HFP Infotools | Hydrogen

Hydrogen as a fuel

All the means of transport we know today could be powered by hydrogen. There are two possibilities for doing so: Hydrogen is burnt in conventional engines instead of gasoline. The other option is the use of fuel cells which are generating electric power for an electric motor in the car.

The use of fuel cells in cars has some decisive advantages: There is only water emitted from the exhaust, it operates without noise and without vibrations and it is more efficient than a combustion engine - so it saves energy. When a fuel cell car is waiting at a traffic light there is no noise because the engine does not work. The noise from accelerating is much reduced as well. Our cities will become much quieter.

Motorcars with fuel cells

World-wide all the big motorcar producing companies are developing test cars with fuel cell drive systems. In Germany mainly DaimlerChrysler, Opel and Ford are the first to do so. BMW presented hydrogen powered cars very early but they are still concentrating on combustion engines. Though future vehicles of the 7-series will use a fuel cell for the electric power supply.

DaimlerChrysler wants to bring a serial A-class model with fuel cells up for sale beginning in 2005. Which fuel will be used then - hydrogen or methanol - has not been decided yet. At the moment the missing fuel station infrastructure is an obstacle to the broad market introduction of fuel cell cars.

Hydrogen powered city buses

For buses the two different concepts of internal combustion engine and fuel cell exist as well. Compared with diesel buses they both have the advantage of greatly reduced pollutant emissions.

At the Munich Airport three hydrogen buses with internal combustion engines which were built by MAN and Neoplan are in operation since 1999. Meanwhile both companies are also testing fuel cell buses because they are convinced of the advantages of fuel cells, especially concerning operation in cities. It is planned to run a MAN city bus with a fuel cell in Berlin as well.

DaimlerChrysler wants to test some dozen of its "Nebus" city buses with fuel cells in regular service in the coming years.

Trucks, trams, railway engines and ships

There is hardly a means of transport for which no hydrogen or fuel cell concept exists. The use in trams or railway engines is in the discussion for all applications where there are not yet overhead lines or where these overhead lines would be really spoiling. In these cases there is a trade-off between the additional costs for hydrogen powered railway engines and the costs for overhead lines.

The use of hydrogen and fuel cells in trucks has not been tested yet, because on long-distance rides diesel engines work very efficiently. However the use of fuel cells in delivery vehicles operating in cities is very interesting because these vehicles are usually part of a fleet and have only a limited daily mileage. In the evenings they could be refilled in the depots. The "Hermes-Versand" in Hamburg, inter alia, runs seven Mercedes Sprinters (with internal combustion engines) to supply its customers. The next step will be the import of hydrogen from Iceland which will be renewably generated. As a result the hydrogen driven vehicles will have an excellent local and global emission balance.

Ships which are used in urban areas, like passenger ferries or pleasure boats, could considerably lower their emissions. In addition these ships are very quiet and really comfortable for the passengers because the fuel cell works without noise. In big ships the electric power supply is to be met by fuel cells first, allowing the generators to be stopped when in harbour.

Hydrogen driven aircrafts

Since the beginning of the 80's the Russian manufacturer Tupolev worked on aircraft versions with cryogen energy supply. In 1988 Tupolev presented a TU 154 of which the right of the three engines was modified so that it could be powered by liquid hydrogen and also tanks for hydrogen were installed.

The engine was working successfully for the whole flight phase which lasted more than 100 hours.

Since the beginning of the 90's Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace and Tupolev co-operate in the field of cryogen aircraft technology. This co-operation is called Cryoplane Program. The aim is to switch the engines of a turboprop-aircraft (DO 328) over to hydrogen propulsion and to install a hydrogen supply system on board. The experience to be gained in this project can be transferred to big passenger aircrafts (Airbus) later on.

BMW with internal combustion engine
for hydrogen