Students got up close to examine the fuel-efficient car.
Credit: Kenneth Zirkel (3)
Hot wheels: Hydrogen cars wow Brown scientists and students
Hydrogen is the latest alternative fuel being developed for U.S. vehicles. When two General Motors cars visited Brown on August 1, faculty and students gathered to ogle – and test-drive.
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August 5, 2008 |
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Don Ho bounded out of the driver’s seat of the Chevy Equinox and flashed a wide, satisfied smile.
“That was great,” Ho, a graduate student in chemistry, exclaimed. “I really love it.”
The reaction would be understandable if Ho had driven a Ferrari. But a four-door SUV?
The SUV, however, was an electric vehicle outfitted to run on hydrogen, and it represented General Motors’ latest advance toward building a fleet of hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars.
Alumnus Robert Becker ’82 offered to bring the cars to Brown after he read about chemistry professor Shouheng Sun’s research into creating platinum nanocubes – a breakthrough that could help make automobile fuel cell catalysts more efficient and less costly.
Becker, who drives the Equinox for GM in a national demonstration program called Project Driveway, drove the car from New York to Brown’s campus on August 1. A General Motors representative brought the other hydrogen-powered fuel cell car on a flatbed hooked up to a hybrid SUV.
GM’s Brad Beauchamp (left) introduces the hydrogen-powered SUV to students and faculty, including chemistry department chair Peter Weber, center right.
More than two dozen Brown University faculty, researchers, and graduate students took the cars for test drives. Many gave the vehicles high marks. “It’s great. Quiet. Drives like a regular car,” said William Curtin, professor of engineering.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, found in water, natural gas, and plant matter, among other places. The benefits of hydrogen-powered vehicles include an abundant, renewable source that produces no tailpipe emissions of global warming gasses when used with certain sources. For example, when pure hydrogen is burned with oxygen, the only byproducts are heat and water.
But hydrogen is tricky to use as a fuel: It must be separated from whatever it is bonded to in its molecular structure, and it takes energy to produce that separation.
For Peter Weber, chairman of the chemistry department who attended the event, a key question is whether the energy source needed to produce pure hydrogen would be fossil fuels, nuclear, or something else. “[Hydrogen] is a nice piece to the puzzle, but does it fit?” he asked.
Brad Beauchamp, the GM representative who oversees Project Driveway, acknowledged that obstacles remain before Americans will be whizzing about in hydrogen-powered cars. Chief among them are building hydrogen fuel stations, extending the longevity of the fuel cells, and building cars that meet consumers’ expectations for performance and reliability.
Engineering professors Benjamin Kimia and Harvey Silverman ’67 get a charge out of the Equinox’s hydrogen-powered fuel cell.
He said hydrogen costs about $3 to $6 per kilogram, where a kilogram of hydrogen is roughly the same amount as a gallon of gasoline. But one kilogram of hydrogen will take a vehicle twice as far as a car on a gallon of gas, he added.
“It’s going to be gasoline-competitive,” Beauchamp said.
“That was great,” Ho, a graduate student in chemistry, exclaimed. “I really love it.”
The reaction would be understandable if Ho had driven a Ferrari. But a four-door SUV?
The SUV, however, was an electric vehicle outfitted to run on hydrogen, and it represented General Motors’ latest advance toward building a fleet of hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars.
Alumnus Robert Becker ’82 offered to bring the cars to Brown after he read about chemistry professor Shouheng Sun’s research into creating platinum nanocubes – a breakthrough that could help make automobile fuel cell catalysts more efficient and less costly.
Becker, who drives the Equinox for GM in a national demonstration program called Project Driveway, drove the car from New York to Brown’s campus on August 1. A General Motors representative brought the other hydrogen-powered fuel cell car on a flatbed hooked up to a hybrid SUV.
GM’s Brad Beauchamp (left) introduces the hydrogen-powered SUV to students and faculty, including chemistry department chair Peter Weber, center right.
More than two dozen Brown University faculty, researchers, and graduate students took the cars for test drives. Many gave the vehicles high marks. “It’s great. Quiet. Drives like a regular car,” said William Curtin, professor of engineering. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, found in water, natural gas, and plant matter, among other places. The benefits of hydrogen-powered vehicles include an abundant, renewable source that produces no tailpipe emissions of global warming gasses when used with certain sources. For example, when pure hydrogen is burned with oxygen, the only byproducts are heat and water.
But hydrogen is tricky to use as a fuel: It must be separated from whatever it is bonded to in its molecular structure, and it takes energy to produce that separation.
For Peter Weber, chairman of the chemistry department who attended the event, a key question is whether the energy source needed to produce pure hydrogen would be fossil fuels, nuclear, or something else. “[Hydrogen] is a nice piece to the puzzle, but does it fit?” he asked.
Brad Beauchamp, the GM representative who oversees Project Driveway, acknowledged that obstacles remain before Americans will be whizzing about in hydrogen-powered cars. Chief among them are building hydrogen fuel stations, extending the longevity of the fuel cells, and building cars that meet consumers’ expectations for performance and reliability.
Engineering professors Benjamin Kimia and Harvey Silverman ’67 get a charge out of the Equinox’s hydrogen-powered fuel cell.
He said hydrogen costs about $3 to $6 per kilogram, where a kilogram of hydrogen is roughly the same amount as a gallon of gasoline. But one kilogram of hydrogen will take a vehicle twice as far as a car on a gallon of gas, he added.“It’s going to be gasoline-competitive,” Beauchamp said.