HONDA Motor Co, aiming to start mass production of fuel-cell cars by about 2015, is developing a system using solar energy for drivers to make hydrogen at home to fuel such vehicles.
Individual production of hydrogen would let people refuel their cars without waiting for a network of stations to be set up, President Takeo Fukui said at a briefing in Tochigi, Japan, yesterday.
Auto makers, under pressure to cut carbon-dioxide emissions tied to global warming and tailpipe exhaust, are seeking alternatives to oil as prices for the commodity approach US$100 a barrel. Honda, Toyota Motor Corp and General Motors Corp have all said hydrogen-powered autos are a long-term option, though they're costly to build and lack a refueling infrastructure.
"Our ultimate goal is to use a renewable source of energy as a source of fuel," Masaaki Kato, president of Honda R&D Co, told Bloomberg News in an interview yesterday at the car maker's Tokyo headquarters. "So we use solar panels to generate electricity and we use the electricity to produce hydrogen."
Honda, Japan's second-largest auto maker, plans to unveil a fuel-cell vehicle based on its prototype FCX sports car on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show. In 2008, the new car initially will be leased "to fewer than 100" people, most in California, Fukui told reporters on October 23.
While producing hydrogen from solar-powered electrolysis would cut carbon-dioxide emissions, it's not yet possible to do it cheaply or in sufficient quantity, said chemistry professor Nate Lewis, an energy researcher at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
"You need to do that cheaply and scalably - neither of which we are even close to being able to do technically now," Lewis said.
Honda began selling home-use solar panels in Japan earlier this year to make electricity through its Honda SolTec Co subsidiary. The panels, priced at 57,500 yen (US$509) each, substitute a thin metal layer for silicone typically used in photovoltaic panels to cut production costs and lower the energy needed to make them, Honda said.
Honda has no "specific" plan to commercialize a home-based hydrogen-generation system, Kato said. Still, it could be ready for consumers within 10 years, according to Fukui.
"We believe this should bring a breakthrough in providing infrastructure for fuel-cell vehicles," Fukui said.
Honda has tested a prototype solar-powered hydrogen station at its US headquarters in Torrance, California, since 2001. The system uses 1.6 gallons (6.1 liters) of water for every kilogram of hydrogen gas produced, the company said.
Fuel cells make electricity in a chemical reaction that combines hydrogen and oxygen, with mainly water vapor as a byproduct, according to Honda.