Two nays in the European Parliament against a regulation for ratification of vehicles powered by hydrogen and its derivatives. The yeas were 644. The regulation was published in the European Official Gazette on 4 February 2009 and is now a law in full force.
The heated polemics over nuclear power stations (soon to be built in Italy, too?), the high cost of energy production, and the problems caused by a see-sawing economy (in a downward trend for years, and only now showing a faint recovery) appear to have sparked a wish to promote projects for clean and renewable energy in the heart of the Union.
For apart from producing hydrogen with alternative energy sources – wind and solar power – it can also be obtained by ordinary electrical power, with substantial inducements at night and on weekends using the discounts of up to 50% currently offered to the chemical and steel industries.
A story which began in the 1980s with research, experiments, a few failures and some important results seems to have led to a positive ending.
An implicit confirmation of implementation of concrete facts has also come from the project for the production of solar energy called “Mediterranean Solar Plan” which, under the patronage of the French president, will unite all the countries on the shores of this sea, plus Germany.
If this story is to be organised into a detailed framework which does it the justice it deserves, then it should be in a chronology listing its origin, development and result.
The first part is easily done: it is known that in the 1980s many researchers began looking for a way to make an internal combustion engine run on hydrogen. The same researchers soon realised that this alliance would not have an enduring future for the automobile.
Meanwhile in the 1990s came the new hypothesis of using an electric motor powered by a fuel cell. The target date, later dropped because industrial production of combustion cells is still far off, was set for 2000.
From here on it starts becoming difficult to proceed in a straight line.
Researchers, without abandoning the path followed up to now and continuing to believe that hydrogen traction using fuel cells isn’t science fiction but could be achieved within a short time, decided to follow a parallel path too, that of hybrid plants.
This kind of vehicle, which is more complex as it has two types of power plant (petrol or diesel engine plus an electric motor with batteries) can run on motorways with fossil fuel, while in the city under electric power it can cover only a shorter distance.
After this suggestion proved unsatisfactory, attention shifted to experimentation with hydromethane. To achieve safety for these two substances, mixed in the ratio of 30% hydrogen to 70% methane, the Italian Interior Ministry set up a working group on “Hydrogen problems”. This group analysed the chemical and physical characteristics of flammability, calorific power, ignition energy and velocity of laminar combustion at identical conditions of pressure and temperature at the pump (200 bar and 20°C respectively), and confirmed that the hydrogen-methane mixture could be classified as “low explosive” like methane.
At this point, as well as awarding a mention of merit to Spain, Greece and Germany where it is already possible to register hydrogen-powered vehicles, we should mention the presence in Italy’s Tuscany region of a small company which in the 1980s concentrated its research and produced cars with excellent results for the potential of this fuel, in collaboration with the Fiat research centre.
Autoidrogeno wove its history into that which we have followed up to now, made contacts in the political sphere and sought confirmation in the universities, and even obtained the support of the Nobel prize-winner Carlo Rubbia. They proved it is possible to modify petrol engines at very low cost to run on hydrogen, and was the first in Europe (and, in 2006, perhaps in the world) to successfully build and open to the public a unique filling station based on renewable energy and self service using a special card.
The current proposal is thus for BiFuel vehicles.
Under the Regulation on the registration of vehicles powered by hydrogen and hydrogen mixtures published in the European Gazette on 4 February, it may become possible also in Italy (on the European scale it was presented during a meeting in Grenoble in autumn 2003) to inform the general public, and not only producers and other specialists in the automotive field, about the reality of Autoidrogeno which, on the basis of confirmed data, states: “A BiFuel vehicle running on methane and petrol and with state of the art electronics could at this time be fitted to run on hydromethane for less than five thousand Euros on top of the list price.”
This extra expense could be cut by 70% once it becomes possible to transform vehicles from methane to hydrogen power on an industrial scale, and completely eliminated once they are built as standard equipment by the manufacturer.
“As for hydrogen filling stations, since these are modular it will be simple to double or triple the production of hydrogen once there are enough vehicles in the area to justify an increase.”
A BiFuel vehicle furthermore provides a total guarantee of mobility, because when the hydrogen runs out it automatically switches to petrol power.
This solution allows us to have vehicles with low pollution levels and, by encouraging the slow expansion of hydrogen filling stations, provides for the spread of fuel cell vehicles.
Under all these conditions, which admittedly are many, there is hope that we may soon see something new under the sun.