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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Ford Fusion Sets Land Speed Record
16 August 2007
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| Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999. Click to enlarge. |
The production vehicle-based Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 sped to a record 207.297 mph Wednesday at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, setting a speed record for a fuel-cell car.
The project is a partnership between Ford, The Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research (OSU CAR), Ballard Power Systems and Roush Racing. Rick Byrnes, a veteran Bonneville racer and retired Ford Powertrain component design engineer, piloted the Hydrogen 999 at Bonneville. Ford researchers also are working with Ohio State University student engineers on the Buckeye Bullet 2, a fuel cell-powered racer that is running for a similar world record in the unlimited class category this week at Bonneville.
The Fusion Hydrogen 999 is powered by a custom Ford-designed 350 kW fuel cell system, comprising 16 Ballard Mk902 fuel cell rows. The DC fuel cell current is fed to an inverter, which converts the current to AC, and powers the 770 hp (574 kW) induction motor.
Unlike conventional fuel cell vehicles where only compressed hydrogen gas is stored onboard the vehicle, the Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 also stores 18 kg of compressed Heliox (40% Oxygen & 60% Heliox) onboard in certified oxygen storage tanks at 2,400 psi. The vehicle stores 1.8 kg of compressed hydrogen at 5,000 psi. The use of enriched oxygen onboard the vehicle allows the fuel cells to generate more power than using ambient air and also eliminates the need for the traditional air compressor.
The cooling system is a 400-liter ice water reservoir.
Ford fuel cell engineers and aerodynamics specialists worked together to decrease the Fusion drag coefficient from 0.34 to 0.21, significantly improving the vehicle’s ability to reach the goal of 200 mph.
Moving forward, Ford says, the lessons learned during the development of the Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 will feed future fuel cell vehicle development at Ford with a goal of reducing vehicle complexity and cost, while making the designs more efficient.
August 16, 2007 in Fuel Cells, Hydrogen | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
Drag reduced from 0.34 to 0.21? Why can't they do that with the road car!
Perhaps they got the 0.21 by ditching the radiator, relying instead on almost half a ton of ice water! Heavy, but maybe that's what you need to dissipate almost half a megawatt of waste heat coming out of that fuel cell.
Posted by: clett | Aug 16, 2007 6:03:40 AM
No mention of what this monster weighs?
Posted by: Bob Bastard | Aug 16, 2007 7:37:52 AM
Wonder why most of us are still driving heavy bricks with drag approaching 40 if Ford managed to reduce drag from 34 to 21 on their popular Fusion. Are we being taken for a planned ride in the Oil (energy) consumption path?
Why can't we (in 2007) buy an under 1000 Kg, 5 passenger vehicle, with drag of about 20-22 and consumption of 60 mpg (or equivalent electric energy) at 100 Km/h?
I know that many will say that may be the Prius III and I sure hope so.
Posted by: | Aug 16, 2007 8:16:01 AM
"Production vehicle based"? Someone forgot to put an enormous smiley at the end of that sentence ;-)
This contraption is a purpose built record-breaker with no relation to either the Fusion or any planned "production" fuel cell car.
Its a very, VERY impressive piece of engineering, but with a cheesy overlay of marketing in the form of a thin plastic shell that looks vaguely like a Ford Fusion.
Posted by: Ron Fischer | Aug 16, 2007 8:52:55 AM
Anyone else notice the H2 tank right behind the driver's head?
Posted by: Elliot | Aug 16, 2007 11:46:27 AM
going from 0.34 to 0.21 Cd no doubt involved completely enclosing the front fascia (normal fusion needs an opening for radiator), lowering the vehicle to the bare minimum of clearance and other modifications that would make it unsuitable for normal roads (you'd damage the exterior on the smallest bump or you would have trouble doing normal maintenance).
I am personally more surprised that the Fusion has a Cd of 0.34 to begin with! My shorter bodied coupe from 1999 has a Cd of 0.34 as well...with worse tolerances for gaps in the sheetmetal, no underbody tray, etc.
Posted by: Patrick | Aug 16, 2007 12:10:41 PM
The H2 tank behind the head is a headrest of course
Effective use of space for the production version coming out on April 1st 2008
Posted by: Kevin | Aug 16, 2007 1:40:12 PM
Making cars that use hydrogen as a fuel is do-lally. Energy is scarce, we cannot afford to waste it on making H2.
The graduate trainees in Ford have done a useless bit of engineering, get them to work on making diesel and petrol more efficient, hybrids etc.
H2 as a vehicle fuel is on the naughty step with long haul air travel.
Posted by: John Baldwin | Aug 16, 2007 1:46:00 PM
Its also not Ford fusion because it hardly has any ford fusion parts on it. The motor is in the rear, it has a tubular frame which the fusion does not and a Ford GT transaxle (which is rear drive and the Fusion is front wheel drive).
The only thing that makes this a Ford Fusion is a fiberglass (or plastic) body that LOOKS like one.
I would be much more impressed if it was not built just to make the record, for example if it had real cooling that could sustain itself and if it needed no bottled heliox and could use just hydrogen and ambient air.
Posted by: hampden wireless | Aug 16, 2007 3:06:56 PM
I wonder how fast this car would have gone if they feed all the fuel into a small version of a Space Shuttle engine or small jet engine.
Posted by: David R. | Aug 16, 2007 5:14:59 PM
My wife saw this and she thought it was taken from The Onion. It is ridiculous isn't it. Are we sure it isn't a spoof?
Posted by: John Baldwin | Aug 17, 2007 1:38:18 AM
I agree with Ron Fischer and hampden wireless. Production-based Fusion? Give me a break! Ford must really think green car enthusiasts are total suckers if they're trying to pass off this science project as a "production-based Fusion".
Tubular frame, Ford GT transaxle, a custom designed fuel cell powertrain, and a body shell that *looks* like a Fusion. I really don't care what speed they set, as this has nothing to do with a production Fusion.
I was much more impressed when Toyota hit ~130mph in an almost indentical-to-factory stock Prius on the flats. Anyone remember that? Everything was stock I believe except some aerodynamic mods to the car's wheels and body.
Posted by: toyo | Aug 17, 2007 8:19:14 AM
There is no way this is anywhere near production viable, EVER. Having to fuel your car with oxygen/helium gas and ice as well as hydrogen is ultra-retared.
Posted by: | Aug 17, 2007 12:06:08 PM
Folks,
This "science-project" stuff may sound off the wall, but can actually get us closer to more affordable FCV.
Here's how: Remember that FC is expensive stuff? So, better to have less of it like the Ford FC-PHEV Edge as proposed, using the battery to supply additional transient power demand. Still, you can only reduce the size of the FC stack to 1/2 of previous, since you'll need enough of it to sustain highway speed while climbing an extented 7-degree grade when your battery may be depleted. Now, with Oxygen on board, you can get away with even smaller FC stack, because when you need more power, feed it pure O2 instead of air, and bingo, your may be able to quintuple your output(?), since air is only 1/5 O2 by volume, provide that your cooling system and is up to snuff and your circuitry is beefy enough to handle the voltage and current surge. Or, who knows, you may be able to use less-expensive catalyst than Platinum, hence reducing the cost of FC even more.
But, anyway, as a technophile, I just think that this is awesome stuff. A lot more works needed to be done to improve FC cooling and upgrading current-handling capacity of current FC in order for the likes of this one day to be able to race with the big boys of NASCAR, minus the hemi push-rod V8, he he he.
Posted by: Roger Pham | Aug 17, 2007 11:15:28 PM
WOW!!!
A car no one can afford to buy, can speed 3 time faster than you are allowed travel.
And some people say Detroit can't compete!!!
Posted by: DS | Aug 18, 2007 9:04:13 AM
Hi,
I work for Roush and I'm team manager for the Hydrogen 999 Fusion. I just finished reading the comments on our car and would like to set the record straight about the car and why we did this.
You guys are correct that the car was a purpose built race car with a Fusion shell. The body was the real Fusion sheet metal directly from the Ford stamping plant. The original intent of Ford was to use a Focus prototype with standard fuel cell package. After much discussion we decided that we would go for the lofty goal of 200mph and use that goal to push our fuel cell technology further and faster. That meant we had to design a car that was stable at high speed on the salt. If you aren't aware, Bonneville is very slippery. Friction coefficient is about 0.5. Cars regularly spin out at high speed and flip over. Aero forces dominate the vehicle dynamics dictating very careful aerodynamic design work of the body for safety and low drag. To achieve the low drag needed the vehicle is typically made neutral, i.e. no down force or lift. Yes, we did things to the car to get the .21Cd that are not practical, but we also learned much about reducing drag in our testing and simulations. We ran a parallel program to the race program to study aero in nature and apply what we learned from the race car and the study to the next generation of fuel cell and plug in cars.
By building a 200mph fuel cell car Ford hopes to create excitement about this technology with the general public, and show people that fuel cell cars are not just laboratory experiments, but real car that can be fun to drive. We installed the GT transaxle to improve acceleration and allow the vehicle to reach 175mph by mile 21/4, a requirement to run the long course. To do this we had to develop new hardware and software to allow the 770hp motor to work with the transmission. Ford engineers used special dump resistors and clutch sensors along with a new alogrithm and calibration in the inverter to add a regenerative load to the motor during shifts. Being able to mate a manual tranmission to an electric motor in a fuel cell car will make it more exciting to drive for the consumer.
Much was learned about getting maximum power from fuel cells which should help as engineers work to improve the power density of fuel cells.
And lastly, the project was done in collaboration with Roush and Ohio State University. The OSU engineers built a fuel cell powered Bonneville sreamliner with help from Ford. The project involved technology sharing and team building between the university and Ford....a good thing for the students and for industry. Some of these young, bright engineers will soon come to Ford and other auto companies with their enthusiasm and new ideas for alternative power.
We hope we have put a stake in the ground for others to challenge our record. In the auto industry we have always believed that racing improves our products. We hope to come back to the salt in the near future with even more exciting vehicles that demonstrate our commitment to sustainable power.
Rick Darling
Posted by: Rick Darling | Aug 21, 2007 7:06:56 PM
Congratulation, Rick, on a job well done!
Posted by: Roger Pham | Aug 23, 2007 1:17:25 PM
