2003-10-20 New Automotive Powertrains and Fuels

Energy and Climate News > 2003-10-20 New Automotive Powertrains and Fuels

I was a co-author of a paper 'The Future of the Hydrogen Economy: Bright or Bleak?', of which the final version was published on the web on 15 April 2003. This prompted me to make an extensive study of new automotive powertrains and fuels - to meet the increasing concerns of climate change and resource depletion - particularly Peak Oil. I found a surprising amount of data published on the web, and subjected it to careful analysis. One significant finding is that - of the various Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle prototypes - the Toyota FCHV5 has the best overall 'Well-to-Wheel' efficiency. The second is that even this is inferior to the 2004 model Toyota Prius engine-electric hybrid car that is already in high-volume production.

This supports the finding of our hydrogen paper, that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have nothing to offer and are a pointless distraction. Instead we should be concentrating on producing sustainable liquid fuels. These could be bioethanol as discussed in this study, produced either from sugar cane, as in the Brazilian example, or as a 'Second Generation' biofuel, probably based on 'ligno-cellulosic' - 'woody' - feedstocks . Another possibility is a liquid fuel synthesised from Carbon Dioxide captured from flue gases and hydrogen produced by electrolysis, using renewable electricity. This is outlined in our hydrogen paper. Such fuels would have the advantage of overcoming the land area - and water and nutrient - constraints on biofuel production, while being carbon neutral. Their production should be integrated with that of Combined Heat and Power - with the carbon dioxide captured from the flue gases - and the use of 'surplus' electricity from wind farms. This is because energy can be 'cascaded' through all three processes, and heat and liquids can easily be stored, even if the wind electricity is variable, so that almost none need be wasted. This is already standard practice in modern chemical plants. Indeed, one plant could produce both from biomass feedstock - as in a Biorefinery - and by synthesis. As liquids such fuels can readily be handled by the existing infrastructure and used by the existing worldwide vehicle fleet of some 800 million. New vehicles can also continue to increase in fuel efficiency, probably with an increasing proportion of engine-electric hybrids.

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2003-10-20 New Automotive Powertrains and Fuels

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