Pila Combustible

Fuel cell, alternative to electric car

We cannot end this special electric car without speaking of his great rival in the long term the fuel cell. Today is a developing technology, but has been used long ago. The Apollo spacecraft that took man to the moon, and used fuel cells.

Speaking of fuel cell leads to talk of hydrogen, a very interesting energy carrier, not an energy source, are twodifferent things. The automotive fuel cell will take to masificarse, but end up doing. Hyundai says it will have a production model in 2012, will be the first.

This article is intended to be introductory, so some concepts will be explained in detail below, but as a first approximation is valid. Will try to make it easy to understand even those who know me read some chemical (or know much morethan me). Let's begin.

Hydrogen: "water generator"

Hydrogen is a gas at room temperature, which is not free in nature because of its tendency to associate with other gases. "Hydro" and "genesis" we have your name, every water molecule has two hydrogen atoms. 70% of the Earth consists of water, then is brutally heavy.

Is an energy vector, ie it can draw power, but not change it. Hydrogencan be obtained extrayéndoselo other compounds (as gas) or by electrolysis: Water molecules break much electricity. I wish we could get free hydrogen, would be to mobility problems.

Per unit mass, hydrogen is the fuel with more energy than is known, but per unit volume, is the worst. Is difficult to store in safety, size and cost. In passenger cars the main problem is how hydrogen can be storedeconomically in a short space and safely.

The fuel cell

Hydrogen can be burned in an internal combustion engine, but I will not go into that subject. Another application is in fuel cells, which hydrogen are reacted with atmospheric oxygen to give as products electricity and water vapor, which would be thrown by the exhaust pipe.

It is similar to the concept of battery, but allows constantreplenishment of reagents. Part of the catalysts (materials that facilitate chemical reactions) are very scarce and expensive, which is why batteries tend to be extremely expensive. One of the design challenges that are trying to solve.

As the fuel cell produces electricity, will be consumed by an electric motor, such as electric cars pure. The overall efficiency is vastly superior to a vehicleinternal combustion engines, but is inferior to that of an electric vehicle with energy stored in batteries.

For a fuel cell produces no local emissions, use pure hydrogen. There batteries which use hydrogen-rich fuels, but with other components to be discarded. If we do not want there to dry emissions, hydrogen must come exclusively from renewable sources.

Today over 90% of hydrogen isgenerated from fossil fuels such as oil or gas. Electrolysis requires brutal amounts of electricity, or come from renewable sources, or is deficient in emissions (pollute more than they want to avoid). Ideally, generate with solar / wind and water supplies.

But one advantage of hydrogen is to be drawn from anywhere, so you can wean nations energy. Depending on the procurement process will be moreor less green, more or less economically viable. Much remains to be done in this field.

Versus fuel cell batteries

the paradigm of refueling fuel cells can be compared to existing cars. A deposit can be recharged in no time, instead of hours. It is also easy to create an infrastructure hidrogeneras be served, compared to the "discomfort" to load the car at home or at charging points.

Theautonomy provided a fuel cell vehicle is higher than the electric batteries to equal size and weight. As a substitute total internal combustion engines for fossil energy, is one of the best ideas are valued, but the range is lower than that which gives the oil and gas (equal volume).

It is cheaper to create an infrastructure for electric cars hydrogen powered car. Not only is the problem of...