Green Cars, Hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen fuel, and hydrogen powered

Alt Fuel

2006-04-29T00:32:00.000-07:00

Alternative fuel can be found by using alternative energy sources.

Article Search

2006-04-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

Quality articles about verious journals and educational articles are available on Article Search. Debt Consolidation and mortgage loans offer consumers the change to invest in Forex Currency Trading. Once you have made your money go out and buy some Bridal Lingerie Buying Guide.

Larger Hybrid Cars Not More Fuel Efficient

2005-07-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

Filed under: Culture, Culture/Tech: Business and Economics, Culture/Tech: Science and Health, Culture/Tech: Society - Scroll down to read comments on this story and/or add one of your own.

For the past seven years, I've been driving a stereotypical suburban mother's car: a minivan. We bought it when I was pregnant with our first child, having decided that my ten-year-old Dodge Daytona -- my very first car -- with its two long, heavy doors, impossible-to-use "passive restraint" seat belts, and low frame that had you practically sitting on the pavement, would be to our disadvantage once my belly popped, not to mention once the baby arrived.

A few years ago, after being trapped in the soul-sucking minivan for a few years, I decided that my next car would be a convertible. I knew I'd be over 40 years old when I got it, but that was part of my rationale: drive the minivan for as many years as possible so that when it's time for the next car, the kids will be older and we won't need quite so much soccer mom space in the back.

My husband basically shoved reality back in my face. "They don't make convertible minvans," he said, pointing out that my next car will still need to be a minivan. I tried to fight back with, "I know," meaning that I wasn't planning to get a minivan. But my husband and I both knew better: I'm probably stuck in a minivan for at least on more go-round at the car dealer.

Aside from wanting to drive something just slightly more cool, I also want to drive something slightly more "green." So we have since concluded that I'll be driving my current minivan at least until some hybrid minivans come on the market. If I'm going to be stuck in another mom-mobile for ten more years, I've told myself, at least I'll be driving a car that will help decrease emissions and our country's dependence upon foreign oil. I've been living with that happy assumption for about two years now.

Today, I learned that my assumption is wrong. According to a story in the New York Times, larger hybrid cars aren't significantly more fuel efficient than their non-hybrid counterparts. Instead, they're significantly more powerful. The hybrid engine is being used in larger and higher end cars to provide more power when accelerating, to "get more work out of a gallon of gasoline," rather than to cut back on the number of gallons used.

According to the NY Times:

The 2005 Honda Accord hybrid gets about the same miles per gallon as the basic four-cylinder model, according to a review by Consumer Reports, a car-buyer's guide, and it saves only about two miles a gallon compared with the V-6 model on which it is based. Thanks to the hybrid technology, though, it accelerates better.

...

The Accord hybrid is not alone in using technology for power; the Toyota Highlander and the Lexus RX330, two premium vehicles, both gained horsepower when they were produced as hybrids. When Lexus created a hybrid version of the RX330 it kept the same 3.3-liter engine, but to get across the idea that the hybrid had as much power as a vehicle with a 4-liter engine it named it the RX400h.

Cars like the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius are still available for people who want to buy a car primarily for its fuel economy. But these cars are much smaller than what I need. The Insight is only a two-seater. And even though the Prius a five-seater, it's still a small car.

I want a car with the size and features of a minivan, but with Insight- and Prius-like fuel economy. I don't expect to get 70 miles per gallon in a minivan, but I would like to get 40 or 45. I don't need to accelerate faster; I'm used to a car that can't get off the line quickly. I want fuel efficiency and size.

The problem with large cars IS their fuel consumption. Why won't car makers actually produce cars that are both fuel efficient and a larger size? Why do they always opt for increasing POWER over fuel economy? Because that's what Americans really want. They wouldn't make them if they couldn't sell them. For all of our talk about ending our dependence on foreign oil, we sure are unwilling to give up a single convenience to get it.

Do sports cars and hydrogen mix?

2005-07-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

Source: Guardian
Charles Morgan is shouting into his mobile phone, trying to make himself heard above the roar of the racetrack at Goodwood Park in Chichester, southern England. As the man behind Morgan sports cars, he seems an unlikely advocate for environmentally-friendly vehicles but here he is, loudly extolling the virtues of hydrogen-powered cars and the novelty of silent driving.

``What's really exciting about driving? Perhaps the noise has nothing to do with it,' he shouts. ``Perhaps it's possible to make a car that's completely quiet, that drives like a sports car - makes you feel every bit of the road - but all you hear is a whoosh.'

Morgan's plans to build a hydrogen-powered sports car were announced last week as a joint project with the research firm Qinetiq and a smattering of university groups. If all goes to plan, the team will deliver the hydrogen-powered LIFEcar within three years.

No one at Morgan or Qinetiq is pretending that LIFEcar will do anything to save the planet, but if the project proves that environmentally friendly cars need not lack looks or performance, it might just encourage others to look more seriously at making them. ``If it works, and people like it, it will show that hydrogen is a marketable possibility,' says Morgan.

Projects such as LIFEcar raise the profile of environmentally friendly vehicles and encourage the development of the fuel cells and electric motors needed to power them. But some experts believe that hydrogen cars for the masses are such a distant prospect that effort should be focused on alternatives. ``We need to explore and develop our options,' says John Heywood, director of the Sloan Automotive Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hydrogen cars, if introduced in the right way, will certainly bring benefits, according to research. In the latest issue of Science , Mark Jacobson and colleagues at Stanford University calculated that if all the vehicles in the U.S. were powered by hydrogen, the resulting drop in pollution - in the form of carbon monoxide, ozone and nitrogen oxides - would prevent between 3,000 and 6,000 deaths a year. ``It could be done at a fuel cost that's comparable to the cost of gasoline - and less than the cost of gasoline when yyou consider the health effects.'

One problem facing a hydrogen economy is creating an efficient infrastructure. In a paper soon to be published in the journal Energy , a team led by Zhijia Huang at China's Anhui University assessed various means of generating hydrogen and making it available to drivers needing to fill up around Shanghai. They produced a ``well-to-wheels' analysis of the energy efficiency and emissions of different hydrogen pathways, taking into account how the gas was made and distributed.

The researchers found that while eight out of 10 pathways led to big cuts in urban pollution emissions, six of the 10 methods consumed more energy and generated more greenhouse gases than the existing petrol-based infrastructure. The best way to generate hydrogen, they concluded, was to use natural gas; the worst was electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Picking the most efficient way to make and distribute hydrogen is not the only issue for hydrogen cars. According to a study carried out in 2003 by researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Nasa's jet propulsion laboratory, leaks could have a damaging effect on the atmosphere. The study, reported in Science , says inevitable gas leaks from hydrogen production facilities, transporting the fuel and the hydrogen cars themselves, would lead to a four to eight-fold rise in the amount of the gas being pumped into the atmosphere by human activity. If the hydrogen accumulated in the stratosphere, as the team believe it would, the likely effect would be a 10 per cent drop in ozone levels.

According to Heywood, we have a long wait before the impact of hydrogen cars will be known. He compares the introduction of hydrogen cars to the push for diesel in Europe in the early 1980s. ``It was a fairly standard technology that needed only a bit of development, and it took around 25 years to achieve substantial market penetration,' he says. ``With hydrogen cars, the fuel cells are new, the batteries and some of the electronics are new and you have to build new factories, which takes time and money. When we looked at how long it was likely to take for fuel cells to be really marketable, we came up with around 50 years.'

Heywood is not opposed to projects such as LIFEcar, but believes interim technologies are needed to ease reliance on fossil fuels in the next half-century. ``If you extrapolate the petroleum consumption going into transportation in this country, western Europe, China and India, it's clear the future's different from the past. The developing world is big enough and growing rapidly enough. It's going to strain supplies. Maybe eventually we have to wean ourselves off fossil fuels for cars. But it doesn't have to be all hydrogen or all battery cars to do it.'
Source

HUMMER on Hydrogen

2005-07-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

By Ron Cogan

It was only a matter of time until GM introduced a hydrogen powered HUMMER concept, and that time has arrived. The General’s HUMMER H2H SUT (sport utility truck) shown here is a one-of-a-kind experimental hydrogen vehicle, a great concept pointing the way to a greener future, but one with no production plans to bring us there.

That may seem an odd call considering the very cool nature of this vehicle. But GM is clearly focused on hydrogen fuel cell technology, as evidenced by its work on the GM HydroGen3 and Hy-Wire fuel cell vehicles that have been shown previously in this magazine.

The automaker’s position is that fuel cells are cleaner and more efficient than internal combustion engines and it is moving rapidly toward proving the commercial viability of fuel cell technology. Still, GM says the H2H is a valuable tool that will provide it an opportunity to learn more about hydrogen storage, delivery systems, and refueling infrastructure development as it moves forward toward hydrogen vehicles.

Powered by a supercharged 6.0-liter Vortec V-8 modified to run on gaseous hydrogen, the HUMMER H2H is the result of a coordinated effort by GM engineers in the U.S., Canada, and Germany. GM fuel cell partner Quantum Technologies, a Southern California vehicle integrator focused on gaseous fuel technologies, also worked on the project.

Significant changes have been made to allow this HUMMER to run on hydrogen. These include the use of specially designed fuel injectors that provide for more conservative fuel delivery, a nod to hydrogen’s unique combustion dynamics. GM engineers added a supercharger to help compensate for the substantial reduction in engine power that comes with running on hydrogen, a move that enables the H2H Vortec 6000 engine to offer 180 horsepower. That’s a respectable power output but still substantially short of the 325 horsepower of the standard, normally aspirated gasoline H2 variant.

Gaseous hydrogen is carried in a 5,000 psi compressed hydrogen fuel system that’s comprised of three carbon fiber cylinders, one in the cargo bed of the H2H and two underbody cylinders located in the standard gasoline tank location. Two refueling connectors are found in the traditional fuel-fill area, with a third on the rear bumper. The 12 pounds of hydrogen carried on-board provide an estimated 60 mile driving range.

Distinguishing the H2H variant is special Laser Blue paint with “Hydrogen” and “California Hydrogen Highway” graphics, along with an H2H emblem at the rear. The SUT body style features a slant-back design with a composite tonneau that emulates the look of the military HUMVEE. Other modifications include a chrome grille guard and an integrated topside rack and light bar.

Okay, so we won’t see these hydrogen HUMMERs plying our highways in any kind of numbers in the near future, if ever. But it is a great exercise in form and function that shows us what’s possible. After all, if you can make a HUMMER “green,” then think of the possibilities in store for mainstream pickups, minivans, and SUVs just down the road.

Honda Replacement Parts That Fit the 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid

2005-07-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

After a long wait, now comes a hybrid car that delivers more power and less gas, the 2005 omatic climate control system, leather-trimmed interior, heated front seats and a driver's seat with 8-way power adjustment. Honda Accord Hybrid makes it in the right time when there is a worldwide clamor for fuel efficiency and clean air.

The Honda Accord again made it to the prestigious 2005 "10 Best" list award of Car and Driver Magazine for suitability, intended purpose and the ability to satisfy discriminating drivers. In January 2005, Autobytel has also awarded the Accord with the "2004 Consumer Choice Award" for being the most requested by Autobytel's online automobile shoppers during the year. According to Autobytel's Web site, "Few other vehicles have captured the combination of practicality, fun, value and affordability as successfully as the Accord."

The Accord has a powerful, 255-hp, 3.0-liter, i-VTEC® V-6 engine with Integrated Motor Assist (IMA™) , dual-zone hybrid aut

Its exterior has exclusive black chrome front grille. From the rear, the unique tailgate design and new XM® antenna are both attractive and functional, while the exclusive lightweight alloy wheel design provide sporty look to this visually captivating, four-door sedan. An exclusive rear spoiler and aerodynamic 16-inch alloy wheels give you the sporty look you need for a car built on performance.

A look at the Accord's interior treats you to leather seats; automatic climate control system, remote entry system and an 8-way power driver's seat. It is also equipped with Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System with Voice Recognition as an option.

Safety features include a standard anti-lock braking system (ABS), standard dual-stage, dual-threshold front airbags (SRS) as well as front side and side curtain airbags. To aid in stability, there is a Traction Control System (TCS), too. But the biggest difference with the Accord Hybrid is the Instant Mobility System (IMS), which acts in place of a spare tire to reduce weight and improve gas mileage. The system includes a compressed sealant and air compressor to help easily repair and re-inflate a damaged tire.

Partstrain like Honda has been, through the years, synonymous with integrity and dependability serving clients with the highest-quality Honda auto replacement parts. Top caliber Honda product lines and first class service define Partstrain. Its certified secure online store http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByVehicle/HONDA has first rate Honda body parts with greatly reduced prices. Durable and highly reliable Honda parts with excellent customer service await you. Contact its knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives if you need any help with your Honda auto parts order. All its genuine quality Honda fuel tank, spoiler, radiator, electrical parts, engine parts, hood, hubcaps, condenser, bumper, catalytic converter, exhaust, fender, grille to name a few are available to you in great discounts and wholesale deals.

About the Author
Jenny McLane is a 36 year old native of Iowa and has a knack for research on cars and anything and everything about it. She works full time as a Market Analyst for one of the leading car parts suppliers in the country today.

Hybrid Fuel Systems Adds New EPA Certification for Ford 4.6 Liter Engines

2005-07-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 13, 2005--Hybrid Fuel Systems, Inc. (OTCBB:HYFS), a manufacturer and distributor of diesel and gasoline conversion systems, announces the addition of a new CNG dedicated, EPA Certification for 4.6 Liter Ford engines, installed in Crown Victoria, Crown Victoria Police, Lincoln Town Car, and Mercury Grand Marquis vehicle platforms.

The Fuel 2(TM) Light technology consists of a conversion system which takes advantage of CNG fuel at a cost differential of $.70 - $1.00(per/gal.eqv.) less, compared to gasoline. The electronic Port Sequential Fuel Injected System mimics the OEM fuel strategy and provides feedback over 244 times per second. Simultaneously while one injector is firing, it is also calculating the fuel mixture and volume for the next injector. If necessary, electronic adjustments are made in the air/fuel ratio. Fuel 2 Light provides fuel to cylinders in the same firing order as GM, Ford, or any OEM. Additionally, this fuel injection system has been developed to maintain precise control of the alternative fuel of choice, (LPG and/or CNG) for optimal performance and reliability.

Located in Atlanta, Georgia, Tampa, Florida and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Hybrid is a small volume manufacturer of EPA Certified bi-fuel and dedicated natural gas and propane turnkey conversion systems. The systems are installed in light- and medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in private fleets and governmental agencies. The Company continues to develop and certify various transportation platforms to meet EPA requirements. Hybrid has a full service alternative fuels center with slow/fast fill stations as well as compressor installation and maintenance capabilities.

About Hybrid Fuel Systems - Formed in 1996, Hybrid Fuel Systems holds a worldwide license to commercialize a patent system for the conversion of diesel engines to non-petroleum based fuels such as natural gas. Hybrid has a family of EPA Certified light, medium systems that are bi-fuel, dual fuel and dedicated conversion technologies for gasoline and diesel platforms.

For more information, contact CEO Mark Clancy (813) 624-5515 or visit the company's website at http://www.hybridfuelsystems.com. Investors may contact Frank Hawkins or Julie Marshall, Hawk Associates, at (305) 451-1888, e-mail: info@hawkassociates.com.

An online investor relations kit containing Hybrid Fuel Systems press releases, SEC filings, current Level II price quotes, interactive Java stock charts and other useful information for investors can be found at http://www.hawkassociates.com and http://www.hawkmicrocaps.com.

Investors are cautioned that certain statements contained in this document are "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements which are predictive in nature, which depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, which include words such as "believes," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "expects" and similar expressions. In addition, any statements concerning future financial performance (including future revenues, earnings or growth rates), ongoing business strategies or prospects, and possible future Hybrid actions, which may be provided by management, are also forward-looking statements as defined by the act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance.

GMC Sierra Hybrid 2005 Accentuated with GMC Parts from Parts Train

2005-07-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

A standard Vortec 5300 5.3-liter V8 engine powers the Sierra Hybrid and a 4-speed Hydra-Matic automatic transmission coupled with the full-size truck segment’s first hybrid propulsion technology for improved fuel economy.

The Sierra hybrid uses electric power even less frequently. Its gasoline engine can shut down when the car is stopped (actually, when it's braking to a stop, below 13 mph or so) and-that's it. The batteries (three 14-volt units plus the standard 12-volt) cannot power the truck at low speeds. Nor do they help out the gasoline engine, which therefore can't be any smaller. It's the same 5.3-liter V-8 GM pickup buyers know and love. Because of the limited nature of this hybrid system, the benefits are mild: roughly 2 mpg in city driving and 1 mpg during the EPA's highway cycle.

The system replaces the traditional starter motor and alternator with a compact 14-kw electric induction motor or starter generator integrated between the engine and transmission. The starter generator provides fast, quiet starting power and allows the gasoline engine to automatically start and stop under certain conditions to conserve fuel.

The Sierra Hybrid also offers four 120-volt/20-amp electrical auxiliary power outlets located under the rear seat and in the pickup bed. Because the 5.3-liter V-8 is the same as that in non-hybrid pickups, its power and torque outputs are the same (295 horsepower, 325 pound-feet of torque). Acceleration, towing, and payload are undiminished. The extra hybrid gear takes up very little space-the biggest component, the three extra batteries, is under the rear seat. One interesting feature of the hybrid trucks are its four, 120-volt 20-amp AC power outlets in the cargo bed and the rear seat; but the engine must be running in order to use them.

As in hybrid cars, the gas engine shuts off at stoplights to save fuel, and an electric motor restarts the engine when the gas pedal is pushed. Unlike most hybrids, the electric motor does not help propel the vehicle. The system does include a unique feature aimed at commercial users and picnic tailgaters: a generator that provides 120-volt power for running electrical accessories.

Available in California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada and Florida, the Sierra Hybrid delivers up to 10 percent better fuel economy with the same power and performance as the 5.3-liter V8. In fact, that same engine powers the Hybrid, developing the same 295 horsepower and 335 pound-feet of torque.

GM is not to be outpaced in this hurried race for the development of producing fuel cells. With all these amazing technological breakthroughs in the automotive industry, Partstrain stands by its commitment of delivering excellently engineered GM performance parts, replacement auto parts to go with GM's efforts of sustained production of environment friendly vehicles.

Browse through http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByVehicle/GMC for all of your GM auto body parts needs and have a choice in its stock of high quality and well-crafted GM accessories and performance parts. Excellent customer service awaits you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Partstrain adheres to rigid tests for utmost quality control and sees to it that their GM Parts do not diminish the performance of your car.

About the Author
Jenny McLane is a 36 year old native of Iowa and has a knack for research on cars and anything and everything about it. She works full time as a Market Analyst for one of the leading car parts suppliers in the country today.

Venturi Effect

2005-07-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

Just when you figure you’ve seen everything, something comes around that sets you back on your heels. Such is life in the world of advanced technology vehicles.

This is especially so when it comes to electric cars. By most accounts in recent years, the battery electric vehicle had died an untimely death. Green Car Journal editors didn’t believe it then and we don’t now. But realistically, in the eyes of most folks there wasn’t much going on to dispute this. That view is turned on its ear by the Venturi Fétish, an unlikely and curvaceous example that epitomizes what the ultimate electric supercar should be.

The Venturi Fétish made its U.S. debut earlier this year in Los Angeles and then followed suit in Monaco, showings that followed an appearance in Paris. Here, it was eye-opening even by car-crazed California standards, with a sleek body drawn by French designer Sacha Lakic and engineering handled by Gérard Ducarouge of Lotus Formula 1 fame. It is assembled in California, where this elegant carbon fiber bodyshell is wrapped around a carbon aluminum honeycomb monocoque chassis, creating a 2,424 pound sports car that’s as aesthetically pleasing as any of the high-end exotics plying the roads of Hollywood or Beverly Hills.

But this car isn’t all looks. A 300 horsepower, 14,000 rpm AC Propulsion electric motor propels the rear-drive Fétish from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds, achieving a top speed above 100 mpg. A T-shaped battery pack incorporating 770 pounds of lithium-ion batteries provides the power, a configuration similar to that of the nickel-metal-hydride battery design in GM’s EV1 electric car. This 58 kilowatt-hour Li-Ion pack reportedly allows the car a single-charge driving range of 200 miles. Regenerative braking recaptures energy during deceleration or braking and feeds electricity back to the batteries. Unlike most electric cars, the amount of regeneration is driver-adjustable at the dash. The car rides on Michelin Pilot Sport tires wrapped around aggressive 18 inch alloy wheels up front, with Michelins over 19-inch alloys at the rear.

Inside, Venturi offers its buyers a choice of leather or neoprene upholstery, form-fitting racing style seats, a thickly-wrapped steering wheel, and digital instrumentation. A wide array of advanced electronics is at a driver’s fingertips including an Apple Mini i-Pod MP3 player and an Alpine touch-screen multimedia station, which includes GPS navigation and DVD.

While, the Fétish is real and available, there is a catch. This Venturi supercar is being marketed as a piece of automotive art, limited to 25 copies and sold in L.A., Tokyo, and Monte Carlo, the latter where Venturi Automobiles is based, for the lofty price of $660,000. Too bad. We were looking to add one of these to our garage, too.
By Ron Cogan
Green Car Journal

The All-New 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid and Parts, the first Hybrid Vehicle of Its Class

2005-07-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

After Toyota’s introduction of the Prius, the first hybrid vehicle, in 1997 which was followed by the debut of Honda Insight two years later in America, General Motors adopted the Hybrid technology to their vehicle with the 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid. The introduction the Escape Hybrid is the first entry of any American vehicle in the market. As to Ford’s pioneering model, the Escape is produced on a limited number. 2004 brought only 3000-4000 units of Ford Escape which began its production in late July. About 16,000 to 17,000 units are scheduled to be on the production line in 2005 but with the demand increasingly high, the number might increase.

As the law of supply and demand applies to the Escape, buyers will not get any discounts and rebates for this high-priced SUV ranging from $26,970 for Front Wheel Drive which can reach up to $33,000 for a fully optioned vehicle to $28,595 for the All-Wheel Drive. They have to settle to the idea that they are one of the few owners of this first of its kind SUV.

The 2005 Ford Escape runs on a 4-cylinder gasoline engine with an electric drive system to deliver the performance of a V-6. It is typically an electric car that uses electric power engine to operate. Unlike other hybrid vehicles like Honda Accord which uses IMA or the integrated motor assist which always at the gas mode and kick to electric for additional power when needed, the Ford Escape use electric as long as possible then switch to gas when needed. The electric motor can reach the peak of up to 70 kilowatts for an additional of 93hp.

The American hybrid requires no plug. The battery is a sealed nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) rated at 330 volts, which automatically recharges during long stops or when the gas-engine is running. Its battery performance is like the typical V-6 in terms of speed and acceleration. It uses the electronically controlled, continuously variable transmission (eCVT), which harnesses internal combustion and electric power sources to drive the wheels. Fuel economy increases by 75% in city driving, consuming at about, 36 mpg in city driving and 31 mpg on the highway, better than what Ford expected.

For more information about the 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid, or to its purchase parts, visit http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByVehicle/FORD . You can also check out other Ford models like the Ford Aerostar, Aspire, Bronco, Club, Contour, Country, Courier, Clestline, Escort, Expedition, F-series, and other ford vehicles.

About the Author
Jenny McLane is a 36 year old native of Iowa and has a knack for research on cars and anything and everything about it. She works full time as a Market Analyst for one of the leading car parts suppliers in the country today.

Hybrid cars with 250 mpg fuel mileage

2005-07-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to have 250-mpg mileage with hybrid cars? Yes, Bellevue auto visionaries’ thinks so. The people owning Toyota Prius and Honda hybrid cars are eyeing for an mpg of 40 to 50 then how a automaker claims to have technology that can give this high mileage. What technology they are using? Let us try to look at answers of these questions.

20 member team at AFS Trinity Power Corp claims to make this possible with their plug in hybrid car. On technology front, they are going to use flywheel to create and store power. Conventional cars use gasoline engine to power the vehicle whereas hybrid cars use gasoline engine with battery support. However, the claimed car will use gasoline engine, battery source with flywheel or a capacitor. The power load is shifted among these sources according to the requirement.

The flywheel will help the car in two ways i.e firstly it will help the car in the time of acceleration and secondly it will absorb the power which is being wasted while braking. It will also help the car to use lesser number and lighter batteries. This will collectively help to reduce the overall weight of the car. Flywheel or capacitor is said to absorb power efficiently and quickly.

In future, the gasoline engine could also be replaced with more fuel-efficient hydrogen fuel cells. It is estimated that these cars would cost $3 to $7 for gas and $4 for electricity per week, which is much lower, then $14 for hybrid cars and $36 for conventional cars.

As the environment is degrading each day and fuel is depleting even faster, these types of technology could help stabilize the situation largely. Let us see if dreams of Bellevue auto visionaries come live. Think of a situation if oil imports from Middle East stops due to some reason.

About the Author
Ansh Shukla
Ansh a car enthusiast could be reached at New car updates

Hybrid Cars are perfect fit in the Black Hills

2005-06-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

Black Hills Hybrid owners share a unique interest
By Curtis Finnegan

Curtis Finnegan's car isn't a one of the kind in the Black Hills, but it is unique. Curtis is one of a number of growing residents to purchase a "hybrid car" or a car that has two or more sources of power. These new hybrid vehicles feature small, fuel-efficient, gas engines combined with an electric motor that kicks in to assist the engine when you accelerate or go up hill. The motor is powered by batteries that recharge while you drive and do not require an electrical plug in. Ford, Honda, Toyota and even Saab are some of the auto manufacturers who are stepping up to the plate to provide the most economical vehicles on the market today with prices from the 20k to 50 k range. Out of this interest, the Black Hills Hybrid Car club was established. This club is a 'gathering' of hybrid car owners. So far just 2004-'05 Prius cars have shown up for the clubs events but interest is growing. Curtis Finnegan, the Black Hills Hybrid Car club founder reports "lots of on-lookers have also 'wondered' what these cars are, when we get together".

Curtis reports "I basically wanted to get a group together to talk hybrids/share tech info and to drive our special cars. After getting mine (2004 Prius) and after learning so much online, I wanted to get together with others that have discovered the next step in auto technology. It's been great to talk with other's hybrid experiences, and to help others that are interested in getting a hybrid car. I think more than one person whom I've showed my car to (and let drive!) have gone on to order one."

The Prius (as well as the Ford Escape SUV) are considered full hybrids. They can run on electricity alone (lower speeds), gas alone, or a combination of the two power sources. The Hondas (now an Accord, as well as the Civic and the Insight) are mild hybrids. They run the gas engine all the time and use the electric motor to boost and help the gas engine when needed. They can not move with just electricity; the gas engine must be on.

And then there's the Chevy/GMC trucks. "Not a hybrid! They just aren't. Basically the engine will stop at stoplights and a battery/motor will restart it as you accelerate. The electric motor in NO way is being used to move the vehicle. These are really not going to be part of our hybrid club. They are just a start/stop type technology."

Reasons to get a hybrid: Low emmisions (the Prius is the cleanest gasoline car produced) , great fuel economy (around 50 MPG, lower if you speed and in colder weather), support new and better technology for our planet and lessen foreign oil imports. Finnegans reason "they are a kick to drive! So far in 8 months and 16,000 miles, I'm averaging 47 MPG, and have saved 700 gallons of fuel over my old SUV. That's about $1400. And it keeps getting better."

New law drives clean cars ahead

2005-06-01T16:02:00.000-07:00

By SUSAN M. COVER
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill Tuesday that will make it easier for Mainers to get their hands on popular environmentally friendly cars.

The new law requires car manufacturers to offer more clean-car models in Maine by 2009.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine had led the charge to get the new law enacted, citing cars and trucks as the largest source of smog, haze, soot and global warming.

"We're really very excited about this project and what this really means for clean air in Maine," said Sue Jones, energy project director for the Council.

Baldacci signed the bill at Lee Chevrolet on State Street, alongside environmental groups that pushed for the bill.

"For Maine consumers, this rule will mean more-efficient and cleaner cars available sooner," Baldacci said, according to a statement released by his press office.

"With the price of gasoline near $2 per gallon, these cars can save Maine citizens thousands of dollars," the governor's statement said.

The bill allows automakers to use different car types and models to meet the goals. By 2009, cleaner cars would represent about 10 percent of new cars sold in Maine, according to the Natural Resources Council.

Hybrid cars, which use some of the combusted gas to produce electricity that is then stored, produce up to 90 percent less air pollution and are 30 percent more efficient than standard cars.

Automakers now make 27 conventional cleaner-car models and four hybrid models.

According to the Natural Resources Council, six other states in the Northeast are in the process of adopting cleaner-car goals. By adopting new laws, these states will get cleaner-car models before states that do not adopt such standards.

Susan M. Cover
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

Hybrid Cars Open Doors for Electronic Component Makers

2005-05-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

Toyota Motor Corp of Japan released its new sports utility vehicles (SUV), the Harrier Hybrid and Kluger Hybrid, on March 22, 2005, both mounting hybrid systems with high output (see Fig). The combination of the 3.3-liter V6 engine with the hybrid system delivers a high total system output of 200kW, with acceleration characteristics on a par with V8 engines.

Even better, 10-15 mode fuel mileage is 17.8km/l, 0.6km/l higher than the 1.5-liter Corolla.

The growth in the hybrid vehicle market represents a business opportunity for electronics manufacturers. For example, the rear motor in the new hybrid SUV uses key rotors and stators procured from Hitachi Ltd of Japan.

The new designs are also the first hybrid SUVs in the world to use 42V power steering. Most cars today use a 14V power supply, but the increased vehicle weight made it necessary to boost the voltage to 42V to provide the needed output with the smaller motors.

This will open the door to a new 42V electronics market, providing electronics manufacturers with a host of new opportunities.

Higher Output

The new hybrid SUVs have also had the voltage of the NiMH rechargeable batteries boosted to a maximum of 650V, 1.3x the level of Toyota's environment-focused Prius, to achieve higher output. The peak speed of the front motor is 12,400rpm, 1.9x the speed of the Prius, with a peak output of 123kW.

The new hybrid SUVs use a 4-wheel drive system, which means rear motors, too. The rear motors can be driven at the same 650V max as the front motors, with a high 50kW peak output. Toyota adopted a simple 4-wheel drive hybrid system in the Estima Hybrid released in June 2001, but because the voltage of the rechargeable batteries was not stepped up, rear motor output was only 18kW.

The module case for the NiMH rechargeable batteries, holding eight cells, has been switched from plastic to Ni-plated steel to improve heat radiation performance. The cells themselves are about the same as those used in the Prius, except that total rechargeable battery weight has been boosted to 69kg for 240 cells. The Prius was only 39kg for 168 cells, which works out to 13kg more when calculated for 240 cells. An engineer at Toyota commented, "The hybrid SUV outputs high currents from the rechargeable batteries more often than the Prius, for acceleration. Even with the increased weight we had to improve heat radiation performance."

by Koji Kariatsumari

(June 2005 Issue, Nikkei Electronics Asia)

Prius: A Free Pass for Sequoias

2005-05-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

KEVIN A. WILSON
Published Date: 5/2/05
It came to me at the gas pump. The beneficiary of expense-report largesse was a Toyota Tundra, extended cab, iForce V8, 4x4 and—on this particular tankful—a 14-mpg gas-sucker. So the thought that came to me was, “Why does Toyota get a free pass on this stuff?”

On the passenger-side front seat was a copy of Wired magazine with a digitally enhanced hot-rod Prius on the cover, proclaiming a story by an author who evidently not only sipped the Toyota Kool-Aid but gulped gallons. Did you know that Toyota—almost singlehandedly if you buy into this account—will save us all from global warming and put hydrogen fuel cell cars in your garage within the decade? Some of us thought that—hybrids aside—Toyota was busily selling mega-SUVs like the aptly named giant Sequoia and aptly nicknamed Land Crusher, not to mention designing ever-more bloated Lexi for fat cats. Fine cars, but not saviors of the earth—at least not until Toyota makes good on its pledge to hybridize everything it makes.

For now, asked to nominate a “green” car company, most would point at Honda, where commitment runs across the entire range. Honda has just collected its third straight annual award as the “greenest automaker” from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Meanwhile, Toyota builds a factory in Texas to make a much bigger, badder pickup than this Tundra. Yet in the general press, genuflection toward its sombrero badge has become the norm. Even radical publications that routinely rant about the evils of globalization and corporate giantism are slavering over Toyota. This is so, even though Toyota is poised to become the biggest car company on the planet bar none, supplanting the firm these same publications routinely lash as evil incarnate: General Motors.

What makes Toyota benign in their eyes is, of course, the monumental success of the Prius. As one who hailed the breakthrough and clever design of the first-generation model, I’ve certainly been on the Prius bandwagon. Bandwagons tend to get overloaded and race out of control in the media, though, and the victims of the rah-rah are nuance and perspective. Toyota is a big and growing global concern. It got that way by catering to consumer desires. Whether that desire is for fuel-efficient boxes or overpowered, oversized crates, it’s all money in the bank. They’re good at it, but why the unquestioning, near-religious fervor?

This works the other way, too. Pack journalists smell blood, so they’re nipping at GM’s heels. Sales got off to a slow start, and suddenly business reporters who can’t tell a hybrid from a hyphen are comparing GM’s woes to Toyota’s success and calling for heads to roll. I called it the “piling-on effect” in a recent radio interview.

Not that the ink—either in the press or the red stuff on the balance sheets—is unearned. It’s just that the GM story is no more “red” than matters Toyota are “green.” Real life isn’t that black-and-white.

The automotive beat is fun because the story is in constant flux. One day they’re hanging Bob Lutz in effigy, the next they notice he hasn’t been at GM long enough to develop new product from the ground up. A dose of Solstice might be solace; add some Sky and people might see light in the darkness. Similarly, one day we’re all applauding a Prius, then Toyota rolls out a big-as-Texas truck on a day gasoline hits $3 a gallon.
( Full Article at Auto Week)

Why GM's Plan Won't Work

2005-05-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

...and the ugly road ahead

Slide Show >>If General Motors Corp. (GM ) were any other company, its problems would have sorted themselves out a long time ago. Logic says that when your cash holdings exceed your entire valuation in the stock market, some Wall Street shark is going to swoop in, snap up the good parts, and toss the rest. Companies with bloated factories and workforces got religion the hard way 20 years ago, in the days of "Neutron Jack" Welch. And with today's more active boards, CEOs who consistently lose ground to the competition usually don't need Donald Trump to tell them they're fired. (More at Business Week - Online)

Why a Green Car?

2005-04-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

Safe and Secure Energy
By Warren Leon

Virtually all Americans think our country would be better off if we used less imported oil. We would be less dependent on countries in volatile parts of the world, especially the Mideast. We would not be as vulnerable to economic dislocations from sharp oil price hikes. Our balance of trade would not be nearly as unfavorable.

Luckily, the steps that our nation can take to reduce oil imports would also have important environmental and public health benefits. Oil, a fossil fuel, is responsible for a significant share of the greenhouse gases that are causing serious changes to the global climate. When gasoline is burned in cars, it also produces considerable air pollution, leading to respiratory illnesses, cancer, and other health problems.

To determine how to best reduce our over-reliance on imported oil, we can start with a few revealing numbers.

Let's Run the Numbers
The United States still gets 42% of its oil from domestic sources. But over time, the amount of oil we produce will inevitably decrease, because only 2-3% of the world’s oil reserves lie in US territory. The vast majority are in the Mideast. Even if we were to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it would not change the basic fact that our country owns only a small share of the world’s remaining oil.

There is also no getting around the fact that we use a disproportionate share of that oil. Even though our country has less than 5% of the world’s population, we consume about 26% of the world’s oil. Not only does this create resentment in other countries, but it undermines our national security.

So, if we want to reduce our oil imports, we must use less oil. We can’t expect to drill our way out of our dilemma. And to make meaningful progress on reducing our oil dependence, we must focus on transportation. Two-thirds of all the oil we use goes to transportation. Compared to other sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and construction, transportation is unusually reliant on a single fuel. Ninety-seven percent of the energy for our transportation system comes from oil. This tremendous lack of fuel diversity for transportation means that a disruption in oil supplies would quickly paralyze transportation and the economy.

Luckily, advances in technology are making it possible and more likely that we can do something about our dependence on oil for transportation. After a century of dominance by gasoline-powered motor vehicles, the number of options available to us is increasing. Hybrid vehicles, which combine a gasoline engine and an electric motor, are on the road in the tens of thousands, and they reduce gasoline use by 20-50%. In addition, vehicles are being produced that run on biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, natural gas, and propane. Fuel cell vehicles are on the horizon and they will be able to use hydrogen produced from a variety of energy sources.

Making the Switch
Strong public demand for hybrids and alternatively fueled vehicles can send a powerful message to carmakers and the government that a significant share of the public wants vehicles that reduce oil dependence. This would prompt carmakers to produce more such vehicles. We therefore urge you to let auto dealers in your community know that you are interested in "green" cars. To get the word out more broadly, tell your friends and neighbors about the exciting cars you see at the Tour de Sol.

Government should help by creating incentives for consumers to buy advanced technology cars. It should also encourage manufacturers to produce better vehicles. For example, new car stickers could emphasize how much money the average person would pay for fuel over the first five years that he or she owned the vehicle. And purchasers of vehicles that use little gas could receive a significant rebate while those who choose gas-guzzling polluters could pay a fee.

Better Electricity
Although our electricity system uses little oil, there are ways in which it could be made much safer, healthier, and secure. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and biomass (plant matter), can provide us with clean, safe, domestically produced energy. They can create local jobs, reduce air pollution, and lower the risks of global warming. We should speed the development of renewable energy for electricity. Some renewable energy facilities, especially wind farms, are already cost competitive with most conventional fossil-fuel power plants. By developing a variety of renewable energy resources, we can avoid becoming too dependent on any one fuel. When it comes to energy, it makes sense to avoid putting all of our eggs in one basket.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells
The desirability of fuel diversity is a key motivating factor behind the current interest in hydrogen fuel cells. These devices, which convert chemical energy to electrical energy, can get the hydrogen they need from a wide range of sources including natural gas, gasoline, and electricity. The best systems would use clean electricity sources like solar or wind to provide the energy needed to produce the hydrogen. Even if a source like natural gas is used, it would still have significant environmental and health advantages because of the efficiency of fuel cell technology, even though there would still be some greenhouse gas emissions. If the hydrogen is produced by electricity from today’s coal or nuclear plants, the benefits would be considerably less.

Many companies and the federal government have taken a keen interest in fuel cells. Considerable progress is being made. The next few years will determine the potential of this promising technology and how quickly it could come into widespread use.

Choosing Green Power
One of the best—and easiest—ways to reduce environmental damage and increase the diversity of our nation’s energy sources is to purchase "green" electricity when and where it is available.

Green electricity is electricity that comes from clean, sustainable energy sources such as wind, solar, and biomass (plant matter). By agreeing to purchase green electricity for your home or business, you will add a certain amount of clean energy to your electricity pool—the electrons that are distributed through the wires connected to your building. Fewer fossil fuels will be used to meet your pool’s energy needs. Fewer pollutants and global warming gases will enter the atmosphere. You will also help build the renewable energy industry.

Green electricity often costs a little more, but just a few dollars a month is a small price to pay for the benefits of a cleaner, more diverse electricity system. Few other such small investments have such a large positive environmental impact.

Look for the Label
When shopping for green electricity, make sure you look for the "Green-e" label. Green-e is a voluntary certification system that helps consumers identify energy providers that obtain energy from green sources. The Green-e program provides consumers with a third-party verification that the product being offered is indeed environmentally preferable.

In general, the Green-e label means that at least half of the electricity comes from preferred renewable resources, including solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and low-impact hydroelectric facilities. This is much different than the electricity that most Americans receive, most of which is produced by burning fossil fuels, especially coal.

In New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and parts of New York, you can make a Green-e certified electricity provider your regular electricity provider. In other states, you need to purchase green electricity through Tradable Renewable Certificates. For information on the products available where you live, visit the Green-e website (www.green-e.org).

Even Greener than Green Power
Remember that the cleanest energy is the energy you do not use. Energy conservation and energy-efficiency measures—everything from buying a highly efficient appliance to using compact fluorescent lightbulbs to installing low-flow showerheads—can yield a large reduction in your overall environmental impact.

The Green Car Club is organized by
The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
50 Miles Street, Greenfield, MA 01301
nesea@nesea.org
413-774-6051
Copyright © 2002 by NESEA. All rights reserved.

H2GO!

2005-04-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

By Ron Cogan

In the quest for environmental leadership, there’s often a delicate balancing act as designers strive to create cars that are environmentally positive, yet offer the
V-10 hydrogen engine undergoes dyno testing
features drivers most desire. Clearly, core values must remain in focus during the process to retain the values and identity that distinguish carmakers from their peers.

This has been BMW’s mission over the past decade as it has pursued hydrogen cars and the performance to go with them. You can’t, after all, lay claim to the title “ultimate driving machine” if your zero-to-sixty times are glacial and you slog through corners, even if powered by clean-burning hydrogen.

For years, BMW has been refining the liquid hydrogen fueled sedans that it has placed in field trials on multiple continents, championing the
H2R is imposing from any angle
use of hydrogen in conventional engines in lieu of the more popular fuel cell. These hydrogen vehicles have improved over the years, making the most of renewable hydrogen fuel in their internal combustion powerplants. Now, this automaker is putting its stamp on the hydrogen record book with adaptations of this hydrogen engine technology, fielding a land speed record car that has passed the 185 mph mark and claimed an additional eight records as well. Along the way it has achieved recognition by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile as the fastest hydrogen car in the world.

Carbon fiber body is by DesignworksUSA
A distinction achieved at the high-speed Miramas Proving Grounds in France, BMW’s 285 horsepower H2R hydrogen car was propelled to 100 km/h in about 6 seconds, setting records in the flying-start kilometer; standing-start 1/2 kilometer, kilometer, and 10 kilometers; flying-start mile; and standing start 1/8 mile, 1/4 mile, mile, and 10 miles. The record car was piloted by BMW works drivers Alfred Hilger, Jörg Weidinger, and G

Mild Hybrids in Motion

2005-04-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

By Ron Cogan

Ford’s efforts in hybrid-electric vehicle development go back several decades, and while it would be easy to point to its new Escape Hybrid as the culmination of this work, that’s clearly not the case. There’s more coming. We know this because of Ford’s previous announcement of an upcoming mid-size hybrid sedan as well as a Mercury Mariner hybrid SUV, along with other hybrid work that’s just now emerging.

An example of Ford’s forward thinking is its micro hybrid Fiesta, the result of a research project at its Aachen Research Center in Germany. The goal with this vehicle is to achieve a reasonable fuel economy increase at a nominal cost. In this case, the micro hybrid Fiesta improves fuel economy by about 5% through its use of a Belt-driven Integrated Starter Generator (B-ISG), a system that operates as a generator and a starter combined in a single unit. Ford says this figure could rise to as much as 15% in heavy traffic with frequent stops, with a commensurate reduction in emissions.

In use, the Duratec 1.4-liter engine shuts down whenever the Fiesta comes to a halt in stop-and-go driving, and then restarts automatically when the accelerator or clutch pedal is operated or the brake pedal is released. Ford says the Fiesta micro hybrid is simply a research project, but quickly adds it could potentially be in production by 2006. You think?

Mazda RX-8 RE

2005-04-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

The hydrogen rotary returns in an aggressive dual-fuel sports car
By Ron Cogan

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles may be all the rage on the developmental circuit these days, but that doesn’t mean hydrogen won’t make it to the highway in more conventional ways…at least if Mazda has a say in it.

Instrumentation includes readouts for temperature and pressure, along with indicators that show whether the car is running on hydrogen or gasoline.
No stranger to hydrogen power, Mazda recognized some time ago that its rotary engine and clean hydrogen fuel operate quite well together. Green Car Journal editors understood this first-hand when driving the automaker’s developmental MX-5 Miata hydrogen rotary sports car a decade ago.

These days, reinforcing Mazda’s enduring interest in what many consider the ultimate environmental fuel is its latest developmental vehicle, which is based on the automaker’s acclaimed RX-8.

The Mazda RX-8 RE integrates Mazda’s Renesis hydrogen rotary engine, a lean-burn powerplant based on the automaker’s next-generation rotary engine launched just last year in the all-new RX-8 sports car. Even when running on conventional gasoline, the new Renesis features significant environmental improvement over previous generation rotary engines with better fuel economy and reduced emissions.

A rotary engine is especially well-suited for burning hydrogen since it uses separate chambers for induction and combustion. This overcomes the backfiring issues often faced when using hydrogen in piston engines.

In addition, Mazda says the separate induction chamber also provides a safer temperature for the engine’s dual hydrogen injectors with their rubber seals, which can be damaged by the higher temperatures of conventional engines. Dual injectors are used in each of the engine’s twin rotor housings since hydrogen has an extremely low density, thus greater volumes of this fuel must be injected than gasoline.

Mazda’s RX-8 RE aims to provide a traditional driving experience as it achieves extremely low emissions with hydrogen. This is accomplished by integrating a dual-fuel approach that allows seamlessly operating on hydrogen as available, or gasoline when it’s not.

This is important and reflects Mazda’s belief that a dual-fuel system promotes the use of hydrogen and a developing hydrogen refueling infrastructure. The RX-8 RE uses both a conventional gas tank and a high-pressure hydrogen tank.

The Renesis hydrogen engine features 210 horsepower when running on gasoline and 110 horsepower on less energy-dense gaseous hydrogen. Power is transferred to pavement through a five-speed manual transmission. Performance is enhanced with 225/45R18 tires over 18x8JJ alloys and double wishbone multi-link suspension front and rear, with stopping power supplied by four-wheel ventilated disc brakes.

An array of advanced technologies is used in the RX-8 RE to allow exploring their value for a future production hydrogen vehicle. These include an electric motor to boost engine torque at low rpm and an electric motor-assisted turbocharger, both used to improve acceleration at low revs. An idle-stop system turns the engine off when the car is stopped and then starts again automatically when the driver is ready to accelerate. Regenerative braking recovers energy during deceleration and braking to charge the car’s 144-volt battery.

Other environmentally-conscious elements are incorporated into this high-profile hydrogen car, including water-based paint, interior parts made of plant-based plastics, optimized tires, and reduced overall weight. Reduced friction hub carriers and a fast-fill tandem master cylinder also serve to reduce brake drag.

This latest foray into the hydrogen world is a strong message that Mazda is giving hydrogen propulsion serious consideration, as it has for many years now. This automaker’s interest in hydrogen rotary power has been duly noted since the debut of its HR-X hydrogen concept car at the 1991 Tokyo Motor Show. A series of other hydrogen efforts have evolved at Mazda over the years including the HR-X2, MX-5, and Capella Cargo, all powered by hydrogen rotary engines, and the Demio FC-EV and Premacy FC-EV, powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

What has driven Mazda to pursue hydrogen fuel with such vigor for so long? A focus on environmental issues, of course, but also an apparent vision that this fuel stood at least a decent chance of coming out on top. That vision has now culminated in the Renesis hydrogen rotary engine and the outstanding RX-8 RE.

BMW, Ford, and now Mazda are raising the volume on the potential for using hydrogen in more conventional engines and not just in fuel cells. This adds additional motivation to create a hydrogen refueling infrastructure, promising to make things even more interesting as this alternative fuel is driven ever closer to the showroom in the years ahead.

General Motors is betting...

2005-04-12T15:20:00.000-07:00

General Motors is betting that hydrogen-powered vehicles will one day make you forget about those billion-dollar losses it's racking up.

In March, the same month General Motors dropped the bombshell that it might lose $850 million in the first quarter, the company gathered a clutch of two dozen or so journalists and flew them, some on a GM company jet, to California, where it put them up at luxurious hotels in San Francisco and Santa Monica. Over the two-day trip they were treated to elaborate meals at hot spots like Geoffrey's in Malibu and Schatzi on Main in Los Angeles, owned formerly by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Full Story

2 Fast • 2 Clean

2005-04-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

By Kellen Schefter

It’s no secret that the sporty compact car craze, born in the shadows of the Southern California street racing underground and now spreading across the nation’s youth like wildfire, has arrived on the automotive scene. Exemp-
lified, and perhaps proliferated, by the movie The Fast and the Furious and its sequel, this new generation of hot rodders has definitely captured the attention of automakers.

As Mitsubishi’s most visible entry into this new automotive sub-genre, the next Eclipse model is crucial to both the company’s image and its appeal to a younger demographic. So imagine our surprise when Mitsubishi’s glimpse into the future, the Eclipse Concept-E, showcased a hybrid electric powertrain.

The Concept-E’s front wheels are driven by a parallel hybrid system integrating an electric motor with a 3.8-liter V-6, for a combined 270 horsepower. This is where it gets interesting: Mitsubishi’s innovative E-Boost system channels an additional 200 hp to the rear wheels from a 150 kW electric motor located behind the cabin, powered by lithium-ion batteries secreted along the center of the vehicle. E-Boost is activated by aggressive throttle to provide an immediate boost in acceleration, much like a conventional turbo or supercharger, transforming the car into a 470 hp, all-wheel drive terror that raises the hybrid performance bar to new levels.

A look inside reveals further emphasis on the car’s hybrid technology, with a decidedly futuristic twist. Centrally placed is a complex, 3D video imaging display that offers simulated gauges, diagnostic information, and interactive displays. The gearshift, looking as much the part of a fighter jet’s sidestick controller as a shifter, connects to a 6-speed transmission that allows for both manual and automated shifting.

The familiar corporate grill sits atop a gaping air intake and between large headlight assemblies featuring unique plasma lamps. The car’s teardrop-shaped details, including side glass, door-handle cutouts, and roof profile, pay homage to the second-generation Eclipse that was cherished by the street-tuner crowd. But the overall look of this iteration is thoroughly modern and striking. The muscular fender bulges speak of immense power and purpose, not inconsequentially housing wild nine-spoke, 20-inch wheels wrapped by 245/40R20 performance tires up front and 275/35R20 tires at the rear, suspended by independent multi-links at all four corners. It’s a theme well-integrated with the car’s ground hugging lower styling and aggressive stance.

With the Eclipse Concept-E, Mitsubishi has fused the disparate perceptions surrounding high-power, speed, and hybrid technology into a single package. In a youth-driven market that embraces innovation and technology – and times that demand higher efficiency – we hope that Mitsubishi is willing to bring this concept to the showroom and really find out if there’s such a thing as a supercar that’s too fast… and too clean.

Subaru Scrambler

2005-04-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

A New Twist in Hybrid High Performance
By Ron Cogan

Subaru, a marque that doesn’t come readily to mind when talking advanced technology vehicles, can be a bit of a tease. Back in 1991, this automaker all but stunned the automotive world with a sports coupe that could generously be called atypical – the cutting edge Subaru SVX. This swoopy, fast, and decidedly cool car didn’t become a huge seller, but it did establish Subaru’s credentials as a company that could bring advanced vehicles to the showroom with the best of ‘em, something we see today in models like the Impreza WRX STi. Still, Subaru tends to stay on the mainstream side with such well-engineered staples as the Outback, Forester, and Legacy rather than heading for the limelight with flexible fuel or hybrid models.

Well, Subaru has stepped out of the box again, and in a big way. Its B9 SC “Scrambler” hybrid electric concept blends the design direction of Subaru’s Andreas Zapatinas – formerly head of design at Alfa Romeo – with a unique hybrid electric drive technology that works seamlessly with Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive systems, and also is adaptable to its current vehicle platforms.

This automaker’s Sequential Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle (SSHEV) system places a generator between a 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder DOHC Subaru Boxer gasoline engine and transmission with a two-way clutch, high-performance electric motor, and all-wheel drive transfer gearing integrated into the transmission case. What’s unique about the SSHEV powerplant is that its Boxer gasoline engine supplements the electric drive motor, rather than the other way around. Up to about 50 mph, the gasoline engine’s primary role is to charge the laminated lithium-ion batteries that power the hybrid vehicle’s electric motor.
Subaru Boxer h4 engine

The gasoline Boxer engine takes over as primary propulsion above 50 mph, a speed range that’s most efficient for this internal combustion powerplant. Both electric and gasoline powerplants jointly provide power under demanding driving conditions.

Subaru says it will be able to offer customers the kind of performance now enjoyed with its turbocharged models by using its own hybrid electric drive technology. After being blown away by the impressive performance of Subaru’s SVX while driving this sports coupe at its debut back in 1991, we have no doubt that Subaru has the technical savvy and is surely up to this challenge… with a few more tricks up its sleeve, to be sure

Inside Honda's IMA System

2005-04-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

By Bill Siuru

Honda has long been a leader in applying advanced automotive technologies to increase fuel economy and reduce emissions. In the gasoline crisis days of the early 1970s, Honda introduced its Civic CVCC with its pace-setting Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion (CVCC) engine technology. A few decades later, Honda was the first automaker in America to have a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) in its dealers’ showrooms.
The two-seat Honda Insight hybrid electric vehicle debuted in late 1999 as an early 2001 model…quite an accomplishment since, with the exception of Toyota, most of the rest of the industry is just now getting serious about hybrids. In 2003, Honda introduced its second generation HEV, the five passenger Honda Civic Hybrid.

Both Honda models are parallel hybrid configurations – in other words, the wheels are powered by both the internal combustion engine and an electric motor. These two Honda Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) systems feature a smaller-than-normal gasoline engine and a thin, pancake-type electric motor/generator located between the engine and transmission. Their fuel-thrifty internal combustion engines – a 1.0-liter three-cylinder in the Insight and a 1.3-liter four-cylinder in the Civic – provide all the power needed for most driving situations. When additional power is needed, such as when passing or climbing grades, the integrated electric motor/generator performs in ways similar to a supercharger, seamlessly kicking in to supply added power. The motor/generator also functions as a high-speed starter and as a generator for battery charging during regenerative braking.

Unlike the hybrid configurations used by Toyota and Ford, Honda’s hybrids cannot operate solely on battery power as pure electric vehicles under specific driving circumstances. Still, Honda’s IMA fits the longstanding definition of a true integrated full hybrid, designed from the ground-up to enable vehicles to run super-efficiently on shared internal combustion and electric power. Those who cast it as a “mild” hybrid do so incorrectly. The simpler and less costly “mild hybrids” being developed by some automakers typically use an integrated starter/generator that automatically shuts down an engine when a vehicle stops, then seamlessly starts it up when it’s time to go again. The result is a modest improvement in fuel economy of maybe 10 percent, an important achievement in an era where any bump upward in fuel economy is a good one, but a world apart from the 40, 50, and 60+ mpg fuel economy achieved by a full hybrid system like Honda’s IMA.

Honda hybrids achieve these significant fuel economy numbers through several means. Primarily, the motor/generator’s ability to augment internal combustion power allows the use of a smaller displacement engine with a commensurate decrease in fuel usage. Regenerative braking also recoups energy upon deceleration that would otherwise be wasted or simply dissipated as heat during braking. Electricity created in this process is stored in the batteries for use as electric power is needed. Automatically shutting down the internal combustion engine while idling, such as at traffic lights, also saves fuel. Reduction of vehicle weight through use of lightweight materials plus improved aerodynamics and decreased rolling resistance also serve to improve fuel economy.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME
The IMA system used in the Honda Insight features a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder VTEC-E (Variable valve Timing and lift Electronic Control) gasoline engine that produces 54-horsepower. The ultra-thin, permanent magnet, three-phase synchronous electric motor/generator sandwiched between the engine and transmission adds 13 horsepower (10 kilowatts) as needed. This adds up to a total of 67 horsepower, which gives sprightly, if not neck-snapping, performance. The best part is the EPA numbers: 60 city/66 highway miles-per-gallon with the five-speed manual and 57/56 mpg with the continuously variable (CVT) automatic transmission.

The larger Civic Hybrid uses a 1.3-liter, four-cylinder with advanced technologies like VTEC, Dual-point Sequential Ignition (i-DSI), two spark plugs per cylinder, a lean NOx (oxides of nitrogen) catalyst system for emissions reduction, and various friction-reducing techniques. This IMA powerplant capably produces a combined 93 horse-power. Like in the Insight, an ultra-thin, brushless DC motor/generator assists the internal combustion engine. Because of the high torque characteristics of electric motors, especially at low speeds, torque is increased by an impressive 66 percent at 1000 rpm. At an EPA rating of 46 urban/51 highway mpg with a five-speed manual transmission, this sedan gets up to 650 miles on a tank of gas. Civics equipped with a CVT automatic achieve a fuel economy rating of 48/47 mpg.

The latest entry in Honda’s stable is the 2005 Accord Hybrid with its V-6 IMA system, a 240+ horsepower package that provides better performance than the conventional V-6-equipped Accord, with the benefit of four-cylinder Civic fuel economy. To maximize fuel economy, this model also incorporates Honda’s new Variable Cylinder Management (VCM), which deactivates three of the six cylinders under low-load conditions without sacrificing performance.

In most states, Honda’s hybrids are certified as SULEVs, or Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicles. Because of the credits offered toward Zero Emission Vehicle mandates in California and certain Northeastern states, Honda equips its hybrids in these markets with a zero evaporative emission fuel system and additionally warrants the emission control system for 150,000 miles, making these certified Advanced Technology – Partial Zero Emission Vehicles (AT-PZEVs), the cleanest-running category of vehicles outside of fuel cell and battery electric vehicles.

A nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery pack is used in Honda hybrids. The hybrid vehicle battery features stable output characteristics regardless of the state-of-charge status and is also extremely durable, designed to last 10 years under normal driving conditions. The brains of the IMA system is the Power Control Unit (PCU), which precisely controls the motor assist, regenerative braking, and battery charging functions, including both the NiMH battery pack and the conventional 12-volt battery used for lighting and power accessories. Just one example of the PCU’s function is illustrated during the power assist mode, when the PCU determines the amount of auxiliary electric power needed based on throttle opening, various engine parameters, and battery state of charge.

GETTING TECHNICAL
Clearly, that’s enough information for most people to digest. But if you’re a “gearhead” and you must know the specifics about how Honda’s IMA works, read on.

Operating in the motor mode, the IMA motor/generators starts the gasoline engine and instantly spins it up to 1000 rpm. As a back-up, this job can be handled by the Honda’s conventional 12-volt starter if, for example, the battery module state-of-charge is too low, the car is operating in extremely cold or hot weather, or in the unlikely event the IMA system fails. Direct current from the battery module is converted to AC electric power by the motor drive module (MDM). This electricity is supplied to the IMA motor/generator operating in motor mode for accelerating, climbing hills, and other high load conditions. For maximum acceleration, both the IMA motor/generator and gasoline engine are used. Under light acceleration, the motor/generator provides only partial assist in an amount determined by load and throttle position. Once cruising, the Honda hybrid is propelled solely by the gasoline engine. If the battery module state-of-charge is low, some of the engine’s output drives the IMA motor/generator operating in generator mode for recharging. If fully charged, a small output is still used for the vehicle’s 12-volt accessories and battery.

The gasoline engine is switched to the fuel cut mode when slowing down. The IMA motor/generator in the generator mode is driven by the vehicle’s wheels. The MDM converts its AC output into DC power for both battery module charging and the 12-volt system while slowing the vehicle. Partial charging occurs if brakes are not applied, while applying the brakes results in greater deceleration and electricity generation. Regeneration continues until engine speed drops to about 1000 rpm and when the transmission, either manually or automatically, is shifted into neutral. The engine will be shut down if the battery module state-of-charge is sufficient, although the engine may idle for a short time before stopping if it’s not clear that a stop is imminent. The engine will continue to run at a fast idle if battery charging is required.

Additionally, the gasoline engine is shut off when propulsion power is not needed unless air conditioning is required. The engine automatically stops when vehicle speed is below 19 mph and brakes are applied, or when speed is less than 3 mph. It will also stop when the transmission is in any gear, except first, before slowing down, or when the transmission is in neutral and engine speed drops below 1000 rpm. The engine is restarted when the accelerator is applied again, a gear is selected with the clutch disengaged on manual transmission vehicles, the brake pedal is released during deceleration, or the battery module’s state-of-charge drops below a threshold level. Idle stop will not operate if the engine has not yet warmed up, the transmission is in reverse, the battery module is not sufficiently charged enough for the IMA motor/generator to restart the engine again, or the system detects stop-and-go traffic conditions.

That’s Honda’s IMA in its smaller displacement versions as we know it today, although the latest V-6 IMA variant operates somewhat differently (a story for another time). It’s always possible that Honda could add a twist or two with a next-generation hybrid system, but with its Integrated Motor Assist powerplant providing such an admirable coupling of performance and fuel economy, it isn’t likely anytime soon. Plus, the IMA powerplant has proven to be quite scaleable, so expect to see it widely used on other Honda and Acura models in the future.

Ethanol or Gas?

2005-04-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

By Bill Siuru, JR.
Millions of clean-running alternative fuel vehicles are plying American roads, ready and waiting to fill their tanks with ethanol fuel. These are flexible-fuel vehicles, or FFVs, marketed by Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Isuzu, Mazda, and Mercedes-Benz since the late 1990s. FFVs are so-named because they can operate seamlessly on any mixture of E85 (a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline) or straight unleaded gasoline from the same tank.

Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is a clean burning fuel typically produced from corn, although other grains like wheat or barley can also be used. These feedstocks are abundantly available in this country. Besides its advantages as a renewable and domestically available biofuel, ethanol combustion in engines also results in modest reductions of harmful hydrocarbon and benzene emissions, as well as reduced carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Hmmm… domestically produced by American farmers and producers, lower emissions, and a huge number of vehicles with tanks a-waiting. So why is there such a monumental disconnect that finds millions of FFVs on the highway and only about 175 stations nationwide where drivers can fill up on E85?

This dichotomy is good example of what can occur when technology outpaces society’s ability to apply its use, in this case primarily due to economics and, unfortunately, politics. It’s also an example of how government incentives and subsidies can have unintended consequences. Lessons learned from the FFV experience should be examined and applied as the nation embarks on a path that will find us potentially using a much more technically challenging and expensive alternative fuel: hydrogen.

The dilemma can be traced directly to the Alternative Motor Fuels Act (AMFA) passed by Congress in 1988, a law that gives automakers incentives to develop and market vehicles that use fuels other than gasoline. Manufacturers can receive a credit of up to 1.2 miles-per-gallon for each FFV produced that can be applied toward meeting their Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements. Unfortunately, there is no corresponding incentive to encourage development of a refueling infrastructure, which brings us to the nearly nonexistent E85 refueling infrastructure today.

Establishing an E85 infrastructure presents a significantly larger challenge than getting engines to run well on E85. Since alcohol fuels like ethanol cannot be moved readily through existing petroleum distribution pipelines, it must be transported by barge, rail, or truck. Contrasting this, modifying an engine to run on E85 is not that difficult, requiring a fuel sensor for detecting the real-time ratio of ethanol to gasoline being supplied to the engine at any given point in time and optimizing engine and fuel settings for this mixture. Items like stainless steel fuel tanks, Teflon-lined fuel lines, and modified injectors must also be used to ensure compatibility with ethanol since it’s a much more corrosive fuel than gasoline.

From a vehicle standpoint, the AMFA incentive is a resounding success. Manufacturers driven by the additional CAFE credits made more than a million FFVs last year and expect to produce twice as many in 2004.

Chevrolet Silverado, 5.3-liter V-8
Chevrolet Avalanche, 5.3-liter V-6
Chevrolet Suburban, 5.3-liter V-8

Chevrolet Tahoe, 5.3-liter V-8
Chrysler Sebring, 2.7-liter V-6
Dodge Caravan and Grand Caravan, 3.3-liter V-6

Popular models that can run on gasoline or E85 range from the Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Silverado to the Dodge Stratus and Mercedes-Benz C320. These vehicles are available in many, but not all, states, so check with your local dealer or your dealer’s fleet department to confirm availability in your area.

Still, while the vehicle end is a success, all this has not accomplished the AMFA’s primary intended goal of reducing the nation’s dependence on imported oil, not to mention significantly decreasing C02 emissions. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), extending these credits without expanding the availability of E85 actually increases petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. That’s because FFVs operating almost entirely on gasoline effectively decrease the CAFE for this FFV fleet by about 1.2 mpg. The credits given for the unused ethanol equates to somewhere between 20 to 56 million additional barrels of oil used annually.

Dodge Ram, 4.7-liter V-8
Dodge Stratus, 2.7-liter V-6
Ford Explorer, 4.0-liter V-6

Ford Exlporer Sport Trac, 4.0-liter V-6
Ford Taurus, 3.0-liter V-6
GMC Yukon, 5.3-liter V-8

Several solutions to this so-called CAFE loophole have been proposed. One calls for Congress to amend the existing AMFA law to only allow CAFE credits when automakers can certify that their AFVs actually use the alternative fuel. In effect, though, this would penalize the auto industry unfairly since automakers have done their part in developing and marketing FFVs. This strategy could potentially sour automakers’ interest in all AFVs and drastically reduce future investment in other fuel alternatives including hydrogen.

Additionally, if automakers no longer have incremental CAFE credits as an incentive for producing FFVs, they will most certainly stop making them since the incremental cost of making FFVs is now being absorbed in return for the CAFE credits. A more viable solution may be incentives for fuel providers to ensure that adequate fueling facilities are readily available anywhere AFVs are sold. Potentially, this could be federal income tax investment credits for each new alternative fueling site, which would cover most of the cost and thus make establishing these fueling sites attractive.

The infrastructure problem is com-pounded because ethanol is not a petroleum-based product, thus the petroleum industry has shown little interest in offering it. Indeed, ethanol is viewed as a competitor. In the U.S., three producers dominate the ethanol market and the largest, Archer Daniels Midland, controls nearly 40 percent of that market. Because there are so few producers, some fear the potential that supplies could be artificially limited and prices potentially manipulated upward. Additionally, an unintended consequence is that food prices could increase if it turns out that it’s more profitable to convert farm products to fuel rather than food.

GMC Yukon XL , 5.3-liter V-8
GMC Sierra, 5.3-liter V-8
Mercedes-Benz C240 Sedan and Wagon, 2.6-liter V-6

Mercedes-Benz C320 Sedan and Coupe, 3.2-liter V-6
Mercury Mountaineer, 4.0-liter V-6
Mercury Sable, 3.0-liter V-6

The ethanol lobby carries substantial clout in Washington and so has been able to obtain subsidies that distort the true market price of this alternative fuel. Since 1996, crop subsidies alone have been worth nearly $30 billion to the ethanol industry. Ethanol opponents make the case that these subsidies are taking money from taxpayers and giving it to the few ethanol producers, and thousands of corn farmers, without replacing any petroleum or even providing a cleaner fuel. Since ethanol receives a tax subsidy, a gallon of ethanol is taxed 5.3 cents less than a gallon of gasoline, which means that less tax revenue is funneled into the Highway Trust Fund for repairing and replacing roads and bridges. On the other hand, ethanol proponents suggest that with military assets protecting the flow of imported oil, the true price of gasoline is significantly distorted as well.

In use, most people will not be able to discern the difference between driving on E85 and regular gasoline. While ethanol does produce fewer BTUs (less energy) than gasoline, it has a significantly higher octane rating than un-leaded gasoline (100-105 octane versus 85-90). Testing of Ford FFV engines show about a 5 percent increase in horsepower when operating on E85. However, offsetting this is that drivers will notice a 5 to 15 percent decrease in fuel economy, depending on ambient temperatures and driving conditions.

This disparity could be improved if FFVs were optimized for E85, which is presently not the case – another consequence of the absence of E85 availability. Because of lower miles-per-gallon and the now higher per-gallon cost for E85, vehicle operating costs will go up. Currently, ethanol demands higher pump prices because this alcohol fuel is more difficult for refiners to blend with gasoline and also more expensive to ship into areas where corn is not grown.

What could make E85 the fuel of choice for motorists in the absence of government mandates? The best answer is the economics of the marketplace. If the price of gasoline climbs to a point where it equals or exceeds E85, drivers will soon be demanding E85 for their FFVs and traditional fuel suppliers will see a profit in meeting the demand. Such interest could be accelerated by an oil shortage such as a disruption of oil from the Mideast, something this country has seen before.

In a sense, you might even say the millions of FFVs on American roads today are as much an emergency energy resource as the millions of barrels of oil in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That’s food…or rather, fuel…for thought.

Ethanol-Blended Gasoline A Proven Smog Fighter

2005-04-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

by: News Canada

(NC)-As Canadians prepare to make their regular treks to cottage country and make plans for summer vacations the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA) is urging motorists to use ethanol-blended fuels when filling up their vehicle.

Air quality issues will soon be on the front pages of many newspapers as smog season approaches and ethanol-blended gasoline can help reduce harmful tailpipe emissions according to the CRFA.

"This is no longer an urban problem," said Mr. Baker. Many rural parts of the country are now experiencing poor air quality. The good news is there is something we can do about it," concluded Mr. Baker.

There are currently over 1,100 gas stations in Canada that sell ethanol-blended fuel, across the country from Alberta to Quebec. To find a station near you simply visit the Canadian Renewable Fuels website at www.greenfuels.org and search retail directory for a station near you.

About The Author

News Canada provides a wide selection of current, ready-to-use copyright free news stories and ideas for Television, Print, Radio, and the Web.

Fuel Cells Motorcycles, Trucks, Tanks, ATVs and Fire Hazards from Heat Exchanges

2005-04-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

By Lance Winslow

We have heard a whole lot of talk about fuel cells and of course it is a worthy endeavor. Portable generators, cars, transportation industry, Power generators, Ships, etc. can benefit. However in a mobile application such as a shuttle bus, car, truck, train, tractor, motor scooter or even a Segway air-cushioned platform mover, there is the problem of heat. The heat occurs on transfer of fuel. So if we are talking about a portable application the heat can make steam and the steam can be used for additional power needed also. In an off road application when we are in places of drought and extreme fire hard there is a significant problem which needs to be better addressed with the material sciences to control the heat. Everyone knows that 2-cycle motorcycles get hot and can cause fires if you are not careful.

The hydrogen cell problem with it's temperatures could be significantly worse. In larger vehicles there have been ways to mitigate this, with additional insulation panels, however in a small off road vehicle or ATV, the problem becomes more significant. When I speak of ATV, I mean All-terrain vehicle, not the Fuel Cell term of Advanced Technology Vehicle. At Texas A and M. they are working on just such a project.

When we are talking motorcycles, and ATVs the cooling system is the major obstacle, wouldn't you know it. There is always some hitch and it does appear that this small obstacle is in fact being taken care of through new material sciences and it is critical indeed as we have seen urban heat of five plus degrees within various regions of the US due to concrete and asphalt without one fuel cell car and we know that reciprocal engines of gasoline motors run about 300 or so degrees, which is a lot less than the conversion rate to pure hydrogen? Well these engineering barriers are being pummeled currently as the innovators in America accept the challenge and refuse to go back, such is the nature of the American Spirit, Never ever, ever, ever Give Up. Winston Churchill could have been an American, he certainly talked like one and this current situation could have used such talk. And of course he comes from the same stock as many of us do. Well it appears many University Researchers in this country may just beat President Bush's cautious commitment to bring this technology to the forefront by 2012. We are now seeing the strides of innovation take hold. From the Spinglass Scooters to potential Segway Models.

Now then, the components of these vehicles cannot be made of lightweight composite. Some types of composite unfortunately give off Cyanide Gas when they burn. We of course have been learning this from the F-117 Stealth crashes and the potentiality of the 7E7 half composite airliners. So what material do you make these units out of which is safe for anything from a ride on lawn mower to a laptop computer 90 watt power system. Even Plastics melt and give off some pretty toxic substances? Ceramic Coatings or glass coatings on top of other materials, indeed may be one solution. As a matter of fact this is just about the only known solution for the exhaust and catalyst systems (which run extremely hot and glow inside) in current exhaust systems. Many think it can be applied to the heat issues of hydrogen cells as well and of course after reading many articles and studies in the Ceramics Industry, I believe there is ample opportunity there.

http://www.ceramicindustry.com/CDA/Article...0,27484,00.html

We have been studying these situations for our company in the Mobile Oil Change Business figuring if we cannot change the oil in the future as a business we can replace filters and membranes with re-usable ceramic materials which maybe found in the new technologies associated with fuel cells. But where will all these filters be discharged? After all Glass takes quite a while to decompose rendering it's half life closer than that of uranium to lead, then from Ceramic filter to dirt? Will future archeologists dig up these nifty ceramic filters in old garbage dumps in the decomposed semi-crude oil remenance and wonder what on Earth we used them for and proving that we were indeed a species of significant cognitive worth? As we look at ceramic coatings such as Adsil (google it to learn more) and others we realize that they decrease corrosion from things like the nasty Magnesium Chlorides put on roads in the North during ice and snowstorms.

Will we need to coat the entire car with glass to prevent fire? Will this mean you will wash your car with Windex? Is glass cleaning services a future growth industry then, since more things will be made from glass including much of the coating on a car. Will this foil the efforts of GM, Ford, Honda and Toyota in planned obsolescence? In other words whoever is making the cars, whether it is GM-Ballard partnership, Eaton-Ford Partnership or a Multi-National Foreign Conglomerate of China, Japan, Korea, US then will cars last so long people will buy fewer of them or will the Chinese demand for oil drive the prices of crude up so fast and furious that the whole world will begin to switch to fuel cells at once during a last hurrah of overbearing gas and diesel prices. Cars which last too long mean consumer will not continue to buy new cars which on average now is 3.1 years in the middle class of America. Now do not go out and buy Windex Stock right now. No matter what this is still many years off.

You will see in the future that many companies and even military, NASA and others use ceramic coatings on equipment to prolong life. Corrosion issues are serious in all sectors, including shipping containers, truck chassis, braking systems, railroad, automotive, even a rusty lawn-mower with many plastic parts from your local Home Depot, Lowes or Wal*Mart.

Ceramic coatings even applied at 5 mils are enough to seal the aluminum pores enough to solve basic corrosion problems. Corrosion control is especially important to military equipment after wartime. Sure it provides jobs to make new tanks, humvees and armored personnel carriers, but there maybe budget concerns as well to think about. After all some of the T-34 tanks used by our enemy were how old? Still running, perhaps with corrosion controls of ceramics, the ones left could be put in museums forever? A remainder of the Human Species and her need to wage war, perhaps an innate characteristic which may eventually be bread out of our genome, but probably not likely soon. Hydrogen cell tanks, yes there are many such projects going on now.

What will the routine maintenance service companies look like in the future? How will they maintain their ROIs and Proformas, forward looking statements and spreadsheets, Warren Buffet style balance sheets, quarterly profits and shareholder’s equity? These companies to harvest continued cash flow in these cleaning, maintenance and coating industries will need to drastically modify their procedures. As we see from this weeks devastating Hurricane Charley, we need to pay attention to the global warming problems as they are real and when you turn up the heat, the surrounding atmosphere will notice and when it comes to mother nature, she is quite sure of what she is doing.

I hope you have enjoyed this provocative topic and interesting study on Fuel Cells for motorcycles, trucks, trains, tanks, ATVs, ships, etc. as it pertains to global warming, urban heat, Fire Hazards from heat exchanges and risks associated with these new technologies.

The future is going to be a most excellent place to live as long as we pay attention to what we are doing on the way to get there.

Lance Winslow is a retired entrepreneur; http://CarWashGuys.com and works with the World Think Tank; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs

Hydrogen hot air: polluting with cleaner cars

2005-04-08T22:32:00.003-07:00

Adrian Moore
PRESIDENT BUSH'S State of the Union address included a proposal to spend $1.2 billion developing hydrogen-powered cars. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is so taken with the idea that he wants to open a statewide network of hydrogen fueling stations.

Hydrogen cars are a popular environmental cure-all because they are supposed to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A simulation for the Reason Foundation, conducted by chemical engineer William Korchinski of Advanced Industrial Modeling, attempted to estimate the decline in carbon dioxide emissions that would have resulted from switching every car in California to hydrogen fuel in 1981. He found that the decline would likely not even be measurable. A comprehensive comparison of the emissions released by hydrogen and gasoline vehicles, as well as those caused by the manufacture, transport, and distribution of both fuels, shows that in most cases fueling cars with hydrogen would make little net difference in emissions of greenhouse gases, and in some cases would even increase them.

For example, hydrogen is made via electrolysis or by reforming hydrocarbons, and both methods take a lot of electricity--most of which comes from burning fossil fuels. And hydrogen can't be sent through pipelines, meaning more truck trips to haul hydrogen to fueling stations.

New cars have very low emissions, and hybrid gas-electric vehicles already on the market emit even less. Yet the kind of incremental improvements that drive so much real progress aren't as exciting to many environmentalists--and presidents--as flashy silver-bullet solutions.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Reason Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

Hydrogen's dirty secret: President Bush promises that fuel-cell cars will be free of pollution.

2005-04-08T22:32:00.002-07:00

But if he has his way, the cars of tomorrow will run on hydrogen made from fossil fuels - Outfront

Barry C. Lynn
When President Bush unveiled his plans for a hydrogen-powered car in his State of the Union address in January, he proposed $1.2 billion in spending to develop a revolutionary automobile that will be "pollution-free." The new vehicle, he declared, will rely on "a simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen" to power a car "producing only water, not exhaust fumes." Within 20 years, the president vowed, fuel-cell cars will "make our air significantly cleaner, and our country much less dependent on foreign sources of oil."

By launching an ambitious program to develop what he calls the "Freedom Car," Bush seemed determined to realize the kind of future that hydrogen-car supporters have envisioned for years. Using existing technology, hydrogen can be easily and cleanly extracted from water. Electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines is used to split the water's hydrogen atoms from its oxygen atoms. The hydrogen is then recombined with oxygen in fuel cells, where it releases electrons that drive an electric motor in a car.

What Bush didn't reveal in his nationwide address, however, is that his administration has been working quietly to ensure that the system used to produce hydrogen will be as fossil fuel-dependent--and potentially as dirty--as the one that fuels today's SUVs. According to the administration's National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, drafted last year in concert with the energy industry, up to 90 percent of all hydrogen will be refined from oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels-in a process using energy generated by burning oil, coal, and natural gas. The remaining 10 percent will be cracked from water using nuclear energy.

Such a system, experts say, would effectively eliminate most of the benefits offered by hydrogen. Although the fuel-cell cars themselves may emit nothing but water vapor, the process of producing the fuel cells from hydrocarbons will continue America's dependence on fossil fuels and leave behind carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming.

Mike Nicklas, chair of the American Solar Energy Society, was one of 224 energy experts invited by the Department of Energy to develop the government's Roadmap last spring. The sessions, environmentalists quickly discovered, were dominated by representatives from the oil, coal, and nuclear industries. "All the emphasis was on how the process would benefit traditional energy industries," recalls Nicklas, who sat on a committee chaired by an executive from ChevronTexaco. "The whole meeting had been staged to get a particular result, which was a plan to extract hydrogen from fossil fuels and not from renewables." The plan does not call for a single ounce of hydrogen to come from power generated by the sun or the wind, concluding that such technologies "need further development for hydrogen production to be more cost competitive."

But instead of investing in developing those sources, the budget that Bush submitted to Congress pays scant attention to renewable methods of producing hydrogen. More than half of all hydrogen funding is earmarked for automakers and the energy industry. Under the president's plan, more than $22 million of hydrogen research for 2004 will be devoted to coal, nuclear power, and natural gas, compared with $17 million for renewable sources. Overall funding for renewable research and energy conservation, meanwhile, will be slashed by more than $86 million. "Cutting R&D for renewable sources and replacing them with fossil and nuclear doesn't make for a sustainable approach," says Jason Mark, director of the clean vehicles program for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The oil and chemical industries already produce 9 million tons of hydrogen each year, most of it from natural gas, and transport it through hundreds of miles of pipelines to fuel the space shuttle and to remove sulfur from petroleum refineries. The administration's plan lays the groundwork to expand that infrastructure--guaranteeing that oil and gas companies will profit from any transition to hydrogen. Lauren Segal, general manager of hydrogen development for BP, puts it succinctly: "We view hydrogen as a way to really grow our natural-gas business."

To protect its fuel franchise, the energy industry has moved swiftly in recent years to shape government policy toward hydrogen. In 1999, oil companies and automakers began attending the meetings of an obscure group called the National Hydrogen Association. Founded in 1989 by scientists from government labs and universities, the association was a haven for many of the small companies--fuel-cell designers, electrolyzer makers--that were dabbling in hydrogen power. The group promoted the use of hydrogen but was careful not to take any position on who would make the fuel or how.

All that changed once the energy industry got involved. "All of a sudden Shell joined our board, and then the interest grew very quickly," says Karen Miller, the association's vice president. "Our chair last year was from BP; this year our chair is from ChevronTexaco." The companies quickly began to use the association as a platform to lobby for more federal funding for research, and to push the government to emphasize fossil fuels in the national energy plan for hydrogen. Along with the big automakers, energy companies also formed a consortium called the International Hydrogen Infrastructure Group to monitor federal officials charged with developing fuel cells. "Basically," says Neil Rossmeissl, a hydrogen standards expert at the Department of Energy, "what they do is look over our shoulder at DOE to make sure we are doing what they think is the right thing."

As hydrogen gained momentum, the oil companies rushed to buy up interests in technology companies developing ways to refine and store the new fuel. Texaco has invested $82 million in a firm called Energy Conversion Devices, and Shell now owns half of Hydrogen Source. BP, ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil, Ford, and General Electric have also locked up the services of many of America's top energy scientists, devoting more than $270 million to hydrogen research at MIT, Princeton, and Stanford.

Such funding will help ensure that oil and gas producers continue to profit even if automakers manage to put millions of fuel-cell cars on the road. "The major energy companies have several hundred billions of dollars, at the least, invested in their businesses, and there is a real interest in keeping and utilizing that infrastructure in the future," says Frank Ingriselli, former president of Texaco Technology Ventures. "And these companies certainly have the balance sheets and wherewithal to make it happen."

The stakes in the current battle over hydrogen are high. Devoting the bulk of federal research funding to making hydrogen from fossil fuels rather than water will enable oil and gas companies to provide lower-priced hydrogen. That, in turn, means that pipelines built to transport hydrogen will stretch to, say, a BP gas field in Canada, rather than an independent wind farm in North Dakota. Even if the rest of the world switches to hydrogen manufactured from water, says Nicklas, "Americans may end up dependent on fossil fuels for generations."

The administration's plans to manufacture hydrogen from fossil fuels could also contribute to global warming by leaving behind carbon dioxide. Oil and coal companies insist they will be able to "sequester" the carbon permanently by pumping it deep into the ocean or underground. But the DOE calls such approaches "very high risk," and no one knows how much that would cost, how much other environmental disruption that might cause, or whether that would actually work. "Which path we take will have a huge effect one way or the other on the total amount of carbon pumped into the atmosphere over the next century," says James MacKenzie, a physicist with the World Resources Institute.

Even if industry manages to safely contain the carbon left behind, the Bush administration's plan to extract hydrogen from fossil fuels will wind up wasting energy. John Heywood, director of MIT's Sloan Automotive Lab, says a system that extracts hydrogen from oil and natural gas and stores it in fuel cells would actually be no more energy efficient than America's present gasoline-based system.

"If the hydrogen does not come from renewable sources," Heywood says, "then it is simply not worth doing, environmentally or economically."

To read more about hydrogen cars and alternative fuels, go to www.motherjones.com/extra/hydrogen.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Foundation for National Progress
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

More Environment-Friendly, Fuel Cell Powered Hondas to Traverse the Streets of Los Angeles Soon

2005-04-08T22:32:00.001-07:00

by: Jenny McLane

More Environment-Friendly, Fuel Cell Powered Hondas to Traverse the Streets of Los Angeles Soon

This is the latest buzz words in the car industry, but what is it really all about?

Honda FCX powered by Honda fuel cells.

It has been two years since Honda released the Honda FCX which has become the first fuel cell vehicle in the world to receive government certification, paving the way for the commercial use of fuel cell vehicles. This comes as no surprise as Honda has always been an advocate of environmental consciousness and a pioneer in developing cutting edge technology in protecting the environment. The fuel-cell is propelled by electricity generated by a hydrogen-oxygen chemical reaction, and its only emission, amazingly, is water vapor. Now, with a fresh stamp of approval from the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board, Honda is delivering a family of new FCX fuel-cell vehicles to its first customer, the city of Los Angeles, known for its strict environmental emission rules to eliminate the overwhelming air pollution already at its midst.

The latest version of Honda fuel cells delivers about 15% more maximum drive motor torque than the previous prototypes and also provides improvements in mid-to-high range power output characteristics and acceleration. It also has an amplified driving range of 220 miles, about 25 miles more than the previous model.

How does the fuel cell work?

In principle, a fuel cell functions like a battery. Dissimilar from a battery though, a fuel cell does not run down or require recharging. It will produce energy in the form of electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied. The type of fuel cell used in the Honda FCX is called a Polymer electrolyte fuel cell. Powered by Hydrogen gas the fuel cell provides power to the FCX's AC synchronous electric motor to give the FCX a top speed of around 93 mph. With engine output at around 60kW, Honda claims the clean FCX has similar performance to the its petrol drinking brother, the Honda Civic. Fuel Cells produce electricity from an external fuel supply as opposed to the limited internal energy storage capacity of a battery.

A fuel cell system, which includes a "fuel reformer", can utilize the hydrogen from any hydrocarbon fuel - from natural gas to methanol, and even gasoline. Since the fuel cell relies on chemistry and not combustion, emissions from this type of a system would still be much smaller than emissions from the cleanest fuel combustion processes. In fact fuel cells running on hydrogen derived from a renewable source will emit nothing but water vapor. Water vapor being its only exhaust, a fuel cell powered vehicle such as the Honda FCX produces completely no harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

Fuel cells were first used in a practical application by NASA in the 1960’s for their Apollo space program. For decades sensible fuel cell application was regarded as too costly and too difficult for automobile usage. Through constant research and development its utilization may become a reality, the only problem that crops up is the source for refueling.

Honda’s proposed solution for refueling stations.

If fuel cell powered cars ever become popular, gas stations may soon have to start supplying hydrogen as well as their regular petroleum based products. But since currently there are only a handful of them around, this may be far from happening.

Until then, Honda will continue to do some research on other possible solutions. An experimental Home Energy Station (HES) is seen as the most feasible. The HES could generate hydrogen from natural gas for use in fuel cell vehicles while supplying electricity and hot water to the home. The new HES system that has been jointly developed with strategic fuel cell partner Plug Power Inc. is located on the grounds of Honda R&D Americas in Torrance, California, and will undergo experiments in hydrogen production, storage and fueling, as part of ongoing research into hydrogen energy sources. The new HES system, which can currently produce enough hydrogen to refill the tank of a Honda FCX hydrogen fuel cell vehicle taking just a few minutes once a day.

Honda’s dedication to a greener and cleaner environment.

Honda started research and development on fuel cells in 1989. Ten years after they have been road testing fuel cell powered vehicles in the US and Japan. Honda is a member of the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) based in Sacramento, California, and has been working closely with that organization.

Honda has had a long history of environmental breakthroughs and dedication with their automobiles. Even from way back in 1975, Honda scored it big with their CVCC as being the first vehicle to meet the amended Clean Air act standard. Honda was also the first auto company to produce a vehicle, the Honda Civic, to meet the low emission vehicle (LEV) standard in all 50 states and the first to sell a gasoline car meeting first California's Ultra Low Emission Vehicle standard and subsequently the "Super" ULEV standard (Accord).

Honda was also the first to sell a combined gasoline and electric powered vehicle, the Insight, in the U.S. and early in 2002 they introduced the Civic Hybrid, it was the first mass marketed hybrid model. The Civic GX was the first dedicated mass-produced natural gas vehicle when it went on sale in 1998 and has been recognized by the EPA, as the cleanest internal combustion engine in the world. Truly, Honda understands the need for environmental care and the total independence in the future for petroleum based products to fuel their engines.

With all of this new technology cropping up, the motoring world doesn’t seem like it used to be. The good thing is it all boils down to consumer preference. Many products though cater to the whole welfare of the people even when it is channeled through too many aspects. What is inevitable is that no mater how efficient and durable your vehicle is, it will be subjected to wear and tear. Constant use and driving calls for constant maintenance and preventive maintenance also, at Auto Parts Train we continually update our catalogs to provide the most complete and comprehensive lineup of superb Honda parts. With 25 years of experience we know that the automobile industry constantly evolves and new technology crops up every now and then. You can be sure that we are always on our guard for a high end Honda part.

Be it a Honda replacement part, a Honda collision part or a Honda performance enhancement part, Auto Parts Train is here to serve you. Browse through our 24-hour online shop to find the perfect Honda part for you. Click on this link (http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByVehicle/HONDA) to see our wide array of first rate Honda auto parts that we have on stock. We guarantee all the fit and quality of our Honda car parts. For assistance, you may call our toll free line, 1-888-251-1214, 12 hours a day, six days a week. Our very efficient and highly-trained customer service staff is standing by to help you.

DaimlerChrysler Unveils New Fuel Cell Vehicle in Geneva

2005-04-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

by: Jenny McLane

The next generation of fuel cell technology was unveiled at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show by DaimlerChrysler, the pioneer of fuel cell drive. Sports tourers are now the new members of the family of fuel cell vehicles with the Mercedes Benz B-Class sporting the enw F-Cell. This F-Cell's unique sandwich concept developed by Mercedes Benz is perfect for this type of drive unit.

The fuel cell's emission free operation is congruous with sporty, dynamic driving. the technical data proves this fact: the high-torque electric motor will develop more than 100 kW -- 35 kW more power than its predecessor generation. And because the fuel cell reduces fuel consumption and further enhances storage capacity, the operating range has now been increased to almost 250 miles (400 km). Also, component reliability and longevity has been enhanced.

"With this car, we are continuing our highly successful practical tests on an even larger scale," said Dr. Thomas Weber, member of DaimlerChrysler's Board of Management with responsibility for Research and Technology and for the development of the Mercedes Car Group.

Since 1990, DaimlerChrysler engineers and researchers have been working on the automotive application of the fuel cell technology. The first fuel cell vehicle, the NECAR 1 was introduced in 1994. More than 20 other research vehicles and prototypes have since been presented. The performance and reliability have been steadily enhanced while the size and weight of the drive system have been reduced. This new Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell is another significant milestone along the road to market maturity for the fuel cell.

In 2003, DaimlerChrysler launched the world's most extensive series practical tests for the fuel cell in cars, vans and regular service buses. There are now more than a hundred fuel cell vehicles that are currently in everyday application. These fuel-cell vehicles provide DaimlerChrysler engineers with vital information for the development of this future oriented technology. This encompasses optimization of the vehicles and their components, the establishment of an infrastructure, and the increased acceptance of hydrogen technology among drivers and passengers.

Elsewhere in the world, fuel cell technology continues to flourish. Since 2003, there have been 30 Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses with fuel cell drive that are now on regular route service in ten major European cities. Three buses are now in operation in Perth, Australia and in Beijing, China. These vehicles must prove their worth in the most varied of climactic conditions. On average, these buses have now covered more than 300,000 miles (500,000 km) and transported more than two million passengers, who have been convinced by the advantages of this quiet, emission-free technology. There are also several fuel cell-powered Sprinter vans that are currently used in delivery operations in Germany and the United States.

Since late 2004, 60 Mercedes-Benz F-Cell's have been operating in the United States, Germany, Japan, and Singapore. Approximately 190,000 miles (300,000 km) have now been covered in this first test phase under highly diverse conditions and documented with these vehicles. In the long term, the fuel cell provides the best opportunities for securing uncompromisingly environment-friendly mobility for the automobile: the fuel cell runs on either pure hydrogen or hydrogen media, and is thus a genuine zero-emission power unit: electrical energy is released in a chemical reaction between the hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen to drive an electric motor.

Moreover, the fuel cell has an efficiency factor approximately twice that of the internal combustion engine. In order to focus expertise and resources, and to press ahead with the development of the fuel cell, DaimlerChrysler has entered into a strategic alliance with Ford Motor Company and the fuel cell specialist Ballard Power Systems. Partnerships are an important part of fuel cell technology development.

The fuel cell is the key technology for emission-free driving of the future and is the long-term objective of DaimlerChrysler's five-stage Energy for the Future roadmap. DaimlerChrysler is continuing to optimize the internal combustion engine, since the potential of gasoline and diesel engines has by no means been exhausted. The aim is to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions, while at the same time enhancing driving pleasure, power development and comfort. DaimlerChrysler is also committed to optimizing fuel quality worldwide and is supporting the fuel evolution from crude oil to largely CO2-neutral fuels derived from biomass. Hybrid drive is a significant interim solution along the road to emission-free mobility with the fuel cell.

As the pioneer in fuel cell technology, Chrysler continues to innovate and create better and more future-oriented automobiles that are proof of the company's stamp of excellence in the automotive industry. Fuel cell technology will definitely enhance the entire driving experience and will improve the operation and maintenance of these vehicles. Meanwhile, one of the best ways to maintain the quality of a vehicle is by replacing worn out and outdated parts with new ones. By doing this, a Chrysler auto acquires a new life with excellent quality parts.

These parts are available in many online stores that make shopping easier and faster. One such reliable and reputable online site is Auto Parts Train, one of the leading online auto parts stores to day. Check out some of their Chrysler parts offerings in their easy-to-use and very secure site: http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByVehicle/CHRYSLER. All Chrysler parts that Parts Train offers is guaranteed excellent quality and very low priced too.

General Motors, US Government joins forces to Boost Hydrogen Storage

2005-04-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

by: Jenny McLane

General Motors (GM) and the Department of Energy (DOE) Sandia National Laboratories have joined forces to create, design and test a new and advanced method for storing hydrogen based on metal hydrides. The success of this project is important in making the fuel cell vehicle competitive with gasoline-powered automobiles when it comes to driving range. In a press release last January, DOE elucidated that metal hydrides, formed when metal alloys are combined with hydrogen, can absorb and store hydrogen in their structures. When subjected to heat, the hydrides release the hydrogen. This hydrogen can then be combined with oxygen to produce electricity. This is how a fuel-cell system works.

GM and Sandia have commenced a four-year, $10 million program to develop and test tanks that store hydrogen in a complex hydride called sodium aluminum hydride, also known as sodium alanate. The mission is to develop a solid-state hydrogen storage tank with more capacity for hydrogen on a fuel-cell vehicle than current conventional storage methods can. They also hope to create a new tank design that is suitable to any type of solid state hydrogen storage.

"We are designing a hydrogen storage system with challenging thermal management requirements and limits on volume and weight," says Chris Moen, manager of science and engineering technologies at Sandia. "Our staff researchers are excited to apply their unique, science-based design and analysis capabilities to engineer a viable solution."

This program is part of a determined effort to improve the hydrogen storage capabilities aboard a fuel-cell vehicle to equal the driving range of a tank of gas. This will make fuel-cell systems more acceptable to consumers. Currently, the most common methods of storage are liquid and compressed gas, but neither of the two has been able to provide the needed range and running time for fuel cell vehicles.

GM is the world's largest vehicle manufacturer selling nearly 8.6 million units in 2003, or about 15 percent of the global market.

Meanwhile, another lucrative segment of the automotive market is auto parts. One of the leading names when it comes to online auto parts is Auto Parts Train, a trusted and reliable supplier of auto parts and accessories, including GM parts for various models. Their easy-to-use website at http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByVehicle/GMC features all their GM parts is certified secure.

Hydrogen Filling Station Approved for Mazda

2005-04-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

Mazda Motor Corporation has received authorization from the Japanese government to operate a hydrogen-gas filling station near its Hiroshima headquarters. The station stores and supplies fuel to Mazda vehicles powered by hydrogen rotary engines; the vehicles are currently under development. The station should be able to fill up to 10 vehicles a day.

The RX-8 Hydrogen Rotary vehicle, which runs on either hydrogen or gasoline will be marketed as a commercial model to public offices and enterprise users in Japan Mazda now continues its development of the world’s first dual-fuel rotary engine, the H2RE (Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE). The new facility will store and supply fuel for the hydrogen-rotary powered vehicles and Mazda looks likely to have street-legal versions in use within the next two years.

The novel concept appeared as part of the Mazda display at the International Detroit Motor Show in January, and builds on the colossal worldwide success of the Mazda RX-8 four-door coupe. The H2RE is powered by a modified version of Mazda's award-winning RENESIS rotary engine and features an electronically controlled hydrogen direct injection system on the rotor housing.

The hydrogen/rotary combination also offers superior environmental performance - zero CO2 emissions and near zero NOx emissions. The innovative engine can be built reliably at a relatively low cost because existing parts and production facilities are utilized. More importantly, the hydrogen/gasoline dual fuel system will enable the H2RE to travel beyond the range of the few hydrogen filling stations now available.

Mazda will continue to develop this technology for practical use and for a hydrogen-fuelled society of the future.

For you Mazda vehicle's superb performance, search for your own Mazda Car Parts at http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByVehicle/MAZDA order them, and have them delivered directly to you. Our Directory of online auto parts stores with huge selections of Mazda parts. Find OEM Mazda auto parts, remanufactured car parts, new aftermarket parts, used parts, Mazda performance parts, and more. Our secure online ordering system lets you shop for superior Mazda parts with peace of mind.

About The Author

Jenny McLane is a 36 year old native of Iowa and has a knack for research on cars and anything and everything about it. She works full time as a Market Analyst for one of the leading car parts suppliers in the country today. jenny@partstrain.com

The Hydrogen Age Has Begun For BMW

2005-04-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

BMW is presenting the H2R Hydrogen World Speed Record Car. This prototype impressively proved the potential of a hydrogen car with a combustion engine, achieving nine international records in one day. This clearly proves the BMW Group's long held belief that hydrogen can replace conventional fuel without having to forego the performance and dynamics of a modern premium automobile.

Hydrogen being the lightest element in the universe is also the most common, available in an infinite supply. When mixed with oxygen, hydrogen burns in a virtually clean manner, creating water vapor as exhaust. Thus, BMW believes hydrogen is the fuel of the future.

BMW has seen the promise of hydrogen as a fuel for years. And today, hydrogen-powered, high-performance BMW vehicles are a reality. But building concept cars is just the first step; BMW's long-term goal is to help create a world of "sustainable mobility." Eventually replacing the cars that run on fossil fuels -- gasoline or diesel oil -- with vehicles that use this clean burning, environmentally friendly element is the carmaker's vision.

With numerous international partnerships, each dedicated to helping the world build a better future, based on hydrogen energy, BMW is set to achieve its futuristic goal.

Sleek and aerodynamic, the BMW H2R ("Hydrogen Record Car") is one of the first of a new breed of racecars specially developed to run on liquid hydrogen fuel. With combustion engine that can run on liquid hydrogen or gasoline to propel the vehicle, BMW H2R has already set nine international speed records at the Miramas Proving Grounds in France.

The H2R’s mighty 6.0-liter V-12 engine, which draws on BMW's advanced Valvetronic and Double-VANOS technology, is based on the 760i’s gasoline-fueled power plant. This H2-powered high performer generates 232 horsepower, helping it to achieve a top speed of over 187 mph.

Refueling a hydrogen-powered vehicle is just as similar to the gasoline powered one. The driver doesn't even have to get out of the car. A tank card or electronic remote control can easily identify the vehicle, so the fully automated tank-filling robot knows whether to pump liquid or gaseous hydrogen.

Hydrogen gas will not leak into the air when refueling a liquid hydrogen powered BMW. By the time the driver needs more fuel, the hydrogen left in the tank has turned into a gaseous state, at a higher pressure. At the refueling station, -423° F liquid hydrogen is pumped into the tank. As this liquid hydrogen "rains" into the tank, the gaseous hydrogen already there condenses on these super-cold droplets, and the partial pressure in the tank is reduced. As a result, no hydrogen escapes while filling the tank.

At present, there are two hydrogen fueling stations in Germany: one at the Munich airport, and one in Berlin that offers conventional fuels, compressed gaseous hydrogen (CGH2), and liquid hydrogen (LH2). There are also plans underway to build 24 hydrogen-refueling stations throughout California.

Just as BMW strives to create clean fuel and environment friendly cars, Partstrain online store shares the vision by providing high quality, tested BMW parts at very affordable prices. Browse at their fine array of BMW parts at http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByVehicle/BMW and match your BMW's superior performance.

About The Author

Jenny McLane is a 36 year old native of Iowa and has a knack for research on cars and anything and everything about it. She works full time as a Market Analyst for one of the leading car parts suppliers in the country today. jenny@partstrain.com