Can Water Fuel Cells Help To Save Gas?
Although they are not expected to reach the mass market before 2010, fuel cell vehicles may someday revolutionize on-road transportation. This emerging technology has the potential to significantly reduce energy use and harmful emissions, as well as our dependence on foreign oil. Fuel cell vehicles will have other benefits as well.
The vehicles we are used to driving around today use internal combustion power, but fuel cell cars work in a completely different way. Electric motors power these vehicles. But unlike hybrid cars, the electricity actually comes from the car itself instead of an outside source like an outlet. Fuel cells in the car generate electricity using the chemical reactions between hydrogen fuel and oxygen found in the air.
It’s possible to fuel them using pure hydrogen gas that is held in high-pressure tanks that are stored onboard. Hydrogen-rich fuels like natural gas, methanol, and gasoline can also be used to fuel a fuel cell vehicle, though they will need to be converted into hydrogen gas first, which is accomplished by the “reformer,” an onboard device created for this task.
Pure hydrogen-powered vehicles don’t pollute the air at all; the only byproducts they create are water and heat. Vehicles that run on hydrogen-rich fuel plus a reformer emit a small level of air pollutions. Fuel cell vehicles are suggested to be twice as efficient as traditional cars of the same size and might have even more features that increase efficiency.
Before fuel cell vehicles make it to your local auto dealer, significant research and development is required to reduce cost and improve performance. They must also find effective and efficient ways to produce and store hydrogen and other fuels.
Automakers, fuel cell developers, component suppliers, government agencies, and others are working hard to accelerate the introduction of fuel cell vehicles. Partnerships such as the DOE-led FreedomCAR initiative and the California Fuel Cell Partnership have been formed to encourage private companies and government agencies to work together to move these vehicles toward commercialization.
Since technology is still trying to develop the perfect fuel cell vehicle, they are not yet readily available. However, that’s just a matter of time. Before long, we will be inundated with advertisements and pleas to switch over to ‘green’ cars and abandon our gas guzzlers.
Vehicles that run on fuel cells, like their alternative-energy counterparts, are the next step in vehicle technology. Until now, our needs to get from point A to point B have taken a high toll on the environment. We are just starting to see the effects of global warming and a thinning ozone now. The sooner we start using fuel cell and alternative fuel cars, we can start saving the planet with the way we commute.
Filed under: Computers & Technology