|
| |
Hydrogen-Electric Hybrid Car Planned
Alternate Energy Corporation in association with Feel Good Cars to
produce affordable vehicle that operates not on fossil fuel but water.
ZENN
by Feel Good Cars to be Retrofitted with AEC Hydrogen System
Part 1 of 2 (click
here for part 2)
by Sterling
D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News
Copyright © 2004
LAS VEGAS, NV, USA
| Images from Feel
Good Cars, with permission .
ZENN is here and ready for the road. Designed as a "low
speed vehicle", it travels 25 mph.
Digital dashboard with speed, voltage and amperage gauges, heating
and air-conditioning vents
Climate controls, rear-defroster switches and in-car audio console
(CD, and AM/FM radio)
Power windows and locking doors
Remote-control central keyless entry
Aluminum alloy wheels and four-wheel disc brakes
Rear-brake and turn-signal indicators
Rear window defroster and wiper; padded head restraints; three-point
seatbelts, high point brake light
Dual-beam headlights and turn-signal indicators
Recharging dock compatible with any typical 110-volt outlet
|
|
|
Golf Cart Test
Astris fuel cell golf cart ran on AEC hydrogen in a 45 minute
demo. |
|
Take one all-electric vehicle, add an alternator to
keep the battery charged, powered by an onboard internal combustion engine that
runs on hydrogen, and top it off with an onboard hydrogen generating system
powered by water, and you have the dream combination -- coming soon.
Alternate Energy Corporation (AEC), ticker symbol ARGY,
announced Tuesday that they, together with Feel Good Cars Inc. and others,
intend to produce a prototype hydrogen powered internal combustion engine
electric vehicle.
With twelve prototype all-electric urban low speed vehicles on the road, Feel
Good Cars (FGC) is preparing for production in September of this year, with two
thousand in the first year, according to Ian Clifford, President of FGC.
The ZENN plant is capable of manufacturing 10,000 cars a year.
Feel Good Cars intends to provide the platform and technical know-how relative
to their ZENN electric technology, which stands for "Zero Emissions No
Noise."
Limited to 25 miles per hour, the ZENN is a city-driving-only
vehicle. As a low speed vehicle (LSV), the ZENN is governed
by special licensing and registration stipulations that vary from state to state
in the U.S.
Alternate Energy Corp (AEC) specializes in making hydrogen on the fly for a
hydrogen-powered back-up power system for industries, business, and home.
In this, their main project, they use a truck engine that is designed to run on
hydrogen. They expect to be in production of these units also by the end
of the year.
Now that they have met each other, AEC plans to retrofit a ZENN so
it will run with electricity produced from an on-board 3-HP internal combustion
engine that runs on hydrogen that is produced on the fly from water. They
estimate that there will be not only enough electricity to recharge the battery,
but also to run the motors.
Their objective is a hydrogen-from-water powered car that can be produced at a
price affordable to middle income households.
"What comes out the tail pipe is a mist of water," said Blaine Froats,
Chairman of AEC. "For every gallon of hydrogen fuel in, you get one
gallon of water vapor out."
Clifford estimated that the hybrid hydrogen-electric vehicle they are producing
in associate with AEC will be ready for initial on-road testing in early
2005. Froats expects that AEC can meet that schedule. The AEC press
release was even more ambitious, envisioning a demo unit by the end of this
year.
"All drive components are ready to go," said Clifford.
"Traditionally, the problem with hydrogen systems is in being able to store
it," he said. "The low pressure hydrogen-on-demand system [by
AEC] makes a lot of problems go away. We are very excited about it."
"The internal combustion engine is a no-brainer, the drive motors are
there," said Froats. "We know from our research and development
findings that our on-board hydrogen generation system can economically produce
the required hydrogen."
"The complexity of the project is in the electrical side of things,"
he said. "When the battery has enough charge, the generator needs to
shut off. Regulating that properly can be a bit tricky."
The proprietary generator takes about six minutes to begin producing hydrogen
from water, to run the alternator. It takes about three minutes to stop
running.
The battery they anticipates using can run the car for about 6-7 minutes before
requiring charge. "This is more than ample time for [the hydrogen
generator] to be up and going", said Froats.
According to their press release issued yesterday, they anticipate that
"the project can provide an alternative to large electric vehicle battery
systems and thereby eliminate the need to recharge via electricity produced from
the burning of fossil fuels." Downtime attributed to recharging goes
away.
AEC recently demonstrated this hybrid approach on a 1 kilowatt Astris Golf Cart
with onboard fuel cell. "They needed exactly 10 liters of hydrogen
per minute, and we delivered bang on", said Froats. The ZENN
will require about 30 liters of hydrogen per minute.
The secret of AEC's propriety technology for generating hydrogen from water is
found in the composition of a special alloy that emits bubbles of hydrogen when
immersed in water. Separate the alloy from the water, and the bubbles
stop.
The consumption of water in the process is negligible.
The limiting factor is that the alloy is gradually spent in a chemical process
that results in an inert substance. So the alloy needs to be replaced in
the system. In tests, the alloy produced hydrogen for 60 days before it
began to cease production. Another test, by the inventor, who does not
wish to be known to the public, ran for 90 days. A major testing lab is in
process of running a wide array of tests to characterize the system
capabilities.
"We are presently discussing various ways we might address this," said
Froats. "One idea is to use pellets that could be cycled
through."
"If you think about it, 60 days is a long time to be driving straight
without ever stopping," said Froats.
The 3-HP internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen was also developed by
an engineer formerly with a major motor company. The alternator is also an
integral part of the internal combustion engine developed by the same
team. AEC recently acquired the rights to use the proprietary hydrogen
technology to power an internal combustion engine.
"This combination will give us a strong market edge not just here but in
many applications," said Froats.
AEC believes that the initial sales price of the vehicle should not be
overburdened by the use of the new technology and that the operating cost should
be less than the existing cost of gasoline.
click here for
part 2
###
REFERENCES
Interviews with Ian Clifford, President of the privately-owned Feel Good Cars;
and Blaine Froats, Chairman of Alternative Energy Corporation, a publicly traded
company.
Alternate Energy Corp's June 8 Press Release:
http://www.cleanwatts.com/newsroom.asp?id=newsroom.060804a
Alternate Energy Corporation
www.cleanwatts.com
Ticker Symbol for Alternate Energy Corporation: ARGY
http://finance.yahoo.com/l?s=ARGY&t=S&m=US
Feel Good Cars
www.feelgoodcars.com
Ford Motor Company's Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine
http://www.ford.com/en/innovation/engineFuelTechnology/hydrogenInternalCombustion.htm
Astris Energi Fuel-Cell Powered Golf Cart
http://fuelcellworld.org/article_default_view.fcm?articleid=3669&subsite=912
The ZENN -- feature by Electrifying Times, Dec. 11, 2002.
http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/zenn.html
Group Plans Hydrogen Engine for ZENN NEV (EVWorld; June 9, 2004)
http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=communique&newsid=5858
Special thanks to Chris Horianopolous, an ARGY shareholder, who gave us the tip
for this story.
Contact
Contact information provided in the AEC press
release:
- Cormac Glynn, CEOcast, Inc.
212-732-4300
- Suzanne Brydon, Investor Relations
Alternate Energy Corporation
519-620-2623 (Canada)
www.cleanwatts.com
See also
Page composed by Sterling
D. Allan June 9, 2004
Last updated July 16, 2005
| |
|
Feed