When it comes to buying a car, most of the models available on the market are still driven by traditional gasoline (diesel) or electric power. The rest, such as hydrogen cars, wind cars and water cars, are largely unknown, and not many of them are in mass production, so consumers are naturally ignoring them. However, not too many car companies to produce does not mean that no one production, this is not, one of our domestic brands in the field of hydrogen cars, and its frame is likely to catch up with Toyota, hyundai and other companies have been developing hydrogen cars, who is it? It is wuhan grove hydrogen automobile co., LTD.

The latest! The first hydrogen car made in China was unveiled, with a range of more than 1000km.　　
　　Recently, wuhan grove hydrogen automobile co., ltd. officially launched its passenger car brand -- grove, and unveiled its first model. The first new car is a hydrogen fuel-cell car, which officials say will provide more than 1,000 kilometers of range in just a few minutes of refueling. More surprisingly, the new car is expected to be pre-sold at the Shanghai auto show on April 22 this year and will go into mass production in 2020. In addition, grove will show a number of models at the Shanghai auto show this year.

Speaking of this grove, I believe many of my friends are not familiar with it. Let's briefly talk about this brand. Grove hydrogen automobile co., LTD., a subsidiary of wuhan institute of geological resources and environmental industry technology (IGE), is named after the inventor of the fuel cell, academician William Robert Grove (invented in 1839). The launch of the grove the hydrogen car project is formally in September 2016, the company from Barcelona team from grove chief design officer and co-founder of Mr Chris leadership, its former fiat and nissan's design department director in Europe, has also help Volkswagen, audi, the company aims to grow up to 2025 annual sales the largest hydrogen fuel cell car enterprise global leader level.

　In addition, grove's domestic parent company, IGE, USES industrial byproducts to extract, manufacture and supply hydrogen, an environmentally friendly process that further endorses grove's clean transportation credentials for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. From 2020, the company will also launch overseas market development plans.

　　Given the background of grove's parent company, how is the car coming along? From the exposure of the real car figure, the new car body is made of carbon fiber material, the front face line design looks very sharp, the headlamp is connected to the front middle net, the front door adopts the up-lift design, at the same time in the collapse area of composite materials and aluminum alloy structure. In addition, because new cars run on hydrogen fuel cells, they emit only water.

　For now, the grove's first model will complete major vehicle testing in 2019, and the company will launch multiple models over the next few years on top of its high-end technology platform. As the parent company of grove in China, wuhan institute of geology, resources and environment industry technology co., LTD. (IGE) will cooperate with some cities in hydrogen infrastructure. It will firstly promote hydrogen infrastructure in China's first-tier cities in 2020 and launch in large quantities in major Chinese cities in 2022.

　　After reading some basic information about this new model named "grove", I believe many friends will have some doubts, that is, is this hydrogen car really reliable? With that in mind, let's think a little bit more broadly. Specifically, there are two types of hydrogen vehicles. One type is the internal combustion vehicle (HICEV), which is powered by the combustion of hydrogen gas (usually obtained through the decomposition of methane or the electrolysis of water) and oxygen in the air by an internal combustion engine.

The other is the Fuel cell vehicle (FCEV), which makes hydrogen or hydrogen-containing substances and oxygen in the air pass through the Fuel cell to generate electricity, which then drives the motor, which drives the vehicle. The principle behind such vehicles is to convert the chemical energy of hydrogen into mechanical energy, either through the hydrogen in a combustion engine or by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to run electric motors. Widespread use of hydrogen to fuel transportation is a key factor in the proposed hydrogen economy.

Why develop hydrogen cars? One of the biggest benefits of using hydrogen as an energy source is that it traps oxygen in the air, produces water vapor, and reduces air pollution from other gas-powered cars. HICEV is generally based on the improvement of internal combustion engine, which is not difficult to achieve. The difficulty lies in how to reduce the cost and achieve safety, and safely solve the problem of hydrogen supply and storage before it can be launched into the market. Hydrogen is already being used in different forms in high-speed vehicles, buses, submarines and rockets.

But although hydrogen is already used in some sophisticated transport systems, there are three big obstacles to its long-term success.

High pressure hydrogen storage

For one thing, hydrogen has a very low density, and even if the fuel is stored as a liquid in a cryogenic or compressed gas cylinder, there is a very limited amount of energy that can be stored in that space, and hydrogen cars are very limited compared to other cars. Nor should hydrogen escape in large quantities into the atmosphere, which could destroy the ozone layer. Some studies have used special crystals to store hydrogen in a higher density and are safer.

　Liquid hydrogen storage

Another approach is to use hydrogen recombinators to extract hydrogen from conventional fuels such as methane, gasoline and ethanol, instead of storing hydrogen molecules. Many environmentalists are not interested in the idea because it relies on fossil fuels. However, it is an efficient recombination process and avoids the difficulties of storing and transporting hydrogen. Fuel cells powered by recombinant petrol or ethanol have virtually no air pollution problems and are more efficient at converting energy than internal combustion engines (which reduce carbon dioxide emissions).

Toyota's hydrogen Mirai

Second, making fuel cells that provide reliable electricity in hydrogen cars is expensive. Scientists are trying to figure out how to make fuel cells as cheap as possible while still being hard enough to withstand the basic problems of impact and vibration. Fuel cell designs are generally fragile and cannot be preserved in those conditions. In addition, many designs require rare materials such as platinum as catalysts, which may contaminate the purity of hydrogen and hinder the supply of hydrogen.

　The third problem is that hydrogen can be used as a carrier of energy rather than an energy source. It must be extracted from fossil fuels or other sources of energy, and thus causes a loss of energy (because the conversion from other sources to hydrogen back to energy is not 100% efficient). Because of the drawbacks of any energy source, switching to hydrogen would lead to political decisions about how to produce it.

　　There are ways to produce hydrogen directly from the sun and water, through metal catalysts. This could provide a cheap, direct and clean way to convert solar energy into hydrogen. In the past, the most discussed option was to develop new nuclear reactors that would provide high temperatures and electricity, and that would be more efficient at electrolysing high-temperature water vapor. But new reactors must meet the basic requirements of "no nuclear waste problem" and "no reaction without maintenance", and nuclear power is already lacking in economic benefits. In addition, the Canadian company Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation showed in 2004 how to produce Hydrogen directly from the sun and water through metal catalysts. As a result, it may be possible to convert solar energy into hydrogen in a cheap, direct and clean way.

In general, hydrogen has many advantages as an energy source. Hydrogen can be made from water by light decomposition. Hydrogen fuel is a harmless and very clean source of energy. Hydrogen has less loss in storage and transportation than electricity, and its combustion calorific value is high. 1kg of hydrogen combustion produces heat equivalent to 3kg of gasoline or 4.5kg of coke. However, in application, hydrogen storage and transportation, as well as the utilization of solar energy to decompose water for hydrogen production, have always been the bottleneck restricting the development of hydrogen energy. So if grove's hydrogen car can solve all of these problems, it will go down in history as the first and the last, and we'll see how it performs at the Shanghai auto show.