German Wind-to-Hydrogen Plant Takes Car-Fuel Battle to Tesla

[nationalize the fed]

Alex Webb | Bloomberg Business | July 2 2015

After decades of research, Linde AG says the elements needed to make hydrogen-fuelled cars a viable challenger to Tesla Inc’s battery-driven vehicles are finally falling into place.


A Linde AG truck carrying hydrogen fuel, and a Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz fuel-cell vehicle stand at a fuel station in Berlin. Source: Linde AG via Bloomberg

The world’s largest industrial gas supplier will today open a plant that uses wind power to convert water into the gas. That completes the circle for an almost carbon-free fuel -- from the extraction of the gas to refueling facilities and the vehicles themselves -- and also boosts hydrogen’s green credentials, according to Munich-based Linde.

The research plant on the banks of the River Rhine, dubbed Energiepark Mainz and developed with Siemens AG, adds to two other significant fuel cell developments this year. Toyota Motor Corp., the car industry’s biggest manufacturer, is starting production of its hydrogen-fuelled car, the Mirai, and a group including Linde, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Daimler AG starts the roll-out of a standardized network of hydrogen-friendly refueling stations across Germany...SNIP

...Linde says Energiepark Mainz could help put an end to the criticism that hydrogen fuel cells are only marginally more environmentally friendly than traditional combustion vehicles, and allow the gas to be extracted anywhere there’s wind and water. BMW AG is also starting tests of a vehicle powered by hydrogen this month...snip
Comlete article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-02/german-wind-to-hydrogen-plant-takes-car-fueling-battle-to-tesla

A Hydrogen fueling station can be installed in 48 hours anywhere there is water and electricity

Wasserstoff מימן ?????ό?? hidrógeno водород hidrojen idrogeno hydrogène väte

[mackdaddy]

1. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Hydrogen powered cars are basically have the exact same electrical motor drive train as presently battery driven electrical vehicles. The difference is that the battery Pack supplying power is replaced with a hydrogen tank and fuel cell supplying the electrical power. A fuel cell can be thought of as a special kind of electrochemical battery that runs from combing hydrogen with oxygen from the air to produce the electricity.


As far as cost per mile, hydrogen is currently much more expensive than straight battery electric vehicles. Currently recharging a battery is much more electrically efficient that using the electricity to make and store hydrogen, and then convert it back to electricity in the car.

The big advantages as correctly pointed out in the article is the quick "recharge/refueling" time of Hydrogen over battery storage, and the driving distance is currently twice that of battery storage. The other big advantage for these large corporations is that they maintain the central control over the refueling infrastructure for vehicles. This is why there is so much money being spent of the refueling stations and infrastructure.

One of the things not mentioned is how much hydrogen can be made per day in one of these pre-built mini hydrogen production/storage stations. I would be surprised it they can produce the hydrogen needed to refuel the several hundred vehicles that a traditional gasoline/diesel station can handle. But if they can get the infrastructure established for the few initial cars, they may have the hook they need to keep control of the fueling infrastructure.

The big thing that could knock out this hydrogen system is if battery technology improved to get longer driving distances, and faster 5 minute recharging times. There are some graphene and other technologies on the horizon that could be the game changers if they could be scaled to real production. The electrical charging station infrastructure would be much less than the hydrogen infrastructure, and quicker to deploy.

But which way this goes is probably more about big money battling it out than technology or efficiency.

Either way, it has the potential to be much cleaner than burning coal. Unless of course we keep burning coal to make the electricity to charge the batteries or to make the hydrogen.