The Mindful Motorist : This Sedan Cleans the air… and it’s not a Toyota.
By alex on Mar 29, 2008 in blog
It’s not often when you read that a large barge of a vehicle like the BMW 7-series not only is super efficent but actually improves air quality. This Bimmer isn’t some basic model, nor is it cheap or light but it does get powered by a hydrogen burning V12 Engine. Despite the long-shot of hydrogen becoming a common fuel medium, this week the BMW Hydrogen 7 was put to task by the Argonne National Laboratory (where’s that?) and demonstrating its eco creed by pouncing the SULEV (Super Low Emissions Vehicle) standards. The lab’s chief smart guy in a white coat declaring, ”the car’s engine actively cleans the air. Argonne’s testing shows that the Hydrogen 7’s 12-cylinder engine actually shows emissions levels that, for certain components, are cleaner than the ambient air that comes into the car’s engine.”That just means we need about every exec and celeb in LA dropping serious dosh for a Hydrogen 7 and sooner or later we’ll get some smog clean-up. But it’s a bit of a pipe dream at the moment with hydrogen being a bit cumbersome to store, transport and deliver to customers.via: AutobloggreenÂ
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Two things. First, years ago there was a cartoon in Road & Track showing a car doing that very thing, ingesting the filthy polluted atmosphere and exhausting clean, clear air. If only it were so.
Second, for it to be so, we need collectively to understand that substitutes like ethanol are not the final answer and may actually be worse that conventional gasoline. Their value is as a mind-changer, getting us to think differently about things, but we cannot just take the first thing that comes along. What we need to recognize and do, as a society, is work toward building the necessary infrastructure to make hydrogen-fueled cars viable. If we stop wasting time, energy and investment on charlatan solutions such as ethanol, we will all be much better off in the long run, which is where we should be focusing, not on little short term falsifications intended to make us feel better, but that can’t stand up to proper scientific analysis. And we need to start NOW.
Johnsy | Mar 31, 2008 | Reply