bern

http://rotarynews.com/node/view/886

Enjoy,

-Bern

TurboEight

iTrader: (1)

COOL....thats awsome...wonder when it will finally be lauched and cheap enough for the average person to buy it!

mtrevino

Buying one-

There's big questions on that right now. Infrastructure has to be available... it more than likely going to happen by regions; for instance California will probably be one of the first if the clears the political hurdles.

Then there's maintenance and service. New technicians and service centers will have to be made. No sense in buying something if you can't fix it if something bad happens.

dmc27

^ All of which will be blocked at every opportunity by oil industry lobby mobs . . .

The symposium is today (+/- the time diff for Japan) so it should be interesting to follow.

The color scheme on that 8 is hawt!! Even the rear valance painted sky blue . . .

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

wow, that's pretty cool.

SlideWayz

This is potentially promising. However, if the fuel economy of the hydrogen rotary is as bad as the gasoline rotary, then they'll need to ship the Hydrogen RX-8 with tow hitch & trailer to carry all the hydrogen tanks.

MP3Guy

Nice to see this take shape. But what I didnt know is that there is a Hydrogen Mazda 5 running around.


http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/07...-rotary-power/

j_tso

That's good news.

As for as the economy of the hydrogen RE, I read a while ago it only gets like 60 hp and has a range of ~100 miles. keep in mind that this is new stuff, and even more interesting is that the car also has a gas tank sharing space. The fact that the engine can take both fuels makes it a true hybrid.

edit: apparently, that ^ 5 gets 100hp on an HRE.

lone_wolf025

I read somewhere that the rotary is very well suited to running hydrogen and it also produces a small fraction of NOx emissions as compared to traditional piston engines running on hydrogen.

mtrevino

On the positive side... for those that have always wanted a 3 rotor engine... it's seems more probable with hydrogen. Though as of now, it would probably make around 160 hp.

The release-
http://media.ford.com/mazda/article_...34&make_id=227

Highlights:

Keef

I'm glad I've been given the chance to be born in the dino-burning ages....

dmc27

^ +1

Enjoy the HP - it won't be long b4 we look back an wish we had the MONSTEROUS hp the rx8 used to produce!

Most of the prototype hydrogen cars and the other alternative fuel vehicles, for that matter, are limited to ~60 mph or less. I'm sure they'll improve over time, but that just doesn't seem very fun.


A quote from the future: "hey, what's your 1/4 mile time?" "about 28 seconds! I broke the world record!!"

SlideWayz

The problem is that hydrogen isn't dense, and even compressed it isn't providing much energy per unit volume.

Now, if only there were some way to get our hydrogen in a very dense format...oh, wait a minute, that would be GASOLINE !!!!

RX8PDX

What I dont understand is why they arent just injecting the hydrogen with the gas.

From what I have read a small amount of hydrogen can improve economy about 35% or more, and clean up the emissions greatly.

I think the Tesla Motors cars will end up being a much better option. 0-60 in 4secs.

therm8

The only future for hydrogen powered vehicles is in H2 fuel cells (and that's decades away). The infrastructure will never be available for hydrogen in this form. We're talking an unimaginable amount of money for widespread use. It's a cool concept, but without some major break-through, I don't see it bearing fruit.

Battery tech is progressing at a rapid rate. Electric vehicles only make sense in the long run. Everything else is a transition technology.

globi

What I would like to know why don't they offer a version that runs on natural gas? Natural gas is cheap, available in many countries and environmentally friendlier than gasoline (less CO2 and less pollution.)

zoom44

they make gobs of hydrogen in Norway and have for decades. They even have some refueling stations built. The first public one meant for Hydrogen fueled cars went operational last year

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11125

it was the first of several meant for opening a "Hydrogen Higway" in southern Norway which will extened to the "Scanadanavian Hydrogen Highway" with the otehr countries.

http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/FuelCel...2,8182,00.html




there was even video recently of the rx-8 and other cars filling up there. I believe one of them was a BMW 7 series H burner.

but besides that there are many refuling stations all over europe as part of the Fuel Cell Bus Club initiative

http://www.fuel-cell-bus-club.com/in...ub&tid=1&pid=2

so you see- some people are already building the H infrastructure. Thre are already quite a few fueling stations in the US as well

therm8

That might work in compact scenarios, but for anyone to drive 1200 miles in a hydrogen powered vehicle, you'll need a significant infrastructure density. AFAIK, hydrogen isn't all that efficient for ICEs, so it might make a brief (in the big scheme) appearance in major metro areas. But you'll likely never see it elsewhere. The almighty dollar drives everything. Cost effectiveness is just not there for any location other than the most heavily traversed.

H2 combustion is another stopgap. Soon you will see H2-electric hybrids, and following that just electric powered cars. Combustion is just too inefficient, and will be reserved for air travel only. Scientists love hydrogen because of its simplicity, politicians love it because the scientists love it, not to mention its green, oil free, and can get some votes. People in general will just go with whatever they see on TV. But all of that doesn't mean it will work effectively.

The next 50years will reveal all. Hybrids like the Chevy Volt will be next. As the batteries get better, the electric range will improve and ICE use will drastically decline. H2 may make a great commuter technology, and the big cities are really the one's to benefit from the clean burn. But I don't see it as a permanent solution. (I wonder what the humidity would be in rush hour LA traffic if everyone was burning hydrogen )

Disclaimer: all of this is my opinion.

zoom44

mmmm. a Volt with a H fuel cell in place of the IC engine i can only dream. they actually built it with the idea in mind to be able to replace the IC with a fuel cell.

dmc27

This part is the key. At some point it will be more cost effective to switch, so it really is just a matter of time. But I have to agree that the current campaign about it being more environmentally friendly won't be the cause of the switch.

There was a time when the argument that the infrastucture to support gasoline would be too costly, and we'd never see a gas station on every corner.