ITM Power runs Ford Focus 40km on home-charged hydrogen

British company ITM Power Plc has tested a breakthrough in the development of pure hydrogen-fuelled cars. More interestingly, it has patented a technology to generate hydrogen at home.

On behalf of the UK company, the University of Hertfordshire successfully completed an initial trial programme to run the conventional petrol-engined bi-fuel Ford Focus with minimal modifications on pure hydrogen.

During the test, the car exhibited a commendable performance travelling over 25 miles (40km) on a single charge of hydrogen, which is more than the average commuting journey, before being switched back to run on petrol. And for those 25 miles, instead of polluting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, the only emission from the car was water vapour. Compared with the current sky-high petrol prices, hydrogen gas is also expected to be far cheaper, at around 80p per litre.

After eight years of research on a low-cost means of manufacturing hydrogen ITM Power at its Sheffield research base, currently Europe's largest electrolyser and fuel cell development centre, has come up with the system that can generate hydrogen at home.

The equipment needed to convert water and electricity into hydrogen with platinum was a barrier to its wide-scale use as a fuel source. ITM has remedied the cost problem by replacing platinum with nickel. Besides hydrogen-powered cars are few in number and filling stations are as scarce.

Most hydrogen vehicles either run on hard to store liquid hydrogen or use fuel cells to run electric motors.

Sheffield-based ITM Power's patented re-fuelling station uses a unique low-cost material that can be manufactured at 1 per cent of the traditional cost, thus reducing its mass production costs. The re-fuelling system works using an "electrolyser" which converts water and electricity into pure hydrogen and oxygen.

The home refuelling station resembling a large fridge-freezer and will cost about the same as a household boiler works through a process of electrolysis, during which the gas is produced from water and electricity, and an internal combustion generator converts the gas back into electricity to provide power for the home.

The refuelling station overcomes one of the fundamental stumbling blocks to a hydrogen economy – the lack of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure and utility supply network.

Jim Heathcote, CEO of ITM Power, said, ''Given the pressing need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil, and to cut CO2 emissions, the future for hydrogen as an alternative means of storing and utilising energy cost-effectively has never been brighter.''

The firm is now hoping to strike a deal with a car manufacturer to mass produce the hybrid car, the home refuelling station and converters.

If it takes off, its inventors expect filling stations around the UK to start selling compressed hydrogen gas, which could fuel longer journeys of up to 100 miles.

Although the initial demonstration vehicle is a car, vans and trucks will also be able to use the new fuel system to give commercial vehicle operators huge potential cost savings on delivery journeys, as well as further reducing CO2 emissions.

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