{"id":8503,"date":"2013-12-16T08:14:34","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T15:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=8503"},"modified":"2013-12-16T08:14:34","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T15:14:34","slug":"hykangoos-for-the-high-alps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/hykangoos-for-the-high-alps\/","title":{"rendered":"Hykangoos for the High Alps"},"content":{"rendered":"

The French Postal Service has run a small fleet of electric Renault Kangoos for at least the last five years, and has over 10,000 on order for their fleet.\u00a0 With additional orders from postal services in Europe, Asia and Australia, the Kangoo may rival the Leaf or Tesla\u2019s Model S for ubiquity.<\/p>\n

\"La<\/a>

La Poste will use hydrogen fuel cell enabled vans for rural deliveries<\/p><\/div>\n

The little van’s 170 kilometer (105.4 mile) range works perfectly well within towns and cities, but is not nearly adequate for extended drives into the mountains and rural stretches of France, a country the size of Texas and far more mountainous.\u00a0 A hybrid solution comes to mind, but La Poste has come up with a very different type of hybrid \u2013 one that may have an application in aircraft.<\/p>\n

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The fleet will begin testing Symbio FCell fuel cell range extender kits <\/a>on postal routes longer than 100 kilometers (62 miles), with UTBM (Universit\u00e9 de Technologie de Belfort-Montb\u00e9liard) monitoring the trials.\u00a0 Runs through the countryside in the Franche-Comt\u00e9 region of eastern France along the Swiss border will give vehicles a good workout.<\/p>\n

\"SymbioFC's<\/a>

SymbioFC’s modular, bipolar plate fuel cells will help power Hykangoos<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The fuel cells will not only provide up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) additional range, heat from the Symbio stack \u201cwill be used to provide cabin heat and windshield defrosting, removing a significant electrical load off the batteries in cold weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Courtoy, the Industrial Director at La Poste in Franche Comt\u00e9, this innovative replacement for the service\u2019s Diesel vans means, “This will significantly improve our level of global CO2 emissions.”<\/p>\n

Fabio Ferrari, the CEO at Symbio FCell <\/a>noted, “As of today, we can demonstrate that with long range electrical solutions, a viable business model exists for zero emission city center delivery.”<\/p>\n

Symbio\u2019s fuel cells use thin, stamped stainless steel bipolar plates that \u201creduce the cost, weight and volume of the cell compared to traditional graphite plates,\u201d according to its maker, Liten (Laboratory for Innovation in New Energy Technologies).\u00a0 Besides providing a technology suited to mass production, the plates allow the simultaneous supply and distribution of the gas (air\/H2) and the coolant, making for a lighter, more efficient cell.\u00a0 Offering a system energy efficiency of over 45 percent at full capacity and over 50 percent at partial capacity and partial charge, the system has demonstrated these capabilities in assembled cells \u201cwith output[s] of over 500kW and over several thousand hours of experimentation.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/a>

Two 38-liter hydrogen tanks provide 200 kilometers additional range for van<\/p><\/div>\n

Their modular design allows great flexibility for installing these fuel cells, with the Hykangoo vans sporting four cells of 5 kilowatts each.<\/p>\n

The first vans equipped with the hydrogen fuel cell range extender kits will be deployed in Q1 2014. \u00a0With 10,000 such vehicles in the near future, a solid and well-documented performance base will accrue, and the hope for implementation of these technologies in private cars will have a mass-produced viability and lower costs.<\/p>\n

\"GreenGT<\/a>

GreenGT H2 uses same technology as Hykangoo, but significantly larger H2 tanks<\/p><\/div>\n

The advantages of these lightweight fuel cells, including heat in cold climates, would be beneficial in flight.\u00a0 We live in interesting times, with Symbio creating similar, but larger cells for larger delivery trucks and a Le Mans Prototype (LMP) racer, the GreenGT H2.<\/p>\n