Industry and Science Minister Ian Macfarlane and Federal Member for Bennelong, John Alexander MP, today joined Hyundai Australia boss Charlie Kim in commissioning Australia’s first Hydrogen Refueling Station (HRS) at the company’s HQ in Macquarie Park, Sydney.
Currently that refueling station has just one vehicle – the Hyundai ix35 fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV).
Hyundai plans for the hydrogen-fuelled SUV to be the entrée to an Australian version of the ‘Hydrogen Highways’ already operating in North America and Europe.
There will be 100 hydrogen stations in German by the end of this year (up from 31 at the end of 2011), there will be 68 in California (37 currently) and 20 in New York.
“Hyundai strongly supports the idea of a ‘Hydrogen Highway’ infrastructure roll out in Australia, like those already in operation overseas” revealed Mr Kim. “We look forward to engaging in industry and partner discussions about ways to further motivate the adoption of hydrogen motoring in Australia and to offering some viable options to our Federal, State and local policy makers.”
Indeed the equipment for the HRS opened today at Hyundai Australia’s Macquarie Park HQ came from American company Air Products from Allentown, Pennsylvania (as immortalized in the classic Billy Joel song ) - the same company which is building those North American facilities.
The hydrogen being used by Hyundai Australia comes from Coregas Australia but there are plans to install a solar-powered hydrogen facility at the pump.
Hyundai says this technology can be made in Australia and the HRS infrastructure project would create jobs nation-wide.
In California, Hyundai sells its ix35 FCEV for an initial outlay of just $2,000 then a monthly charge of $400 which includes hydrogen.
“One of our ideas is the ‘Hume by Hydrogen’, which could link Australia’s two largest cities via the nation’s capital,” Mr Kim added. “It would require refueling stations in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Goulburn and Albury and could see hydrogen vehicles, including buses, running on a busy highway emitting nothing but water vapour.”
Not that range between refueling is a problem for the Hyundai ix35 FCEV. Hydrogen consumption is measured by weight and Hyundai’s hydrogen-fueled SUV has a combined-cycle average of 0.9512kg/100kms – that translates into a range between refills of 594kms.
The HRS looks just like a conventional fuel bowser – you hook it in, flick a lever to begin the flow of hydrogen and its takes around the same time to fill the tank as it does currently with your petrol or diesel SUV (say three to four minutes).
So how does it work? Well the Hyundai ix35 FCEV is uses an electric motor for propulsion but the electricity is supplied from a fuel cell stack.
Hydrogen from the fuel tank is combined with air and passed through a membrane which creates the electricity used to power the electric motor.
With 100kW of power and 300Nm of torque driving the front wheels directly (no transmission), the Hyundai ix35 FCEV is surprisingly fast – zero to 100km/h in 12.5 seconds in fact.
And being an electric car it is silent tin operation.
Best of all – only water vapour is emitted from the exhaust.
Unlike the electricity used to re-charge conventional electric cars – which in Australia most likely comes from a fossil fuel-burning source – hydrogen, the world’s most common element, can be produced from water using a variety of energy sources including solar and wind power.
In fact Hyundai is already starting work on its Sydney HRS to make it solar-powered.
But what of FCEV vehicles themselves. Are the tanks safe?
Yes because the Hyundai ix35 FCEV has already passed the demanding NHTSA test in North America – tougher than Euro NCAP and the local ANCAP standards.
The hydrogen tank is made from aluminium and is lined with carbon-fibre reinforcement. It has been subject to burst tests, drop tests, crash tests, fire tests and has even been shot with guns.
Hyundai began manufacturing the ix35 FCEV in February 2013 and it is currently only made in left-hand-drive. It is the fourth generation of Hyundai’s FCEV technology (the fifth generation will debut in 2018) and the ix35 FCEV was put through the same rigorous pre-production testing as a petrol or diesel SUV – that’s around 4.0-million kilometers in extreme conditions including 50⁰C hot weather testing in Death Valley, Nevada.
Of course this is all pioneering stuff but Hyundai says it is committed to making hydrogen fuel cell vehicles part of its long term Australian plans.
“This (the Hyundai ix35 FCEV) is the first zero emissions fuel cell passenger vehicle to be brought to Australia, an it’s another step towards diversifying Australia’s future transport fuel mix,” Mr Macfarlane said. “These Hyundai Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles demonstrate the potential of hydrogen to fuel an environmentally sustainable transport option.”
