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The U.S. investor magazine "Barron's" regards it as one of the ten most promising companies in the coming years, and describes it in the same breath as much larger multi-nationals such as Google, BP, and Hitachi. |
Fuel Cell Powered Cars
A company known as Ballard Power produces most of the fuel cell powered car systems available today. They are called the pioneers of fuel cell technology. The U.S. investor magazine "Barron's" regards it as one of the ten most promising companies in the coming years, and describes it in the same breath as much larger multi-nationals such as Google, BP, and Hitachi. They believe that fuel cell powered cars will be the future of personal transport.
Anyone who believes in environmental protection believes they can make a lot of money on the stock market and also help the environment. The share price of Ballard since 1997 has shown a 300% price gain, with huge increases promised for the next few years.
Some Fuel Cell Powered Cars Milestones
Ballard is focusing on research and development of fuel cells for cars and buses. Its progress in the area of fuel cell powered cars and buses has been significant, and the following milestones have occurred:
In June 1993, they produced the very first fuel cell powered bus.
In June 1995, they increased bus range to 250 miles
Then in March 1998, they held a two-year demonstration program, in which the City of Chicago tested three buses in normal use. These were the first public transport vehicles that were zero-emission fuel cell buses in regular passenger use.
Development And Costs
Ballard plans to have a bus that will run on methanol and will carry 30 people with a range of 350 miles. The cost of the engines is expected to amount to $250,000, being cheaper by the year 2015, and dropping to $30,000. The total price of a fuel cell powered car is estimated at $30,000 ($15,000 by 2012)
New car sales run at a total of around 30 million units a year. Ballard plans to jointly produce with Daimler-Benz a methanol car with a 70bhp engine capable of 300 miles; the prototype for this vehicle was produced back in 2004. The price for the engine is expected to drop dramatically as the production numbers for fuel cell powered cars increase, reducing parts costs. By comparison, an internal combustion engine costs $3,000 -$4,000. It is hoped that as early as 2012 the cost of fuel cell powered cars engines will be down to around $7,000 - $8,000.
Performance Of Fuel Cell Powered Cars
In recent years, the company has succeeded in increasing the performance of fuel cell powered cars engines. To reduce the cost of platinum used in the production of the cells, the company is moving towards Teflon coatings to reduce the amount of platinum, and of course, the lower the production costs of fuel cell powered cars, the cheaper they will be in the showroom. By using other manufacturing processes for the plates (or the channels in the plates), they hope to further reduce production costs, while at the same time increase efficiency and maximum mileage figures.
Fuel Cells And Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Cars
Fuel cells are energy converters, from chemical energy directly to electrical energy. Hydrogen is the ideal fuel for a fuel cell: in a chemical cell the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen generates electrical energy. Because fuel cell powered cars do not cause harmful gases, they are seen as the transport of the future.
The introduction of new substitute fuels is not a simple project. Among other things, there has to be a sufficient supply of guaranteed fuel. Alliances between auto manufacturers, oil companies, and others are therefore needed. Ford is working with Ballard and expects to have a viable system in place by 2010.
Some people are of the opinion that a closer examination of efficiencies and the necessary infrastructure makes the commonly used hydrogen fuel cell powered cars a fairy tale.
The big drawback to be overcome is that all known systems suffer because they decrease in efficiency, within a few years actually going down to zero. This means that at the end of the first operating year, only 80% of the original capacity is available, a big 20% drop in just the first 12 months.
It is reasonable to believe that fuel cells in small consumer items, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and other portable computers, etc., are very viable, simply because they don’t use much power. Manufacturers believe that through the use of an element known as BZ, a significant expansion of the operating life of the equipment is possible combined with a much lower weight.
Would Fuel Cell Powered Cars Be Dangerous?
Consider then a car accident involving two hydrogen fuel cell powered cars -the consequences could be very serious with a large explosion. With the help of hybrid tanks, or tanks in which hydrogen atoms are stored between metal atoms, this problem has been solved already, but it is still somewhat unwieldy and untested in real life situations.
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