Natural Resources Canada
2008/28
April 30, 2008
University of Waterloo Students Unveil Emission-free Hydrogen Fuel-cell Vehicle
TORONTO – A team of students from the University of Waterloo (UW) unveiled its innovative emission-free hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle as part of the final year of Challenge X, a multi-year North American competition to develop sustainable transportation solutions.
The Alternative Fuels Team at UW showcased its green vehicle in the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place in Toronto. The team's cutting-edge technology has allowed UW to be the first university in the world to successfully build a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle that produces no emissions, only water. Visitors at Exhibition Place spent the day riding in – and in some cases driving – the team's vehicle.
"This is a major achievement for these students and innovators who demonstrated that they have the abilities to deliver practical solutions to climate change," said Gary Goodyear, Member of Parliament for Cambridge– Ontario, on behalf of the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources. "Our Government congratulates the Waterloo team on their innovative technologies to reduce emissions and provide cleaner air for Canadians, and we wish them luck in the competition."
A top contender in the Challenge X competition, UW is the only Canadian University chosen for the competition between 17 teams in North America. During the design phase, UW's detailed vehicle design process won eight of ten award categories and earned the team first place overall. Since then, the UW team has been working hard to integrate its ambitious design into a stock Chevrolet Equinox.
"This exciting project developed by our students will help keep Canada at the forefront of the automotive industry," said Adel Sedra, Dean of Engineering. "We are proud of these students' remarkable accomplishments and wish the team well at the Challenge X competition."
Major sponsors of the UW team include Natural Resources Canada, Hydrogenics, General Motors, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Government of Ontario, Air Liquide and Marathon Technical Services.
In May, the UW team will travel to New Jersey, New York, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., to showcase their vehicle alongside those of the other 16 teams. This two-week event marks the conclusion of the four-year competition. All teams will compete in more than a dozen static and dynamic evaluations, including tests for towing capacity, acceleration, off-road performance, greenhouse gas impact, fuel economy (well to wheels), emissions, consumer acceptability and marketing and outreach. Teams are also required to give oral presentations and submit a technical paper.
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http://www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/media/newcom/2008/200828-eng.php
Stumble It!
Now, to the idiots.
Hydrogen-fueled cars will not be a solution to climate change. Perhaps if the government had not replaced the Science Advisor with a panel heavy with auto industry reps they would know that hydrogen is a non-starter.
As I have mentioned elsewhere on this site, there are three huge problems with hydrogen. They are: the source, the production infrastructure and final distribution.
1) Sources
- natural gas. Not much hope there
- electrolysis - energy loss of 50-70%
- new organic processes (bacteria) could produce it
- 50M tonnes currently produced world wide, almost all from natural gas
- where are the 450 M tonnes needed for vehicles going to come from?
- billion$ needed to create production facilities
2) Transport
- liquefied H has 40% energy loss
- compressed has 20% energy loss
- pipelines are leaky,
- H makes metals brittle
- H-proof pipelines incredibly expensive to build
- one tanker-truckload could only fill ten cars
3) Distribution
- cost: $5 and $10 a gallon.
- a new Hydrogen filling station costs $2 million US
- a new H filling station project in London, UK cost $14 million US
- in the US there are currently about 30 H filling stations
- in the US there are more than 120,000 gas stations. The cost to add a hydrogen pump/storage at $100,000 each? $12,000,000,000 (remember a basic kitchen remodeling cost at least ten thousand).
- cost of H conversion for existing cars
- added cost of new H cars
It ain't gonna happen on a large scale and it is a waste of time and energy to devote anything more than research-level resources to devleop hydrogen fuel cell cars.
This latest achievement is about as useful as the one where cars are powered by from compressed air.
The whole 'climate change' mantra is based on the <theory> that the CO2 that industry emits is heating up our atmosphere. Since we and our industry only emit 3% of Earth's CO2, how much effect are we having any way?
Here's some facts I've pasted in from a previous post that address the Climate Change hot air mantra:
-Earth has been experiencing increased volcanic activity this past decade. 70% of volcanoes are under water, hot lava heats up the oceans causing increased evaporation - more rain and snow. Warmer oceans melt ice
-Sun magnetic strength varies over time, which corresponds pretty much directly with temperatures here on Earth. Cities are artificially hot for several reasons, real temperatures on land should be measured away from them rurally. Hottest rural decade past century was the 1930's in NA, hottest year was 1936
-CO2 provides much needed 'greenhouse effect' in our atmosphere on the order of 6 degrees warming. Nothing humans do will affect this 6 degrees warming because of the huge and instantaneous role the oceans play in absorbing or releasing CO2 depending on their temperature. CO2 is part of the natural carbon cycle where trees and vegetation grow quicker with a higher concentration. CO2 has never been a pollutant, and plans to sequester it have got to be the stupidest thing you will ever hear of this century.
-Atmospheric CO2 levels on Earth have been as much as 17 times higher than the current 380ppm. If increased C02 causes warming, why did the Earth go in to an Ice Age at levels 10 times of today? A little bit of CO2 goes a long way, for giving us the 6 degrees warming. More CO2, a lot more may give us another degree. But since humans and our industry only give off 3% of the world's CO2 to begin with, this whole "reduce greenhouse gas emissions" issue is a complete utter farce
-you can't tax a volcano, which along with bacteria dwarf human CO2 emissions
The whole 'climate change' mantra is based on the THEORY that the CO2 that industry emits is heating up our atmosphere.