Zoomi Life

Honda’s FCX Clarity has been around for quite a while, being tested, refined, and re-tested on the streets of California and Japan. The car was first introduced in 1999 as a concept based on the Honda Accord platform. Soon, it evolved as the concept was engineered and tested, being released as the Clarity in 2002.

Since then, the FCX is more efficient than ever, with the latest 2008-09 model appearing first at the LA Auto Show in 2007 and released for lease in 2008 to Southern Californians. Honda chose California because of the already-existing infrastructure of hydrogen pumping stations. The Clarity can be leased for $600/month (which includes insurance) for 36 months.

The car is remarkably understated and largely ignored by most main stream press because it’s not perceived as “revolutionary.” Honda hasn’t put the marketing behind it that Toyota put behind the Prius, even though the Clarity is, compared to the Prius, a much more revolutionary car.

The FCX Clarity uses a hydrogen fuel cell, which consists of a relatively small tank filled with compressed hydrogen. This is then split, using a catalyst within the fuel cell, with the electrons going to power an electric motor and the protons escaping through a polymer electrolyte membrane to another chamber. Air from the outside is then added along with the end of the circuit (returning electrons), which combine to create pure water (H2O), which is finally emitted from the car’s tailpipe.

No pollutants, no mess. Just water.

The current version of the Clarity carries four passengers, does 0-60km/h in 4.8 seconds (that’s about 0-60mph in 7.7 seconds). Using the new EPA combined standard and assuming 1kg of hydrogen is equivalent to 1 gallon of unleaded gasoline, the car is rated at 68mpg. Those are the new EPA numbers that are used for most hybrids—the same numbers that reduced the Prius’ record from 60mpg to 48. Yep, that’s a 20mpg difference right there.

The downfall of hydrogen as a fuel source is its current production means. Most hydrogen in the US (and the rest of the world) is produced by steam reforming natural gas—a big term that just means “burning natural gas to produce steam.” Other methods are easily available, however, including electrolysis (splitting water via electricity).

That method is also being tested by Honda as a sister project to the Clarity’s development. The setup is called the Home Energy Station. Two phases of this program supplement gas heating of the home by adding the new furnace addition Honda has developed which reduces the amount of gas a home uses to heat itself by up to 30%. Currently being tested in New England, this technology is expected to become available nationally as a stand-alone product by 2012.

The other addition is the use of solar panels, an electric compressor, and regular water from the home’s water source (city water, well, etc.) to ultimately produce compressed hydrogen for refueling the Clarity. This setup uses sunlight at peak times of day to produce electricity to perform electrolysis on the water, which gives off hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is released into the atmosphere and the hydrogen is sent to a compressor, which compresses it into a tank. Excess hydrogen could be fed into the home to supplement the home heating unit as well.

The solar panels could, of course, be replaced by wind or any other generator to produce the electricity needed.

Other methods of producing hydrogen are also being experimented with right now, by universities and scientists, such as biological water splitting, biomass and waste reforming, and solar thermal water splitting.

The Clarity itself gets ignored or even poo-pooed by a lot of sites, including some of my favorites like Treehugger, because it’s not a pure electric and because most people can’t wrap their mind around the idea of hydrogen as a battery. They think of it as a fuel like gasoline or diesel, when in fact it doesn’t “burn” at all (it produces heat, but not flame or carbon). Your cell phone battery and your electric car’s batteries get hot when they’re being used as well.

While battery storage gets more and more technically efficient and becomes easier to incorporate into a car, it will be quite a while before cars with the range and performance of a Tesla Roadster or Fisker Karma become cheap enough to build that most of us can afford them over the standard car available at dealerships right now. The Clarity, however, uses current technology that can be used right now without much waiting. They are cold weather friendly and uncomplicated to understand.

As the use of lithium-ion batteries increases, so do the roadblocks to its adoption as a standard. Safety issues, transportation restrictions on the batteries, and more are all things that must be addressed before the cost of lithium-ion batteries can be used on a wider scale. The cost of those batteries will no doubt fall as production in creases, though few in the “green” community discuss the fact that those batteries use a lot of plastic. Plastic made from petroleum.

Compressed hydrogen, however, has been proven to be safe, can be housed in containers that are 100% recyclable, and is a renewable and possibly 100% non-impact storage medium for electric vehicles. Takes up less space than batteries too.

That’s why I think Honda is bold to be putting most of their “alternative” energies into hydrogen and that’s why I think hydrogen will be one of the, err, driving forces of the future.

Here’s a great first drive video of the Honda FCX clarity, put together by the guys over at myride.com

[Show as slideshow]

Sources: HondaClarity.org, Honda.com