Sheikh Zaki Yamani the famous Saudi
Arabian oil minister of the 1970s once said that the stone age came to an end
not for a lack of stones but because the human race moved on. Similarly the oil
industry will come to an end not for a lack of oil but because the human race
would have moved on.
About 10 days ago a tectonic movement
of sorts hit the world automotive industry. This is a game changer. A paradigm
shift and a bold (and very expensive) breakthrough by the Toyota Motor Company
of Japan.
They have introduced a production
model car that runs on the hydrogen fuel cell. These cars will not need petrol
or diesel anymore.
Before we talk more - just a little
bit on the hydrogen fuel cell.
"A fuel cell is a
device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a
chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Hydrogen is the most
common fuel. Fuel cells are different from batteries in that they require a
constant source of fuel and oxygen/air to sustain the chemical reaction;
however, fuel cells can produce electricity continually for as long as these
inputs are supplied"
Above : Block diagram of a simple hydrogen fuel cell.
Below : A schematic for a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle
The hydrogen fuel cell engine does not
use fuel oil at all. It uses hydrogen and oxygen both of which can be extracted
from the air or through electrolysis of water (H2O). And here is the most
interesting part - the hydrogen fuel cell has zero exhaust gases. The byproduct
is water (H2O).
Ok I am keeping this really short. Here
is Toyota :
·
reduced cost of fuel cell cars
significantly
·
several advances in hydrogen fuel cells make themcheaper
- company to sell a car in 2015 — years before
its competitors.
- $50,000 and $100,000 - a big improvement over
million-dollar vehicles
- Toyota will display concept car this month at
the Tokyo Motor Show.
·
Toyota fuel-cell system smaller and uses less platinum
- fuel cell produces electricity, fed by a tank
of hydrogen, platinum catalyst
·
water vapor comes out
·
hydrogen tank can be refilled like a
conventional gas tank
- General Motors plan fuel-cell vehicles around
2020.
- The key number is the US$50,000 - US$100,000
price tag. This is the game changer. Prior to this, hydrogen
fuel cell prototypes cost anything from US$1.0 million and more. The
savings that have been achieved by Toyota now has increased the
efficiency by a factor of 10 to 20 times. US$50,000 is a very affordable
number cost of making a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car has fallen
dramatically.
- vehicle that cost $1 million now made for
$50,000 goes on sale in U.S. in 2015.
- Toyota testing 100 fuel cell vehicles based
on Highlander platform
- next generation will be shaped more like the
Prius and will be for actual sale.
Now General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan and
a host of other car makers have also announced their own hydrogen fuel cell
vehicle programs. This is because if they do not innovate they will die.
Here is some history behind Toyota';s
hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
Four years ago in 2009, Toyota came to a
cross roads of sorts after they had spent billions of US Dollars trying to
develop the fuel cell vehicle. It has been a long process, hard work, billions
of dollars and really capable research and development efforts. By 2009 Toyota
had made major breakthroughs and they decided to press on with developing the
fuel cell vehicle.
Here are some of Toyota';s major
technology breakthroughs :
·
significantly decreased amount of platinum needed in fuel
cells
·
comparable to what cars have in catalytic converters
·
reduced platinum by making catalyst more effective
·
developing precise equipment for applying catalyst to ensure
none wasted
·
requires fewer fuel cells to be stacked together
·
improving design of fuel cell.
·
engineers modified membrane to allow protons to pass more
freely
·
increases amount of power that each fuel cell can generate
So in 2009 Toyota shareholders made a
decision to continue spending money to develop the hydrogen fuel cell car. Here
is some Toyota news from 2009 :
·
Toyota Still Committed to Producing a Hydrogen Vehicle
- 24/06/09
·
At shareholders'; meeting in Japan, executives stated
commitment to bringing a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to market in the near
future.
·
revised their timeline, pushing production back a year to
2015.
·
awfully soon but maybe Toyota knows something we don';t
So it has taken them many years,
perseverance, tons of money, great will power and technical capability to
achieve this ground breaking technology. This is now history. Toyota is
bringing out their hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in 2014/2015. They are quite on
track.
A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will be
more fuel efficient than a petrol driven car. A "litre" of hydrogen
(or natural gas) should be a lot less cheaper than a litre of petrol. Plus it
has 100% non exhaust gases (other than water). Since 40% of the world';s oil
consumption goes into transportation (cars, ships, trains, planes) this
hydrogen fuel cell technology will have a significant effect on oil consumption
and automotive technology.
The stone age is coming to an end again
- in the rest of the world.
By the way if hydrogen fuel cells take
off (and they will) here is what is going to happen in the Middle East :
Received above information through kind courtesy of Dewan Satish
No comments:
Post a Comment