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Technology Stocks : Ballard Power -world leader zero-emission PEM fuel cells -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkeye who wrote (3785)	2/3/1999 11:02:00 PM
From: William Peavey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

Fuel cells do seem to be in the news right now. I just received the March issue of Automobile Magazine and p.67 features a brief article by Eddie Alterman about a prototype Jeep Commander that, you guessed it, has a fuel cell propulsion system. A photo of the fuel cell is described "Above: The Commander's extra-wide fuel cell dictated the body's 80-inch width Below: The interior is similar to that of the Grand Cherokee but is split by a wider center console." Apparently the fuel cell was originally installed in a Grand Cherokee, but it left no room for the suspension. A vehicle with the cell had to be very wide for the wheels to work. According to Trevor Creed, "[The Commander] is packaged, literally , around its powerplant." More, quoting from the article, "A fuel-cell powerplant is large and complicated. It is, essentially, a refinery. It takes in air and hydrogen (either pure hydrogen or hydrogen refined from methanol or gasoline) and produces electricity. Some fuel cells use batteries to aid start-up, because the conversion process takes up to thirty minutes to become operational. The Commander will get a battery-aided methanol fuel cell from Mercedes-Benz Necar 3 later this year. "No matter how it is fed, though, a fuel cell is exceedingly heavy. The Commander's unit weighs 2100 pounds, yet the total target for the vehicle is 5000 pounds. Power is directed electronically to each wheel, which spares the weight of differential-laden driveshafts. "But the Commander is still pretty darn big. It makes you wonder if cars might have to get bigger, not smaller, on their path to environmental righteousness. The sheer size of the fuel cell would seem to demand it. Unless fuel cells shrink, this architectural issue could guarantee the future of the big car. In a final ironic twist to the knife in the SUV-hater's back, the near-zero-emissions vehicle of the future might, in fact, be an SUV." This issue of Automobile (which in my not so humble opinion is THE best US car magazine printed today) is hawked as a Sport-utility Special [: the future of sport-utes and Reviews of every SUV I figured I'd better give them a good plug since I quoted them almost verbatum. From this piece, it is now clear to me why preliminary efforts had been in buses. The photo of the fuel cell itself, shows a complex work of engineering, in a vehicle almost as wide as a HumVee. I realize the nay-sayers could easily point out the complexities of this solution, but I am excited to see it encouraged in a general circulation magazine. Bill