Around-The-Globe: New Fuel-Cell Initiatives ...
Arik Hesseldahl, Forbes.com, 11.07.00, 3:40 PM ET
NEW YORK - Could the days of the internal combustion engine be numbered?
Considering it was one of the most important advances of modern society, it would take a similarly major advance to replace it. That's what fuel-cell technology is supposed to do--someday.
In the last few days, Japan's Mitsubishi Motors, DaimlerChrysler (nyse: DCX) and Ford Motor (nyse: F) have announced development plans for fuel-cell-based cars that will run not on gasoline or diesel fuel, but rather by combining hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, with the only emission being heat and water, by 2004. The ultimate goal is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. One company working feverishly to develop fuel cells is Canada's Ballard Power Systems (nasdaq: BDLP).
But one of the key problems associated with making fuel cells practical is getting the hydrogen. While it is the most plentiful element in the universe, it's usually found sticking to something else, like oxygen or carbon. Separating it involves extracting it in an electrical process, usually generated by burning fossil fuels like oil and coal. This could undermine the attempt to decrease the need for fossil fuels.
Then there's the issue of distributing hydrogen so it's as easy to obtain as gasoline. Would gas stations become minihydrogen extraction plants? Could thousands of gas-tanker trucks start transporting water instead? It sounds a little far-fetched.
Those problems led the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to conclude in a recent study that hybrid cars running on a combination of gasoline and electricity would ultimately be more common than cars running on fuel cells by 2020.
Motor companies have been talking about fuel-cell powered cars for years, but the first commercially available models are years away. And there are plenty of problems left to work out. The latest announcements from the motor companies are really just baby steps on a path blazed by great ideas and sound science that may ultimately lead nowhere.
forbes.com ... original report
Bye-bye Miss American Pie Drove My Chevy To The Levee But The Levee Was Dry
Truths and Consequences
... Delphi Unveils Tech-Truck at SAE Truck & Bus ... Solid Oxide Fuel Cell for Auxiliary Power Applications (Chris M. Deminco, Tuesday, December 5, 9:20 a.m., Room B110/111)
globeinvestor.com ... more DPH at the S.A.E. conference
points of interest;
Hey has anyone seen the Ford truck with a bathtub full of water, it was on it's way from Saskatoon to Vancouver a couple of years ago. Maybe someone forgot to put the drain plug in, or maybe it froze-up in the foothills, or maybe aliens swooped down and snagged it ...
P.S.
Hey don't forget the Douglas Flush Valve that's what replaced T.J. Crapper's overhead cistern tank so we no longer have to pull the chain, just simply flip a lever. H2S is the symbol for hydrogen sulphide gas; one whiff of H2S within 5 seconds you're a vegetable, within 10 seconds you're dead. Unfortunately p.e.m.'s are not sulphur tolerant at all so if there's any trace of sulphur in the feedstock gas it has to be scrubbed out, and expelled to open air, hopefully not at the reformer in a car, or the basement of your house. |
