The Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE.
The Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE.

Mazda sacrifices zoom-zoom in the search for zero-zero emissions



Maybe it's a case of inferior public relations or perhaps it's just that battery-powered cars have better managed to capture the imagination of mainstream motorists, but one just doesn't hear much about the hydrogen-fuelled vehicles that were seen as our salvation just a few short years ago. But at least two companies are taking a much less travelled road to the hydrogen highway, using the lighter-than-air gas to fuel internal combustion engines. BMW is perhaps the better known with its Hydrogen7, the V12-powered 7-Series that is altered to run on both petrol and hydrogen.

But Mazda, too, has developed hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, but in this case it's using the company's unique Wankel rotary engine. It's an odd choice, since the rotary is known as impressively powerful for its displacement but voracious in its appetite for fuel. But, as Akihiro Kashiwagi, Hydrogen RE Development programme manager, points out, the rotary is actually better suited for conversion to hydrogen than the piston engine. The key issue, says Kashiwagi, is that hydrogen is much more easily burnt than petrol. This causes a problem in piston engines because the hydrogen must be injected into the hot combustion chamber, which means that ignition can occur prematurely.

The Wankel engine, on the other hand, has separate chambers for the intake and combustion cycles so that the raw hydrogen is injected into the inlet chamber and only reaches the hot combustion area shortly before it has to burn. Despite this relative efficiency, however, Mazda's rotary still produces about half the power (109hp versus 210) when fuelled by hydrogen rather than petrol because of hydrogen's inherently poorer energy density.

Indeed, when driving the hydrogen-powered RX-8, it's quickly obvious that much of the pizzazz is sacrificed in the quest for (near-) zero emissions. The engine still sounds as raucous as ever but it's obviously lost some of its zoom-zoom. The upside of the conversion, of course, is much reduced emissions. Essentially all CO2 pollutants are eliminated, as the only by-product of the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen is water vapour. The H2 Wankel does emit traces of nitrous oxides, but that's mostly as a result of oil seeping past the seals on the edge of the engine's rotors, always an issue with a rotary engine.

The RX-8 Hydrogen RE is a bi-fuel vehicle that has an 800km range on petrol as well as 160km on hydrogen. Mazda leases out a few of the cars in Japan (where they've accumulated more than 160,000km of real-world testing) and will lease another 30 in Norway. Though the RX-8 version has only been undergoing testing for about three years, Mazda has also developed a second-generation hydrogen vehicle in the guise of its Mazda5 (known as the Premacy in Japan).

Unlike the RX-8, which has a conventional drivetrain, the Premacy uses the rotary engine as part of a hybrid powertrain. Like the Chevrolet Volt, the car is driven only on electric motors while the engine is used only to charge the batteries. In an odd twist, it is the larger minivan that feels sportier than the RX-8. The hydrogen-fuelled rotary engine still only produces 109hp, but it feeds that 147hp electric motor that has a lot more torque than the RX-8.

Though Mazda concedes that the fuel cell is a more appropriate technology for use with hydrogen because it makes more efficient use of the fuel and is completely emissions-free, fuel cell technology remains unproven, unreliable and extremely costly. On the other hand, the conversion of the rotary to hydrogen fuel is relatively simple and cheap, with only the storage of high-pressure hydrogen and the tribulations of locating a second fuel tank for the lighter-than-air gas as complications.

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The story in numbers

18

This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens

450,000

More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps

1.5 million

There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m

73

The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association

18,000

The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme

77,400

The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study

4,926

This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee

The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre turbo

Power: 181hp

Torque: 230Nm

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

Starting price: Dh79,000

On sale: Now

Turkish Ladies

Various artists, Sony Music Turkey 

How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries

• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.

• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.

• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.

• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.

• For more information visit the library network's website.

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

 

Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

Premier League results

Saturday

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Arsenal 1

Bournemouth 0 Manchester City 1

Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Huddersfield Town 0

Burnley 1 Crystal Palace 3

Manchester United 3 Southampton 2

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Cardiff City 0

West Ham United 2 Newcastle United 0

Sunday

Watford 2 Leicester City 1

Fulham 1 Chelsea 2

Everton 0 Liverpool 0

Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

England v South Africa schedule
  • First Test: Starts Thursday, Lord's, 2pm (UAE)
  • Second Test: July 14-18, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 2pm
  • Third Test: The Oval, London, July 27-31, 2pm
  • Fourth Test: Old Trafford, Manchester, August 4-8

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