Honda says the future of its hydrogen-powered vehicles may lie with solar-powered home refueling stations.
The Japanese manufacturer hopes its latest idea will make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero-emission cars, believing hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels.
While many manufacturers, such as GM and Toyota, continue to invest heavily in battery technology, Honda is widely seen as the hydrogen leader, strongly tempted by the idea of a car that uses no oil and emits only water vapour.
The biggest barrier in hydrogen-powered cars so far is the lack of refueling infrastructure, which has lead Honda to decide the best alternative is public refueling networks combined with a modest home option.
Honda’s home option will comprise a solar-powered hydrogen refueling station using solar panels.
“Customers can choose how they interact with both of them based on their annual miles and their habits,” said Mr Stephen Ellis, fuel cell manager at Honda North America.
“The key thing to remember is that with five-minute refueling you are good for another 240 miles (387km).”
That number come from public “fast-fill” stations, of which only a handful currently exist in Southern California where Honda currently leases 15 of its FCX Clarity models (as pictured above).
It is estimated that the home fueling station would provide enough hydrogen for a trip of 50 kilometres during an eight hour ‘charge’ – or roughly that of the average daily commute.
At Honda’s Los Angeles Research and Development Centre, the FCX Clarity is refueled using a single-unit station connected to a series of solar panels that replaces a two-unit system, cutting costs and improving efficiency by as much as 25 per cent.
“This is wonderful progress, the biggest progress,” said Mr Ikuya Yamashita, the chief engineer of the station.
That station uses a 6kW solar array, composed of 48 panels and thin film solar cells developed by a Honda subsidiary. The station breaks down water into hydrogen in what Honda calls a “virtually carbon-free energy cycle.”
The FCX Clarity’s hydrogen stack (or electricity generator) is around the size of a brief case and is installed between the front seats for maximum impact protection.
It is anticipated that the Honda FCX Clarity will be commercially viable by 2018, while the solar hydrogen refueling system could move beyond the research stage and into the market as early as 2015.
“A lot of this work is not necessarily for today’s economic situation,” said Mr Ellis.
“This is for tomorrow, when most people feel energy prices will be higher.”
It’s Al Gore day at CarAdvice
A 6 kW solar array just for refuelling your car. At today’s prices it will be more than $50,000 in panels alone
If you can afford a 2 Million dollar car, than 50K for the home charging is a steal :) A 1.5Kwh array would be enough to send a mini-E 15k Per year. This really shows the inefficiency of H2 and why its never going to make it main stream.
I recall that hydrogen powered cars were touted as our fossil fuel saviour on the old “Beyond 2000″ program. It still seems we haven’t progressed that far, and I think the original Beyond 2000 was on TV in late 80s or early 90s. Begs the question as to why?
Because actually obtaining the hydrogen is either very energy intensive or stupid.
Most hydrogen being produced at present comes from oil. No point breaking down the hydrocarbons even more and losing energy in the process.
Generating hydrogen from electrolysis is very energy intensive and the energy returns from using the hydrogen as fuel is way below the energy it takes to crack oxygen and hydrogen apart. Look up ‘covalent bonds’ for more info on the strength of atomic bonding.
You would be better off storing and fermenting all your household waste for methane production than generating hydrogen like this.
A. The Oil Industry
All of these Electric cars that are currently out and about to come out:
LEAF and Miev do not have much distance in comparision to what Petrol already does, and what Hydrogen can do.
the Prius and Volt both require petrol to work.
The Hydrogen Honda/BMW and Merc’s have similar if not better distance out of a tank then a Petrol Car, but are environmentally friendly and have none of the Electric Car Draw Backs.
Its just the inferstructure that needs to be rolled out to accomodate these cars.
I think most car mnaufactures agree that Hyrdogen is the way forward, and Electric has a interim fix while we get ourselves off Petrol.
Electricity is way more accessible. A Hydrogen grid would cost an enormous amount of money. And most people are cheapskates’ therefore they will go for the cheaper option.
I’m just hoping this won’t be like it was with early railways, when too much of the narrow railways were built before someone realized that wider tracks would be better.
If we build too much infrastructure around electric cars, before hydrogen power becomes economically viable, I’m not sure people will want to invest into hydrogen, no matter how much better it would be.
We should forget about electric cars for now, since most power comes from fossil fuelled power plants, and either wait to have only nuclear and “green” power plants (unlikely), or to divert all of the money intended for the development of EVs into hydrogen to speed up progress.
Hydrogen is doomed. The technology is too inefficient to build a renewable infrastructure on. This and the cost of the technology is the main reason we don’t have the infrastructure. You basically need 3 times more energy to do the same job as a BEV. Just look at the figures above. 8 hours of solar to give you 50km of driving. Given solar will only work during the day its safe to say the above incredibly expensive solution would yield a range of no more than 400km per week. And people laugh at the short range of EV’s at 160kms per day.
Then what about the green credentials? 80% of H2 produced today is from fossil fuels! And yet the fuelcell cars still emit water vapour which is deemed a greenhouse gas.
One fact is undeniable, a H2 car will always cost more to run than a BEV. Because of its high demand on energy. Nearly years of research into Hydrogen and we still can’t buy a H2 car!!!
The technology is too inefficient at this time. The reason EVs are now where hey are, is because electric cars have been around almost as long as petrol cars. When you count in other industries that use batteries and electricity, in other words: everyone, I’m surprised EVs have only come this far. In comparison hydrogen power is relatively new.
In time, we will learn how to make it cheaper, cleaner, etc., but the only ones really developing it now are Honda and a few militaries (Germany has hydrogen fuell cell submarines). The only things EVs do, is transfer the problem of pollution from oil companies to electric companies, but are easy to sell, since most people don’t know about this.
I’m not saying hydrogen power will be available soon, but just like nuclear fusion, we should keep persevering. 50 years ago fusion was considered impossible but so important they kept at it, and now the French are already building an experimental reactor.
You can’t change the Physics, H2 is classed as an energy carrier. You always need more energy to get H2 then it gives you. Its has and will always have a negative EROI when produced using renewables. The only people backing H2 are the oil companies because 80% of H2 comes from fossil fuel.
We’ve been driving cars for over 100 years, and H2 research is nearly 50 years old. Its window of opportunity is almost completely lost. Its time to accept this white elephant.
“The only things EVs do, is transfer the problem of pollution from oil companies to electric companies”
Norway produce over 98% of their electricity from renewables (no nuclear), but still can’t say the same for H2, and they have a H2 highway.
Fuelcells have some great applications in aerospace and energy storage, but not transport. And last be not least, once you get used to plugging your car in. Why on earth would you go back to a system of paying an oil company for H2 where they set the price.
I think this is definitely the way forward in terms of cars. Not a step back from where we are today like the electric cars.
The only concern I have, (and maybe this is just me not looking hard enough into this) is that hydrogen is more combustible than petrol, i.e. if there is a crash wouldn’t there be a very large explosion.
All these zero emissions cars are promoted with mothing but hype. Basically they are all electric cars…..have to be plugged in to recharge…..and surprise ! the electricity they are plugged into is sually generated with using COAL or some other EMISSIONS PRODUCING fossil fuel ….so NOTHING is gained. NO THING ! The holdup for all this well intended effort will be nothing short of cheap electricity generated using renewable technology like solar of some sort……NOT Photovoltaic which is weak and expensive….you get nothing for your money and never will. This guy from Bloom energy is a deciever too. He reminded me of the PV promoters. He held up a little 1 KW box saying that it would power one house in Europe…..then he held up two little boxes and claimed that it would power ONE American house. I split a gut laughing…….two kilowatts won’t even run the air conditioner on the average American home. 4 KW might run a 1 ton AC unit……and my AC is a 5 ton unit. I hate all this deception…….and then well intended American go waste money for their good causes…..and it is wasted. Right now, thermal solar will buy your 5 times the power you will get with a PV system……..Go get a thermal solar hot water heater with your money and wait for some other good products with a short payback period to come onto the market. Electricity made via some concentrated solar will probably pave the way….until then…..don’t waste your money.
Oh , the government tax credits, Why does our government give the same percentage tax credit for PV as for Thermal solar when thermal is about 5 time more efficient? Why the extra waste?
Man has made this mistake once before. We could have had Hydrogen much earlier, but some big boss thought Petrol would be much more viable, which it was for a bout 50 years. Because of this, all the auto makers forgot about how much work could have been done on hydrogen, and now we have to work even harder so that too much EV infrastructure is not built up. IMO we need EV stations and and Hydrogen station to be built alongside new Servo’s after 2020. I have been trying to campaign to the Federal government to mandate this law, so that after 2020, all new servo’s will be ready with quick charge and hydrogen filling stations. That way they would have ten years to work out the kinks for the quick charge stations and, if what Honda is saying is true, the Hydrogen stations should have been mad more efficient by then. Remember, when petrol was first discovered, most cars drank 20l/100km, and that was considered good. i think a bit of dirty hydrogen and 160km from EV’s is good for their first few attempts.
Also dont forget the FC-X that you see in the image above, is still a Prototype. If you were to buy it, it would cost millions!
Thats why the cars are leased to people in the U.S.A and Japan.
There is still alot of work that needs to be done on them, and seriously… Good on Honda for putting so much effort behind it. They have come along way, and they have a infastructue long way to go still.
But their aim was to have a Hydrogen car on the road that people could buy that would be the same price as a Honda Legend (70 – 80K)
Going off the suspected price of the Volt and these LEAF and IMEV cars, it doesnt seem to bad.
But it all comes down to our Government to supply us with the correct refuelling to adobt these kinds of cars.
H2 hydrogen will be the way we will go.I know there are people who totally disagree.
I want every kind of new energy with no oil base. We as far as I am concern need to get off oil.Oil was less expensive now we will be at $3.00 a gallon. We can’t budget nor can we afford to keep this up. I hope H2 fuel cells and jobs become a reality.Oil base Products need to be change.Plastics are on the floor of the Pacific ocean.I know this plastics need to be picked up off the floor of the Ocean and maybe no longer used. Pollution that has affected our food supply.OK Please lets get this moving.
A lot of people seem to be confused about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and do not consider them as electronic vehicles [EV's] they are one and the same all have electric motors driving the wheels. The difference is how we produce the electrons the old way is to store them in a battery the new way is to produce them on demand by stripping them from hydrogen via a fuel cell. Both have their merits there is a growing trend to replace the batteries in fork lift trucks with HFC’s because they are more cost effective.
HYDROGENHEADS and BATTERYHEADS should unite as we all believe that electronically powered vehicles is the way forward in this electronic age we live in.
Mike H. founder HYDROGENHEADS
Technically Mike your right, infact just 2 years ago I was very pro H2. Its only when like so many I starting doing my own research on why don’t we have it already did I then realise we’ve all been taken for a ride.
I’ve explained on many occasions why I think H2 if flawed when used for Automotive. Fuelcells are an awesome space age technology, but useless for cars.
The problem I have, having worked in the oil industry is trust. I’m totally sick of the way we constantly get mugged by the oil companies. Just last week before the long public holiday a 17c rise overnight in the price of PULP, yet no signifcant rise in the price of oil.
So just imagine for a minute. We have a H2 infrastructure, affordable H2 cars, zero emissions…but wait a minute I still have to go to a petrol/H2 station run by an oil company to fill up. Do you think they will stop ripping us off with H2 prices?…. no chance. Just look at the H2 infrastructure we already have in Norway & California. Supply & Price is controlled by various oil companies with Shell being the biggest player.
The only way is to cut them out of the equation and plug your car into the local grid and support the local energy economy or go off grid and produce your own with wind and or solar.
HERE’S MY TWO CENTS..
i’m looking at doing a 3 kw solar system for my home to reduce a VERY PAINFULL electricity bill.its $12500 cost is made somewhat easier due to the fact that if i’m quick enough the gov’t will be forced to buy “my” power back at 3 times what i pay for it.the potential savings over a seven year period could be in the order of 20-30 grand.
so would i pay say $25000(in reality its probably double that) for a 6kw station to recharge a hydrogen powdered car to go 50-60kms a day.michael caton’s famous words from “the castle” come to mind…
Lazybones please do not let a bad rap with an oil company cloud your judgement on an exciting technology that keeps getting better by the day. Do not take my word for it but check out the glowing reports of the following companies who have replaced batteries with fuel cells in their fleet of fork lift trucks, Bridgestone Firestone’s, Wal-Mart, United Natural Foods, Wegmans Foodmarkets, Vestas, and this is only the start of the trend.
I am not knocking batteries as I do believe our future electronic vehicles will be powered by a combination of fuel cells, batteries and super capacitors.
Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of feedstocks if we produce it from fossil fuels that is still okay in my book. We steam reform it the same way we produce petrol, the difference is that we have a clean fuel when we use it in a fuel cell and it has twice the efficiency of an internal combustion engine.
The nano technology for splitting water with sunshine gets better by the day and you do not need clean water, urine is a great feedstock it takes less power to split it.
When you have had a rethink on H2 you never know we might be pissing in the same pot to gain that extra mileage.
Open your heart and mind and let the sun shine in we are at the crossroads and are ready to reinvent the automobile, you can’t stop progress!
Mike H.
I’m all up for technology Mike and its at least good to see so many inovations in such a short period of time, all trying to have a go at replacing the grand old ICE. Even the compressed air solution looked good for a while. For me anything that cuts out but big oil has to worth a go, they are now just too powerful for their own boots. It wouldn’t be so bad if we saw H2 filling stations sponsored by some hippie tree hugging group, but thats just not case.
Producing H2 from feedstock is a good inovation, but its never going to yield the sort of demand thats required for a Hydrogen economy. I mean we need some big numbers to replace oil, the world uses 80Million barrels per day. Given a barrel is about 250ltrs and the energy density is higher than uncompressed H2. It gives you some idea of the scale of the problem.
I think the most efficient technology is the only way forward. But i’ll be checking some of those links you mentioned :)