ITM Focused on hydrogen car race challenge
Alternative energy company ITM has been invited to take part in an “Eco_Rally” from Brighton to London, using a Ford Focus which it has modified to run on hydrogen as well as petrol.
The company, whose main research and manufacturing facilities are in Sheffield, plans to make the 53-mile journey using hydrogen generated from water, using renewable energy to power its patented electrolyser technology.
ITM modified the factory standard Ford Focus in order to show that hydrogen can be used to fuel today’s engines and society doesn’t have to wait for cars powered by fuel cells to be developed before people can drive cars with zero carbon emissions, using hydrogen.
ITM’s Charles Purkess said: “We need an alternative clean fuel; we need a fuel to replace a fossil fuel; a fuel is a store of energy.
“Existing sources of renewable energy are intermittent and variable; when the wind blows at 3am we waste the electricity generated because it isn’t used or stored. If however, electrolysers were deployed we could store the energy as a clean fuel for whenever we need it.”
“We need pragmatic thinking to allow our car industry to evolve, to achieve long term zero carbon goals.
“We have to consider where our power is coming from, make better use of renewable energy, and reduce our dependency on oil. These are some of the reasons ITM Power are developing electrolysers.”
