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Aqwon, the First Hydrogen Scooter
An anonymous reader writes "After 10 years of research and development, Josef Zeitler has developed the first hydrogen-filled two stroke engine scooter with technical approval from the German TÜV. In case of an accident, the tank will freeze and no fire or explosion would occur. Anyone can fill-up the tank on the scooter within 3 to 4 minutes, without being in any danger. The pressure sensor will transmit the data to a computer chip, which will then accumulate and send the necessary information, regarding the proper hydrogen mixture, to the injection jet. This process of refilling is possible with a newly developed system consisting of pressure tanks and a hydrogen generator. AQWON's top speed is about 50 km/h (31 mph), the power is 2.6 kWh and the weight is minimal. This is the same as a petrol/oil two stroke scooter. There is no extra maintenance service required."
uh. it has no emissions, its hydrogen powered dude. the case of a tree-hugger barking up the wrong tree (:
is 100km. That's not bad at all really. But still, the major question remains: where are we getting hydrogen from?!
We don't have large hydrogen producing plants, and we don't have a major distribution center to support it. I'm assuming you'll have to fill up your tank at home, which means installing a LOT of equipment, at GREAT expense, at least until a good distribution system is in place. Yes there are some hydrogen refueling places, but not really that many yet.
I support many of Bush's plans, but he really has to drop oil, and focus on something even more proven: that technology advances, and new products replace the old.
You mean you don't pay for electricity? Or maybe you mean you make your own or buy it from some little Mom&Pop shop? You do realize that 99% of our electricity comes from companies every bit as large and powerful (no pun intended) as the oil companies you seem to love to hate?
Your logic is faulty.
Simplistic formulae is best left to textbooks. It burns hydrogen and AIR. Air is NOT O2, air is O2 AND N2 and etc....
78% of our air is Nitrogen, 21% is oxygen, and the remainder is noble and trace gases.
You WILL get Nitrous oxide compounds even burning with this fuel, so yes, you will see exhaust pollution, just not as nasty or copious.
Also, the higher temperatures will form more carbon monoxide vs dioxide ratios than normal
I don't disagree with you at all. The #1 (IMHO) problem is how expensive is that fueling station? There won't be public H2 stations for some time. Honda has a home refueling pump for their natural gas powered Civic GX sedan. It costs at least three thousand dollars and takes approximately 8 hours to refuel the car. Ignoring the refueling time (which is pretty long), the cost may make it prohibitive to install a home refueling station which will in turn make it more difficult to sell H2 powered transportation to the public.
There seem to be a number of "alternative" vehicles, but even if you ignore cost, refueling, etc. in the USA they are impractical for one major reason:
You can't drive them in enough places.
I DON'T expect these things to drive on the interstate highways at 55+ MPH, but...
AFAIK, most of the electric and other alt-vehicles will do 30MPH (48kph). That's great if you ONLY want to drive through your city center but it's useless anywhere else. Not just this vehicle, but lots of alt vehicles are governed to very low speeds, and then you have general cars/motorbikes/trucks. There's nothing in-between.
Most cities have flattened out into suburban sprawl. Here there are as many people (and jobs) AS the city proper. Good luck driving anything limited to 30MPH on a 40MPH road: it may be legal, but you'll probably be pulled over by an ignorant policeman (or one trying to protect you from the 30 cars tailgating and making illegal passes around you).
There are a lot of drivers who believe if you impede their progress, you are stealing their lifeforce and so you are attacking them and they must defend themselves by going into "road rage" mode.
I'm not kidding either. It's perfectly legal to pedal your bike on most non-interstate (highway) roads, but unless it has a wide paved margin/edge like a breakdown lane, good luck... you'll be run off the road. The police generally aren't interested unless you are seriously hurt or someone recently died. In my small city, they ticket bikes on the sidewalk but not hostile drivers.
Sorry for the rant. An alternative-powered scooter would be SWEET if it ran 40mph with a range of 100 miles. Then you could drive to work and back without feeling like you were "asking for trouble" on the road.
CON:
you will end up in no more peices than a regular scooter would.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Actually the Hindenburg disaster happened because its hull was basicly made out of explosives.
Althoug hydrogen is flamable, so our oil based fuels
Jeroen
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It's amazing that the Hindenburg disaster still causes Hydrogen paranoia today. Even after it was proven that the hydrogen didnt contribute much to ther disaster (lesson: dont use huighly flammable material). After Titanic, how come we still have ships?
ya know.. im be anal here..
but..
this post ISNT funny, this is the kind of backward 1930's thinking that has been holding everything back for the past 66 years..
35 ppl died thats it.. just 35.. thats a CNN story for a day.. nothing more, big fireball thats it. big deal
hydogen cars and new airships have been soo promising from new transport ships, to rescue, to heavy lifting construction, to communication platforms..
but its your kind of backward mentality that is stopping investors from exploiting a wonderfull resource
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
When people think of hydrogen they think of the Hindenburg burning up. As it turns out it was not the hydrogen that caused the Hindenburg to burn, it was the coating on the balloon.
It's funny how people who fear using hydrogen to power anything still pump natural gas directly into their kitchen stove.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Even though these are larger than H atoms, the molecules are still tiny enough that they seep through the walls of cast iron tanks (the way acetylene does, but worse). Anything which will seep through cast iron is not suitable for use on a motor vehicle, for what should be obvious safety reasons.
That depends entirely on how much seepage you're talking about. It's like saying that since gas stations emit gas into the air it's obviously unsafe to have cars around them.
This is OT but the company that supplies my propane has it's storage facilities located right next to a welding supply company and despite the obvious danger they've survived for several years now.
The energy to split the hydrogen out of compounds must be coming from somewhere. How do you do it? Primarily with existing electric generation techniques - coal, nuclear, hydroelectric dams... there's no free lunch,
No shit? Anyone whose thought about this for more than about 2 seconds has to have figured this out by now. The usual counter to this is that it's still a lot more effecient to produce the energy in a central facility than in a million mini generators, let alone in a moving vehicle.
think a gasoline tank fire is bad? Never mind the fire itself for a moment: Wait 'til you see a car accident where a 2" diameter hole is put into the 1000PSI fuel tank of a 2500 pound car...
Hopefully no one is planning to store the stuff at that high of a pressure. Personally I'd rather have a fuel that floats up above the accident and singes a few birds than one that spills out all over the ground/people/whatever.
It was the first big disaster caught on film.
Likewise, the hazing incident at a local high school wouldn't have been noteworthy, except it was video taped. Club fires in 2003, or Rodney King in LA, or on and on.
People had died in huge numbers before, but now they could see it in theaters for themselves.
Fill a baloon with Hydrogen and light it. You get a nice, fast, fluffy flame. Fill a baloon with 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen and light it and your neighbors will be calling the police, because they'll think you just set off a stick of dynomite.
Now, not many people worry about the tank of propane that is attached to their grill. There isn't any oxygen inside that tank, so it is perfectly stable.
For those who cite the Hindenburg as a hydrogen failure, do some reading on further scientific investigations. The outer cloth was covered in a explosively flamable chemical which ignited before the hydrogen was an issue.