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Future driving: biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells and electric cars
A team of scientists from CRL Energy, Scion (forestry research), IRL, GNS Science and NIWA have been examining the technology and the resources that New Zealand has available to create energy and provide fuel for the cars of the future.
The scientists, who presented their research project called ‘EnergyScape’ at a conference in Wellington on 16 July, say that it is important for New Zealand and the rest of the world to have alternative technologies available so that we are not so reliant on petrol, diesel and oil. Especially as these fuels have to be imported, their prices do not remain stable, and they could eventually run out.
The scientists have been examining ways to make biofuels from biomass to run combustion engines (combustion engines are what we have in our cars at the moment). Biomass is organic matter, usually plants, which can be turned into fuel. Dr Peter Hall from Scion says that purpose grown forests, probably pine or another fast growing species, are the best bet for generating large amounts of biofuel.
They have also been trying out ways of making hydrogen gas from water, coal (New Zealand has huge coal reserves – enough for hundreds of years) and biomass. Dr Tony Clemens from CRL Energy says it is possible to make hydrogen from water. This process though requires a much greater energy input to separate the two hydrogen atoms from a water molecule than to separate the many hydrogen atoms from a long-chain hydrocarbon molecule such as found in coal.
He says that using a technology called ‘fluid bed coal gasification’ it is possible to make hydrogen from coal and biomass such as wood waste. “We can do this without making any carbon dioxide emissions (some scientists are worried that carbon dioxide emissions are influencing our climate) by capturing and storing left-over carbon dioxide from both coal and biomass.”
The hydrogen can be used to run cars which have hydrogen fuel cells. Several large car manufacturers, such as Honda, are already making hydrogen-powered cars., It is likely to be a few years before we have them here as New Zealand doesn’t yet have hydrogen stations (instead of petrol stations) where people can go and fill up their hydrogen-powered cars. In Iceland they have already installed hydrogen stations and their public transport buses and an increasing number of private vehicles are running on hydrogen. Hydrogen powered vehicles have no emissions except for some water vapour – much better than the exhaust fumes we are all used to!
Many car manufacturers are also making electric cars which you can plug in to a normal power outlet to recharge your car overnight, or combined fuel and electric vehicles. These might also be a good option for New Zealand car drivers if we can generate enough electricity in a sustainable manner to meet both current needs and an increased demand to run our vehicles.
