Hydrogen fuel is still a fossil fuel byproduct right? I’m not sure what the point of this is. It sure doesn’t seem like a green technology at this point.
Imho I cannot afford to be a market leaders in this field. Until H2 is available everywhere, including at remote locations during Canadian winters, I'll have to stick to gas stations. (I have yet to see any electric car that can handle -50*c.)
The problem with electrics in -50 is keeping them plugged in when not in use. -50 is very extreme though, you’re talking far north or Edmonton.
http://www.helmeth.eu/index.php/technologies/high-temperatur...
On its face, the claim doesn't make much sense anyway. If you could convert water to 2 H2 + O2 at zero energy cost, you could make a perpetual motion machine by taking advantage of the exothermic reaction 2 H2 + O2 -> 2 H2O.
1. Counting only the electrical energy input. But you also need to supply heat at the same time. That's the whole point of this product--use heat ~~instead of~~ (edit: in addition to) electricity to split water.
Critically, they are assuming you get "free" (as in beer) waste heat at 800C... which is fairly silly. 800C heat is high-grade energy, not waste heat. Exhaust gas from a combined-cycle NG power plant, for example, is more like 250-300C. Thermal steam plants operate with a Th of ~550C (so the waste heat is much, much cooler).
2. Ignoring the fact that you need to heat the reactant (water) to 800C before you can have the discussion in #1. Now, the problem is that the heat capacity of water is much higher than an equal mass of H2 and O2. So, you can't even use the hot as-produced gas to heat the incoming water to anywhere near the operating temperature of the electrolyzer.
The efficiency in a practical application is probably half to two-thirds of what they are claiming.
How inefficient? That number matters. If it takes 500 kWh to make a tank that stores 100 kWh, you'd be a fool to use that energy directly, as that tank is going to store hundreds of times that much (at least) over its lifetime.
Frankly it just sounds like he's confusing actual temperature with wind chill "temperature". Which unfortunately seems like something more and more Canadians do, probably on account of crappy weather reporting.
I grew up in Edmonton area. People were already in the habit of plugging their (ICE) vehicles overnight on those kinds of evenings so they could start in the morning without hassle. I see no reason why an EV wouldn't be treated the same.
(FWIW I live in southern Ontario now, it doesn't really get colder than -28C. But my Chevy Volt has no problem with it.)
It doesn't get to -50C, except as severe outlier. -40C in overnights for short periods of time in the winter.
Average temps: https://images.climate-data.org/location/4623/climate-graph....
All of this is better with EVs. Yeah, you basically will end up going from plugin to plugin so that the battery doesn't freeze up hard, but in those conditions you do anyway. The level of comfort and drivability provided by a Tesla Model Y will easily exceed any gas car or truck today. Why? Because the car will always be warm and ready. The traction control is 10x better. The car can pre-melt the ice. If you're lucky enough to have a garage, well you can pre-heat while the car is inside the garage. The list goes on and on. The main problem for the Model Y is the frameless door means the window has to be defrosted before you can get in. But you will, of course, do that from the comfort of wherever you are.
Frankly, Cybertruck is going to absolutely crush this. The range really meets the needs of the far north. Tesla already has a supercharger in Edmonton, and they have deployments planned for Prince George and some locations on hwy 16. This is really going to open up a lot of territory. EVs are made for the north, excepting the range.
Gas cars in the north actually suck pretty bad, except that they can handle those day-long commutes. That clock is seriously ticking, and for many cases, is already up.
It would simply have a small heater and insulation around the battery. A 3 inch thick layer of insulation around the battery should keep the heating power to 10 watts or so to keep the battery at -10*c. A 70kwh battery will last 7000 hours supplying 10 watts, or about a year. Longer if it isn't -50 every day.
The car can use battery power to heat itself and its battery when it's that cold, right? It'll consume more energy but it'll still work.
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/how-cold-is-too-cold...
"Do not expose Model S to ambient temperatures above 140° F (60° C) or below -22° F (-30° C) for more than 24 hours at a time."
You take natural gas, split it in a process called steam reforming, you get hydrogen and CO2 emissions.
Green hydrogen only exists in very small quantities these days and for many years to come it'll be needed to first replace existing natural gas based hydrogen and to decarbonize industries like steel. There's basically a consensus among energy experts these days that hydrogen in cars is a dead end.
There was a time a couple of decades ago when it might have made sense for cars when battery power wasn't good enough but that time has passed.
In contrast, the most optimistic estimates I have seen say that we are at least a decade from electrolyzed hydrogen that is as cheap as carbon-spewing current steam methane reformation. And in the interim, hydrogen boosters are pushing a nonexistent large-scale carbon capture and sequestration of steam methane reformation, something that doesn't exist on an industrial scale, with several failed projects over the past decade.
So I would say that hydrogen cars today are like EVs in the mid 90s. The tech chain has a long ways to go.