In recent times hydrogen has had it's fair share of stumbling block in the race to becoming an actual alternative fuel, the fear of explosions due to it's highly volatile properties, the problem with carrying large quantities of hydrogen requiring heavy tanks to be installed in vehicles and of course the lack of infrastructure to supply the fuel to the world.
However, Israeli scientists and entrepreneurs claim to have advanced hydrogen fuel one step closer to the reality of it becoming a genuine alternative fuel. As opposed to using metal or composite cylinders of compressed gas that resemble the likes of diving equipment, hydrogen is stored in thousands of miniature glass capillaries which, once development is completed, will only be slightly thicker than a human hair.
Dan Eliezer, chief scientist of Geneva based C.En Ltd said "We have shown new materials that can store more hydrogen than any other system,"
The 370 glass filaments are slotted into a larger glass tube called a capillary-array, about the width of a drinking straw. The Israeli development team say 11,000 such tubes will fuel a car for 240 miles (400km) and take less than half the space and weight of tanks currently installed in the few hydrogen cars now available.
Despite a sizeable investment of $10million into the fuel cell project by Generali Insurance, the project is unlikely to gain traction without a much larger capital injection to upscale the development. Once again with Hydrogen, one of the more significant problems is the crucial need for a substantially better infrastructure and distribution network to supply hydrogen to the masses and this will not be feasible without the support of major car companies, which have poured billions of dollars into their own closely guarded research programs.
Despite these hurdles Moshe Stern, C.En's chief executive, said "the electric car will dominate the market for years to come, but the cheap and unlimited supply of hydrogen will make it the power source of the future".
"Within a few years, perhaps a decade, hydrogen fuel will shift the world's energy balance away from oil", he said.
"The real revolution is not the technical revolution, it is the political revolution," said Stern.
"We are Israelis. We know what it means to be blackmailed by oil,"
Tuesday 20 April 2010
New Lease Of life For Hydrogen Fuel Cells In Cars
In recent times hydrogen has had it's fair share of stumbling block in the race to becoming an actual alternative fuel, the fear of explosions due to it's highly volatile properties, the problem with carrying large quantities of hydrogen requiring heavy tanks to be installed in vehicles and of course the lack of infrastructure to supply the fuel to the world.
However, Israeli scientists and entrepreneurs claim to have advanced hydrogen fuel one step closer to the reality of it becoming a genuine alternative fuel. As opposed to using metal or composite cylinders of compressed gas that resemble the likes of diving equipment, hydrogen is stored in thousands of miniature glass capillaries which, once development is completed, will only be slightly thicker than a human hair.
Dan Eliezer, chief scientist of Geneva based C.En Ltd said "We have shown new materials that can store more hydrogen than any other system,"
The 370 glass filaments are slotted into a larger glass tube called a capillary-array, about the width of a drinking straw. The Israeli development team say 11,000 such tubes will fuel a car for 240 miles (400km) and take less than half the space and weight of tanks currently installed in the few hydrogen cars now available.
Despite a sizeable investment of $10million into the fuel cell project by Generali Insurance, the project is unlikely to gain traction without a much larger capital injection to upscale the development. Once again with Hydrogen, one of the more significant problems is the crucial need for a substantially better infrastructure and distribution network to supply hydrogen to the masses and this will not be feasible without the support of major car companies, which have poured billions of dollars into their own closely guarded research programs.
Despite these hurdles Moshe Stern, C.En's chief executive, said "the electric car will dominate the market for years to come, but the cheap and unlimited supply of hydrogen will make it the power source of the future".
"Within a few years, perhaps a decade, hydrogen fuel will shift the world's energy balance away from oil", he said.
"The real revolution is not the technical revolution, it is the political revolution," said Stern.
"We are Israelis. We know what it means to be blackmailed by oil,"
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This is pretty awesome tech - if only they could put it in my micra!
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