BMW Hydrogen 7 Mono-Fuel concept car runs on eco-friendly hydrogen gas
17 Apr 2008
The new BMW Hydrogen 7 Mono-Fuel car is a concept vehicle that is designed to run completely on gas. The combustion engine of the mono-fuel Hydrogen 7 is optimised to run solely on lightweight hydrogen, unlike its predecessor, a bi-fuel car, which ran on both gasoline and liquefied hydrogen gas.
Independent tests conducted on the the BMW Hydrogen 7 Mono-Fuel car by engineers at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, revealed that the concept car's hydrogen-powered engine surpasses the super-ultra low-emission vehicle (SULEV) level, the most stringent emissions performance standard to date, according to Argonne National Laboratory, one of the US Department of Energy's largest research centres.
BMW says the mono-fuel Hydrgen 7 is the result of 25 years of development by the BMW engineers, which many experts believe is the fuel of the future.
The new concept model uses a 6.0-liter internal combustion engine and purportedly "shares the performance, comfort, and safety qualities of every production BMW 7-series, according to BMW.
Because liquid hydrogen contains no carbon, the engine does not emit carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons or other pollutants. Moreover, the engine actually consumes existing pollution from the ambient air during the combustion process, as a result the tailpipe emission is actually cleaner than the air passing through the front grille, making it a complete .
Hydrogen can be easily produced using renewable, clean technologies like solar, wind, geothermal, and bio-processes and stored. A hydrogen car can refuel faster than an electric vehicle can recharge and doesn't tax the existing power grid, the company stated.
''It demonstrates BMW's support for a hydrogen infrastructure by producing an internal combustion engine that produces truly near-zero emissions and simultaneously cleans the air of certain pollutants,'' said Tom Baloga, vice-president of engineering, BMW, US
