BMW: Their Clean Energy Effort
Provided By: CarInsurance.com
Last Updated: Saturday, March 14, 2009
It is a fact; people need to get from point A to point B. It seems like you always have a place to go and what is the most preferred form of transportation - an automobile of course. Being able to drive an automobile gives a person freedom. Unfortunately this freedom comes with a price. The fossil fuels needed are a finite resource that is rapidly being depleted.
To combat this excess use of fossil fuels auto makers are looking into technology that will allow them to use hydrogen as an alternate to oil-based fuels. Researching hydrogen as an alternative to petroleum has been an ongoing project for some time but a selected group of engineers believed to have made a breakthrough.
Of the many manufacturers working on hydrogen cars BMW considers their engineers to be at the top of their profession. BMW has created a concept that they call CleanEnergy. According to the BMW Group the CleanEnergy technology uses the most basic natural cycle - the water cycle. This cycle is the main model for CleanEnergy. Liquid hydrogen is generated from energy and water. In the engine of a BMW produced hydrogen vehicle the hydrogen combusts with oxygen once again and returns to water.
BMW took their CleanEnergy concept on the road with a world tour. They presented their hydrogen technology and hydrogen internal combustion engine to scientist and fellow leaders of their industry. The goal of this world tour was to try and launch a hydrogen infrastructure with partnerships around the globe. By setting up this type of network they are hoping to establish hydrogen as the fuel of the future.
The fear of many motorists is that to drive a hydrogen powered vehicle they would have to sacrifice performance. Instead BMW’s latest research is showing that their hydrogen engines have the potential to perform even better than the current gasoline run engines being used. BMW is not sharing the secret of their new hydrogen technological advances just yet. They will only say on their research and development page of BMW Group website that advances are being made with respect to “ideal control of hydrogen combustion coupled with the optimal fuel-to-air ratio.”
Their site mentions the BMW Hydrogen 7, the first series-developed vehicle with a Hydrogen combustion engine. It is powered by a combustion engine capable of running on both hydrogen and gasoline. This vehicle has gone through the entire series development process and is the result of a clearly-defined strategy, which already enables the BMW Group to put tomorrow’s hydrogen technology to use in today’s vehicles. In addition, the new technology will be able to benefit from the whole range of efficiency improvement measures right up to the full hybrid version.
BMW has put the Hydrogen 7 model into limited series production but it is not yet available for sale to the general public, it is being made available to "influential public figures," whose use demonstrate a new era in clean energy, BMW representatives have stated. In the meantime, the greatest challenge BMW will find to widespread use of hydrogen cars is the limited number of hydrogen refueling stations. The US and Canada have less than 75 but plan about 45 more to be built in the years to come.
BMW’s CleanEnergy research is their long term development program on how to build engines that are hydrogen based. The outcome they hope for is to avoid emissions completely and make use of a regenerative source of energy. They are hopeful the concept of a hydrogen engine will catch on so that all motorists can continue to enjoy the freedom of the road.
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