Monday, March 17th, 2008
Ultra-clean hydrogen buses reduce CO2 emissions
Ford, in partnership with the Wayne County Airport Authority and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, has delivered two Ford E-450 hydrogen-fueled buses for use at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW). As travelers are shuttled between terminals on the eco-friendly buses, CO2 emissions are reduced by 99.7 percent. These sorts of initiatives also reduce dependence on oil.
Powered by a 6.8-liter V-10 internal combustion engine that runs exclusively on hydrogen fuel, the highly efficient Ford E-450 shuttle buses have near zero emissions of regulated pollutants and greenhouse gases, and are also all-weather capable.
The Detroit Metropolitan Airport initiative is not the first time Ford has supplied the eco-friendly shuttle buses. Ford has also delivered the ultra-clean buses to Greater Orlando Airport Authority (GOAA), Orlando Convention Central District, SeaWorld Orlando, University of Missouri Raleigh, city of Las Vegas, the San Mateo (Ca.) County Transportation Authority, and 10 buses to Canada for use in Prince Edward Island, Ottawa and Vancouver.
The shuttle buses are just one part of Ford’s broader effort aimed at developing multiple technologies for sustainable mobility. As Ford continues its research into hydrogen power as an alternative fuel, the E-450 will provide valuable real-world experience.
Tags: 6.8-liter V-10 internal combustion engine, Ford E-450 bus, Ford engineering, hydrogen, hydrogen-fuelled buses, near-zero C02 emissions, reduced C02 emissions
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Friday, March 14th, 2008
Focus Fuel Cell Vehicle featured at California Fuel Cell Partnership
When might we see a true Hydrogen Highway? That's the question the head of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration and other experts were exploring this week. Paul Brubaker was visiting the California Fuel Cell Partnership in West Sacramento, California to meet with automotive and air quality experts to talk about building a national hydrogen-fueling network. While there, he toured the facilities, took a spin in the Focus FCV, filled up at a hydrogen station and debated the future of hydrogen technology.
"What makes hydrogen fuel cell technology so exciting is the emissions from a fuel cell stack are drips of clean water," said Robert Riley, Ford Fleet Manager at the California Fuel Cell Partnership. "These are zero emissions vehicles with potential to make us less dependent on oil with less impact on the environment."
The fuel cell system converts chemical energy into electric energy using hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air. The electric energy then powers the vehicle's electric drive motor, producing only water vapor and heat as byproducts.
Ford currently has 30 hydrogen powered Focus Fuel Cell vehicles in seven cities across the U.S., Canada and Germany. Those vehicles have now logged more than 720,000 miles, providing valuable data to Ford engineers on fuel cell technology. The FCVs are just one example of Ford's commitment to advance the use and development of alternative fuel technologies.
The California Fuel Cell Partnership is a collaboration of 32 organizations, including automakers, government agencies, energy and oil companies. The experts who gathered in West Sacramento this week addressed the need for a hydrogen infrastructure across the country. Without a network of filling stations, it would be difficult for automakers to scale up production of fuel cell vehicles to the levels that would be needed to make them affordable. Participants called for more federal funding for research and infrastructure and noted commercialization is still likely a decade or more away.
Tags: California Fuel Cell Partnership, Focus FCV, Ford Focus, Fuel Cell Vehicle, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel-Cell, Paul Brubaker, sustainability, Technology, US-DOT
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Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Visitors to Orlando's SeaWorld in for a different kind of ride from Ford
SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, recently took delivery of two Ford hydrogen-powered buses that will transport park guests and employees to and from the adventure park's four different attractions for the next two years.
For the inaugural ride, the buses shuttled SeaWorld employees to Shingle Creek, the northernmost headwaters of the Everglades, for a clean-up conservation project of the protected wetlands area.
The two Ford E-450 buses are powered by 6.8-liter V-10 engines that are supercharged and modified to run on hydrogen rather than gasoline. Compared with today's gasoline engines, these vehicles can deliver up to a 99.7% reduction in CO2 emissions and include many of the benefits of hydrogen fuel cell technology, but at a fraction of the cost.
SeaWorld will record miles driven and hydrogen fuel used each day and compare these figures to the park's gasoline-fueled buses. The data will be shared with Ford.
Ford Motor Company will have 30 hydrogen-powered buses operating across North America as part of test fleets before year's end. Ford has leased the vehicles to fleets in order to gather valuable real-world experience from high-mileage usage, to further its research in alternative fuel technology.
In addition to SeaWorld, buses have been presented to:
- The Greater Orlando (Fla.) Airport Authority
- The Orlando (Fla.) Convention Central District
- The University of Missouri Raleigh
- The city of Las Vegas, Nevada
- The San Mateo (Cal.) County Transportation Authority
Ford has also delivered 10 buses to Canada for use in Prince Edward Island, Ottawa and Vancouver.
Other hydrogen-powered test projects from Ford include:
- A fleet of 30 hydrogen-powered Ford Focus fuel cell vehicles that has accumulated more than 575,000 miles since its inception in 2005.
- The Ford Edge with HySeries Drive, the world’s first drivable hydrogen fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle with plug-in capability that has a range of 225 miles producing zero emissions.
- An experimental Ford-developed 2.3-liter I-4 hydrogen-powered aircraft engine, used by Boeing Company to test the hydrogen propulsion system of its High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft.
Tags: Boeing Company, Ford E-450, Ford Edge, Ford Focus, High Altitude Long Endurance, hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cell technology, hydrogen-powered buses, HySeries Drive, SeaWorld
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