Ford Hydrogen Car - Hydrogen car information

Ford Hydrogen Car - Going Green With Hydrogen Cars

Ford Hydrogen Car

Ford Hydrogen Car is an article that takes a look at Ford Motor Company's slow but steady progress in the alternative fuel industry. They are currently working on several hydrogen fuel cell powered concept cars, here is how they are progressing:

Ford Hydrogen Car - Ford Focus FCV

Ford Hydrogen Car

Ford Hydrogen Cars: The road still trying to be traveled

Like almost all of the major car manufacturers, Ford has been researching alternative fuels and energy sources for many years. The Ford hydrogen cars have been developed over the last ten years as one possible alternative fuel that is starting to look hopeful. But while the vehicle technology has matured nicely, a Ford hydrogen car as a production vehicle is still a few years away in their estimation.

There are two ways that hydrogen can be used as fuel for a vehicle and Ford is hedging its bets and actively researching both. The first way is to simply modify existing gasoline engines so that they can combust gaseous hydrogen. Ford is seeing hydrogen fueled internal combustion engines, or H2ICE in their parlance, as the bridge between current gasoline powered vehicles and the eventual fuel cell style vehicles. They have with hopes of a production vehicle by 2010-2012.

Ford has a couple of pilot projects going right now with H2ICE vehicles. One project has 30 E-450 shuttle buses in the US and Canada that Ford can monitor electronically in real time. So far, Ford says that the vehicles are getting up to 13% better performance than the same engines running on gasoline with the added benefit of producing only slight amount of emissions due to burning lubricants. Ford has also prototyped a consumer level F-250 Super Chief that can run on gasoline, ethanol, or hydrogen.

Much of Ford's attention and resources is centered, however, around the 3rd generation Focus FCV hydrogen fuel cell car. The Focus FCV uses a Ballard Mark 900 series fuel cell that uses proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology to strip electrons from gaseous hydrogen. Those electrons are then used to power an electric motor before they are recombined with the protons that were allowed to flow through the PEM. The electrons and protons combine with oxygen in the air to produce water, the only emission of this vehicle.

The Focus FCV had a limited production run that produced 30 test vehicles that are now being used by various organizations around the country as part of a fuel cell demonstration fleet. Based on the popular 2000 Focus body, the Focus FCV has a 67 kW engine operating at a peak efficiency of 91%. The car gets 150 miles on a tank of 5000 psi gaseous hydrogen and has a top speed of 80 mph. Unfortunately, Ford does not expect a production level fuel cell vehicle to be ready before 2015.

Recently, Ford announced a new prototype fuel cell hydrogen car; the Ford Edge with HySeries Drive. The Edge with HySeries Drive uses the same fuel cell technology as the Focus FCV, but with a twist. The Edge with HySeries Drive is the first electric/fuel cell hybrid system designed so that new on board batteries can also be charged by plugging the car in to a standard electrical outlet. This means that for the first 25 miles or so, you won't even have to be using hydrogen. This prototype is quite a ways from production, unfortunately, but it is a step in the right direction.

Ford has also been working on a fuel cell Explorer SUV prototype that has been designed for a 350 mile range between fills. Again this vehicle is only a prototype and it is unlikely that a production model will come from it any time soon.

Ford's hydrogen car is not nearly so far along in some areas as other manufacturers such as GM and Honda. Ford has not yet moved to the newly available 10,000 psi high pressure tanks like the other hydrogen car manufacturers, although that may change if a new generation Focus FCV comes out. While Ford is proud of the fact that they have had a 30 vehicle hydrogen fleet on the road for two years, GM has almost caught up to that with their Sequel fuel cell vehicle demonstration fleet.

That is not to say that Ford has given up fuel cell research. In fact, Ford's Fusion 999, a custom built fuel cell race car with a 770 hp electric motor, managed to achieve 207.3 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in August 2007. This is the fastest land speed ever attained by a hydrogen fuel cell car. It may be that Ford's hydrogen car schedule, which has production vehicles by 2015, is simply a more realistic time line than what is being proposed by other car companies.

In the end, Ford is facing the same problems with getting a production hydrogen car on the road as everybody else. Currently there is no infrastructure available for fueling, and the fuel cells in the vehicles themselves, the most expensive part of the car, have a finite lifespan that is years shorter than the rest of the vehicle. Ford continues to push ahead with research, however, and is hopeful that larger fuel companies such as BP will begin to develop the necessary fuel infrastructure that a Ford hydrogen car will need.

Thank you to Norman Deschamps for this "Ford Hydrogen Car" article.

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