Difference Engine : The dirty secrets of clean cars

/difference-engine

  • « Nous recevons aujourd’hui les premières voitures à hydrogène de série immatriculées en France »
    http://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/pierre-etienne-franc-nous-recevons-aujourd-hui-les-premieres-voitures

    Ces deux Hyundai ix35 FCEV sont en tout cas les premières voitures de série à hydrogène à être immatriculées en France. Avec 1000 unités prévues par Hyundai dans un premier temps, cela reste certes de la petite série, mais c’est de la série !
    [...]
    Toyota et Honda viennent par exemple de montrer au salon de Tokyo les voitures qu’ils comptent produire en série en 2015. Tous les constructeurs sont dans cette logique. Ceux qui sont moins avancés visent 2017.

    Rappel des inconvénients (majeurs) des piles à combustible à hydrogène :

    The dirty secrets of clean cars
    http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/12/difference-engine

    First, there is the problem of providing the hydrogen fuel, along with the infrastructure for transporting it to garages across the country. […] Another study suggests making hydrogen dispensers as common as petrol pumps would cost America the small sum of half a trillion dollars.

    Then there is the question of where the hydrogen comes from. At present, industrial hydrogen (…) is produced by reforming natural gas with steam. This is not a particularly clean process. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal facility in Colorado, producing a kilogram of hydrogen by steam reformation generates 11.9 kilograms of carbon dioxide. As the Honda Clarity could travel 68 miles (109km) on a kilogram of hydrogen, it would cause 175 grams of carbon dioxide to be dumped into the atmosphere for every mile it was driven.

    By way of comparison, Volkswagen’s small diesel cars produce 145 grams per mile. On that reckoning, even petrol-electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius, which produces 167 grams per mile, are cleaner than the fuel-celled Clarity. Admittedly, fossil fuels also produce carbon emissions while being dug out of the ground, refined and transported to the pump. But burning hydrocarbons in internal-combustion engines is becoming cleaner all the time. When measured on a well-to-wheels basis, the steadily declining emission levels of conventional vehicles is putting the squeeze on so-called ZEVs [zero-emission vehicles].

    #automobile #voiture #hydrogène #électricité #environnement

    • Can Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicles Compete With Electric Cars?
      http://www.popsci.com/article/cars/can-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicles-compete-electric-cars?dom=PSC&loc=topstories

      Global automakers will start to build and offer very acceptable hydrogen-fueled vehicles, in numbers from dozens to thousands a year, between now and 2020. [...]

      Meanwhile, U.S. plug-in car sales are likely to come in around 90,000 this year—of which more than 15,000 will be Tesla Model S electric luxury sedans with more than 200 miles of range.

      We expect there to be multiple fuels in the decades going forward; the hegemony of gasoline and diesel will slowly erode as more ethanol, more natural gas, and probably a lot more electricity makes its way from the grid into more vehicles.

      Will hydrogen have a place in the mix?

      Perhaps not surprisingly, electric-car advocate Chelsea Sexton, to whom we often turn for perspective, thinks not.

      But in responding to our question, she raised an interesting point.

      “There’s never been a pent-up market for hydrogen vehicles,” Sexton said, “even a small one.”

      And that contrasts with the thousands of drivers who’d already experienced electric cars in one form or another by the time the first Nissan Leaf and first Chevy Volt were sold in December 2010.

      “I don’t see either the market or the infrastructure materializing” in any way that will put meaningful numbers of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on the road over the next decade, she said.