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General Motors is turning a Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck chassis into a iii-ton rolling testbed for hydrogen fuel cell propulsion for the military. Unveiled Monday in Washington at the Ground forces of the USA (AUSA) conference, this i-off vehicle will be used to decide how much the Ground forces likes a vehicle that produces no engine racket, has no rut signature, can go on or off-route, and provides 25-50 kilowatts of electric power.

General Motors over the years has invested more than $3 billion in fuel-cell inquiry and development. Information technology believes in that location'southward room for fuel cells in an era when at that place's more than focus on electric vehicles and hybrids. Other automakers, including Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota, are also pursuing fuel cell propulsion. The fuel cell converts hydrogen stored on board with the oxygen in the air, producing electricity (lots) and water (a couple gallons an hour).

H2 stands for hydrogen, non Hummer

2017-Chevrolet-Colorado-ZH2-frontseatsThe vehicle is the Chevrolet Colorado ZH2, where H2 stands for hydrogen. Ignore that at that place once as a vehicle called the Hummer H2 and General Motors for a fourth dimension owned Hummer. Nonetheless, this is a croaking vehicle that has been resized and reinforced: It measures 211 inches long, 85 inches wide, and 80 inches tall, with 12 inches of ground clearance and weighing 6038 pounds, or 7338 pounds fully loaded. A stock Chevrolet Colorado midsize pickup measures 212 or 225 inches long (depending on cab configuration) and weighs 4000 to 4700 pounds.

Inside, at that place are 4 custom Recaro seats, each with a multi-point harness equally on race cars or military aircraft. The front looks like a stock Colorado. The dorsum seat is snug, especially with a bar installed simply behind the front seats at shoulder height to secure the front end harnesses. Instead of a rear window, there's a rear-facing camera forth with traditional side mirrors. Development was a joint project between GM and TARDEC, the United states of america Army'southward Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Applied science Center. TARDEC is the country'due south testing lab for avant-garde automotive technology used by the military, including tanks and other armored vehicles.

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Stealth reconnaissance and backup power

According to Paul Rogers, manager of TARDEC, "Fuel cells have the potential to expand the capabilities of Army vehicles significantly through quiet functioning, exportable power and solid torque performance." The Army envisions a vehicle that could be used for "silent watch" patrols with no engine dissonance and no significant heat signature from the exhaust compared to a combustion engine vehicle. The Colorado prototype is not, notwithstanding, a straight replacement for the armed services'southward Humvee; that volition be the Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which is significantly larger than the ZH2 and the Humvee.

The electric bulldoze delivers its maximum torque (ability) at 0 mph, an advantage in low speed operation. That is an attribute of any kind of electric drive, whether information technology's powered by a storage battery, a generator, or a fuel cell. A modest plus for the fuel cell Colorado is that the process of turning hydrogen plus oxygen in the air into electricity is that it produces about 2 gallons of pure water per hour that could be used by the crew for drinking.

A bigger plus is the power inverter in the cargo bay. It produces 25,000 watts continuously and can peak at l,000 watts (50 kW). It could power an encampment without the noise or heat signature of a diesel generator. But at the full 25-kW load, the fuel cell would only provide two hours of power earlier refueling the vehicle. At a reduced output of v kW (two 20-amp 120-volt circuits), information technology would run 8.4 hours. A m-dollar gasoline generator could also provide 5 kW, albeit with a lot of noise and shutdowns to refuel every 4-6 hours.

GM notes the refueling a fuel cell vehicle takes roughly as long as a petroleum based vehicle — a couple minutes, whereas EVs take hours to recharge.

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How information technology works

Three tanks containing four kilos of gaseous hydrogen are under the cargo bay. The tanks are wrapped in multiple layers of carbon fiber and can withstand the affect of a .fifty-cal round, says Rogers. The fuel cell that converts the hydrogen to electrons plus h2o fills upward much of the engine bay. Newer versions would be smaller.

The electric motor driving the wheels sits where the transmission would be on a combustion engine vehicle. Information technology drives all four wheels. At that place is besides a xvi-kWh lithium ion battery on board, nearly the size of the bombardment on the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt. It provides extra acceleration and should have the ability to propel the ZH2 20 miles or so without invoking fuel cell power.

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Worthy exception to the one-fuel policy?

TRD_8311 FINALFor the past 25 years, near all American vehicles used in tactical gainsay situations burn a single fuel called JP-8 (JP for jet propellant): tanks, helicopters, transport vehicles. JP-8 is effectively the aforementioned as kerosene, diesel fuel, jet fuel, or home heating oil, plus some added icing and corrosion inhibitors. It doesn't take hold of fire as easily as gasoline, has about x% more than free energy content, and simplifies logistics. A helicopter, a tank, and an Ground forces field stove can be topped off from the same fuel bladder or fuel truck.

If the GM fuel cell project is to succeed, it volition have to bear witness that its attributes, particularly silent operation and no heat signature, are worth the logistics of storing and transporting hydrogen under high pressure, or bringing into the field reformers – the systems that strip hydrogen from (typically) natural gas into natural hydrogen that is so compressed. The feedstock to produce hydrogen could also be ethanol, propane, gasoline, or even JP-8. It could also be something environmentally friendly such as biomass. The reforming process consumes free energy, which has been a drawback when proposed as a large scale solution, such as for moving the country's automobile armada to fuel cells. There is considerable give-and-take about the end-to-cease efficiency (carbon neutrality) of fuel cells as long as the hydrogen is produced from carbon-based stock such every bit natural gas.

GM says the test vehicle would get a fleck less than 200 miles of driving range from the fuel cell. Only over time, with newer fuel cells, the range could double. Some of the Colorado gear GM is using isn't the absolute latest engineering, just that'southward intentional, because information technology has already been certified and GM wants to spend the next year testing, not waiting for approvals then hasty testing.

According to GM, information technology will work on scale testing into early 2022 at its Milford (MI) proving ground, and then turn it over to the Ground forces for a year of field testing. GM and TARDEC have fuel cell evolution labs 20 miles apart in Michigan. Charlie Freese, executive director of GM Global Fuel Cell Activities, said, "Over the adjacent year, nosotros expect to acquire from the Army the limits of what a fuel cell propulsion organization can do when really put to the exam."

We're doing a special Rolling Update series this calendar week on emerging car tech; stay tuned for more in-depth coverage every bit the week goes on.