As early as 1979 I made my teaching, “said Toyota spokesman Dirk Breuer technology,” it said, the fuel cell comes to the turn of the century. But cars so there is still no. “Because he’s right. And yet have committed major manufacturers such as DaimlerChrysler, Ford and Toyota to bring the first fuel cell vehicles by the year 2015 on the market. We have one of Toyota’s five prototypes of the FCHV-adv (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle-advanced) went and visited a hydrogen filling station in Berlin.

Based on the Highlander
The Toyota FCHV is based on the Highlander, a 4.74 meter long SUV, which is not offered to us. Under the bonnet is in the middle of a part that might be taken for an engine, but it is the power electronics. Among them is the fuel cell stack and placed back underneath the electric motor that drives the front axle. The hydrogen tanks, four bottles, each with a half pounds at a pressure of 700 bar, located under the vehicle floor, the nickel-metal hydride battery under the trunk. When starting the FCHV powered by energy from the battery. But the stack starts to work soon after.

122 hp and 260 Newton meters
Hydrogen from the tank flows into the stack and combines with oxygen from the intake air to water, electrical energy is generated. The efficiency is about 60 percent, while the rest goes off as heat – a cooler so also does the FCHV. The power delivered by the stack is controlled by the driver via the accelerator. Maximum is 90 kilowatts or 122 horsepower. The electric motor has the same performance.

Six kilos of hydrogen for 800 km
For the start and brake energy recovery, there is also still the backup battery with a capacity of 1.7 kilowatt-hours – so it is not much larger than the 1.3-kWh battery in the Toyota Prius. With the six kilograms of hydrogen on board the FCHV-adv runs about 800 kilometers wide, so the consumption is about 0.8 pounds per 100 kilometers.

Good momentum, decent range
The FCHV drives like an electric car: silently and with great verve that even when the bike is available. That the current for the motor fuel comes from, is not to remember the inside. The car comes with fast forward the 260 Nm of torque to the driven section of our city. With 1880 pounds, the SUV is not much heavier than the 1835-pound Highlander with the 3.5-liter V6 gasoline engine that is offered in the United States. Sprint data is not Toyota, but the speed is at least 155 km/h.

Three main problems
All this does not sound bad: The range is good, the car drives itself afloat, while the top speed is not much, but in practice. So what’s the catch? The main problem of fuel cell cars are on three points: First, the technology is still expensive. Our prototype is worth a million euros, with a good part attributable to the stack – even if today is not platinum is present as in a diesel particulate filter.

Network problems
Second, there is still no serious hydrogen stations. The map of the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP), a consortium of companies, the automakers, energy suppliers, gas suppliers and transport companies together recorded closes, just eight gas stations in Germany. Third, the hydrogen is currently produced mainly by steam reforming of natural gas, that is from fossil sources. This methane reacts with water to form hydrogen and ultimately to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. A cure for the greenhouse effect is therefore not yet the operation of hydrogen cars.

It makes sense only in renewable power generation
Ecological sense results in a fuel cell vehicle only if the hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water. The power to be derived from renewable sources. Wind power would be a candidate – eventually won by the wind power plants, electricity is often at times when the power consumption is low. Or from solar energy. We visited a model plant, which is affiliated with the hydrogen filling station for Total in Berlin. The installed solar panels do provide only a small portion of the stream, but point to the idea. With the electrical energy is decomposed by electrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen. So from one liter of water about 100 grams of hydrogen. The hydrogen is then compressed by compressor bar in three steps to 350 or 700 and can then be stored and refueled. The energy losses of an electrolyser and compressor are in this case about 35 percent.

And what next?
How is it so go with the fuel cell? The CEP is working on technical solutions. As for the infrastructure to grow the number of hydrogen filling stations by 2012 from eight to 20. In June 2012 the first CO2-neutral hydrogen fueling station at the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport in Schönefeld arise. Here, the power still comes from a wind farm to be built nearby. In addition, the vehicle will continue to develop technology. Currently there are 50 fuel cell vehicles in the road test. End of 2012 there will be about 125, including 90 Mercedes B-Class F-Cell, 20 Opel HydroGen4, eight vehicles from the VW Group as the Tiguan HyMotion, five Toyota FCHV-adv FCHV and two Honda Clarity. By the year 2013 and to enable the fleet of fuel cell buses to increase to nearly 30 – in Berlin, Hamburg and North Rhine Westphalia.

Fuel cell vehicles more suitable for large vehicles
According to Toyota spokesman Breuer, the fuel cell is recommended anyway mostly for larger vehicles – buses, trucks and large SUVs. For mid-size hybrid vehicles and plug-in hybrid drives are the best solution. Mid-2012, Toyota wants to bring the Prius plug-in hybrid to market. The car should be about 9,000 € more expensive than the regular Prius, which would be about 35,000 €. The pure electric drive is noisy, especially for small vehicles Breuer: iQ motorcycles, vehicles like the Segway or three wheels, but also the size of a Toyota car.

Mercedes alone on a limb
Altogether, one gets the impression that Mercedes is currently the only car manufacturer that really believes in the fuel cell. The Stuttgart already want to go into mass production in 2014. Technology should not remain on the B-class, but should be extended to C, E and S class. The commitment of the different car manufacturers is evident in the number of the CEP test vehicles were making 90 out of 125 planned fuel-cell cars will come from the Stuttgart. BMW has petered after the development of the hydrogen combustion engine, a burned child, relies on the small electric car i3 and the plug-in hybrid i8. Opel would rather sell the first Ampera. And Toyota builds primarily on the Prius and the upcoming plug-in Prius.

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