Honda FCX Clarity has been named the 2009 World Green Car of the Year
The FCX Clarity is a fuel-cell powered sedan that runs on electricity generated by an on-board fuel cell stack. Its only emission is water. Currently, the car is available on a limited-lease basis to select drivers, but who knows what the future will bring? Only 12 years ago, the Clarity prototypes were rolling laboratories so full of equipment there was barely room for a driver. Today the Clarity can carry a full load of passengers and is meeting cold weather requirements. Is the fuel cell the car of the future, or will something else lead the way?
There is no doubt that concern for the environment will direct the future design of our automobiles. While emission systems in the past have been designed to eliminate or almost eliminate harmful gases and byproducts such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen, the biggest task now is to reduce the global warming potential of our vehicles. CO2 or carbon dioxide is the culprit and it is a natural byproduct of combustion, so reducing its production is a challenge.
Will a fuel cell powered car be the vehicle that can eliminate the global warming potential? Not necessarily. As sophisticated as the FCX Clarity is, we need to look at the total emissions of what it takes to propel a vehicle, and this includes producing the fuel. If the hydrogen fuel is produced from methane gas, then there is a reduction in total CO2 output and this may make it the greenest type of vehicle on the planet, but if that hydrogen has to be produced using electrolysis, then there is a net balance of zero: as much CO2 is generated, often by coal or oil-fired electrical generating plants as will be saved by driving the fuel-cell vehicle.
Few vehicles in the near future will likely be fuel-cell powered however. It is still too difficult and costly to provide the infrastructure that allows these vehicles a wide range. Instead, we will see a mix of vehicle types. Everything from the traditional (but greatly improved) gasoline engine to electric motors will move our vehicles. Let’s look at the CO2 impact of a few of these vehicles.
The internal combustion engine rates only fair when it comes to CO2 production. Complete combustion of gasoline produces CO2, so the only methods of reducing CO2 output are to make the engine more efficient or make it smaller. We will and are seeing both solutions in our vehicles. Direct fuel injection, reduced internal friction, variable cam timing and stratified fuel mixtures are some of the advanced technologies currently in use to improve efficiency. Smaller vehicles and engines are also becoming more common.
Diesel engines rate fair to good in reducing CO2 production, mainly because the diesel engine is already about 30% more efficient than a gasoline engine. There isn’t an answer on Bio-fuels yet when it comes to CO2 reduction. Although Bio-fuels are a renewable resource, growing and harvesting the fuel base stock can produce more CO2 than is saved with the fuel. However, if waste stock is used instead of food stock, there is a potential saving. Advanced production techniques may produce even greater CO2 reduction.
Hybrid vehicles are big news when people think green. Hybrid electric vehicles are considered good, as they operate on electric power some of the time, which reduces the use of the internal combustion engine onboard. Hybrids are second best next to fuel-cell vehicles, but the batteries are heavy and expensive, and manufacturing them also produces CO2.
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and pure electric vehicles are not as good at reducing CO2 as current hybrid vehicles. This is because recharging the batteries is done by plugging the vehicles in to our existing electrical grid. In order to supply the electrical energy to charge these vehicles if they are mass produced, electrical companies need to produce more electricity, and it is likely older coal-fired electrical plants would have to be fired up to produce this electricity. The vehicles may not produce CO2, but producing the electricity would create as much CO2 as if we were operating gasoline engines. If we had clean sources of electrical power such as solar, wind and water, then Plug-in vehicles could be the best answer.
As you may have noticed, there is no one vehicle type or fuel that will be the ultimate solution. Reducing CO2 production to reduce global warming will be done with many small solutions in many small ways. Diverse best describes the types of vehicles we will see on the roads in our future.
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