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NASA Tests Hydrogen-Fueled BMW

Posted by kdawson on from the hold-the-lox dept.

Rio sends us word that NASA has completed an 8-week test of a fleet of BMW luxury sedans powered by liquid hydrogen at Kennedy Space Center. The new BMW Hydrogen 7 sedan uses the same fuel that powers the space shuttle and reduces CO2 emissions by 90 percent, according to a news release. Its engine can burn gasoline or liquid hydrogen and can switch seamlessly between the two. From the article: "One hundred BMW Hydrogen 7s have been built, and 25 are used in test programs in the US. The cars have already covered more than 1.3 million miles in test programs around the globe."

2 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. How efficient are they? by ThatFunkyMunki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hydrogen may be clean to use and get, but is it energy efficient to use it?

    --
    If patriotism is racist, is racism patriotic?
  2. Re:"clean to get"? Huh? by brunes69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Run your electrolysis off nuclear plants. Boom a zero CO2 emission cycle.

    "OH BUT THE NUCLEAR WASTE" you say. Who cares? Store it for 15-25 years, by then we will have cheap ion propulsion engines (running off nuclear power), to cleanly jettison the waste into mercury or the sun.

    Nuclear is the source solution to most of our energy problems. If the general public was not so misinformed and paranoid about it, and did not have so much of a "not in my backyard" syndrome, we'd be much better off right now.