Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen, Volkswagen
VW unveils a high-temperature fuel cell and says it runs more efficiently
The Associated Press is reporting that last Tuesday researchers at Volkswagen unveiled the first viable high-temperature fuel cell (HTFC) for passenger vehicles. In theory, the benefits of an HTFC over the more common low-temperature fuel cell would allow it to run more efficiently while demanding less from the environment. Typically a low-temperature fuel cell runs at 176 degrees Fahrenheit whereas VW's high-temperature version can run at levels as high as 248. Because of this the HFTC doesn't need the complex, expensive cooling system required by the less tolerant LTFC. Also, the HFTC is lighter, more compact, more stable and cheaper than the LTFC. Juergen Leohold, head of Volkswagen's corporate research, went as far as to say, "we no longer give much chance to low-temperature fuel cells going into series production."
VW says the new fuel cell design could be used in passenger cars by 2020. I wonder if that'll give us enough time to clean our electricity grid and figure out how to make hydrogen in an environmentally friendly fashion.
[Source: Associated Press via International Herald Tribune]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 2:22PM (11/01/2006)
"VW says the new fuel cell design could be used in passenger cars by 2020. I wonder if that'll give us enough time to clean our electricity grid and figure out how to make hydrogen in an environmentally friendly fashion."
In a word, "No."
The only technology available to make hydrogen economically is nuclear (which is neither 'green' nor 'renewable'), and until the laws of thermodynamics are repealed, that is likely to remain the case. Even if hydrogen fuel cells were 100% efficient, you could still achieve better economy, efficiency, and safety by leaving out the hydrogen part, and using whatever energy source you have to use to generate hydrogen to run a car directly instead. Even if hydrogen can someday be economically produced with biological processes, the safety aspects are not going to magically go away, even with the most determined Politically Correct wishful thinking.
Biodiesel is safe, economical, green, and available right now. Hydrogen is none of the above.
The development of a LiOn battery that can do 9,000+ cycles really ought to knock the insanely stupid hydrogen-fuel-cell-as-auto-power idea completely dead -- especially if supercap technology (and/or photovoltaics) should experience a similar breakthrough. The most economical approach to propelling a car (with renewable energy) is likely to be a biodiesel/electric hybrid -- which I hope to see in widespread use long before 2020.
Hydrogen makes sense in applications where energy to weight ratio is the most important factor, and cost isn't a consideration (e.g., rocket fuel). Using hydrogen to power a car is insanely stupid.
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John Rowell 8:07PM (11/01/2006)
Mis-spelled HTFC.
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Patrick McGee 5:45PM (11/02/2006)
Glad to find your Green Car blog,sorry to hear the gloomy prediction for fuel cells, I hope for the sake of all of us that it's wrong. Perhaps the laws of thermodynamics will not so much be repealed as moved over slightly to allow for the cheap efficient production of hydrogen. There may be some new Einstein out there who will soon show us how easy it all was. Is the problem at present that a fuel cell confers no benefit between a power source & an electric motor, because of the extra energy required to split water (for example) to produce hydrogen?.
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Howard Lee Harkness 9:53AM (2/26/2007)
"Is the problem at present that a fuel cell confers no benefit between a power source & an electric motor, because of the extra energy required to split water (for example) to produce hydrogen?." --Patrick McGee
That is only one of many problems. Hydrogen is not only a terribly inefficient energy storage mechanism, it is highly explosive, corrosive, and the most potent ozone-depletion agent ever produced by man. It has absolutely nothing going for it except Political Correctness, which somehow manages to completely overlook the fact that the only present-day commercial source of hydrogen is from fossil fuel.
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GABRIEL1982 1:51PM (9/25/2007)
oh come on .... please be serios... hydrogen is the future! I am sick of inhalling those gases from diesel disasters-trucks... there will be answers for every problem that appears in using hydrogen for cars! wolkswagen allready found a better solution for fuell cells, BE OPTIMIST IT WILL BE BETTER!
BYE!~
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