Fuel cell cars closer to hitting the road

Car builders and energy companies are working to make hydrogen fuel cells as efficient as regular gasoline engines

November 3, 2000
Web posted at: 3:36 PM EST (2036 GMT)

From Don Knapp
CNN Correspondent

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) -- The same technology that provided power to Apollo astronauts more than three decades ago could fuel family sedans on California roads within three years.

Fuel cells are generally too complicated and expensive for much other than government-sponsored programs like NASA's Apollo missions to the moon

The California Fuel Cell Partnership says it is about to change that with its clean post-petroleum power supply.

"A fuel cell, very simply described, is a power generator. It makes electricity. It makes electricity on demand and it makes it through the combination of hydrogen and oxygen," said Firoz Rasul of Ballard Power Systems.

The one electron of each hydrogen atom attempts to pass through a fuel cell membrane to unite with an oxygen atom. The membrane allows only the hydrogen's proton to pass through, forcing the electron to scurry around the membrane to catch up with the proton on the other side. The activity creates electricity, water and heat -- but no exhaust emissions.

Fuel cell cars have to be filled up at special pump stations that store hydrogen under 3,600 pounds of pressure

Eight of the world's biggest automobile makers along with energy companies and fuel cell builders will work side by side in a Sacramento, California, center to learn how to build fuel cell vehicles that work as well as cars with gasoline engines.

"We still have technical challenges getting this extremely complex system to work properly, the way customers expect it to work," said John Wallace of the Ford Motor Co.

There are challenges in using new fuels and providing the new fuel infrastructure. And before fuel cell vehicles hit the road, there will have to be a network of hydrogen stations that will allow drivers to fill up with the gas, which is flammable and must be stored under 3,600 pounds of pressure.

Manufacturers are confident they can build fuel cell powered vehicles. The questions they hope to answer at the center: How reliable can they make them? And can they make them cheap enough for people to buy them?

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NASA
California Fuel Cell Partnership
Ballard Power Systems
Ford Motor Company

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