The iX5 is based on a production BMW X5 with its combustion engine and fuel tank replaced with a fuel cell and hydrogen storage tanks.Kunal D’souza/The Globe and Mail
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. You might remember learning that in science class if you were paying attention. And if you were, you might also remember the “pop” test, where a flame is placed against the mouth of a hydrogen-filled test tube. The resulting loud “pop” sound was meant to demonstrate the element’s potential to go boom.
Like gasoline, hydrogen’s explosive nature makes it an excellent source of fuel and it doesn’t produce a dirty cocktail of noxious gases and C02 when burned. The only emission is water, and it’s renewable.
The technology is to produce hydrogen and use it as a fuel is here and we’ve already seen it on a handful of production cars like the Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai Nexo, so it’s hardly breaking news. But why are auto makers pursuing this technology when there’s barely any infrastructure and little public awareness to support it? What’s in it for them?
Perhaps BMW can answer that. The auto maker is dipping its toes into the hydrogen pool with its new iX5 SUV, a fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) that runs purely on hydrogen. Unlike the Toyota and Hyundai hydrogen models, these aren’t going to be sold to the public. The company is making 100 of them mainly for demonstration purposes.
“We think the future will be electric with the majority battery-electric and we’re trying to develop architecture that can do both [electric and hydrogen],” says Juergen Guldner, general project manager for hydrogen technology with BMW Group. “For us, it’s important to be flexible; to have architecture that can easily produce a battery-electric car or a fuel-cell electric vehicle, with the same basic drivetrain but just replacing the battery with hydrogen storage and the fuel cell.”
Like gasoline, hydrogen’s explosive nature makes it an excellent source of fuel and it doesn’t produce a dirty cocktail of noxious gases and C02 when burned. The only emission is water, and it’s renewable.Kunal D’souza/The Globe and Mail
The iX5 is based on a production BMW X5 with its combustion engine and fuel tank replaced with a fuel cell and hydrogen storage tanks. There’s an electric motor driving the rear wheels, and split between two tanks there is storage for six kilograms of hydrogen, which gives the iX5 a range of 504 kilometres. There are battery-electric cars today that can go much farther on a charge but none that can be recharged in four minutes, which is how long it takes to fill up the iX5. That’s the one big benefit of an FCEV. They are basically electric cars that use electric motors to drive the wheels, but instead of using battery power, they run on hydrogen.
Under the hood is a fuel-cell stack, which looks similar to an internal combustion engine on the outside but couldn’t be more different inside. There are barely any moving parts. It’s a layer cake of individual waferlike fuel cells compressed and fused together to form a stack. The proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are supplied by Toyota and are composed of an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte layer sandwiched in between, similar to a battery. The fuel cell draws in hydrogen and oxygen that reacts chemically and creates electricity to drive the motors. Water and heat are the only by-products of the reaction.
“The trick [to the fuel cell] is this semi-permeable membrane in the middle, which lets the proton go one way but nothing else can go the other way. So [the hydrogen protons] are forced through the membrane and meet the oxygen [coming from the cathode side] and form H20, says Guldner. “That’s the chemistry behind it; it’s very simple chemistry.”
Driving the iX5 is unremarkable. It feels just like any other EV and it’s got quite a lot of power. BMW quotes a system total of 401 horsepower, enabling acceleration to 100 kilometres an hour in 6.1 seconds.
If there were actual hydrogen stations around where you could fill up, an FCEV would have a big advantage over battery-electric cars mainly because the process to fill them and the time it takes to do so is the same as for a gas car and everyone is already used to that. There’d be no learning curve.
The big problem is with the production end of things. Hydrogen may be abundant in nature, but it does not appear naturally in pure form. And depending on how it is produced, the process can be extremely carbon intensive.
Currently, most of the hydrogen we produce is “grey” hydrogen, which is bad for the environment. It uses a process called steam-methane reformation, which generates high levels of greenhouse gases, about 10 kilograms of carbon dioxide for every kilogram of hydrogen. Then there’s blue hydrogen, which is derived mainly from natural gas and also uses steam reforming to produce the hydrogen. While it’s a relatively new process, the main difference is that it uses carbon capture technology to trap and store the C02 emission. While it’s touted as having zero emissions, not all the carbon can be captured and the production of natural gas, a non-renewable resource, produces emissions on its own. If hydrogen is to become a viable fuel for transportation, it needs to be sourced from solar or wind energy, which can be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules in a process known as electrolysis. This “green” hydrogen currently accounts for just 5 per cent of the world’s production.
Europe is further ahead when it comes to developing a hydrogen economy, which is necessary to support the production of sustainable green hydrogen. In Germany, where most of their energy is imported, times of low demand can generate a surplus of electricity in the grid. This surplus electricity sourced from solar and wind, which is essentially free, can be used to make green hydrogen and that hydrogen can then be stored. Compared to electricity, hydrogen is easier and cheaper to transport over long distances, making it an efficient way to store energy.
The California Energy Commission is planning to expand the state’s hydrogen network, this time with a focus on both passenger and commercial vehicles.Kunal D’souza/The Globe and Mail
“The price for green hydrogen in Germany is now cheaper than grey,” says Robert Halas, project manager for the BMW iX5 hydrogen. “It’s €10 ($14.60) for one kilogram of hydrogen, so about €60 [to fill up the iX5].”
That’s not much cheaper than the current prices for gasoline, especially in California where the price of hydrogen is now more than US$20 a kilogram, but EV drivers who rely on public fast chargers also know that the prices for charging an EV on the go are quickly rising as well.
“With a battery-electric car, if you can charge it at home with your normal utility bill, [the cost] is unbeatable, and if you can do that, do it,” says Guldner. “But if you always have to charge externally, then it’s a different story, especially if you have to do fast charging.”
The member countries of the European Union are building a hydrogen network that will consist of a hydrogen fuelling station every 200 kilometres along busy highways and near all major urban areas. In total, there will be more than 600 stations and this is expected to be completed by the end of 2030. It will make the prospect of owning a hydrogen-powered vehicle in Europe a real alternative. And BMW believes in giving its customers choices.
“We don’t see [FCEVs] as competition [to battery-electric]; we see it as a complement because they are both zero-emission,” Guldner says.
The California Energy Commission is planning to expand the state’s hydrogen network too, this time with a focus on both passenger and commercial vehicles.
“The nice thing about this technology is that it scales with volume. It’s the same technology for all kinds of applications. Trucks, and so on, will use the same technology, plus a lot of the components are basically standard components that the industry already produces,” says Guldner.
While we might not see a fuel-cell electric vehicle for sale at a local dealership any time soon, the technology is continually being refined and companies such as BMW want to be prepared.
“We cannot predict any numbers or sales volumes. Any predictions will be wrong,” says Guldner. “Our strategy is to master this technology, have it in-house, then be able to integrate it into our vehicles when we see the demand is coming.”
The writer was a guest of the auto maker. Content was not subject to approval.
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