Energy

Prototypes of hydrogen vehicles

An advanced prototype, which is already on the market, is the vehicle that uses a 250- atmosphere tank of pure hydrogen, with a speed of more than 150 km/h, but with a limited autonomy. Another advanced vehicle is based on the “integrated system” concept: it consists of high pressure cylindrical tanks made of carbon fibre that provide a good autonomy also using compressed hydrogen, which is not possible with other prototypes that use metal tanks for the same type of fuel. One of the most recent vehicle prototypes use a salt (NaBH4 = sodium boronhydride, and incorrectly called sodium borate hydroxide) as a fuel: this salted “water” (not toxic and not inflammable) passes through a catalytic system, releases hydrogen “on request”, i.e. the hydrogen is produced only when it is necessary, therefore the hydrogen is rarely free in the system. In this way the risk of fire and/or explosion is significantly reduced. The “processed” fuel is recovered in another tank as borax, that is a chemical compound very similar to soap, which is also not toxic and can be industrially recycled into a new fuel (only by adding hydrogen). This technology may be extremely useful if a cheap system is created. The vehicle has more than 500 km autonomy and a speed of more than 150 km/h.