Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars: Transporting Our Futures

 Rising gas prices ~America must import 55% of its oil ~by 2025 this is expected to increase to 68% ~if every vehicle on the street were a hybrid car, by 2025 we would still need to use the same amount of oil as we do today ~America consumes 1/4 of the world’s oil but only 4.6% of the world population lives here  Global warming  Pollution ~ Hydrogen fuel cells produce absolutely no pollution, and pure water and heat are the byproducts of using hydrogen fuel cells  Political Relationships ~many of the oil rich nations are filled with political instability or hostility, and we should look into alternatives to avoid funding such hostility

 Dubai-gas around only 99 cents!  High Oil Prices in other countries are crucial to Dubai property

 Announced by President Bush in his State of the Union Address in 2003  Aims to develop the technology to make fuel cell cars practical by 2020  The U.S has dedicated more than one billion dollars to research

 Both batteries and fuel cells are electrochemical devices  A battery has all its chemicals stored inside, and it converts them to electricity, but batteries go dead when the chemicals are used  Fuel cells work in the same way, but they don’t go dead as long as there is a flow of chemicals to the cell

 A fuel cell is a device that takes stored chemical energy and converts into electrical energy directly  Converts hydrogen and oxygen into water and produces electricity during the process  Contains an electrolyte, electrode and bipolar plates  The electrolyte is a separator and keeps the reactants from mixing together  The electrodes are catalysts where electrochemical reactions occur

Types of Fuel Cells Polymer Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) ~ most likely to be used in cars in the future because it has a higher power density and lower operating temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) ~best for large-scale stationary generators that could provide electricity for towns We will mostly focus on PEMFCs in our presentation because these types of fuel cells are most likely to be used to power vehicles

 Anode › Negative post of the fuel cell, conducts electrons that are freed from the hydrogen molecules to be used in a circuit Cathode -- Positive post of the fuel cell, conducts the electrons back from the circuit to the catalyst, where they combine with the hydrogen ions and oxygen to form water Electrolyte -- The proton exchange membrane, only conducts positively charged ions. Must be hydrated to remain stable. Catalyst -- Facilitates the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen

 The reaction on the previous slide only produces about.7 volts, so many fuel cells must be combined to form fuel cell stacks  Bipolar plates are used to connect one fuel cell to another

If the fuel cell is powered by pure hydrogen, it can have up to an 80% efficiency. It converts about 80% of the energy contained in hydrogen into electrical energy. The electrical energy still needs to be converted into mechanical work by the electric motor, and that efficiency is also about 80%. The total efficiency on pure hydrogen therefore can potentially be about 60%, losing 20% converting from chemical to electrical energy and 20% converting from electrical energy to mechanical energy.

The overall efficiency of a gas powered car is only about 20% The overall efficiency of an electric car itself is about 72%, but the electricity has to be generated somewhere, usually at power plants with generators with only 40% efficiency, so that 72% is lowered considerably when looking at the entire process. If the plant uses a hydroelectric process, the efficiency of the car is about 65%

 The primary problem in fuel cell cars becoming a reality is the cost  In order to compete with the prices of gasoline, fuel cell car systems must cost $35 per kW, but now they cost $110 per kW

 PEMFC membranes must be able to range from sub-zero temperatures to 100 degrees Celsius and still work  Because cars start and stop frequently, fuel cell systems need to be able to go from one temperature to another without degrading, and currently this is a problem

 In order for there to be a market for hydrogen fuel cell cars, there has to be a market that sells hydrogen and delivers it  The infrastructure might include pipelines, truck transport, fueling stations, and hydrogen generation plants

 Hydrogen Fuel Cells need pure hydrogen in able to run efficiently, but there is no abundant source of pure hydrogen on earth  Hydrogen will probably have to be separated from water when we begin to make these cars available, and this technology of separating hydrogen from water affordably is not yet close to completion

 There is one camp that believes that hydrogen fuel cell cars won’t be available in our near future and so we should just focus on hybrids and fuel efficient cars  There is another camp that believes that hydrogen fuel cell cars will make a break through soon and we should keep up the research and development on them

 Our group believes that there are many obstacles and hurdles ahead in the production of fuel cell vehicles, but we should keep up the research and development because we need to find an alternative energy source. Although this technology may not be available sometime soon, we should keep pushing and hope for a break through that could lead to cleaner air.

 Gas is not a renewable resource and as we continue to need it, it is important to find more efficient ways of creating energy

By: Carly Smith and Bridget Ellsworth