Building Longer-Lived Fuel-Cell Stacks

An anonymous reader writes "Ballard Power Systems tells Wired that they have built a hydrogen fuel-cell stack that runs uninterrupted for 20,000 hours straight. But DuPont's Nafion membranes are very delicate, which makes the roadworthiness of fuel cells an issue."

Comments

UPS

[Anonymous Coward]

this would make a cool UPS then

You're forgetting the major problem

[Gay Nigger]

Forget about fuel cell membranes being fragile, the real problem is in getting the fuel to the cell in the first place.

First of all, there's the huge problem of how you're supposed to store hydrogen onboard your car. I've seen several proposals, but they all have their drawbacks (fuel too heavy, tank required too heavy, too explosive, too dangerous in a crash, etc.). It seems that nobody's come up with a reasonable solution to this problem.

Secondly, there's the problem of fuel distribution. Unless and until there's some way to hook up a fair number of gas stations with a hydrogen fuel supply that these cars can use, nobody's going to buy into fuel cells being used for transportation. Of course, along with this problem is the one of how such an infrastructure upgrade will be financed in the first place without a demonstration of existing demand. The only way I can really see this chicken-and-egg problem being overcome is massive government investment in infrastructure upgrades. Sorry, libertarians, but the free market is going to fail here.

So, basically, we have a long way to go (if we ever even get there at all) before we see cars powered by fuel cells in general use. Until then, they're mostly a curiosity (and a very expensive one, at that.)

Re:You're forgetting the major problem

[2nd Post!]

It's not so difficult; one of the proposals I've seen is to use GAS as the hydrogen source, since gasoline is a hydrogen rich hydrocarbon chain.

Of course ultimately you want a hybrid fuel cell electric vehicle; battery and electric motor for regenerative braking and to maintain optimal efficiency during operation, fuel cell for optimum extraction of energy from fuel source and to provide energy to the motor, and gasoline for it's high storage density; yes, yes, gas *is* a limited resource, but until technology finds a better solution, this combination will help maximize our existing stock; we could possibly use biodesiel, corn-ethanol, and other similar fuels in this system.

only 20,000 hours?

[Horny Smurf]

That's 2.25+ years. I'm wondering if they've been tested for the last 2 years, or if it just looks good on paper.

Re:It's still progress

[NYTrojan]

Not all fuel cells are nearly so fragile. I work for a company that produces military equipment. We researched fuel cell applications and in a demonstration actually put a bullet through one. They can be made to survive.

Re:Fuel Cells

[windex]

You would think, being as it's VERY simple to split oxygen and hydrogen, that someone would eventually build a giant solar array in the middle of the ocean, being as salt makes a good catalyst... but no. :)