Thanks for the info.

We were trying to compare a hydrogen fuel cell versus a natural gas fuel cell.

[thackney]

Do you know what source was used for the hydrogen fuel and was the government subsidized?