Nissan unveils world’s first solid-oxide fuel cell vehicle

[nationalize the fed]

Gerard Lye, 5 August 2016

Nissan has revealed the world’s first solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) vehicle that runs on bio-ethanol electric power. “The e-Bio Fuel-Cell offers eco-friendly transportation and creates opportunities for regional energy production, all the while supporting the existing infrastructure,” said Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn.



“In the future, the e-Bio Fuel-Cell will become even more user-friendly. Ethanol-blended water is easier and safer to handle than most other fuels. Without the need to create new infrastructure, it has great potential to drive market growth,” he added.

The vehicle here is based on a Nissan e-NV200, and comes equipped with a 24 kWh battery and a hydrogen fuel cell. However, instead of filling the tanks with hydrogen, the car uses ethanol, which goes through a reformer in the SOFC system, to produce hydrogen for the fuel cell. The van is claimed to have a cruising range of about 600 km.

Unlike hydrogen, ethanol can be readily distributed from available infrastructure as mentioned by Ghosn. Therefore, you can refill a SOFC vehicle at a regular fuel station that offers ethanol. The downside here is, reforming ethanol into hydrogen will produce a small amount of CO2.

However, the company says the CO2 produced can be offset by the plants (corn, soy and sugar cane) that are used to produce ethanol, allowing for what Nissan calls a “carbon neutral cycle.” Of course, the CO2 output associated with the system doesn’t take into account the amount generated to produce ethanol...snip
Read More: http://paultan.org/2016/08/05/nissan-unveils-worlds-first-solid-oxide-fuel-cell-vehicle/

日産では、水素がナンバー1であります

[anoNY42]

1. Great, except

that ethanol comes from plants, which are also our ultimate food source. Do we have enough arable land and water to grow transport fuel AND food, without food price increases becoming an issue?

[nationalize the fed]

2. Brazil

Brazil is the world's second largest producer of ethanol fuel. Brazil and the United States led the industrial production of ethanol fuel in 2014, together accounting for 83.4 percent of the world's production. In 2014 Brazil produced 23.4 billion liters (6.19 billion U.S. liquid gallons), representing 25.2 percent of the world's total ethanol used as fuel.[1][2]

Brazil is considered to have the world's first sustainable biofuels economy and the biofuel industry leader,[3][4][5][6] a policy model for other countries; and its sugarcane ethanol "the most successful alternative fuel to date."[7] However, some authors consider that the successful Brazilian ethanol model is sustainable only in Brazil due to its advanced agri-industrial technology and its enormous amount of arable land available;[7] while according to other authors it is a solution only for some countries in the tropical zone of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil

With Desalination, there will never be water shortages- as Israel has proven.

Israel Proves the Desalination Era Is Here
One of the driest countries on Earth now makes more freshwater than it needs
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/

And with Hydroponics and cheap solar electricity plants can be grown anywhere.

[anoNY42]

3. As a Florida resident, I certainly hope desalination will be a cost-effective way to

avoid water shortages.

As to ethanol, though, I think we would need more than Brazil in order to make ethanol-fuel-cell vehicles any more than a niche product. I think all-electric vehicles are more likely to be the future, but I would be content to be pleasantly surprised by other techs...

[packman]

4. Hey, we got some green scum algae here in Florida

Anyone is welcome to it, we certainly don't want it (except for our Gov. Scott)