BMW has been handing over their Hydrogen 7 sedan to several celebrities and other notables as part of a trial of the new technology out in the real world. The car is actually a hybrid of sorts that allows the owner to either use hydrogen or gasoline as the fuel of choice. This week, however, at the 2008 SAE World Congress in Detroit BMW showed off a pure hydrogen concept car that not only burns clean, but also emits fewer carbon monoxides than found in the air around it. From the article,
“This means the engine breaks down or converts the carbon monoxides it takes in. The emissions tests, run by Argonne Laboratories, also show a similar reduction in non-methane organic gasses. The vehicles other emissions are all so low that standard automobile emissions testing wouldn’t have detected them.”
How about that? Not only can you drink the waste water from this thing, but it will also make the air you breathe cleaner. Sounds like a must-have for any future inhabitant of Los Angeles.
BMW has no plans to market the hydrogen-only vehicle and will stick to the current H7 for future sales.
via Green Tech Blog
6 Comments
This isn’t like a hydrogen fuel cell. I don’t think you can drink the water from the combustion of hydrogen. It says there’s less carbon monoxide in the emissions than the surrounding air. That doesn’t mean the water is completely void of CO or any other harmful byproducts.
Well I wouldn’t drink water out of a combustion engine, but I like the whole idea. Much cleaner than gasoline anyway. The only real problem is it requires massive hydrogen production, which would be energy intensive but other than that I like it.
Ha, yes, you’re right — my mistake. I’m confusing my hydrogen technologies here. You probably would not want to drink any of the water vapor coming out of a combustion hydrogen vehicle. With a fuel cell, however, you could get away with it — similar to the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell vehicle or the Chevy Equinox.
Hey thanks for the great blog, I love this stuff. This year I am trying to do my part for Earth Day and I’m looking to find some easy, simple things I can do to help stop global warming (I don’t plan on buying a hybrid).
Has anyone seen that http://www.EarthLab.com is promoting their Earth Day (month) challenge, with the goal to get 1 million people to take their carbon footprint test in April? I took the test, it was easy and only took me about 2 minutes and I am planning on lowering my score with some of their tips.
I am looking for more easy fun stuff to do. If you know of any other sites worth my time let me know.
Finally, they have announced it! Germany also plans to produce all hydrogen by renewable energy sources. I think, that they’d had enough blackmailing by oil/gas supply and prices…(it’s about time, isn’t it?)
It seems as if this could be a winning entry in the Branson challenge for a way to remove pollution from the air. Too bad Richard Branson is a fraud, and the contest is actually bogus.