HYDROGEN

One will recall from high school science, hydrogen is the lightest element and, at ambient temperatures at the earth's surface, always found as a compound such as H2O ( water) or as methane (CH4) or longer chains of carbon and hydrogen i.e. the fossil fuels. This is because hydrogen is very reactive. But it is also very light and in the years since the first gas price shock in the 1970's it has been touted as an aid in solving the petroleum dependence of modernized societies.

The U.S. government's Web site on Hydrogen is very clear on this: hydrogen is not, in itself, an energy source : that is because it takes more energy to access it in a free form than it contains. But it provides a way of storing energy produced centrally - for example in a nuclear power plant - and using it in individual transport mechanisms such as cars or buses. The U.S. site compares it to electricity in this respect, which will take the energy found in a flowing river and bring it to the home.

There are inconveniences to hydrogen with respect to conventional gasoline. For a given energy output, hydrogen is lighter than gasoline but, because it is a gas, it is also bulkier by a factor of four. The following is an interview which gives an interesting insight as to a possible application of hydrogen technology to solve current energy problems in transport.
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Appeared in Le Monde, November 24, 2007.

Is the Automobile Revolution coming in 2015?

Michel Alberganti interviews Pierre Beuzit, who was director of research for Renault Automobiles between 1998 and 2005.

In your book, 'Hydrogen: the future of the automobile?', published last October, you cite the year 2015 for the beginnings of mass production of hydrogen-powered automobiles. Will we be be able to, at that time, fill'er up at the local station?

No, clearly not. The first cars will work with conventional fuels such as gas, diesel or biofuels. But on board, a new apparatus called a reformer, would transform these fuels into hydrogen, which would feed into a fuel cell. Propulsion would thus become entirely electrical, and the consumption of fuel would go from the 6 liters for 100 kilometers, of current cars, to 3 liters. This would herald the true beginnings of the electrical car, which for the moment has a battery which gives only limited autonomy.

Is this the future as seen by all car producers?

Gasoline as a fuel being, in a forseeable future, headed for exhaustion, every major car-maker has developed a program around hydrogen. BMW and Ford are looking to burn it in a combustion engine. Mercedes, General Motors, Volkswagen, Nissan and PSA are looking to store pure hydrogen, and thus feed a fuel cell. Renault and Toyota, for their part, are betting on a reformer.

If this procedure comes to be, each car will then 'produce' its own hydrogen?

In a manner of speaking, yes. Of course, this is only a short-term solution since it does not eradicate dependence on petrol or biofuels. Nor does it get rid of pollution
because the car continues - albeit to a lesser extent - to produce carbon dioxide during the transformation of fuel to hydrogen. But using the reformer will, initially, present certain advantages.

With this device, one first of all sidesteps the question of how to store hydrogen in the car. With 1 kilogram of hydrogen, one can go some 100 kilometers, but this kilo, at atmospheric pressure, occupies a volume of...11 meters3. So it becomes necessary to compress the gas or refrigerate it, which consumes energy. The reformer makes it possible to put off creating a new distribution system for oxygen at what are now gas pumps. A development which, given the inherent difficulties, should not be expected until 2020 or 2025.

Will the very idea of the automobile be transformed by this innovation?

Cars haven't changed much in the last 100 years. Mostly because of the presence of the internal combustion (thermal explosion) engine, a heavy, cumbersome, noisy and dirty component. With the hydrogen cell, we are rid of this constraint. The reformer, no larger than a suitcase, fits into the emergency wheel slot and electrical motors can be integrated to each wheel. Which would leave a great deal of liberty to planners.

With hydrogen thus offering ample provision of electrical power, it will feed a large number of conveniences. Tomorrow's car can be designed as a small living-room, with integrated communication, audio and video, but also refrigeration and a micro-wave oven. There would thus be continuity between life in the home and in the car, all the more tempting as the car becomes silent. The electrification of the automobile will also transform functions such as acceleration, breaking and assisted direction. The pedals will no longer serve any purpose and will disappear. As well the steering wheel will be replaced by the joystick, (like the one used in video games), which can be placed anywhere in the cabin.

Will we be able to escape traffic jams?

The car, also thanks to electricity, will make better use of its guidance system which will ameliorate both mobility in the city and highway security. Thanks to mobile telephones, it will be possible to signal where one is and where one is going. The coming together of all this information will make it possible to make better use of the roads network. Today at peak rush hours in Paris, only 15% of roads are congested; better guidance will introduce greater fluidity. Further, this information can be used to avoid accidents; one will know the projected path of each car and accident configurations will be anticipated. Traffic signalization might eventually form part of the virtual environment of the automobile...

Driving will no longer much resemble what it is today. Will drivers adapt?

In 2015, the young drivers will be joystick adepts... This will not be a problem for them. Control over the car's various functions will no longer be concentrated around the driver. Driving will done through remote control. The behavior of the driver will change correspondingly. because he will be capable of predicting, thanks to technology, be it the risks of traffic jams or accidents, he will be more at ease.

That seems a lot like automated driving...

We will have to wait to 2030 or 2040 for a mastery of the security features of automated driving. But until that time, certain elements will start to appear. For example, by 202, GPS Galileo will give a precise position for cars to within 1 meter. Thanks to hydrogen, the electrical car promises to be a true departure from anything we have known so far.

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE REFORMER

In the case of hydrogen, reforming means extracting. The apparatus on which Renault is betting was developed by the Italo-American firm Novera. It allows a chemical reaction called "cracking" of the fuel molecule, which breaks down into hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon monoxide(CO). The latter is then transformed into carbon dioxide(CO2). The reformer, whose efficiency rating reaches 80%,is well adapted to biofuels, which should be more readily available between now and 2015.

THE BOOK

Pierre Beuzit, "Hydrogène, l'avenir de la voiture?", L'Archipel, Paris, 2007.