Easing the Pain of Disruptive Vehicle Technologies

September 24, 2006 – Vol.11 No.26

EASING THE PAIN OF DISRUPTIVE VEHICLE TECHNOLOGIES.

Behind closed doors the world’s oil and car companies must be thinking: What happens if the world’s governments decide to crack down on burning of gasoline and diesel fuel in a major way? What if governments decide that global warming and excess greenhouse gases are really bad news for the future of the human race? A government crackdown could cost us our business. How can we prevent that?

Those questions are why those companies are investigating technologies that would ease the pain of transition to a non-fossil-fuel-for-transportation world.

--- Hydrogen fuel cells powered with hydrogen extracted from hydrocarbons would keep oil companies in business: They’d have something to sell at the pump, but would have to build the network of filling stations and sequester any leftover carbon they’d have after extracting hydrogen.

Car companies would have to perfect and dramatically reduce the cost of fuel cells, or just burn hydrogen in internal combustion engines. (Mazda says it’s nearly ready to begin selling a hydrogen-burning vehicle.)

--- Oil companies could and have been investing in biofuels - ethanol and biodiesel. As now, they’d have something to sell at the pump. But is there enough excess biomatter on the planet to keep a billion or so vehicles going? And what happens with all the oil that’s still left in the ground and more importantly what happens to economies that rely on oil for their existence?

Car companies could switch their entire product lines to ethanol burning engines very easily. Diesels run on biodiesel with no conversion, of course.

--- Hybrids, if universally sold to replace all conventional cars and trucks, would eventually put a damper on fuel sales. Hybrids running only on biofuels worldwide could end the oil business.

Car companies could make all their vehicles hybrids if they wanted to. Vehicles would just cost more than they do now.

--- Ditto the above for plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) with one caveat. When the vehicles are plugged in electric utilities would have more opportunities to sell power, specifically electricity that’s generated at night, but not sold.

As with conventional hybrids, the car companies could do it, but the PHEVs would cost even more than conventional hybrids.

--- Battery electrics - now seeing a resurgence. With new nanotechnology lithium batteries such as those from Altair Nanotechnologies (Altairnano) - could put oil companies out of business and damage the economies of many of the world’s nations: Think of all the nations in OPEC.

But, as business entities oil companies could remain in business by buying up utility companies and using their natural gas and oil to generate power and sequestering carbon in the process. Not as much oil would be sold but they could stay in business, perhaps for centuries.

Someone would have to think of smart ways to keep oil economies from collapsing.

Car companies could build pure battery electrics if they wanted to.

In relatively small ways car companies have been continuing to prepare for what might be inevitable.

Honda has introduced its next generation of fuel cell vehicle, the FCX Concept, which it plans limited marketing of in Japan by 2008.

The vehicle uses a new vertical (instead of horizontal) fuel cell stack that is 30-percent lighter and 20-percent smaller than the previous version yet puts out an additional 14 kilowatts, a total of 100-kilowatts.

The vehicle can also be started in temperatures as low as minus 22 degrees F (minus 30 degrees Celsius.) The FCX Concept also has an energy efficiency of around 60 percent, about three times that of a gasoline-engine vehicle, twice that of a hybrid vehicle, and 10 percent better than the current FCX. A lithium battery is on board for boost power. No word on the possible price for the vehicle.

Honda has also introduced a next generation clean diesel engine for cars that has noxious emissions equal to a gasoline-fueled vehicle and meets stringent Tier II Bin 5 emissions requirements in the US. Greenhouse gas emissions would be less because of the greater efficiency of diesels. Theoretically the engine could run on biodiesel.

Honda, as well, has developed its own flexible fuel system that will allow equipped cars to run on ethanol or gasoline. But, unlike other flexfuel systems Honda’s technology will allow cars to run on 100-percent ethanol (E100) not just 85-percent ethanol ( E85) as with most flexfuel systems.

General Motors, too, is keeping its foot in the door for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The company has extended its hydrogen powered postal vehicle program in Washington, DC and, in a much larger program, plans to build a fleet of 100 fuel cell vehicles in the US beginning in 2007.

The new program, dubbed Project Driveway, will utilize GM fourth generation fuel cell system packaged in vehicle known as the Equinox Fuel Cell, which appears to be a converted Equinox SUV.

The new fuel cell system has an output of 93 kilowatts and an operating life span of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers). The fuel cell can operate in temperatures as low as minus 13 F and as high as 113 F (-25 C to + 45C)

Visit Altairnano at http://www.altairnano.com/ , Honda at http://world.honda.com and GM at http://www.gm.com/ or http://media.gm.com/eur/gm/en/index.html