Tata goes green:
Yesterday only tata motors confirmed that it is developing a electric and hybrid variant of Indica and ace. Today, it moves ahead towards greener vehicles by signing an agreement with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Tata Motors and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will develop hydrogen fuel cells for cars using ISRO’s cryogenic technology. “As a spin-off of the cryogenic technology we have successfully developed for our advanced launch vehicles, we are trying to see how best we can use this technology for other applications such as transportation,” ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said on the sidelines of a conference in the southern city of Bangalore. We have signed an agreement with Tata Motors to develop hydrogen- based fuel cells and build some automobile modules that can be put on road by next year,” Nair added. The prototype will be electric-driven without an engine. Hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen will combine in the fuel cell to generate electricity for driving the vehicle, which will be pollution-free,” Nair said, adding that the fuel would only emit water vapour. The car will also have hydrogen storage and regulatory control systems. There were several industries in India which produced hydrogen as a byproduct but it is not being utilized properly.
Delhi will first get the india’s first fuel cell car (hydrogen car) due to the CNG revolution that took place there. Currently, hydrogen-powered cars are being run in the research campus of Indian Oil Corporation. These cars will come out on the roads once the first hydrogen dispenser comes up in New Delhi. The vehicles running on CNG does not require any major modification as 10 per cent blend of hydrogen could be stored in the CNG cylinder. Additionally, Hydrogen burns nearly four times more efficiently than fossil fuels and only emits water vapour. Blending with CNG will be more beneficial.
Hydrogen Cars
by Anumakonda JAGADEESH
Since 1993, the prophets of the hydrogen economy have declared again and again that the technology already exists. Which left consumers to wonder, where’s the car and why am I still pumping unleaded? Well, the world can stop wondering. After 13 years of teasing announcements and endless talk, the era of the hydrogen fuel cell has finally arrived … sort of. Well, not exactly, but almost. Contrary to popular misconception, hydrogen fuel cells are not a new technology. In 1889, chemists Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer built the first device using oxygen and coal gas to produce power and water through a chemical reaction. But fuel cells were weak and fragile and complicated to make, and by the end of the 1800s it was clear that the internal combustion engine – that gas-chugging, smoke-belching scourge – was set to revolutionize every industry in the world. Marc Melaina, a professor at the University of California, Davis, has spent much of his academic career studying the economics of hydrogen transportation. The bottom line: it’s expensive but not impossible. “The fact that they’ve made improvements in vehicle performance is critical, but cost [reductions] also have to be realized and that can only happen through mass production,” he says. “So stations have to be put down for consumer convenience, then mass production of vehicles can ramp up, but the two basically have to happen at the same time for the economics to pay off.” That, he says, is going to require investment from automakers, energy companies and government, all working in partnership, all taking a bit of a leap of faith that hydrogen really is the best bet for the future. The car works which itself is a great achievement. One should learn from the experience of CNG autos in India. The autos have to wait long hours to get CNG filled in limited fuel stations.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP)
I agree with Dr. Jagadeesh. The technology is here and so are the customers. What needs to happen is massive investment in the hydrogen fuel industry and a deadline. Ancillary industries related to the current automobiles would certainly crop up. What would happen to all the millions of automobiles on the road? They would have to be recycled. So the manufacturers who are currently pushing out bikes and cars by the thousands have to setup facilities where i can dump my car and bike to be recycled and walk into their showroom where i can buy a hydrogen based car at a discount. When this technology comes out into the market that would throw the Petro based economy into total disarray and make beggars out of kings. This is the only reason why they resist this revolution. What they dont understand is that they have the value adds like storage and distribution networks that they can deploy in the Hydrogen economy. People are so very excited about electric vehicles. What I dont understand is where am i going to get the electricity from? The hydro-electric industry is in shambles. The Thermal electric producers are being shutdown. The nuclear option is being thrown out by the communists. How am i going to power the growing needs of the millions of my country?
Hydrogen & Nuclear energy are the only two ways out of this mess. Until that happens I shall continue dreaming about cold fusion and the small reactor that i would have at home that produces all my power by eating up my garbage. ZZZZZZ……
i am wondering how the tata and isro are saying that they will launch the hydrogen based cars based upon the cryogenics.The crogenic technology is little complicated and also expensive.Even if they are abled to make a car based upon this technology then how much will be the cost.Will it be possible for a common man to purchase such a type of car?