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The energy efficienty of fuel cell powered cars is abysmally low in comparison to electric.

I believe your were attempting to say electricity derived from a mobile fuel cell is less efficient than electricity derived from the electric grid and stored in mobile batteries since the only difference between the two cars is where the electricity is generated. Because I can install a fuel cell system (propane or natural gas) at home and charge my EV and it is relatively efficient.

This is a picture of what the car looks like, although this wasn't taken in my area, so I can't say if it is the same car as the one that was cruising around the village. http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/media/1726184/equinox_project_driveway_gm_489x285.jpg

Here is a quote from the EETimes article. "The resultant Bloom Boxes are not inexpensive today— about $750,000 for a unit capable of running a household (about four to six units are needed to run a typical data center). But within five to 10 years the company promises to reduce the price to as little as $3,000" These fuel cell are not being mass produced yet. Please read about fuel cells before making any judgments about the technology. http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/online/news http://www.fuelcells.org/news/updates.html There are many other companies working on similar fuell cells for homes and vehicles that have already been in use for several years.

Yes, it is a fuel-cell. Here's an article some pictures as well.

The Hydrogen Education Foundation believes harnessing solar energy is a key to our worldâ(TM)s energy future and offers one the most promising solutions for hydrogen production. Solar energy can be used to split water via electrolysis, store the hydrogen, and then at off-peak times, such as late at night when there is no sun, hydrogen reserves can be utilized for electricity needs. This cycle creates a clean, sustainable means to support electrical needs, allowing us to use and store electricity that would otherwise go to waste, while at the same time assisting a refueling infrastructure for automobiles. In fact, just a few weeks ago a new station was opened to support the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) day-to-day activities: http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/online/news/articles/2008-03/SMUD-unveils-solar-powered-hydrogen-f. The new station will produce hydrogen on site and refuel the fuel cell fleet of hydrogen cars being used by SMUD. The opening of this station exemplifies the collaboration by automotive manufacturers, energy companies and government agencies to develop a hydrogen fueling infrastructure. To learn more about the benefits of hydrogen, we invite everyone to please visit www.h2andyou.org.

For instance, I postulated 50% efficiency for the fuel cell end of the biomass processing system, but some people are already talking 80%.

I also didn't postulate any liquid-fuel production from the charcoal pathway. Feeding the charcoal to direct-carbon fuel cells yields CO2, which can be fed to algae same as at the biomass-processing stage. The algae produce fats (biodiesel feedstock) and carbohydrates (ethanol feedstock). The only issue is that the products will almost always wind up in the atmosphere rather than sequestered, but that's an issue of priorities. Roughly 2/3 of the carbon winds up as charcoal, so you could potentially triple the liquid fuel output beyond my basic analysis.

Melis launched a company, Melis Energy, in 2001 to try to commercialize a technique that harnesses algae's ability to turn sunlight into hydrogen. In the fall of 2001, the company built a bioreactor containing 500 liters of water and algae that can produce up to 1 liter of hydrogen per hour. A siphoning system extracts the hydrogen, which is stored in its gaseous state.

So, we have the means to make the hydrogen. We also have vehicles (mainly demonstration models) which can run on the hydrogen. Although at this point, I must interject that fuel cells are not the way to go - hydrogen fuel cells use platinum as a catalyst - do the math on how many people in the US have vehicles and how much platinum a fuel cell requires, and how much platinum is available worldwide, then ask yourself if such fuel cells are viable in the long run. Fuel cell vehicles are not the answer, but directly "burning" the hydrogen can be, we just need a way to store it in an easy form to get it in a car. You can't simply put it into a tank made of any material - hydrogen simply migrates through the material (it is one of the reasons why water is such a good solvent) - it turns steel brittle over time. Plus, in order to get a good volume/energy ratio, you have to store it as a liquid - and it is a very, very cold liquid. I can't ever imagine a homeowner having a car carrying liquid hydrogen parked in their garage. Most people aren't even intelligent enough to manage proper handling of gasoline, let alone liquid hydrogen.

So - you need a different storage mechanism. This one mentioned in the article proposes to use sodium, which we already know is an inefficient transfer medium. What else could be used? One company (whose website seems to be down, or they are not in business anymore) proposed to use hydrides to store the hydrogen - their name was Powerball Technologies, and they supposedly had a working product (IIRC, back when they first announced this several years back, GM had a demonstration vehicle running on the system). What wasn't clear was how much energy it took to convert the hydrogen into hydride - it might have been as ineffient as the methods mentioned in the article we're discussing.

Wait - don't we already have a method of storing hydrogen in a dense form, that we use everyday? Remember what gasoline is made out of - long hydrocarbons chains. Perhaps the answer is here? Maybe instead of trying to use hydrogen directly - we should look at methods to take pure hydrogen and carbon, and form hydrocarbons. A system in which you could put hydrogen and carbon in one end, and get hydrocarbon based fuels out the other - could be the ideal method. It would probably take a lot of energy input, but perhaps that energy could come from solar power (ie - a solar furnace or something similar). The hydrogen could come from huge algae bioreactors (if they can get them working better for industrial use). The carbon could come from the atmosphere (CO2). Vehicles could use this fuel (which would end up being something like gasoline - could even be identical to gasoline, maybe - this may help with the answer) - such a fuel might even burn cleaner than today's gasoline, it might even work in current engines. Perhaps we can sequester the carbon monoxide output for recycling back to the refineries making the stuff

Fuel Cell Today - Hydrogen Explosion Investigation

BURNABY, B.C. (CP) - Experts from United States have arrived to help investigate the explosion which resulted from a tanker truck leaking hydrogen at the Ballard Power facility. The leak sparked an explosion and small fire that sent the truck's driver to hospital with minor injuries. Officials from the Department of Transport, the U.S.-based Jack B. Kelly Inc. trucking company and Praxair will be meeting to investigate the incident in the coming days, Burnaby Fire Department assistant chief Jake Reynolds said Sunday he's been told. "It's a matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's," he said. At around 9 p.m. Friday, a tanker moving fuel at the suburban Ballard Power Systems plant backed into an industrial building. The impact ruptured a hole in the tank, sparking a fire and leak. The truck driver suffered minor burns to his face but there were no other injuries or damage to the plant, Reynolds said. Crews let the fire burn out but were afraid the gas could explode again. A nearby golf course was evacuated, along with dozens of Ballard employees and those at a nearby Future Shop warehouse.

Now, admittedly, the driver only suffered minor burns. However, they did still evacuate a nearby golf course and warehouse. And the explosion was triggered solely by the leak (static electricity buildup as the gas leaves the tank, likely).

Now tell me why I want one of these in my car?

Go here and read a General Motors policy wonk defending hydrogen against a naysayer. Fuel cells aren't an energy source, they are a storage mechanism. Until renewables or nukes step in to take up oil's slack, fuel cells will derive their juice from natural gas, which the fuel interests have in more quantity than oil (for the moment).

Along with yet another article regarding Toshiba's new fuel cell, Fuel Cell Today has some other interesting news items regarding Fuel Cell technology worth reading.

Along with yet another article regarding Toshiba's new fuel cell, Fuel Cell Today has some other interesting news items regarding Fuel Cell technology worth reading.

Considering the summary here a good 9/10 of whats in the linked Overclockers Club here's some links from some more normal news outlets

And how exactly are you going to transport all this energy?
They are called fuel cells.

How does this work? Info here!

Human body could power small fuel cells
Power from blood could lead to 'human batteries'

The only problem would be when your laptop would get low on power, so would you!

Hitachi is not the only company in this field. Have a look on FCT Image Gallery for more pictures on this topic.

I hadn't heard of this tech until your post. However, a quick google search shows that the technology was in a very early development in the early to mid 90s. However, it would appear to be far from "disappeared."

Autoweb Article

New Cars article

Fule Cell Today Article

I am a bit unfamiliar with how dangerous liquid hydrogen is compared with gasoline. I seem to recall that this perceived danger is one reason why solid fuel cells are such a popular pursuit (however, this could just be catering to irrational popular hysteria).

See top left of this fuelcelltoday.com gallery page for a photo and some info on an NEC notebook computer with integrated fuel cell, unveiled in July 2003

So why have these companies opted for a methanol-based FC instead of hydrogen? One reason is that it is difficult to achieve high volumetric and gravimetric storage densities for hydrogen stores. However, this would change if a breakthrough occurred in the development of solid-state hydrogen storage materials; and there's a lot of R&D programmes around the world looking at this (including the one that pays me :-) so who knows...

> the FAA has already certified fuel cells

According to this, that isn't true. One of the quotes:

> Because MTI's micro fuel cells are powered by methanol, a flammable liquid, the FAA is banning them for in-flight use

Granted, that's from the last few days of 2002, but the FAA is a U.S. gov agency... allowing something previously banned would take many, many months of bullshit and paperwork. That's even assuming they got on top of it in the beginning of 2003.

You don't need Hydrogen. Use a steam burner or some other catalyst.

If a reasonably cheap extraction process could be developed there would be nothing stopping people running their cars on LPG, Gasoline, or even Canola oil.

Granted current H2 extraction technology is very immature, in the long run it is more viable than expensive H2 tanks

Poking around the Fuelcelltoday site some more, I came across this page which has a PDF report on the state of the market for small portable fuel cells - looks like Casio are close to production, too. Some pictures of fuelcell powered laptops from Casio and LG ...

Fuels cells to be allowed on planes