To Live and To Learn

Its now been 4 months since I started blogging on the subject. A subject that I had researched little into and one with many technical scores. Yet an exciting debate raged and I found myself mindful of the discussion and for ways to improve the efficiency of my own energy consumption. So I picked up on some know-how and with a little bit of common sense went on to start blogging. I also did it to learn about the subject and network with others on it in the hope of picking up some knowledge for myself. And in some ways it has. Well, I was stupid and ignorant enough to sense that shifting into a non-fossil fuel source somehow causes an improvement of resource efficiency. As I saw electric hybrid cars breaking out into the market it gave me the impression that the electric-hybrid version of a car is actually doing more out of the same energy input than its non HEV version. I bought into it. Others did too. Some went out and bought HEVs thinking that. The naked truth is that while there will always be invention and innovation some truths will never change. And one of those truth is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be converted or shifted. If your HEV has a nickel hydrite battery then process and resources were expended to put that equipment into your HEV. Hence, unless all the processes and resources can be quantifyed and put into the equation, only then can you size it up and see if your HEV's car battery is producing any real return in terms of efficiency. Given the law of physics I just mentioned it probably is not. Still, such vehicles will gain popularity. Because they suggest efficiency. They support it. And they bring cause and struggle to the domain. Do they have any real value? I believe they do. They will certainly have value in convenience. Less trips to the gas station. Reduced dependence on gasoline. And perhaps even enhanced performance at the lower $ market levels. And the advent of new ways and technologies that breaks out of the mundane. Still, it is important to keep some sight of the fundamentals and principals and not get totally duped by marketing campaigns.

Some fallacies are beautifully crafted. You almost cannot blame anyone for falling into them. The jolly old joker would even argue that you would want to fall into it. One such farcical drollery that I picked up a long time ago is when car salesmen tell you that you can give up the 'cash back' option on a car's purchase price for the 0% financing. But its not 0%. The cash back that you just gave up is the interest. Its added upfront. But its sooooo good that flocks will fall to it till the end of time. Perhaps the one that bothers me the most is the one that accountants perhpas unwittingly sell all the time. In a pre-dinner discussion at a friend's house in north LA last year I watched in horror as one of the guests pounded on the merits of interest only mortgage loans and their whopping benefit in tax deductions. That as a result he was paying far less taxes and just laughing to the bank. Which bank is that? You couldn't convince him otherwise. Especially now that he had bought the loan. The truth is that the only way you get a tax deduction outside of statutes is through expenditure. For this particularly wise man-of-the-world he was only getting a deduction for what he paid out in interest. Just because you got a bigger refund check means nothing. You paid for that refund. Well over.

Anyways, you get the gist. You wanna be green. Stop the car. And walk..........

Link............

The Fuel Cell

The hydrogen based technology that runs on fuel cells may well be the Jewel in the crown of new vehicle-powering technologies. Why's that? Because unlike liquid hydrogen, ethanol & gasoline and more like electric cars: it makes a complete break from the combustion engine. Fuel cells work a lot like batteries. There is a an electro-chemical reaction that converts the hydrogen fuel cells into electricity thus powering the car. Despite the electric power, there are vapor emissions due to the hydrogen and oxygen reaction but its only water vapor. The fuel cells are placed on stacks and this appears to be a key development area in the science which probably needs work and solutions before the technology is market ready. Case in point: Chevy Equinox's fuel cell stack is good for 50,000 miles only owing to corrosion occurring from the reactions. Honda FCX is impressive in that it will run for 350 miles in one stretch over the Equinox's 200 miles. An apparent advantage Hydrogen Fuel Cells seem to have over liquid hydrogen is that hydrogen does not have to be maintained in its liquid form 420 degrees below zero which is costly. The hydrogen fuel cells are kept on the stacks. Oxygen flows in and reacts and out flows electricity. I put this question out on Yahoo Answers. Let's see what we get:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlbB66Pa_TtUQvMGAejUx04jzKIX?qid=20061217082828AAzBR4Q

I was recently at the LA Auto show and both these cars were amongst the exciting stops for me. While Honda's is the concept car and makes a better futuristic statement, Chevy brings an exciting technology into the everyday SUV life and has quicker plans of starting special leases by late 2007. If you would like to participate in the special test lease program you can check to see if there is a fueling station near you on the following URL: http://www.chevrolet.com/fuelcell/checkzipcode/ .

I am not to be amongst the lucky ones that can lottery in for a fuel cell Equinox. Another terribly exciting break in this technology is that GM actually has a home based fueling station prototype ready to re-fill the fuel cell stacks. A great break and contribution coming from an American car company too often dumped on for its lack luster position in the world of cars and the future of cars. No doubt, such toys will be very expensive for the layman but the techno rich guys and regular rich folk who have gone green will scoop 'em like hot cakes. More importantly, it signals the beginnings of the era which looks like its destined to reach the masses. Take a look:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/04/gm-developing-home-based-hydrogen-filling-station/

I'm sure and very excited that there's gonna be much to report on this front in the coming months. When I started writing about this technology as the 'Jewel in the Crown', I had no idea that I would stumble across such an apt video to the statement. So my profuse thanks to user InaElly of YouTube who discovered and probably gave the overture to this jewel of a clip. Too bad she won't tell us where she got it. Ladies & gentlemen, Honda's FCX Fuel Cells car.....

BMW & Liquid Hydrogen

The battle for the next frontier in fueling tomorrow's vehicles is on and the great BMW car company is not to be ignored. So BMW announced that its going to have a road-ready hydrogen-based car hit the deck in its well known 7 series model sometime in late 2007. In fact, its does not run entirely on liquid hydrogen. In fact, its a hybrid. The car will retain a gasoline tank. More exciting than this market version is BMW's true hydrogen -experiment car, the H2R, which is not a hybrid. The 2 cars boldly signal BMW's bet on liquid hydrogen as a major energy source in the future. And why not? Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe, it can be recycled, its emissions are far less polluting and hydrogen, unlike Ethanol, burns faster and at a lower temperature than gasoline (which I assume means the same thing as generating more power). All of this is an easy peasy sell. We need to take note of liquid hydrogen as a serious contender in the field of energy exploration.

Real quick, liquid hydrogen is a combustable fuel like gasoline. Fuel cells, in contrast, work more like car batteries. A fuel cell, also based on hydrogen, is put through a chemical reaction and electric power is generated to drive the vehicle.

Given liquid hydrogen's potency it can pass up as a little disappointing that BMW's Hydrogen 7 will carry an alternative gasoline fuel tank (probably to keep it marketable as access to liquid hydrogen will continue to be scarce), its 6.0L V-12 engine will only churn out 256 bhp and will accelerate 0-60mph in a lame 9 seconds. But its too harsh to criticize such inadequacies in light of the 1st marketable car that can run on liquid hydrogen. In fact, in that light it should be considered impressive. If only Tesla Motor Company had not spoiled the psychology by launching its inaugral all-electric car that electricutes the 0-60mpg accleleration criteria in 4 seconds! This is also where a luxury auto-makers are disadvantaged in the market. BMW will struggle where Toyota succeeds with its Prius, Honda could with its fuel-cell FCX (expected in 2008) and Chevrolet could too with the fuel-cells version of the Equinox SUV(also for 2008). The luxury auto-maker will be pricing the car out of reach for a market mass that is more willing to buy green experimental cars. The 7 series decision is also surprising. I would have gone for the 3 series. At least it has better price reach, a lot of young people strive to own one and the young are more ready to buy the new. But, its possible that technicals may be too tough right now to fit all the components of a liquid hydrogen car into a compact frame. The liquid hydrgen has to be maintained at 420 degrees below zero which must require some serious hardware in the car. The BMW Hydrogen 7 will reach an impressive 143mph.

But any disappointment from the Hydrogen 7 will quickly be run over by BMW H2R. The real eye-catcher and hydrogen gem. Its rocket like appearance is not deceiving. This baby also sports a 6.0L V-12 engine but will achieve the 0 -60mph in a far more respectable 6 seconds and will go on to a whopping top speed of 187mph. All of it on liquid hydrogen. The experiment car does much better to win hearts.

Like other major combustable alternative fuel of Ethanol, liquid hydrogen would suffer from the same challenge of if it will ever earn enough faith and luck for investment in a large enough fuel delivery infrastructure that is also profitable. At least one thing seems to be fairly obvious: Hydrogen won't require exploration. It is abundantly available which itself should give it a huge upper hand on cost. An exciting source and one that comes out on top amongst the combustable fuels.