I am a convert to hydrogen fuel cell electric cars

The car I drove: the Hyundai prototype ix35 hydrogen fuel cell SUV

Yesterday at the Investing in Future Transport event in London I was able for the first time to drive a hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell car, and it has seduced me.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I am no petrolhead. I don't particularly like driving, although I did when I was young, and I would much rather be on my bike. My last car was a Ford Focus, which I chose because, although a diesel, it did excellent mileage and was easy to handle. It was scrapped at its last MOT and now I share my wife's Micra; we downsized.

But this car felt like a dream. It is a Hyundai prototype ix35 SUV, which has been selected by the European Commission-backed ‘Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking’ (FCH JU) to be used as a demonstration vehicle to test and promote hydrogen fuel cell technology in a real-world environment. That's why it was there at City Hall and I was allowed to drive it.

It is an automatic, so there are only two pedals. In addition, it has no handbrake, so there are disconcertingly few controls. It is also a left-hand drive as, so far, there is not a right-hand drive model available. There are only 20 in the whole of Europe.

Acceleration is very fast and immediately responsive. I was told by the public relations lady sitting anxiously next to me (the car is probably worth a hundred thousand pounds) that it does 0 to 60 mph in 11 seconds, and that you can drive for 300 miles without needing to fill the tank.

That means you could reach most of the United Kingdom from almost anywhere else in the country.

The only slight reservation I had, was that if the lever was not positioned in neutral the car tended to move forwards slowly, so, pulling up at traffic lights, you have to keep your foot on the brake. You could put it into neutral, but then it would take longer to start up.

Of course, it makes absolutely no noise, so there is an artificial purring sound added in the design so that, reassuringly, you know that the engine is running. The display tells you how many miles worth of hydrogen is left in the tank. By the way, the tank itself is under the boot, and leaves plenty of storage space.

Speaking at the event, Hyundai's Dr Ing. Sae Hoon Kim told delegates that he thought ultimately hydrogen vehicles will play a strong role in what will inevitably be a mixed picture for personal transport. “Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) are perfect for long-range, but smaller electric vehicles are suitable for urban driving, because they hold less charge – a maximum of 80 miles – and take longer to charge," he said.

It takes about as long to refuel an FCEV as it does a conventional petrol car.

Since 2000, Hyundai has produced 200 FCEV SUVs. The current model, that is about to go into production, will use an induction motor, not a permanent magnet motor, and have a 525km range. It can do 1-100kmph in 12.5 seconds, with a 160km/hr maximum speed.

The main drawback right now, he said, is durability; the fuel cell stacks can only last for about 100,000 km. Previously, there were issues with a danger of the water that is output from the car (its only output) freezing inside under certain conditions, but this danger has been eliminated and tested in Arctic conditions.

As far as production is concerned, they are produced on the same line as conventional vehicles. The fuel cell is installed in the same place as the engine. “Hyundai is intending to go into mass production with the cars in 2015," Hoon Kim said. Production of the first thousand will begin next year and be part of test fleets around the globe.

Currently, prices are an eye-watering five times greater than the conventional car, but, Hoon Kim said, this will come down.

They may be 60% efficient compared to an internal combustion engine's efficiency of about 30%, but the real test is well-to-wheel comparison of carbon emissions which, of course, depends on how the hydrogen is generated.

The dream of the hydrogen economy is that all hydrogen will be developed from renewable sources. At present, much of it is reformed from fossil methane. This methane could come from the sustainable anaerobic digestion of organic waste. Otherwise, it can come from the electrolysis of water using renewably-generated electricity.

What is the global warming effect of driving a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, if the hydrogen is electrolysed using mains electricity in the UK today?

Assuming 56kWh of electricity produces 1kg of hydrogen, which is the claim of ITM, then, if we take the latest figures from Dukes, which say that 443 tonnes of carbon dioxide were produced for every gigawatt-hour (GWh) of mains electricity (in 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available), that is 24.8kg CO2 sent into the sky.

This compares to 10.472kg of carbon dioxide emitted on average for every gallon of petrol burnt in a car. Accounting for the fact that the hydrogen vehicle is around twice as efficient as a petrol-driven car, this means that there is little difference between their emissions overall.

Interesting as it is, this is academic, not least because we are decarbonising the grid. Besides, there are several prototype facilities in the UK already producing hydrogen for vehicles from renewable sources. Any small-scale renewable electricity generator can be set up right next to a refuelling station, producing hydrogen 24/7. The great thing about hydrogen is that it is an energy storage medium. The wind blows at night and you can’t use the electricity? Save it in hydrogen.

Marks & Spencer's, Walmart and FedEx are already using fuel cells in forklift trucks in their warehouses because they keep going for many times longer than battery-powered forklift trucks. This is a niche application, of course, but it will accelerate the development of fuel cell vehicles generally.

There are several drivers for this development: much less oil is being found by prospectors than previously and there is an imperative to decarbonise transport.

This is a huge opportunity for the UK and we should be prioritising it. Transport Secretary Norman Baker sent a video message to yesterday's conference in which he touted the Government's UKH2 Mobility project, launched at the beginning of this year, under which 13 industrial partners are evaluating potential rollout scenarios for hydrogen for transport in the UK.

More recently, five projects have been announced that will demonstrate the use of fuel cells and hydrogen and show how they can be integrated with other energy and transport components, such as renewable energy generation, refuelling infrastructure and vehicles, to develop whole systems and show them working together.

There is fierce competition from America. Last month, the US Department of Energy (DOE) released its final report for a technology validation project that collected data from more than 180 fuel cell electric vehicles over six years. It shows that development of fuel cell systems exceeded expectations, which will spur a new round of research and development.

The main problem in the UK is not a shortage of inventors, researchers and developers, it is a shortage of partners at the industrial level who can take our inventions up to mass production and capitalise on them to the fullest extent. We don't have our own auto manufacturing company. This, despite the fact that we manufacture 1.4 million cars a year, most of which are exported.

This is where the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should step in. When the results of UKH2 Mobility are known, the full weight of Government backing should be put behind the chosen strategy.

Of course, we need inward investment to help to make this happen, but for once we should retain ownership. This is a win win proposal.

Our personal transport future will, in a couple of decades, comprise a complex picture with a mix of electric vehicles of different sizes, powered by both batteries and fuel cells, plus biofuel powered vehicles. We will also see much more electric-powered mass urban transport systems.

In this picture, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will play a big part, and I, for one, want to own such a vehicle, that has been manufactured in Britain by a British company.

So get on with it!

British company claims it is making petrol from air

A British company has announced that it is making zero carbon gasoline from air and water using renewable energy.

The announcement was made at the Investing in Future Transport event held on Thursday at City Hall, London, at which a speaker representing the Chinese government also expressed surprise at the lack of British companies seeking Chinese partners.

He said China is offering partnerships and over £1 billion of funding to start-ups in the electric vehicle sector who are researching and developing new batteries and charging technology.

Air Fuel Synthesis was awarded a hypothetical £10.1 million in the Cleantech Investor Future Transport Challenge for a 'Dragon's Den' style pitch by the company's CEO, Peter Harrison. The company, which creates carbon-neutral liquid fuels from renewable energy sources, was one of six participants in the Future Transport Challenge, which took place during the Investing in Future Transport conference, supported by the Mayor of London, in City Hall on 16 August.

The achievements of Air Fuel Synthesis - and the two Future Transport Challenge runners-up, Aeristech (designer of the Full Electric Turbocharger Technology) and EV Innovations (which is building the Bluebird City electric truck) - were acknowledged at an evening reception after the conference, hosted by Norton Rose.

The prizes were presented by Patrick Head, co-founder of Williams Formula 1, who had earlier delivered a keynote address at the conference, focusing on the innovative flywheel automotive energy storage technology developed by Williams Hybrid Systems, which is 78% owned by Williams F1.

The conference, which was organised by Cleantech Investor and Revolve Global and chaired by journalist and television presenter Quentin Willson, combined the Cleantech Investor Future Transport Challenge with sessions on investment opportunities in the transport solutions of the future.

Petrol from air

Peter Harrison, of Teesside-based Air Fuel Synthesis, said that it is now producing carbon-neutral petrol (gasoline) as a practical drop-in synthetic alternative to fossil fuels.

The development is part of the company’s continuing £1.1 million development programme at its demonstrator facility in the North of England where a gasoline fuel reactor is now producing petrol from a methanol base, as a stage towards a commercial fuel production unit, which will be powered by renewable electricity.

The whole process consists of a wind turbine powering an electrolyser that splits water to make hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is combined with carbon dioxide captured from the air to make a hydrocarbon mixture, that can then be developed to make any type of gasoline product.

The company initially proved its fuel reactor technology in April 2012 by producing methanol fuel from carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

Harrison said that the technology “has the potential to become a great British success story, which opens up a crucial opportunity to reduce carbon emissions. It also has the potential to reduce our exposure to an increasingly volatile global energy market. The potential to provide a variety of sustainable fuels for today’s vehicles and infrastructure is especially exciting.

“Further investors and partners will enable us to rapidly commercialise our technologies and help customers address fossil oil price volatility and supply constraints as well as the implications of carbon-driven climate change,“ he said.

The event, which was hosted by ex-Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson, showcased many new types of green transport technology, and included an electric vehicle investor contest which was won by ABB.

This contest recognised the best investor deal in the last 12 months in the sector. Large multinational ABB has acquired start-up company Epyon, which has developed a network of fast-charging direct current electric vehicle charge points and software. It reduces the time taken to charge an electric vehicle to 15 minutes, and enables the charging to be tailored to different starting conditions, power requirements and charge times.

It is significant because ABB offers power and automation services to utility and industry clients that help them improve performance and lower their environmental impact. This represents a fast mainstreaming of the technology in a business context, which will help bring prices down later for consumers.

On display outside City Hall was a mobile hydrogen generation facility. ITM's electrolyser uses about 56kWh of electricity to produce 1kg of hydrogen, which, in a fuel cell driven car, represents the equivalent of around one gallon, or five litres of petrol.

Their unit is mobile and modular, so any number that might be required can be transported to a location where the hydrogen is needed, to produce it on site. The fuel cell vehicles are then filled at the most convenient place for the client, without the need to transport hydrogen around the country.

Several electric vehicles were also available to test drive.

Quentin Willson, who owns two electric cars for his and his wife's everyday use, spoke passionately about electric vehicles. He said that in driving 100,000 miles he has never once run out of power, and reckons that even now there are sufficient charging points around the country to make them viable, in addition to being able to recharge at home.

His Citroën C-Zero costs just £1 to travel 100 miles. “From 2005's Gee Whizz we have come a long way. Electric vehicles can now travel 80 miles on a single charge," he said.

He admitted that at present it does not make financials sense for everybody, and so he has been campaigning for the Government to lift the 20% VAT added to the price of these vehicles for early adopters. “What we do now, determines the final outcome," he said.

ITM's Graham Cooley was in no doubt that hydrogen cars are this future. “With an energy efficiency of 60 to 70% when made from renewable energy, they are a triple zero fuel," he said. "Hydrogen is the answer to storage of intermittent renewable energy," he added.

The biofuels demand

For Dominic Emery, speaking on behalf of BP, it was biofuels that represent the future. BP is investing heavily in traditional corn-ethanol production from sugar cane.

He said that BP's 2030 Outlook shows their view of trends: that from a total global present-day requirement of 85 million barrels of crude oil per day, by 2030, we will need 102-105 million per day. "But oil finds are decreasing," he said.

"From 5% of volume of total fuel used now, biofuels will therefore need to rise to 10% by 2030," he said. “BP has invested several billion in this to date and it will be even more significant in the future. To be successful we need materiality and scalability, which means large continuous tracts of land."

It must be cost-competitive, he said, and the only source that meets this criterion now is Brazilian cane ethanol. It is produced without subsidies at around $60 per barrel, which compares very favourably with oil. The only problem is, it requires industrial scale production across hundreds of thousands of hectares of land.

However, he talked up the need for production to be sustainable not just environmentally but from a social perspective, with a trained and well-supported workforce. “It can do a lot to support rural populations not just in Brazil, but in America as well," he said.

The last word must be left to Ke Gang Wu, of the British China Chamber of Commerce, who made several open calls for British partners to work in China.

He said that China is prioritising electric vehicles over the next decade with central government funding of £1 billion a year. This figure can often be matched by a similar amount from the province where a facility might be located. For example, he said, the second largest manufacturer in Guondong Provice is seeking a partner to develop new batteries.

Several are also looking for partnerships with British start-up companies in electric vehicles and their components.

“I am mystified why more British companies are not coming forward when we will pay the research and development," he said. So were many of those present in the audience.

The hydrogen economy could be starting here

Dr Graham Cooley, CEO of ITM Power, David Green, CEO of Eco-island, celebrating their win alongside a Hyundai electric fuel cell vehicle

The Isle of Wight's pioneering Eco-island project is to host a test bed for using renewable energy to make hydrogen fuel for cars, vans and boats.

It is one of five projects selected for an award by the Technology Strategy Board, which aim to speed-up the adoption of energy systems using hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, bringing them into everyday use.

The projects will show how these technologies can be integrated with other energy and transport components, such as renewable energy generation, refuelling infrastructure and vehicles, to develop whole systems which work together.

The five projects, selected through a competitive process, will be led by Air Products, BOC, ITM Power, Rutland Management and SSE.

Hydrogen cars and boats

The Eco-island Partnership CIC, which aims to make the Isle of Wight almost entirely self-sustaining by the end of the decade, will play an integral role in one of these, a £4.66m project to be led by the energy storage and clean fuel company ITM Power.

The project focuses on the integration of an electrolyser-based refueller with the island’s renewable energy. This allows the electrolyser refueller to act as a demand side management load, which enables low-carbon hydrogen to be produced for use as a vehicle fuel for a fleet of hydrogen vehicles including Hyundai, Microcab and River Simple.

Vehicles will include Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) cars and Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (HICE) vans. They will refuel from a 100kg per day unit to be installed on a centrally located business park.

A smaller 15kg per day refueller, located on the south coast of the Island, will be used to fuel a Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine boat.

ITM Power will design and build the two refuellers and take a key role in the system integration.

Eco-island will assist in site surveying, planning applications, and will operate the hydrogen car club, members of which include Vestas, SSE and Southern Water.

Other partners include Toshiba, IBM, Cable and Wireless and Cheetah Marine, as well as National Physical Laboratory, Arcola Energy, and the Universities of Glamorgan and Nottingham.

Graham Smith, MD of Toyota Europe, a National Partner of Eco-island, welcomed the establishment of the hydrogen fuelling infrastructure, and said, "The roll-out of such infrastructure is critical to the future commercial launch of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles which we plan from 2015”.

Dr Graham Cooley, CEO of ITM Power, commented: “Eco-island represents a quantum leap for renewable technologies in the UK. ITM’s energy storage and clean fuel technology will be at the heart of this project that gives us an ideal opportunity to link our equipment with world leading smart grid technologies to create the integrated energy grid of the future”.

David Green, CEO of Eco-island, which he calls “the UK's leading sustainability project", said: “Eco-island is delighted to have been selected as the location for this exciting hydrogen trial, the first of its kind in the country. With the Eco Business Park as its home, and the inclusion of the car club, the refueller will mean that people living here and visiting Eco-island will get the chance to share the hydrogen experience first-hand”.

Other winners

The other four winners of the Technology Strategy Board’s ‘Fuel Cells and Hydrogen: Whole System Integration’ competition for research and development funding are:

• The creation of the UK’s first end-to-end, integrated, green hydrogen production, distribution and retailing system, centred around a fully publicly accessible, state-of-the-art, 700-bar renewable hydrogen refuelling station network across London (Air Products plc).
• The delivery of solar-generated hydrogen for Swindon’s existing public access hydrogen refuelling station, via an electrolyser, and its use in materials handling vehicles and light vans at Honda’s manufacturing plant (BOC Ltd).
• The demonstration of a viable solar-hydrogen energy system, with benefits shared by multiple end users of a business park in Surrey, through the 24/7 provision of green electricity and heat (Rutland Management Ltd).
• The demonstration of a whole renewable hydrogen system, conjunction with an Aberdeenshire wind farm powering a1MWe electrolyser that is connected to the grid, to explore the grid impacts and energy storage potential of hydrogen generation, which will in this case power a fleet of fuel cell buses (SSE plc).

Making the announcement, Business Minister Mark Prisk said that the UK has innovative businesses developing world-leading hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. "By developing a coherent capability and a vibrant industry, we’ll be in a position to capture a share of the global market, encourage international partnerships and inward investment, thus growing the economy and creating jobs," he said.

"These projects will complement the joint government/industry project UK H2 Mobility which is currently evaluating potential roll-out scenarios for hydrogen for transport in the UK," he added.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker, whose department helped to select and is funding the projects, said: “Hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies are at the cutting edge of new low carbon energy solutions. We need to see how these technologies can be integrated with other energy and transport products, and these exciting government-supported projects will do just that.”

The Technology Strategy Board and DECC will provide grant funding of £9 million. The total value of the projects, including contributions from the industrial partners, is in excess of £19 million.

DECC is supporting innovation in low carbon technologies with a capital budget of over £200 million for low-carbon technologies over the current Spending Review period, and has already given funding to offshore wind manufacturing at port sites; offshore wind components; marine energy array demonstration; buildings energy efficiency projects; carbon capture and storage; bio-energy innovation and energy entrepreneurs.