Hondas Home Hydrogen | Green Energy News

September 28, 2003 – Vol.8 No.27

HONDA’S HOME HYDROGEN.

Honda, and other car manufacturers, abandoned battery electric vehicle development because they felt consumers would never put up with those vehicle’s limited range and the long charging time needed to reenergize them. But Honda did learn one thing from their electric vehicle experiment. People might like the ability to refuel their cars at home.

The company has already come forth with home natural gas fueling devices and eventually would like to offer products to fill family fuel cell cars with home-brewed hydrogen. Combining the latter concept - home hydrogen fueling - with a fuel cell that could provide heat, hot water and electricity, and the Home Energy Station concept is born. A Home Energy Station could provide all the energy people need for domestic use and transportation in one package that is detached from the power grid (though connected to natural gas pipelines) and free from the concerns of environmental damage.

Working with Plug Power, the Honda R & D has developed a prototype Home Energy Station that includes a natural gas reformer, a fuel cell stack for power generation, a refiner to cleanse the hydrogen as well as a pump and pressure tank to store hydrogen for the vehicle.

But Honda also recognizes that natural gas supplies are becoming questionable, thus is taking further steps toward energy independence for consumers. The company is developing its own solar cell technology that could be used to provide electric power directly to the home or split apart water for its hydrogen. That hydrogen could be used to fuel a vehicle or for the home during hours when sunlight isn’t available - use hydrogen to store solar energy.

And, with its solar technology development Honda is thinking big-picture too. The company has taken into consideration the amount of electricity needed to make solar cells from raw materials - which can be considerable. To meet that challenge it is developing cells made of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGS) which require less energy to make than cells made from silicon, according to the company. Visit Honda at http://www.hondanews.com/ and Plug Power at http://www.plugpower.com/ .