There were a few different groups that teamed up recently to do a test drive of a hydrogen fuel cell SUV. The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Savannah River National Lab (SRNL), and Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. all came into an official agreement to determine whether fuel cell vehicles could stand real world driving.
The main objective of this agreement was to monitor the driving range of a fuel cell SUV. The test drive to determine the driving range was 331 miles between Torrance and San Diego, CA. The drivers used Toyota Highlander Fuel Cell Hybrid SUVs. Not only did these groups complete the outlined course but they had enough fuel leftover in the tanks to go over 400 miles easily. The researchers wanted the trip to mimic what a real world driver would experience and they did. The trip started early in the morning where the drivers had to fight through California rush hour traffic. The drivers in each of two SUVs (scientists from NREL & SRNL) also included highway driving getting up to top speed at 75 mph. Data was taken from both vehicles to get to their results.
After calculating both SUV’s results the researchers concluded that the fuel cell Highlanders averaged around 431 mile range on one tank. The research shows that fuel cell vehicles may be an alternative to gas. Some people are concerned about the safety of using hydrogen but researchers are saying that hydrogen tanks are very safe now. The hydrogen tanks are constructed well and the pumps that people would use for hydrogen are similar to what we are already using for gas. Hydrogen is also lighter than gas and in the case of a leak, hydrogen would evaporate quickly instead of leaving a pool under the car, the way gas typically does.
This kind of research gives us all hope that we will have alternative fuel methods sooner than later and that there are people working to find solutions.
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