As was just pointed out on this very blog the other day, the Recreational Vehicle (RV) market has been hit extremely hard by the recent rising fuel prices. As you have probably noticed yourself, diesel prices have seen rather unprecedented increases, and it's these large and powerful vehicles which are often used to pull trailers. Manufacturers of RVs which are not powered themselves can do little when it comes to increasing the efficiency of the vehicle doing the heavy lifting, but they can lower the weight of the trailer itself, which, of course, will only help when it comes to overall fuel efficiency. To that end, Pilgrim International has created two new lines which rid the trailer of wood structures and replace them with lighter-weight composites. Though RVs have been using fiberglass composites for years, most of the structure was still made from wood and steel. In one case, the structure was lightened so much that its steel chassis could be lightened by six-hundred pounds. We'd expect to see more companies follow in the path of Pilgrim when it comes to the lightening of the load.

Quantum Fuel Systems has announced that the U. S. Department of Energy has selected their project to develop next-generation hydrogen storage tanks with partner Boeing. Their target is to manufacture hydrogen storage tanks from composite materials that can withstand high pressure but, and here's an idea, remain affordable.

Quantum has expertise in hydrogen systems and storage devices, while Boeing has a long-time tradition of working with composite manufacturing technologies for the aerospace industry. Their goal is a high speed composite processing technique that is cheap enough for mass production. Should they figure such a process out, it will be validated by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

[Source: Quantum Technologies]

Yesterday, PhysOrg reported on the recently published fuel cell research of two Los Alamos scientists, Rajesh Bashyam and Piotr Zelenay, in the scientific journal Nature. Searching for a low-cost alternative to platinum, the duo developed a composite consisting of cobalt, polymer and carbon. The new catalysts weren't able to produce as much electrical energy as its platinum-based counterpart, however, the composite exhibited "exceptional performance stability" during a 100-hour test session.

Bashyam and Zelenay are continuing their research on a number of other composites while they also hope to contribute to one of the lab's larger projects of increasing current output from fuel cells.

It's great to hear about developments in the advancement of fuel cell research. Now, if we could only figure out that pesky problem of where to get the hydrogen.

[Source: PhysOrg]