|
|
CAP Blog > CAP Blog > Martin's Blog
|
|
Jul
15
Written by:
Martin Ward
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
 Mazda chose Norway for the first drive of their Hydrogen powered vehicles. The Hynor project (a joint venture between the Norwegian government and Statoil) has created a ‘hydrogen highway’ from Stavanger to Oslo, enabling this compressed gas to be distributed at locations in Norway and create an alternative fuel.
Hydrogen is one of the most widely available fuels in the solar system. It accounts for 75% of the matter in the universe on its own and is found in abundance in the stars and on gassy giant planets. However, on Earth it is very rare in its gaseous state; its very low mass means that it escapes the gravitational pull. We can however use electrolysis to extract it from water. Water electrolysis is a process which splits the water molecules into its component parts, hydrogen and oxygen.
Hydrogen can also be extracted from organic fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. It is a by-product of a number of industrial and chemical processes. All they have to do is catch the hydrogen before it goes up into the atmosphere, bottle it and send it down the pipeline – easy!
 Hydrogen is considerably more combustible than conventional petrol. It will combust with very low energy, thus making it produce less energy (and thus horsepower) than if petrol is used, hence lower hp figures from the same engine. The first car we drove was the RX-8. When you get into a Mazda sports car, you expect it to be quick and lively but this is not so with the Hydrogen RX-8 as it only produces around 100hp compared to the regular car that produces 231ps. However, when driving it, it is identical to driving the petrol version, despite the lower power output. In Norway the first cars to be delivered to customers will have a 5.0 litre petrol tank fitted just in case it runs out of Hydrogen. Allowing the driver to get to a near by filling station. Any size of tank can be fitted (up to 50 litres) but because of Norwegian tax laws and tax saving benefits, a nominal amount of petrol can be carried. If any more were to be carried then VAT would have to be paid but by only having 5.0 litres on board, it becomes tax exempt. The range on the RX-8 is only 100km when running on hydrogen, so it is very limited and would mean a fill up at every available opportunity.
The second car we drove was the Mazda5 (Premacy) and this goes one stage further than the RX-8. It has Mazda’s hydrogen hybrid technology and has a battery pack which is charged by the engine and additionally by using regenerative brakes. This enables the engine to run solely on electric motor power. The engine does not have connection to the wheels; it is purely powered by the electric motor through an inverter from the generator which is powered by the hydrogen engine. All very clever and it sounds like fantasy but I have driven it and it does work efficiently and effortlessly. The Mazda5 hydrogen hybrid has a power output of around 140hp and has a range of around 200km but it can also be converted to run on petrol at the press of a switch on the dashboard.
There is a distinct sound of the electric motor when it is running that has similarities to the sound of a vacuum cleaner. This did seem a bit strange when you first drive the car but you soon get used to the noise the electric motor produces.
 The hydrogen high pressure gas tank is situated at the very rear in the Mazda5, where the third row of seats would normally be, as unfortunately the Hydrogen tank takes up much more space than a conventional petrol tank would. There are many advantages to running a vehicle on Hydrogen; the main one being that it produces zero emissions. Only water vapour comes out of the exhaust pipe; it is using a gas that is normally wasted. However, it also has some disadvantages: the mileage limit despite having a large tank of hydrogen, the setting up of a sustainable infrastructure of supply and the cost involved. We still do not know the true cost of how much a hydrogen car will be or how much per mile it will be to run it. We also do not know how much a kilogram of hydrogen will cost to buy at the pumps. Having driven two hydrogen powered cars, I can confirm they do work extremely well and in principle, subject to cost, they are simply brilliant. We had the chance to go to a filling station and fill the Mazda5 with hydrogen and we found it to be quick and easy. You just put the nozzle of the pump onto the filler cap, push a lever and in it goes.
All we need now is for more manufacturers to produce hydrogen vehicles and have a useable infrastructure of hydrogen supply but how far away this is in the UK, nobody really knows. However, if Norway has managed this in a relatively short space of time with many partners working together including the government, then there is absolutely no reason why it cannot become a reality and not a dream, in every other European country. Well done to Mazda and the other manufacturers that have battled on with this research, engineering and technology into hydrogen cars, in the face of stiff opposition and huge brick walls.
Tags:
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
