The General promises to be first in usability for fuel cells, but not in 2004.
by Paul A. Eisenstein
The race doesn’t always go to the swiftest. At least that’s what General Motors Corp. is betting on as it shifts the direction of its advanced fuel cell program, which is designed to develop a viable, environmentally-friendly alternative to the long-lived internal combustion engine.
Virtually every automaker has launched a crash program to develop fuel cell technology. Both DaimlerChrysler AG and Ford Motor Co. have promised to put their first fuel cell vehicles, or FCVs, into production by 2004. After initially promising to match that timetable, GM is backing off. The automaker’s goal is no longer to be first to market, company officials say, but the first to come up with an FCV that will be no more expensive—but just as easy to operate—as today’s automobiles.
“If fuel cells are going to fulfill their role, we've got to put millions of them out there,” rather than just a few high-priced prototypes, said Byron McCormick, co- director of General Motors Global Alternative Propulsion Center, in Honeoye Falls, near Rochester, New York. “Our internal goal is to be the first company to sell a million fuel-cell vehicles.”
Hydrogen batteries
Fuel cell technology has been around for more than a century, though it only began seeing practical application in the 1960s, as the source of electricity for moon-bound Apollo astronauts. In essence, a fuel cell is a rechargeable battery. Hydrogen gas is pumped in on one side of the “stack,” oxygen on the other side. They are separated by a thin, polymer membrane coated with a catalyst, such as platinum. As the gases are brought together, they produce water and electrical current—which can be used to run a motor hooked to a vehicle’s wheels.
Over the last five years, fuel cells have been rapidly coming down in price, at the same time they’re becoming smaller and more powerful.
“This is no longer a science project,” McCormick said. “The fuel cell is getting to be real.”
That doesn’t mean they’re ready for the road, he quickly acknowledged. The price of an auto-sized cell is still an order of magnitude too high—about $35,000 apiece. Today’s fuel cells are largely built by hand, and are designed to meet demanding spacecraft specifications. That should come down as mass production begins. GM officials hinted they may be able to use high-volume blow molding techniques to produce fuel cells as fast as they can build today’s V-8s.
Another challenge is coming up with an infrastructure that would provide hydrogen for a fleet of fuel cell vehicles. Right now, there’s no way to mass produce, distribute or store the lightweight, flammable gas. So the first generation of fuel cell vehicles will likely produce their own hydrogen using onboard reformers. And this is where GM has taken a technical detour from the direction being followed by DaimlerChrysler and Ford.
Those two automakers are promoting the use of methanol as their fuel of choice. It is relatively easy to “crack,” or convert into carbon dioxide and the hydrogen gas needed by a fuel cell. Both Ford and DC have working FCVs in operation, and feel confident they can meet their 2004 targets—albeit with high-cost prototypes.
Lagging behind
Though it will put General Motors a year or two behind, McCormick said the automaker has abandoned work on its own methanol-fed fuel cell system. The alcohol fuel is too toxic and dangerous, he asserted. GM is instead focusing on more complex gasoline reformation technology. A prototype should be in operation by mid-year, McCormick revealed, on an S10 pickup. Among the advantages of using gasoline, he stressed: the fuel already is available just about anywhere in the world.
A fuel cell vehicle running on gasoline would get nearly twice the mileage of a similar vehicle with an internal combustion engine, and produce half the carbon dioxide and virtually no other pollutants.
During the GM background session, a small group of reporters were shown some of the automaker’s newer technology. An early GM gasoline reformer took up most of the interior of a compact car. The current reformer prototype is small enough to fit in a duffel bag, and the next-generation design, promised by Summer, will be smaller and still more efficient, said fuel cell engineer Daniel B. O’Connell.
GM’s decision not to be first to market appears to have been influenced, at least in part, by its experience with electric vehicles. Its teardrop-shaped EV1 was hailed as a technological tour de force, but its high cost and limited range won few fans among consumers. GM pulled the battery car from production last year—though the basic motor and computer control system will be shared with future fuel cell vehicles.
Like environmentalists are strongly supporting fuel cell programs, most experts believe it will be consumers who decide whether this technology fares better than the battery car. For one thing, it needs to provide the same performance and reliability as the internal combustion engine. Equally important will be price.
“We have a cost target of parity with the internal combustion engine,” said McCormick.
Indeed, some observers believe that in the long run, the fuel cell could prove significantly cheaper and more reliable than the IC engine because it is far less complex, with virtually no moving parts.
Ultimately, researchers hope to eliminate the reformer. They’d prefer to produce hydrogen much like today’s fuels, then simply store it onboard a vehicle. Efficient storage is still a problem that could take a decade or more to resolve, many experts believe.
GM has nearly 170 employees at its New York fuel cell lab, an equal number at a research center in Mainz-Kassel, Germany, and still more in Detroit. They are exploring numerous applications for the technology, including some non-automotive. GM isn’t alone.
Ballard Power Systems, the Vancouver, Canada, company considered one of the leaders in fuel cell research, is in the process of prototyping a fuel cell for home or small business use that would be powered by natural gas. Ballard believes there may be a sizable demand for 1 kilowatt generators in the Japanese market.
Allied Business Intelligence Inc., a research firm in Oyster Bay, N.Y., is predicting that global demand for stationary fuel cell generating capacity would jump to more than 15,000 megawatts by 2010, 200 times the current capacity of 75 MW.
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