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Hydrogen fuel cell cars could one day challenge electric cars in the race for pollution-free roads—but only if more stations are built to fuel them.
Honda, Toyota and Hyundai have leased a few hundred fuel cell vehicles over the past three years, and expect to lease well over 1,000 this year. But for now, those leases are limited to California, which is home to most of the 34 public hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S.
Undaunted, automakers are investing heavily in the technology. General Motors recently supplied the U.S. Army with a fuel cell pickup, and GM and Honda are collaborating on a fuel cell system due out by 2020. Hyundai will introduce a longer-range fuel cell SUV next year.
"We've clearly left the science project stage and the technology is viable," said Charles Freese, who heads GM's fuel cell business.
Like pure electric cars, fuel cell cars run quietly and emission-free. But they have some big advantages. Fuel cell cars can be refueled as quickly as gasoline-powered cars. By contrast, it takes nine hours to fully recharge an all-electric Chevrolet Bolt using a 240-volt home charger. Fuel cells cars can also travel further between fill-ups.
Would you rather trade in your gas-guzzler for a hydrogen fuel cell car, or an electric car?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday April 16 2017, @10:00PM (5 children)
4. In the event of accident, or even just a big rock in the road, a pressurized fuel tank is a major hazard.
Mythbusters busted that myth years ago. It's far safer than gasoline.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Monday April 17 2017, @12:27PM (4 children)
Episode 63 "air cylinder rocket" supposedly aired oct 18 2006 they sheared the valve off some air tanks and blew the tanks thru one and a half concrete block walls.
2000 psi of H2 will go thru at least as much human flesh as 2000 psi of air. Having a slightly lower molecular weight means the Isp of a hydrogen tank with the valve sheared off will be a faster rocket... I've read N2 cold gas thrusters getting Isp values around 70 which isn't bad but helium running around Isp 160 seconds. So hydrogen should be better yet. I'd anticipate the performance gain as somewhat sub linear so if the mythbusters launched an air tank thru 1.5 concrete walls a hydrogen tank should go thru 2+ concrete walls.
In the old days (today?) cold gas thrusters were used for yaw/rotation control on boosters. They're pretty simple therefore reliable and you probably got a high pressure H2 system anyway for various other tasks, so if you need a nudge here and there to rotate thats good enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17 2017, @04:15PM
Not to mention the fact that Hydrogen is flammable, so even if you ignore the risk of the gas canister suffering complete physical failure, there is still the risk of the leaking gas hitting its activation energy and catching fire.
(Score: 2) by WillR on Monday April 17 2017, @04:17PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 17 2017, @05:06PM
Its worth pointing out that air resistance would be an issue with a hydrogen car taking out an office building a quarter mile away, but not at the range of passengers in the vehicle or the driver that rear-ends a hydrogen car.
secured inside of the frame of a car
That is an interesting idea that most of the danger is a mostly intact ball or tube going rocket mode, but if the attachment to the frame exceeded the strength of the tank, the tank would break into little bits and harm a lot less people. Maybe it should look like a pineapple grenade or maybe attach explosive bolts (people are already cool with explosive airbags) and pop in half or eights or whatever in an accident.
Another interesting idea is frangible disk and an nozzle going both directions for net zero thrust now if a self driving hydrogen car detected an accident two seconds away it could controllably vent over 2 seconds instead of uncontrollably cracking and going rocket mode in 2 milliseconds or whatever.
Maybe something as simple as spears pointing at the tank so if the tank launches up it hits a spear making a new rocket nozzle pointing down counteracting it.
Well anyway the point is the mythbusters blew up some compressed gas tanks a decade ago. Admittedly slightly different type.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday April 21 2017, @04:11PM
The same thing happens with any pressurized gas, but you seldom hear of welding tanks exploding.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org