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Gas Powered Fuel Cell Could Help EV Range Anxiety
thecarchik writes "While electric-car advocates may avoid the issue, some buyers simply won't choose a plug-in car that can't travel unlimited distances. That's where the Chevy Volt-style range extender comes in, though the Volt adds unlimited range by burning gasoline in a conventional engine to generate electric power. Now, a new type of fuel cell offers the potential for a different kind of range extender, one that removes the enormous practical problem facing hydrogen fuel cells: the lack of a distribution infrastructure to fuel vehicles that require pure hydrogen to feed their fuel cells. Researchers at the University of Maryland have managed to shrink the size and lower the operating temperature of a solid-oxide fuel cell by a factor of 10, meaning it could conceivably produce as much power as a car engine but occupy less space. The advances come from new materials for the solid electrolyte, as well as design changes, and the researchers feel they have further avenues for improvement left to explore."
Surely, it would only [Big Oil funded?] "ostrich researchers" who'd keep their heads buried in the past of oil-based sources of energy, right?
Even if EV's lead to more uranium-based power stations (eg, until we can develop & build non-nuclear, renewable ones), it's got to be worse to use even "a little gas (petrol)" to drive EV's.
Who's funded this research? Big Oil, maybe? 'dunno, but it wouldn't have been any of the many proponents of renewable energy sources doing it.
Standards-based (ie, compatible across all EV makers' cars) battery swap stations would solve the "range problem" with renewable energies.
Look at the business plans of EV proponents, like Shai Agassi's BetterPlace.com, who plan to help fund renewable energy industries, eg, by buying renewable energy to power their cars, with each 1,000 cars purchased.
(See his talks on TED.com and FORA.tv)
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BTW, I note that only Germany seems set up (by years of good planning rules (eg, requiring nearly "super windows" in their homes & offices) & R&D) to be able to say No to nuclear, in future.
I say: Watch Germany, Denmark & other "renewable lights to the nations" for clear, practical examples of how to throw-off much if not all of our habit of oil-based thinking, while keeping even nuclear energy at bay.