No fuel cell fast track

Honda has enjoyed a lot of publicity for its FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle, but Toyota will tell you that years earlier, it had fuel cell vehicles in the hands of private operators in Japan.

Despite the launch of a new Prius hybrid (more here) and the upmarket Lexus HS 250 h (more here), Toyota remains committed to fuel cell technology and even displayed a cut-away of its experimental FCHV car on its stand at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Mike Michels, VP of Communications with Toyota Motor Sales in the US is confident that progress is being made and technical issues are being overcome.

"We're starting to solve the low temperature issues," Michels told the Carsales Network. "All of [the fuel cell teething troubles] are solvable."

What isn't solvable in the shorter term is the vexed issue of generating massive quantities of hydrogen for personal transport around the world, without expending more energy from non-renewable sources than is currently being wasted just to fuel cars.

Hiving off hydrogen from water is energy-intensive and most power generation facilities to handle this task rely on non-renewable sources such as coal or nuclear energy. In the case of coal-fired power stations, there's the additional concern that power to split hydrogen atoms from water for use in a fuel cell vehicle will -- earlier down the supply chain -- create CO2 emissions offsetting any nett gain from the fuel cell.

There's little 'green' power generation infrastructure globally -- compared with coal and nuclear power -- and imagine how much power generation would be required to convert hydrogen in the quantities required if the entire world migrated to fuel cell vehicles tomorrow.

Michels mentioned California, which is like Australia in that it has scarce water resources for the conversion of hydrogen, but is a society heavily reliant on baseload power for households and industry. Sadly and ironically, California and Australia both enjoy mild climates in which fuel cell vehicles would excel.

Other issues facing fuel cell vehicles include the difficulty of storing and transporting hydrogen, a notoriously 'sneaky' element that can escape from most conventional receptacles.

But companies and consortiums around the world are looking at different ways of creating or isolating hydrogen (not necessarily from water) and for relatively little dependency on 'black' power generation. Michels reckons the effort and cost will be worth it ultimately and he subscribes to Mazda's view of the world, in which the late 21st Century will rely as much on hydrogen as society currently relies on coal.

"The FCHV, you'll [achieve] a range of 450, 500 or more miles," Michels said.

Plainly, the technology shows tremendous potential. No CO2 emissions, no NOx emissions and -- perhaps -- no waste of non-renewable resources.