The second product creating a lot of buzz in the MyFordMobileApp. Now, if you own a Ford Focus Electric and have a MyFordMobileApp on your smart phone, here is what drivers can do:

• access their car’s current charge information
• locate charging stations and determine if they are reachable given the
• current charge
• plan trips by evaluating the number of stops and charge time needed
• locate their car using GPS
• remotely unlock/lock doors and activate climate control
So, this is all well and good and I applaud Ford and the application developers for creating a handy tool for the iPhone, iPad, Android OS phone and any other gizmo the app can work on. But, I am also left wondering, where is the killer app for hydrogen cars?

Besides the Ford Focus Electric car, the Detroit automaker also has had under development for the past several years the Ford Focus FCV. Where’s the app for that?

Sometimes it seems like the hydrogen car is the ugly stepchild to the electric car which is getting all the press and glory now days. After consumers become fully aware of the limitations of electric cars I am confident that consumer confidence will swing back to H2 vehicles.

In the meanwhile, here’s a hydrogen car app I would like to see developed by Ford or any other major automaker who builds hydrogen cars. Let’s call this MyH2CarMobileApp and here is the desired functionality:

• Access the car’s current fuel information remotely
• If the H2 car is a plug-in hybrid, then access its charge information as well
• Locate hydrogen fueling stations using GPS and determine if they are commercial and open for business (operating hours) plus reachable given the driver’s current amount of fuel
• Plan trips by determining the number of stops at open commercial hydrogen fueling stations
• Calculate amount of fuel needed for the trip
• Calculate the price of fuel at each station and the cost of the trip before starting out
• Calculate alternative routes if needed
• Locate car using GPS
• Remotely open / lock doors and activate climate control

In recent days apps are a dime a dozen. In the city where I live there is even an app for reporting potholes that need to be fixed by the City. It’s simple and the potholes get fixed within days not weeks, months or never. As high tech as hydrogen cars are, you would think that one of the automakers would invest a small amount of money to hire a programmer to create a killer hydrogen car app. So, this is my challenge to the makers of hydrogen cars. You’ve got the cars, now where’s the app?

There are two different hydrogen racecar events that have caught my eye recently. The first event is that the Mazda RX-8 RE hydrogen / gasoline dual fuel car will be returning to the 24-hour “Le Mans vers le futur” (Le Mans into the future) event.

The Mazda RX-8 RE racecar will be competing with other high performance yet eco-friendly vehicles. Two of the racecars the Mazda zoom-zoom car will be competing with include the Ferrari 599XX HPDC and the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid.

In other news regarding the Formula Zero race, “The Dutch Greenchoice Forze team from the Technical University of Delft is this week with their self-built hydrogen racing kart in Rio de Janeiro. At the Nelson Piquet circuit they introduce their hydrogen racing kart, whose only exhaust is pure water, to the international press and automotive industry. The reason for their trip is the Challenge Bibendum, which takes place this week in Rio de Janeiro.”

I had talked about the 2009 Formula Zero race last year about this same time. The racing cart had set an unofficial record on a 1/8 mile track. The Formula Zero races are good fun and an effective way to showcase the power of hydrogen cars among enthusiastic fans.

What caught my eye are two comments about oil companies scaling back their commitment to hydrogen and how we would replace the oil companies if need be.

The article says, “But come September, Chevron will exit its collaboration with AC Transit, which will begin purchasing its hydrogen from a Linde plant in Southern California. Part of the reason is that the Chevron-designed system does not have the capacity to produce hydrogen for 12 buses. Industry watchers note that oil companies have scaled back initial forays into hydrogen, perhaps not wanting to facilitate the transition from fossil fuels.”

Of course it is not in the oil companies best short term interests to facilitate the near term introduction of hydrogen cars. Oil makes money and installing a hydrogen infrastructure will cost money. It’s a matter of simple economics.

But, if the oil companies don’t put up hydrogen fueling stations who will? In August 2008, I pitched the idea that perhaps the big industrial gas companies like Air Products, Linde, Air Liquide and even Praxair could be the ones to build the hydrogen refueling stations and compete with Big Oil.

This sentiment is echoed by AC Transit long timer Jaimie Levin. The article states, “Levin is cautiously optimistic that it could be the gas companies like Linde and Praxair, and not the oil companies, that carry the hydrogen torch forward.”

Right now it seems the most likely scenario will be a collaboration among the government entities and large specialty gas companies that make the hydrogen highway systems a reality one day. But, there could always be a breakthrough in technology, such as hydrogen on demand at the pump that brings a smaller player or players to the forefront. The field is basically open right now and it’s there for the taking if anyone has the NEXT BIG IDEA that will make a nationwide hydrogen network a reality.

The fourth annual Hydrogen Fuel Cell Model Car Challenge was held in Union County, New Jersey in the northern part of the state. Students from Warren County Technical School along with around 200 other student participated in the model fuel cell car contest.

There were many glitches in the race as students found that getting their cars to run during the contest was not the same as when they had practiced in the gym. Loose wires, friction, malfunctioning hydrogen balloon tanks were the course for the day.

But, in the end, it was a good learning experience and a chance to correct mistakes and try again next year. These experiences will prepare the engineers, electricians and researchers of tomorrow with experience today that will mean huge gains for the hydrogen cars of the future.

Yet others balk at the idea, when the hydrogen production and distribution for cars has not been standardized yet. The positive aspect of standardization is that it speeds up the plan of getting from point A to point B more quickly. The negative aspect of standardization is picking technological winners at the expense of retarding growth of competition.

Below is a list of competition within the hydrogen car industry itself at present, which will show why many companies are slow to commit to building out an H2 refueling infrastructure.

• Hydrogen fuel cells versus H2 Internal Combustion Engines (H2ICE)
• Compressed hydrogen gas versus a hydrogen rich chemical compound carrier
• Use of hydrogen pipelines, trucks, tankers for transport versus hydrogen on demand at or near the pump
• Hydrogen on demand inside or outside the vehicle
• Centralized versus decentralized creation of hydrogen and distribution of H2
• Methods for creating mass quantities of hydrogen such as steam reforming natural gas, high temperature cracking of water, electrolysis of water, use of algae or microbes to create H2
• Who will build, distribute and install hydrogen pumps? Government, Big Oil, big chemical companies or specialty gas companies
• Hydrogen fueling stations versus home hydrogen fueling pumps

Standardization versus invention of new technologies is certainly a consideration for upstart companies wanting to join the race for a nationwide rollout of hydrogen cars. Perhaps the transition to hydrogen cars will involve a short evolutionary process of best technologies similar to the transition from Betamax to VHS to DVD’s or records to 8-track tapes to cassette taps to CD’s?

The rapid advancement of technology will by itself create winners and losers in the marketplace. Many companies will adapt to changing market conditions and some won’t. But, the important part is to keep pushing on all hydrogen development fronts and eventually let the market itself decide the shortest path to the commercial rollout of hydrogen cars.

Now, I’m not a plug-in car hater. In fact, I’ve said for several years now that I see the future in transportation filled with hydrogen plug-in hybrid vehicles. But, hard line electric car enthusiasts have a different vision of the future and that is one where an electric car has a 300 mile range, can recharge in 10 minutes and can do this just about anywhere in the U. S. where one would want to park their car.

They say that since electricity is already running crisscross around the country, that we already have an adequate recharging infrastructure already in place. It’s refreshing to see the NY Times talk about the lack of recharging infrastructure from the electric utility perspective.

According to the NY Times, “Utilities that serve most of the nation’s electricity customers said they were aware of the issue, and would take several steps, including working to help develop plans for charging stations, and would use battery-powered vehicles themselves.”

Part of the problem of a nationwide system of recharging stations is a unified standard. Will this include swapping batteries in cars or building recharging stations at shopping centers, apartment buildings and parking garages? And just how will “range anxiety” be reduced for consumers who are fearful of being stranded with a dead battery?

As the number of EVs grow, overwhelming the electrical grid is a major concern. According to electrical energy executive F. Earley Jr., “The last thing you want is millions of electric vehicles plugged in at 5 o’clock on a hot summer afternoon when the grid is already being taxed.”

On the Climate Action Blog, Terry Tamminen talks about the Myth of Battery Cars and says, “Moreover, on a hot July day in California, if even a few hundred thousand of the state’s 30 million vehicles were attached to the grid, the overloaded system would routinely blackout unless it was upgraded at the cost of billions. Battery car enthusiast Shai Agassi announced he intends to bring his battery cars to San Francisco and would build 250,000 charging stations around the Bay Area alone – - does that sound like new infrastructure to you?”

Now, I’m not saying that plug-in hybrids and BEVs are a bad idea. I just don’t think they are as near term as many people think they are. This idealistic notion of going to work, going shopping, charging the car overnight and then heading out for a long weekend trip without problems (because you just plug-in your car for a few minutes because electricity is everywhere, right?) is not realistic.

By choosing either hydrogen refueling or an electric recharging infrastructure (or both) much work needs to be done. All I ask is that we be realistic about our options going forward.

“Natural gas today is primarily a non-renewable, fossil fuel. But people have already begun selling renewable gas into the pipeline. Landfills, manure piles and sewage plants that used to release significant amounts of methane into the atmosphere are now selling it as green gas. Biomass and garbage can also be gasified to add to the supply. The energy balance of grass biomethane production is 50% better than annual crops now used.

“Though the US power grid uses significant hydropower and other renewables, CO2 emissions are still almost twice as much per kilowatt-hour as a 60% efficient NG fuel cell. In 2007 the US power grid emitted 605 grams/kWh. A NG fuel cell emits only 327 grams. At 4mi/kWh that translates to about 151 grams per mile for a grid charged car verses 82 for the NG fuel cell car.

“Someday the grid should be cleaned up so that electric cars charged from it are cleaner than NG fuel cell hybrids. EIA data makes it easy to track our progress towards this goal: In 1996 we emitted 627 grams of CO2 per kWh and by 2007 this was reduced to 605 grams. That’s a 2-gram per year decrease. If we continue at that rate, it will take 139 years to equal what we can do now with a NG fuel cell. Recent years show even less progress. There was no improvement between 2006 and 2007. Plugging into the grid is, unfortunately, a bit like plugging into a lump of coal.

“Infrastructure expansion also favors natural gas. Gas pipelines cost half as much to build as ugly overhead electric transmission lines of the same energy capacity. Energy storage is also cheaper with gas. Depleted gas fields and salt caverns are already storing 4.1 Tcf of gas in the US. At 60% efficiency this could produce 840 GW of electricity. A very cheap battery!

“Fuel cell developers are in a race to commercialize suitable fuel cells. The first products using NG fuel cells are home CHP electricity generators that use their waste heat to make hot water. The fuel cells in these units produce only 2 kW but they can startup from an idle state in 5 or 6 minutes. Scaling up to 15 kW and adapting to the tough environment of a car could take years. Another company is developing a fuel cell range extender that is fueled by methanol. Methanol has only half the energy density of gasoline but, because of the high efficiency, fuel tanks would still be smaller than current gasoline tanks.

“’Price at the pump’ is the one thing that seems to get voters excited. Reducing fuel cost/mile by a factor of 18 with a fuel that is 97% from North America while using corncobs should generate some excitement. The hydrogen initiative should be immediately redirected to focus instead on a fuel that is plentifully available, transportable and storable.”

As in yesterday’s email I agree with much of what Tom B. has to say. In fact, most of what he says can be applied to hydrogen fuel cell cars as well. Hydrogen cars can use the existing natural gas infrastructure if we were to reform the NG at the pumps. Hydrogen can also be produced from landfills, manure piles and sewage plants.

In addition, hydrogen has the advantage of being produced from water via electrolysis during off-peak hours from the grid, of which prices have come down immensely over the past 5 years. There is also promising technology in regard to direct solar to hydrogen production, using algae and microbes to produce hydrogen, along with clean coal, nuclear and biofuels to produce hydrogen.

I disagree with the last point that the hydrogen initiative should be redirected to focus on natural gas or other fuels. When I look into my crystal ball, I see a future filled with all kinds of alternative fuel vehicles that have been mainstreamed such as CNG vehicles, hydrogen cars, electric vehicles, biofuel vehicles and even air powered cars. I think we need to allocate resources to all of these different alt fuel vehicles without robbing one program to pay for the other.

Developing alternative energy and alternative fuels is too important to wait or pick winners and losers at this point. Global warming is real, energy independence is a necessity and the creation of new jobs is mandatory and the creation of alternative fuel vehicles fills the bill on what we need so badly now and in the future.

I’ve decided to post the first part of the email here:

Tom B. says, “The hydrogen initiative is stalled. The hydrogen cars work fine but no good solutions have been found to the problems of where to get the hydrogen or how to deliver and store it. Very important details!

“Hydrogen tends to fly into space but natural gas is abundant on earth because methane has one carbon atom that holds four hydrogen atoms in a tight and stable cluster. Three recent breakthroughs have made natural gas a very interesting fuel.
1. Ceramic fuel cells that can make electricity from natural gas at 60% efficiency .
2. ANG: Adsorption stores natural gas at low (500 psi) pressure in compact tanks.
3. A glut of natural gas caused by new shale drilling/extraction techniques.

“The fuel cell breakthrough is particularly important because it means your car can generate its own electricity more efficiently than a massive power plant! Big plants typically average 30% efficiency, so a 60% NG fuel cell hybrid is twice as efficient as an electric vehicle charged from the grid. That means half as much fuel is consumed.

“Twice as efficient as an electric car is saying a lot because electric cars are already three times more efficient than conventional cars. This is because internal combustion engines are less than 30% efficient verses 90% for electric motors. Natural gas fuel cell cars are thus about six times more efficient than today’s cars. Using 1/6th as much fuel means pollution is also 1/6th. NG is inherently very clean. and has 30% lower carbon content so CO2, sulfur, volatiles, and NOx are even less than 1/6th.

“Since NG fuel cells have a warm up time, the hybrid batteries must have enough capacity for all-electric operation until warm up is complete. After warm up, the fuel cell keeps the batteries charged and the batteries provide power for peak loads and acceleration and recapture energy on braking. A Prius uses 16.8 kW for continuous 70 mph driving on a level road. The fuel cell must be able to supply this much power for steady driving.

“Natural gas is already distributed by pipeline to homes all over the US, so home refueling is possible. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is already used to run five million vehicles worldwide. Pump prices for CNG are about one third of the price of gasoline in spite of the expensive ($350k), 3600 psi pumps and fittings currently used for delivery. The pipeline cost of natural gas is only 1/4th of the cost of crude oil with the same energy content. If much simpler, 500 psi Adsorbed Natural Gas refueling is adopted, prices could be reduced even further.. Cost per mile for a NG fuel cell hybrid would currently be only 1/18th of present cars but could be reduced even further with low pressure ANG refueling!

“ANG fuel tanks contain activated carbon “sponges” that adsorb 160 times their own volume of natural gas. They can be made from Corn cobs , which have a network of nanoscale passageways that remain after carbonization. One gram of this material has as much adsorbing surface area as a football field. When natural gas is adsorbed on a carbon surface it ceases to act like a gas. Dense storage at low pressure makes it possible to hide the much smaller tank inside the car’s frame.

“So an NG fuel cell hybrid is a lot like a Chevy Volt with a fuel cell replacing the range extender engine/generator and a much smaller battery. Its battery only needs to be large enough to run the car during warm-up of the fuel cell, currently about 15 miles. The Chevy Volt’s 40-mile battery is rumored to cost $5000, so the NG car’s 15-mile battery would cost $3125 less. Incidentally, at these battery prices a 400-mile range pure electric car would need $50,000 worth of batteries! Pure electrics have other problems: A 110v, 20A household plug can supply only 2.2 kW which means that 10 hours of home charging will only take you 10 x 2.2 x 4 mi/kW = 88 miles.”

Tom B. makes some very good points. My response is that along with NG vehicles and hydrogen cars being competitors with each other and with other vehicles such as they both are with electric vehicles, NG vehicles and H2 vehicles can also be more “companion vehicles.”

The advantage that natural gas vehicles have over hydrogen vehicles right now is that there are more NG cars and buses on the road than those powered by hydrogen and there are more NG refueling stations in operation. California is a good example of this as there are around 26 hydrogen fueling stations in operation and over 200 CNG stations. Another disadvantage of NG vehicles is they are largely dependent upon a declining fossil fuel source, though landfills could be use to supply some natural gas to NG vehicles (as well as hydrogen cars).

The advantage that hydrogen cars have over NG vehicles is that H2 FCVs are zero emission vehicles and NG vehicles do emit a small amount greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. What is interesting however is that over 90-percent of hydrogen today is made by steam reforming natural gas.

This steam reforming of natural gas can also be performed at the pump level as well as demonstrated by the Honda Home Energy Station, which does this very thing. Also, India for the past 5 years has been experimenting with blends of CNG and hydrogen to see what specific blend is more efficient and less polluting. Most CNG vehicles can contain up to 20 percent pure hydrogen without modification to the vehicle and with blends over 20 percent only slight modifications are needed.

Anyway, that’s all for now as I will address the rest of the email tomorrow.

According to AEC, “French automaker Renault-Nissan has just confirmed that the company will be shifting all R&D funds from hybrid and hydrogen cars to electric car development according to COO Patrick Pelata.”

The Nissan X-Trail FCV and the Renault Scenic ZEV H2 are two hydrogen fuel cell prototype vehicles that may be affected by this decision if it is indeed true. According to Journal Live, however, this may not be entirely true.

Journal Live has a different take on what is happening, “A Nissan spokesman said it was committed to becoming the global leader of zero emission vehicles, including technologies such as hydrogen and plug-in hybrids, with its immediate priority being zero emission electric vehicles (EVs).”

So, according to this source, Nissan will be pushing electric vehicles more aggressively, but they won’t be totally throwing hydrogen cars under the bus, so to speak. This is somewhat understandable since Renault-Nissan is pushing to get their EVs ready for the 2012 Olympics in London.

With London Mayor Boris Johnson cancelling 60 hydrogen cars last summer, there may be a bit of politics in this decision in filling the clean car gap for the Olympics with EVs.

The point is to take a GM Saturn Vue vehicle and design and build an advance zero emissions system that passes CARB (California Air Resources Board) regulations. At the end of the competition, all vehicles will have plug-in capabilities. This means that some vehicles will be battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and other plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

All vehicles will use lithium ion batteries. Those universities that are building fuel cell vehicles will also use the PHEV capabilities of the vehicle. This can be used in one of two different ways.

The fuel cell may be used as the primary power for the vehicle with the battery pack kicking in when needed to supply extra power. Or, the battery pack can be used for the primary power and the fuel cell used to recharge the battery pack as needed.

The first year of the competition will be devoted mostly to computer modeling to make sure that theoretically all systems work well together. The second and third years of the competition will be spent with hands on testing and head to head competition verifying the viability of their projects.