Futurepower: from oil friendly to oil freeIn the first of a series of articles on the future of the car, Michael McAleeroutlines the power options currently being developed to take motoring out of the environmental debate
Oil friendly to oil free: that's the ultimate goal of General Motors, which wants to take the car out of the environmental debate. Despite the marketing drive of Japanese firms like Toyota and Honda, it's not just the Asian brands which are working on new power sources for the future.
The world's largest car firm with brands such as Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Cadillac, GM knows it needs to be at the forefront in finding new eco-friendly sources of power for the future generations of motoring.
"We haven't been sitting on our hands for the last decade," says Larry Burns, GM vice-president of research and development and strategic planning.
"Every lead has been pursued and we've come to the conclusion that there is no silver bullet, no single answer to the fuel debate."
Burns is charged with looking into the future of the car and putting GM at the forefront of developments. He outlines a five pronged approach to reduce and remove oil from the motoring equation.
FUEL EFFICIENCY
First there is better fuel efficiency, gained through ever-improved engines.
Already, with the use of direct injection turbos on petrol engines and better cylinder pressure on diesel engines, improvements of up to 8 per cent on fuel economy can be reached on regular engines.
Other advances include the stop-start features currently offered by some manufacturers, including BMW.
These systems cut out the engine when the car stops in traffic and is out of gear, then quickly starts the engine again once the clutch is engaged.
These feature on the new Mini range and some BMW 1-Series models.
ETHANOL USAGE
Next up is a vastly increased programme of E85 usage; fuel created from a mix of petrol and ethanol derived from several sources, such as corn or even household waste.
Several car firms are already offering biofuel engines. GM, for example, offers several of these under the Chevrolet brand in the US and Saab in Europe.
By 2012, it expects half of its sales will be vehicles powered by flexifuel engines, capable of running on either E85 ethanol or petrol.
Similarly Ford in Europe offers a biofuel Focus and Mondeo, while Volvo has several ethanol-friendly models.
Estimates by the US government put the total CO2 reduction for transportation using E85 between 2007 and 2020 at more than one billion metric tons. According to Rick Wagoner, chief executive of GM, by 2030 the US could produce enough ethanol to replace 30 per cent of it fossil fuel.
Ethanol is an interim gap, and there are concerns about using food supplies for fuel.
"That's why we have gone into partnership with Coskata, a Chicago-based biofuel research firm that plans to produce up to 100 million gallons of ethanol annually from 2011," explains Wagoner.
"This fuel will come from municipal and household waste," he explains.
The Coskata system takes any form of waste and after heating it slowly in a process called gasification, cools it again in a bioreactor.
The bacteria in this reactor convert the gases released from the waste - known as syn gases such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen - into ethanol and water.
"The beauty of this system is that all regions have suitable feedstocks and waste," says William Roe, president of Coskata.
"Currently ethanol production is based around the crop belts and sugar cane regions," says Roe.
"With Coskata's system, you could have ethanol production in major urban areas where municipal waste or crop/wood waste is available.
"We could use local materials to make ethanol, thereby reducing a country's dependence on oil and providing a clean burning fuel with little transportation cost.
"Our costings suggest we can produce the fuel for less than $1 (€0.70) a gallon around the globe," says Roe.
"The process itself is also eco-friendly in that we produce 7.7 times as much energy as used in the production process.
"Our 'field to wheel' emissions are 84 per cent less than the CO2 emissions from 'well to wheel' petrol power."
GM's interest in ethanol, according to Wagoner, is the ability to convert our supply networks almost immediately.
"Nothing else in the area of changing fuel sources gets close to the adaptability of ethanol in terms of infrastructure or changing consumer behaviour," he says.
"It doesn't require the motorist to change one habit, except use a different pump at the filling station."
Similar efforts are underway to increase biofuel usage in diesel engines. Currently modern European diesels can run on diesel mixed with five per cent biodfuel, but the hope is that this can be increased to 20 per cent.
HYBRID TECHNOLOGY
The third strand of GM's strategy is hybrid technology. This area has been led by the Japanese brands and was dismissed as a distraction by many of the of their rivals.
However, the success of models like the Toyota Prius, Lexus RX 400h and Honda Civic hybrid has forced the European and US brands to take notice and become enthusiastic proponents of the hybrid approach.
Ford already offer a hybrid model in the US while German premium brands are joining in, with BMW set to launch a hybrid version of its new X6 later this year.
The basic principles of this technology involve electric motors that offer support to a petrol engine.
In some urban conditions, the electric motors can take over from the engine and power the wheels directly.
The batteries recharge either from the spare energy in the engine, or by tapping the energy created when a car is braking. Diesel versions are more costly to produce, but French firm Peugeot is to offer a diesel hybrid version of its 308 by the end of this year.
Advances in this technology have concentrated on increasing the use of electric power on motorways and national routes, rather than simply in slow urban traffic.
The biggest development requirements here will be improved battery technology that allows longer charges to be held and therefore more electric power to be available.
ELECTRIC CARS
The fourth strand of the "oil friendly to oil free" approach involves adopting the principles of hybrid power in fully electric cars. Here again the batteries are the key.
Engineers in all the major car firms are working closely with battery suppliers to create stronger batteries that will store larger charges.
Most agree that these batteries will be litihium-ion formats, but the actual formats vary considerably. This electric format works on the basis that - unlike petrol-electric hybrids - only the electric motor will power the wheels.
These batteries can be charged from a variety of sources: a small engine can be used to recharge them, they can be charged by plugging directly into the mains or ultimately from hydrogen fuel cells.
The flexibility of this system suggests that electrically powered cars are the future mode of transport.
It's the source of the electricity that is open to development. According to Frank Weber, chief engineer of GM's E-Flex systems, we can expect to see plug-in hybrid cars start to enter the market by 2010, with batteries capable of providing fully electric power for up to 40 miles before needing to be recharged.
"That may not seem like much, but we surveyed 621 motorists with a variety of vehicles in Los Angeles and found that 78 per cent commuted less than 40 miles a day," says Weber.
"For these motorists, the new E-Flex electric system could never see a filling station for months on end.
"Even those who commute 60 miles per day would only use 20 miles on the small petrol engine used to charge the motor. Our estimates suggest they would be getting 150mpg overall, which is still pretty good."
As for the costs of recharging, Weber says that an electric mile costs just 20 per cent of the petrol-driven mile, based on European averages.
These vehicles are not some pipe dreams or research projects. GM claims it will have its Volt sports car on sale by 2010 and testing is already under way.
After that, the platform of the Volt will be transferred on to other production models.
Similarly, small firms like Fisker in California have promised to have their own production electric versions on sale by the end of this year. Fisker unveiled its first production car at the Detroit Motor Show last week.
HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS
The final strand of the "oil friendly to oil free" approach is hydrogen fuel cells.
The problem with the plug-in electric cars is that even the most optimistic engineers suggest that battery technology will not advance far enough in the next 10 or 20 years to allow for longer ranges that could match current oil-burning engines. Ranges 300 miles or more per charge are unrealistic they claim.
That's why the plug-in hybrids will feature small petrol or diesel engines to provide a back-up charge.
This is, however, a potential alternative source for charging the battery: hydrogen fuel cells.
While they are some way from Irish forecourts for now, hydrogen-fuelled test vehicles are already on the road.
In Norway, the government has joined forces with several industry groups to create a 580-mile hydrogen road called HyNor, on which hydrogen fuel stations are located. Locals have been supplied with hydrogen vehicles for real-life tests.
One regular question is how to supply hydrogen. Byron McCormick, executive director of GM's fuel cell activities, says that significant amounts can be sourced from the petroleum and steel industries.
"Wherever you have an oil refinery today you will have some form of hydrogen plant," he says.
Then there is also the option of using electric power from nuclear or clean energy sources.
"The simple fact is that using hydrogen means you are no longer dependent on petroleum," he says.
The goal remains to take the car out of the environmental debate, leaving it free from a dependency on limited fossil fuels and outside the emissions debate.
• Next week: Making crash-free motoring a reality; plus test-driving the latest fuel cell technology