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Mazda: We can build Hydrogen Car in 5 years


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I found this quite interesting. Mazda says it can build a hydrogen-burning car in five to ten years. Mazda says "...because Mazda's revolutionary rotary engine offers separate chambers for intake and combustion, the rotary engine is ideal for burning hydrogen." Now, I don't know what all goes into it, but if the Renesis is easier to modify for hydrogen, this could be a stop-gap transition to fuel cell technologies...assuming fuel cells do happen.

 

http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/08/22/maz...years/#comments

 

And, of course, Mazda would need a hydrogen fueling network. Will it happen? It's definetely an interesting concept and it's great to see Mazda (i.e. part of Ford) leading the way. And of course the Renesis is much, much cheaper than any fuel cell car today. Mazda has shown both a RX-8 demo and a Mazda5 hydrogen hybrid that can burn either gasoline or hydrogen.

 

You can find out some more information about the Mazda5 hybrid on the Mazda website, but I haven't found anything else about the RX-8 hydrogen car.

 

Any more information or any opinions?

 

Scott

Edited by waymondospiff
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Another factor, the current RX-8 based Renisis dual fuel demonstrator vehicle makes PITIFUL torque numbers on Hydrogen. Something just slightly above 100 lbs IIRC. Add to that the extra weight of the H2 tank and you have a woefully underperforming vehicle.

 

Mazda would need a nice, large, variable turbo, variable cam timing, and every other trick in the book to make a hydrogen rotary engine perform reasonably well. I'm not even going to think of the MPG. Hydrogen has a low energy density as well, so its going to take a lot of it to equal a gallon of gasoline.

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Update: Car Magazine out of the UK has done a road test of the RX-8 Hydrogen RE.

 

Car Magazine First Drive

 

Is the performance limited? Yes. But does it point to the future? Quite possibly. Is it a technological marvel? Sure!

 

I just think it's interesting that the Wankel is finally good for something besides just burning oil. It's ready-made for hydrogen burning!

 

And I like the simple "push-button" change between gas & hydrogen.

 

Scott

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