700 BAR - no i'm not talking about spring break

There are currently two major factions when it comes to hydrogen and the pressurization in which it is pumped into the hydrogen fuel cell car.  Hydrogen, unlike Gasoline, isn't a liquid at ambient temperatures and needs to be pressurized in order to get as much of it as possible into something the size of a normal fuel tank.  Conceptually, it's basically the same as a propane tank that you might have under your grill in your backyard. 

Honda and its FCX Clarity fuel cell car uses 350 BAR - a measure of pressure in metric, which equals 5000 PSI (pounds per square inch).  Many early hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and hydrogen fuel stations, including the one at a Shell station in West Los Angeles, uses this pressure.  Mercedes Benz, in the F-Cell, uses 700 BAR, or 10,000 PSI, which is double the pressurization used by Honda.  Toyota and General Motors, based on the cars I have seen at the Torrance Shell Hydrogen station, also use 700 BAR. 

The theory behind the higher pressures is that you can cram more hydrogen into a smaller amount of space.  Newer hydrogen stations have both 350 BAR and 700 BAR pressures at the pump.  It would seem to make sense that at some point in the future, car companies come to some sort of consensus on a common pressure that all cars run on.  And seeing how newer technology from Mercedes, Toyota, GM and Hyundai are all on 700 BAR, looks like the future may be gravitating in this direction. 

Seeing Double

No, that's not my car. That's actually another F-Cell I saw at the local Home Depot parking lot.  And it's not a press car or a corporate fleet car either, having a regular California license plate, not to mention it looks like the right side has kissed a wall!!??  When you're one of only eight people (as of this writing) in all of the United States who actually drive one of these F-Cell cars, you don't see yourself coming the other way very often at all. 

This car belongs to a guy named Vince and he was the first one to take delivery of a F-Cell, making him F-Cell #1. I've also met Simon who is #4. I am #5. We should all refer to each other by number like the villains in the James Bond and Austin Power movies. 

Carpooling even when you're not

One of the advantages of being green in a zero emissions car is the fact that the great state of California permits non polluting vehicles access to the carpool lane even when you're alone in the car. The whole concept of the carpool lane was to get more cars off the roads by encouraging carpooling and ultimately decreasing not only the number of cars, but the resulting pollution as well. 

Prior to July 1, 2011, certain hybrid cars like the Prius were also allowed into the carpool lane if they had a special sticker.  This was a temporary incentive by the state to encourage motorists to buy cleaner hybrid cars, but that exemption has now expired, leaving only select pure electric cars like the Mercedes F-Cell, Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf and clean burning alternative fuel cars like the natural gas powered Honda Civic as the only cars now allowed in the lanes, other than actual carpooling parties and motorcycles.  

So now with the F-Cell, I'm not only not polluting, but get special access to the carpool lanes drastically cutting the commute time during rush hour.  What's not to like?

Taking Delivery: for a car of tomorrow, it's not all that different from today

So how does one take delivery of a car of tomorrow? Does a big futuristic rig show up at your home or office and unload a car to much pomp and pageantry as you're given an owner's manual that's all uploaded into some tablet device that also integrates into the car's on-board system?  Do the engineers sync your mental telepathy waves that allow you to unlock the doors merely by thinking about it?  Well, not exactly...

You get a call from an authorized Mercedes Benz dealer, in my case, it's Fletcher Jones down in Newport Beach, the largest Mercedes Benz center in the United States.  They get you financed, not by taking a sample of my hair and analyzing the credit score in my DNA, but having me fill out an old fashioned form and faxing it back.  And when the car finally arrived, I drove down to their big palatial showroom that makes those giant Mormon temples look like a FEMA trailer.  And once there, I didn't have a retinal scan to confirm my identity, but was greeted by some pleasant human beings who introduced me to the car and how to operate it.  Pretty standard procedure at this point.

The only real difference in the delivery of the Mercedes F-Cell was instruction on how to refuel the car.  Now if you asked a dealer how to refill a normal gas powered car, they'd probably give you a ride home in a County Services van wearing a tight white jacket.  But with a fuel cell car, things are a bit unique and special instruction on the refueling process isn't just a good idea, it's required by the lawyers at Mercedes Benz.

More on the actual refueling process in a future blog, but I guess the whole point of this hydrogen fuel cell car in many ways is that this technology is going to be sustainable and 'live-able' for the average driver because, quite frankly, it's absolutely no different than the cars we drive today.  We chug along inside these sleek designs made from metal and plastic and glass.  We schlep ourselves, our families and friends around from place to place and we do this while listening to music and talking on phones and getting there using in-dash navigation systems.  And on occasion, when our car runs out of energy, just like shoving hay to horses before it, we refuel our cars with energy.  A few minutes of standing around, maybe getting a beverage and a beef jerky stick at the quick mart, and we're on our merry way again.  And such is life, in most part, with the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle as well.

Welcome to Tomorrow

During the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last October, Mercedes Benz announced that they would offer a limited release consumer test trial of their hydrogen fuel cell car beginning sometime in 2011.  They would allow a few select participants an opportunity to lease an electric car based on their European B-Class cars which we don't get here in the US. Part of the qualifications included certain geographical requirements due to the limited number of hydrogen fueling stations that were available.  In addition, applicants had to explain in an essay why they wanted to be selected so they can hunker down $900 of their hard earned dollars every month for the privilege to drive what could otherwise be called a Pontiac Vibe looking tallish station wagon thingie that should cost no more than $25,000 to buy.

This was a technology I truly believed in to be the real next step in personal mobility and sustainable energy.  More on how a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle actually works in a later blog, but basically, it's a pure electric powered car that uses hydrogen to produce its own electricity.  Unlike a Nissan Volt electric car that uses a battery to store its energy like a cell phone or a laptop, and needs to be plugged in and recharged all the time, a hydrogen fuel cell car never needs to be plugged in and only needs to be refilled with hydrogen just like you would fill a normal car with gasoline.  

Where do you fill up with hydrogen?  Well, that's a topic also for another blog but basically this is the biggest thing to happen to cars since... well the invention of cars itself.  There were many different types of propulsion systems that were experimented during the dawn of the self propelled car, and ultimately, the internal combustion engine won out due to the abundance and relative affordability of fossil fuels at the turn of the century.  And we've been chugging along, virtually unchanged for over 100 years.  

And now, Mercedes Benz was offering an opportunity for average Joe Commuter to lease one of these 'cars of tomorrow' today.  So I logged on and wrote up an essay explaining my interest.  I honestly stated that I'm not a environmental nut that recycles my toe nails and wears clothing made from sustainable Portuguese donkey hair.  I'm just a normal guy who actually tries to stop global warming by eating lots of beef because I know it's not passenger cars or factories that cause the most ozone destruction, but farting cows and the methane produced by their digestive flatulence.  

And much to my surprise, I received a call in December saying I had been selected to be a participant in their trial program for the Mercedes F-Cell.  And that's how this all began.