Hydrogen cars roll into Augusta

Tools

Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.

By Arielle Clay aclay@nbcaugusta.com

It is said to be a more environmentally friendly and a cheaper way to drive.

A fleet of vehicles that use hydrogen for fuel pulled into Augusta Sunday for the Hydrogen Road Tour.

There is no exhaust and no greenhouse gas emitted from the cars. As a matter of fact, the only thing they release is water. According to experts hydrogen cars are front runners in the race to gasoline independence.

Bob Cogel showed up to the Road Tour to check out another alternative to fuel. He already knows about one.

"I run my car on waste vegetable oil," Cogel said.

He gets the vegetable oil for free and it only costs about 15 cents a gallon to filter. Still he was interested in what the Road Tour had to offer.

“It's the most abundant element in the universe we figured there must be something we can do with it,” Bruce Burney, of the Center for Transportation and Environment, said.

There were two types of cars that run off of hydrogen fuel at the road show.

“A BMW that burns hydrogen just like a gas car burns gas and fuel cell cars. Fuel cell cars take the hydrogen and convert it into electricity and use that electricity to power an electric motor,” Chris White, of California Fuel Cell Partnership, said.

Experts say many people confuse using hydrogen fuel for just putting water in your gas tank. Not quite, White explained.

“What we do is take the car to a hydrogen station and that station may have made the hydrogen from water or that station may have made hydrogen from natural gas or what we call biomass such as a rotting peach pit,” she said.

But Cogel could not help but wonder where to find these hydrogen stations.

“The question is where to get the fuel. I don't think there are many hydrogen stations yet,” he said.

Cogel is right. According to White the lack of stations is at the heart of some of hydrogen's biggest obstacles.

“There are four things we're working on, durability, range, reliability and having an infrastructure. Stations that are accessible, convenient and easy to use,” White said.

Despite the obstacles White says hydrogen fuel will be more cost effective at about $3 to $4 a gallon. That’s a price that may sound the same as gasoline.

“When you consider in a fuel cell car you're getting two to three times the mileage you’re paying less per mile,” White said.

But don't go to any Augusta car lot looking for one of these cars just yet.

“The automakers predict right around 2015,” White said.

The tours next stop is in Madison, Ga., where the fleet of hydrogen cars will refuel at a mobile hydrogen station. Then the tour will move on to Atlanta.

Experts say the tour is a way to get the word out about hydrogen cars, before they hit the road.

View comments

The following comments do not necessarily represent the views of NBC Augusta 26 | news, weather, sports, community, entertainment, shopping for Augusta, Georgia. Users have agreed to these terms and in doing so accept full responsibility for their comments. Moderation is limited.

Thursday, Aug 28 at 1:50 PM Cindy wrote ...

Our company, Limnia, Inc. (http://www.limnia.com) has resolved almost all of the issues associated with hydrogen infrastructure. We store hydrogen in patented, solid-state, non-pressurized canisters that are safe, efficient, better than many battery solutions, use common carriers already built out globally and can recharge a car in seconds via hot-swap. Our many hydrogen generation partners have shown methods, this year, to make hydrogen from water or organic waste so that the energy efficiency

6437489
Inappropriate? Alert Us!

Monday, Aug 18 at 10:17 AM andre wrote ...

I don't know why they don't start right now the selling of hydrogen cars. They just have to offer a cheap internal combustion car like my dodge neon 2005 that have a hydrogen tank and a gasoline tank and put a cheap hydrogen making machine in my town, something between 10 000$ to 20 000$ invesment. Then they can adopt the technology invented by h.a.w system from japan that inject liquid water to the hydrogen mix and that boost power because the water is turn to vapor by the hydrogen combustion.

6131094
Inappropriate? Alert Us!

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

WAGT and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. Comments are posted on site immediately and without station moderation. If you feel a comment is inappropriate you may flag it for review. For guidelines on flagging comments see our Terms & Conditions. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

I have read and agree to the terms

Hide comments

More Good Stuff

Advertisement

WAGT Weather

Click here for 7 Day Forecast
Icon
Current Temp 50.0 °F
Fair
More Weather

WAGT Weather

YouNews

This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.

On Demand

NBC Augusta 26 RSS FeedsNBC Augusta 26 Twitter Feed NBC Augusta 26 Facebook Page NBC Full Shows Online

Viewer Poll

What do you think about Tiger's return to golf for the Masters Tournament?

  • Too soon, he should focus on his family
  • He's apologized, it's time for him to return to the game