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Fuel Cell Technology for Cars Abridged Version
From a news story by
Carmakers are trying to hurry up production of zero emission cars. They need to meet California state requirements by the year 2003. Beneath the skin of this ordinary looking prototype sits an electro-chemical reactor. It is a hand built and very expensive power plant known as a fuel cell. It’s expected to be running ordinary family cars on California’s roads within three years. Rocket scientists have been using fuel cells ever since the United States went to the moon more than 30 years ago. But they're generally too complicated and expensive for much other than a government-sponsored space program. The California Fuel Cell Partnership says it’s about to change that. Firoz Rasul of Ballard Power Systems says, "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." Eight of the world's biggest automobile makers are learning how to build fuel cell cars in Sacramento, California. These cars work as well as cars with gasoline engines. Other people working on this are from energy companies and fuel cell builders. 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 flammable gas, under 36-hundred pounds of pressure. Manufacturers are confident they can build fuel cell powered vehicles. They hope to answer many questions. How reliable can they make the cars? Can they make them cheap enough for people to buy them? For additional information about fuel cells, look at these Web sites:
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