Hyundai aims high for future with eco-friendly cars

[nationalize the fed]

Last edited Sun May 11, 2014, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Automaker creating a line of hydrogen-based and plug-in vehicles in preparation for 2020s



...The R&D center, which opened in 2005, conducts research for almost any eco-friendly technology system, including parts. Its research in recent years has culminated in creation of the hydrogen-powered Tucson ix fuel cell electric vehicle.

The FCEV uses a “stack” of cells that electro-chemically combine hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity and propel the car. Its only emission is water, which also can be recycled.

Researchers here are now busier than ever after Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo said in the company’s 2014 sustainability report that he will push the automaker to become a leader in the environmentally-friendly car market...

...According to Reuters, Toyota’s new FCEV will use about 30 grams of platinum in the fuel-cell, which is 40 grams less than Hyundai’s Tucson ix FCEV. Platinum currently costs more than $1,400 an ounce (28 grams) in the global market...

edit-add link- http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/Article.aspx?aid=2988770



Hyundai's new fuel cell car will be available for lease in the next few weeks to residents of Orange County CA.

The hydrogen fuel for the car, which will be made from sewage, will be free to the first customers. For some, that's a free car.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3027144/this-new-hyundai-car-runs-on-the-poop-of-california-residents-and-the-fuel-is-free

Honda H20

[quadrature]

1. not enough platinum in the world

one ounce per car...
can't be done

[nationalize the fed]

2. Total worldwide reserves of platinum metals are estimated to be some 66,000 metric tons

Last edited Sun May 11, 2014, 07:27 PM - Edit history (1)

Maybe later I'll feel like doing the calculations. That looks like a lot of platinum, considering a ton is 2,000 pounds

Edit: apparently a metric ton is 2,204.6 pounds.

Estimated reserves of platinum metals

Total worldwide reserves of platinum metals are estimated to be some 66,000 metric tons. Almost all of it, some 95 percent, is located in the Earth’s crust of South Africa. Far behind it, other major countries are Russia, the United States, and Canada. The United States is estimated to have platinum metal reserves of some 900 metric tons.

Platinum in most cases is a by-product of copper and nickel mines and refineries. On the other hand, the largest pure platinum mines are in South Africa, which is also the world’s leading producer of the element. Around 140 metric tons were produced in 2013. Russia, as the second largest platinum miner, produced some 25 metric tons. The United States reported a platinum mine production of nearly four metric tons. The largest platinum miner worldwide is South African mining company Anglo American Platinum Ltd., headquartered in Johannesburg. Other leading platinum companies are Impala Platinum (South Africa), Lonmin (United Kingdom) and Norilsk Nickel (Russia)...
http://www.statista.com/statistics/273624/platinum-metal-reserves-by-country/

If the US wasn't busy doing R&D on the next model drones or wiretapping the net, do you think some alternatives to platinum could be found?

sure looks like it

[quadrature]

3. fuel cells are not new

I suppose a big advance could happen at any time,
but,

this matter has received a lot
of attention and research and $$$.
over many decades.
progress is painfully slow.

IIRC, world platinum production
is something like 200 to 300 tons per year.
and other stuff needs platinum

[nationalize the fed]

4. I'm aware of how old the fuel cell is

this matter has received a lot
of attention and research and $$$.
over many decades.
progress is painfully slow.

Versus how many $ literally given to nuclear, oil and fracking industries? Progress has been slow but only because there hasn't been any foresight. We've all been forced to suffer because corporations only see as far as the next quarter. And the Government hasn't done a thing since the oil crises in the '70s.

EDIT: The Government has made the problem worse because of the dollars and resources poured into nuclear and conventional sources /edit

IIRC, world platinum production
is something like 200 to 300 tons per year.
and other stuff needs platinum

1 pound does 16 cars, one 2000 pound ton does 32,000 cars. 10 tons- 320,000 and 100 tons- 3,200,000 cars. More using metric ton.

Japan car production 8,189,323 It's a good start. By the time all 8 mil vehicles are fuel cell maybe an alternative will have been found.

BTW How much platinum goes into catalytic converters, which FCV's don't need?

Edit:

A catalytic converter is a device that is used to reduce the toxicity of emissions from an internal combustion engine. There are between 1/10 and 1/4 ounce or 3 and 7 grams of platinum in each standard catalytic converter.
http://www.ask.com/question/how-much-platinum-is-in-a-catalytic-converter

So there's 10-25 % right there

[hunter]

5. I don't think there's any such thing as "eco-friendly cars."

Shoes, bicycles, solar/wind/hydro/geothermal electric rail, and sailing. That's it.

There are simply too many humans for this planet to support an automobile culture.

A very low energy high technology transport civilization could be nice.

Walk, pedal, or sit back look out the window, read a book, enjoy the ride.

No hurry. Ever. Impossible to be late for work, you've got a phone in your pocket and vacations or sabbaticals are never rushed.

A week or two it takes to cross the oceans, no big deal.

There's plenty of time in my utopia to live a satisfying, fulfilling, comfortable life. We don't need no stinking automobiles.

[quadrature]

6. same tired story from the 1%'ers...

some people need their private jets
(two per family in one case)

some 1%ers feast on endangered species
flown by air cargo from 5000 miles away.


and they think 99%ers should not have cars

[hunter]

7. I don't think we should have "1%'ers" either.

The uber-wealthy ought to be taxed entirely out of existence.

People like the Koch brothers or Bill Gates ought to live in the same neighborhoods as their lowest paid workers and send their kids and grandkids to the same schools and colleges.

I'd make it impossible to earn more than some multiple of the minimum wage, probably some multiple less than twenty. I'd advocate aggressive inheritance taxes.

Pay your lowest income employees ten dollars an hour, that limits your income to two hundred dollars an hour or less.

That's not going to happen any more than that we quit fossil fuels. Thus this civilization will collapse.

My wife and I are fortunate. We were able to abandon the automobile commuter lifestyle in the mid-'eighties.

Everyone should be so lucky.

I resent every damned second I've been trapped in an automobile or commercial jet. These modes of transportation are tools of fascism.

I can walk or ride my bicycle a free man, carrying no state identity card, no license plate bolted onto my ass, nobody restricting me to certain routes.