Fuel Cell Cars
Fuel Cell Cars
After the successful journey to the moon, extensive research was started in order to develop fuel cells for use in vehicles. For the time being, the cells were very expensive, especially because of the high requirement for platinum at the same time as the price of petrol was low. Recently, because of increasing environmental awareness and a breakthrough technique that reduces the need for platinum, development of fuel cells has again intensified. All nine leading car manufacturers in the world have or will have operating fuel cell prototypes shortly, and spend several billions annually on development. DaimlerChrysler, GM and Ford will deliver mass-produced fuel cell cars from 2004 or before.
The Canadian company Ballard Power Systems is perhaps the one that has come farthest with PEM fuel cells. Other important developers are Denora, Energy Partners, Toyota and Panasonic. DaimlerChrysler's will reach the commercial market between 2002 and 2004 under the name Nebus. Toyata reports that their first fuel cell cars will be at least 50% more economical in operation than petrol-driven cars. DaimlerChrysler Nebus Figures 2 and 3 show the Daimler Chrysler Nebus, which will be commercially available from 2002-2004. 24 kg H2 is stored in pressurized tanks on the roof and give a range of 270-290 km. The fuel cell's power is 250 kW and and they take up no more room than a correspondig diesel engine would.
DaimlerChrysler Nebus
Fuel cells are superior to internal combustion engines with regard to operational safety, energy-effectiveness and the environment. One will surely see more effective internal combustion engines competing with fuel cells in the future, but fuel cells will out-compete the internal combustion engine because people live more and more in urban areas, where traffic is often slow or at a standstill. When a fuel cell car stops, in common with an electric car it uses no energy, and even at low speed it has high performance. A car with an internal combustion engine performs best at 80 to 90 kph, while it is extremely inefficient at low speeds. On average, a medium-sized car with an internal combustion engine has a fuel efficiency of 12%. A typical PEM fuel cell car with hydrogen easily has a system efficiency over 50%, even at low speed.
Fuel cells can also use reformed natural gas, alcohols and other hydrocarbons. This is done by a "fuel reformer" between the fuel tank and the fuel cell
producing hydrogen-rich gas from the fuel, before the liberated hydrogen is used in the the fuel cell as outlined above. Several car manufacturers seem to want to aim for methanol or petrol as fuel for the cell because a hydrogen infrastructure is lacking.
However, neither methanol nor petrol have zero emissions, and the reformer will require a lot of energy and give a lot poorer power-up time and acceleration than with hydrogen. Methanol is, moreover, very poisonous.
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