Hydrogen powered Tow Vehicle?

[bigb56]

Interesting article which was linked from the Diesel Technology Forum whose main focus is clean ICE power. No confirmation if the plan is for ICE or fuel cell yet.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/f...ne-207647.html

[radar]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. Just like EV’s the challenge will be in widespread availability of fueling points. Infrastructure takes time of course.

[ereck.po]

Hydrogen as a fuel has a few problems to overcome;

1- Unlike fueling diesel, fueling H2 is very expensive: A hydrogen fuel station uses a lot of electricity to fuel a hydrogen car for
a. Cooling hydrogen to -40°C, to avoid excessive temperatures from
b. Compressing hydrogen to 700 bar to the tank of the car.

A study reveals that a hydrogen fuel station uses 5 kWh of energy per kg of H2 filled into the tank of an H2 car. The energy necessary just to fuel a Toyota Mirai equals 100 miles of driving in an EV. Just the fueling energy alone.

2-Then the production methods are not green, it’s not all made like we did in school with water and a battery. 95% of the hydrogen made is from breaking down fossil fuels mostly methane. The process uses steam and power to produce H2 and, of course, CO2 that is commonly released to the atmosphere.

I think i'd rather just run diesel, mayby bio diesel could work.

[Country Road]

Originally Posted by ereck.po

Hydrogen as a fuel has a few problems to overcome;

1- Unlike fueling diesel, fueling H2 is very expensive: A hydrogen fuel station uses a lot of electricity to fuel a hydrogen car for
a. Cooling hydrogen to -40°C, to avoid excessive temperatures from
b. Compressing hydrogen to 700 bar to the tank of the car.

A study reveals that a hydrogen fuel station uses 5 kWh of energy per kg of H2 filled into the tank of an H2 car. The energy necessary just to fuel a Toyota Mirai equals 100 miles of driving in an EV. Just the fueling energy alone.

2-Then the production methods are not green, it’s not all made like we did in school with water and a battery. 95% of the hydrogen made is from breaking down fossil fuels mostly methane. The process uses steam and power to produce H2 and, of course, CO2 that is commonly released to the atmosphere.

I think i'd rather just run diesel, mayby bio diesel could work.

Wow! That explanation is exactly the way I would have stated it. Thanks.

Well, got to get back to shoveling my manure piles. Darn cows.

[followingsea]

Originally Posted by Country Road

Wow! That explanation is exactly the way I would have stated it. Thanks.

Well, got to get back to shoveling my manure piles. Darn cows.

If you want 'green' ride a cow. I used to post on a now defunct forum as 'cowpiemaster'.

For towing we might want an 'interesting' article on different draft animals.

Electricity and hydrogen are energy carriers. Very dangerous energy carriers.

The source of the energy is fossil fuel not pixie dust.

Pixie dust is a nice word for slave labor and genocide. The US is in an aggressive trade war with Russia and China for that reason. Under NAFTA, Mexico and Canada, have joined us. Under NATO, others have joined us. Japan, Australia ect are onboard.

From the OP article: "This would provide the advantage of a carbon-free engine while still beating an electric truck regarding range and refueling time."


My point is the engine is not 'carbon-free' and 'carbon' is a distraction from the real problems of the world.

And you can run a diesel on biogas made from cow manure that is carbon negative by a factor of 800.

[oldenavy]

Interesting article, but ereck.po did a great job of citing the shortcomings of H2 as a fuel. In the industry, they call H2 derived from fossil fuels “Grey hydrogen” and the H2 that comes from electrolysis “blue hydrogen” IF the electricity comes from renewable sources. Grey hydrogen really doesn’t do anything for CO2 emissions. You might as well just keep burning oil.

That’s one of the neat things about diesel engines is that they will burn almost anything. In marine, we use heavy residual fuel mostly, but can switch to distillate fuels (similar to auto diesel fuel) near shore and in recent years, they have been building “dual fuel” engines that can run on either residual fuel or LNG. There is also some research into methanol and ammonia for marine fuels.

Another technology that is nearer to being practical but doesn’t see much press is CO2 capture. While not practical for personal autos (too big and heavy), is is being tested on OTR trucks and for marine use. There are a even few stationary ones in service. That technology works, but the infrastructure and economic issues are not close to being solved (i.e. what to do with the CO2 once you’ve captured it).