An AFP news item, that was tucked away and forgotten possibly by most of us, was published in a corner of the last page of their separate regular 'Business' supplement of a local English daily in November last year. As an engineer interested in fuels, it had caught the attention of this writer. Probably it had not attracted the attention of anyone else or comments from them, particularly from many interested people and those involved with the automobile industry.
The news item, that stated a new but fascinating and revolutionary development-a new potential automobile exhaust-caught the attention of this writer. It will be nothing but pure water only with no possibility of any environment pollution, if and when this relatively cheap local fuel (water) will be in use for all types of motor vehicles. Maybe, we will then forget all about diesel and gasoline now regularly being used as fuel for all our vehicles.
This scribe does not believe that this news item had attracted the attention of our many car and truck owners, passengers and commercial motor vehicle importers. A part of the news item is quoted as follows: "While the Europeans were heralding the all-electric vehicle at Guangzhou (China) auto shows, Toyota Motor and Honda Motor were unveiling hydrogen fuel celled cars at automobile shows in Tokyo and Los Angeles, the recognised hub for international vehicle business!"
For auto-manufacturers, these two cities in Japan and the USA respectively, see a great demand for passenger and commercial vehicles. These are important and recognised hubs for new automobiles being introduced and developed for display to the world market. Japanese car and engine makers have now significantly usurped this position that was earlier held by automobile manufacturers of the USA and Europe, in those days the forte of almost all vehicle makers mainly based in the USA and some West European countries.
It was also reported that Volkswagen planned to launch more than fifteen models of electric plug-in cars by 2018, most of which would initially be developed and produced in Germany. Meanwhile, BMW and their Chinese partner also unveiled a jointly-developed all electric car. All these developments hopefully will lead to a gradual drop in automobile fuel sales and resultantly reduction of environment pollution. However, no significant reduction in the increasing demand for traditional petroleum-fuelled vehicles will be forthcoming. The decline in demand for conventional gasoline-powered automobiles may possibly start coming down about twenty years down the road from now.
This new trend of having all-electric battery-powered automobiles is slowly but surely coming into the mainstream of personal automobiles now being owned all over the world. Charging batteries at night also helps seize the advantage of the very low power demand between midnight and say six in the morning, when electric vehicle batteries can be charged up from the household electric mains. It is also advantageous for power plants, as the electric power demand from household, commercial and industrial consumers falls considerably at night and many power plants are, therefore, forced to bear uneconomic loads while consuming more fuel per unit of power generated.
However, recharging future fuel cell cars with hydrogen is another cup of tea altogether. These will need specialised filling facilities which will lead to another new business venture. For the hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, water (the fuel) will be electrolysed to produce the needed hydrogen for charging these new fuel-celled vehicles. Although the running hours for the fuel-celled vehicles will be around five times that of an all electric battery-driven car that needs to be charged nightly, fuel cells cannot be charged off the household mains overnight. So, arrangement of new special equipment at filling stations will need further investments in infrastructure for the vehicle fuel supply business. The whole system of fuel supply to vehicles has to be changed for hydrogen-fuelled vehicles.
However, fuel cell vehicles will have a disadvantage compared to the all electric vehicles. The prospective fuel cell-powered passenger and cargo vehicles could well be a few decades away. However, the added benefit of making hydrogen from water for fuel-cell vehicles is the supply of oxygen coming out that enriches the environment. This oxygen can also be collected at filling stations and supplied as 'medical oxygen'; that is now more expensive, compared to industrial oxygen regularly supplied to all hospitals for their regular use.
The writer has worked for many industries and their power plants for over half a century with hands-on experience in handling various types of plants and equipment sam@dhakacom.com
Future pollution-free automobile fuel
SA Mansoor | Published: April 29, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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