leftlanenews.com — BMW was not kidding when it said it would offer a 7-Series with a hydrogen combustion engine within two years. The company is now testing actual production prototypes. The cars can run on both gasoline and hydrogen. No electric motors are involved. When running on hydrogen, there are no emissions.
Sep 8, 2006 View in Crawl 4
gabsterSep 9, 2006
For what it takes to create hydrogen, I am not convinced this is an ecologic solution for the car market. But I guess this the best we can do.
mojaveSep 9, 2006
Ugh, something that only a few of the commenters here understand is that it takes electricity to generate Hydrogen. And right now, that electricy is being generated from burning fossil fuels. So Hydrogen is NOT a clean energy source. In addition, transporting the Hydrogen all around the country and world will require more energy to be used, thereby reducing its efficiency. Finally, the infrastructure costs to having Hydrogen filling stations everywhere is going to be enormous. Hydrogen makes no sense for cars.Check out the story here and the highly informed comments if you really want to understand why Hydrogen is not the answer. <a class="user" href="http://ergosphere.blogspot.com/2006/08/europe-passes-death-sentence-on-hype.html">http://ergosphere.blogspot.com/2006/08/europe-passes-death-sentence-on-hype.html</a>What is the answer? Electricity. It can be generated anywhere by any means (solar, wind, nuclear, coal (for now)), there's already a huge infrastructure in place and we can "fill up" our electric cars at home, at work or in any hotel (for example, for cross country driving).
carpespasmSep 9, 2006
gasoline itself doesn't explode, the vapors it turns into do. that means it has to get enough open room to vaporise prior to exploding. it's also held under a low pressure (that hissing noise you hear sometimes when you unscrew your gas tank.on the other hand, liquid hydrogen is under very high pressure, and just like gas it has to have enough room to vaporize. unlike gas though, since it's under high pressure, if you puncture it's container, it turns to it's gasious state too rapidly to stop, and if nothing else blow the shrapnel of the tank everywhere, if not ignite and make the explosion firey. when you puncture a gasoline tank, the gas just flows out and you have to be careful to keep it away from hot things, hydrogen would expand out quick enough that it'd probably find something to ignite itself pretty readily.i kinda figured i'd be buried, but it's ok, just saying what came to my mind.
dwatchSep 9, 2006
I think the vast majority of the digg users already know that hydrogen isn't magically created from thin air, and that it requires some form of electricity to produce it (a lot for electrolysis, not as much for converting a hydrocarbon), however, since you say that electricity can be made just about anywhere and the infrastructure already exists, doesn't it stand to reason that anywhere you have electricity and water nearby, you can make hydrogen? Hydrogen does not have to be transported across the country in big pipelines or in tanker trucks like gasoline, it can be made literally anywhere on the planet that electricity and water are in close proximity. We don't have to create an entire transportation infrastructure specifically for hydrogen. Its a locally produced product that can theoretically be made at every gas station on the fly as the cars need it. Besides, we have already created a huge infrastructure for oil and gas products, what makes you think the same can't be done for H2? Its just a matter of economics, not technology. As far as the cost of creating hydrogen filling stations, you assume its going to be government sponsored. I seriously doubt that the government would subsidize h2 stations past a few pilot trials. Once the economics are in place (cost of the equipment, depreciation, cost in electricity per h2 volume) then the businesses will take over and charge the consumer accordingly. It won't be super cheap like gas used to be, but we are not talking about making a cheap fuel to get back the old glory days of early Americana, we are talking about making a replacement fuel that wont kill our planet in the long run. I'm all for electric cars, if they could be made with the same benefits that gas powered or h2 powered cars have. The fact is, current battery power has serious disadvantages versus a gas or h2 powered car, such as the weight of the batteries, short range, long long long recharge time, limited lifespan, recycling issues, and high initial cost. If you could make a battery that eliminates these disadvantages, then the electric car would be the clear winner. There have been some scientific advances, such as the nano tube based capacitor banks and other lightweight, fast charging battery breakthroughs, but they are still in the development stages. Engines that can burn H2 exist now. The statement you make that 'hydrogen doesn't make sense for cars' also applies to battery powered cars and ethanol production. No solution is perfect, yet. H2 powered cars will have a role to play if they can reduce the power required to crack the water molecule, and make a better storage solution. Right now its every bit as promising as battery powered cars. It deserves to be investigated, researched, and experimented with. Several decades from now we might see a future where gasoline is outlawed or abandoned, yet you still have a lot of different options at the filling station; electric for short range local traffic, H2 for the consumer who needs more range, bio diesel for semi trucks and other large vehicles, and ethanol for those who want to keep the old gas internal combustion cars running (after some engine modifications). Crude oil production might be relegated to producing plastics, jet fuel, and lubricants. There might not be a single perfect solution for everyone. Economics and research will dictate the direction we take, not the opinion of one blog you found that agrees with your narrow view of the future.
williamhelmickSep 9, 2006
A billion billion? Care to cite your source on that, Mr. Sarcastic Genius? There are hundreds of millions of cars in the world today, and if every one ran on hydrogen combustion and produced water vapor as an emission, I'm willing to bet that it would have at least some effect on the atmosphere.Oh yes, and clouds are not water vapor. Clouds are suspended drops of liquid water. Water vapor, which is water's gaseous form, is invisible to the human eye but is present in the air we breathe over most of the planet. Maybe you are correct that the balance of water vapor in the atmosphere would remain the same. But for that to happen, the vapor from all the cars would have to condense into clouds and then rain. Would more average rainfall over the Earth affect climate in any way?
gwinerreniwgSep 9, 2006
@tmach - there isn't enough land mass in certain nations, however, the US has more than enough landmass to support a completely self-sufficient biofuel program. While it's true it's a less efficient fuel, we can absolutely make up for the difference in agricultural production. My greater concern is the effect on the local ecosystems when large areas are dedicated to hybridized genetically engineered bio-fuel corn and switchgrasses. Farmers will be under pressure to produce crops every year instead of rotating crops. This will have some unintended consequences of fertilizer pollution and increases resistant insects.Brazil has become energy independent on biofuel, and the US can too. Just because the US can though, does it mean it should? I wonder.
clip9Sep 9, 2006
Moron. When you burn gas you also release alot of water vapor. Gas is a mix of hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbos is carbon chains with hydrogen attached to the carbon atoms. (Look it up) Where do you think the hydrogen goes? Yes it binds with oxygen and makes water. That where some of the energy comes from, I don't remember exactly how much energy is realeased from combusting Hydrogen compared to Carbon. This is BASIC chem people.
michaelw2Sep 10, 2006
@ mooninniteYou idiot - its Bimmer.You say you own a BMW but you don't have enough sense to know it's Bimmer?Go drive a Kia.
botraxSep 11, 2006
Convert your car to use water<a class="user" href="http://netmar.com/~maat/archive/feb2/carplans.htm">http://netmar.com/~maat/archive/feb2/carplans.htm</a><a class="user" href="http://netmar.com/~maat/archive/feb2/carplans_doc.htm">http://netmar.com/~maat/archive/feb2/carplans_doc.htm</a>in 2002 I also saw an European company that converts regular gars cars to use water. The system filters the water and splits it to produce hydrogen.Saw another company a couple of weeks ago that does this, however didn't keep track of it.
natemonsterSep 24, 2006
actually hydrogen 7 cars will be avalible for lease in april
pazolozapMar 14, 2008
More people should learn about this. Electric car technology is really becoming impressive, like the new Zap EV that does 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds (source: zapworld.com) Electric is looking more and more like the way to go.
netvoobMay 20, 2008
yeah, water powered cars are real, you can see the videos of water powered car below:<a class="user" href="http://www.bmwautocar.com/water-powered-cars/">http://www.bmwautocar.com/water-powered-cars/</a>and BMW hybrid cars:<a class="user" href="http://www.bobmodifiedbmw.com/bmw-hybrid-car/">http://www.bobmodifiedbmw.com/bmw-hybrid-car/</a>
nick535iAug 3, 2008
Hydrogen in a BMW is nothing new, The little Bavarian engineer's have been toying with this since the 70's.