|
|
| Home | |
| Students | |
| 2008 Presidential election | |
| Arts | |
| Education | |
| Entertainment | |
| Environment | |
| Fashion | |
| Health | |
| Medicine | |
| Sports | |
| Terrorism | |
| Travel | |
| War in Iraq | |
| Click here for Archives |
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.—Imagine a future where cars can create their own electricity and emit no pollutants.
It’s here.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) are the newest innovations by an automotive industry that is constantly trying to cut carbon emissions and reduce reliance on oil. According to fueleconomy.gov, they are not expected to reach the mass market before 2010, but “may someday revolutionize on-road transportation.”
Like battery-electric hybrid cars, FCVs run off electric motors. Unlike battery-electric hybrid cars, which use electricity from an external source and store it in a battery, FCvs create their own electricity, as reported by fueleconomy.gov.
Fuel cells in the vehicle create electricity through a chemical process using hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air. FCVs that are fueld with pure hydrogen emit no pollutants; just water and heat.
“I’m really excited about the prospect of maybe driving a fuel cell car some time within the next five or ten years,” says Devon Masse, 21, a senior engineering student at Western New England College in Springfield, Mass.
“The fact is that if these cars sell the United States will really be able to cut carbon emissions.”
Although the technology regarding fuel cell cars is far from perfect, much progress has been made in the last decade.
In 2000, EcoWorld produced an article on the California Fuel Cell Partnership, which is a collaboration of 34 organizations that are dedicated to use hydrogen fuel cells to change the future of transportation. According to their website, the California Fuel Cell Partnership can boast such members as General Motors, Volkswagen, Shell Hydrogen and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The EcoWorld article reported problems such as hydrogen tanks being too unwieldy for small cars to handle and a lack of a consumer distribution system. Shiro Matsuo, the Chief Engineer for Honda, told EcoWorld that “in the long run, fuel cell vehicles will gain a percentage of the market but I don’t know if they will ever dominate.”
A June 2004 MSNBC article told the story of Intergalactic Hydrogen, a company that converts Hummers and other vehicles from gasoline power to fuel cell power. Cost is an issue-it costs $60,000 alone to convert a Hummer-and the customer provides the Hummer.
Tai Robinson, the company’s director, told MSBNC.com “We need to break into the elite market to deploy this. Once it is accepted at the top level, the next deployment would be affordable."
Car giant Honda may have created that first deployment with an affordable fuel cell car that will be available for $600/month over a four-year lease. On November 14, 2007, the company unveiled the FCX Clarity, a fuel cell vehicle that the company plans to begin the limited retail marketing of in summer 2008, according to a press release on Honda’s website.
Honda boasts that its FCX Clarity, which emits only water, has a 20 percent increase in fuel economy-two to three times that of a gasoline powered car. The car also has a single 5,000-psi hydrogen storage tank with 10 percent additional hydrogen capacity than the previous model-in other words, no more of the bulky tanks that were such a concern in 2000.
Still, with all its improvements, the FCX Clarity is not without limitations. Since there is still a lack of consumer distribution systems, the cars are only going to be available in southern California. Perhaps the hope is that environmentally-conscious celebrities, such as Larry David and Cameron Diaz, will trade in their Toyota Prius’ for the FCX Clarity and will stir an interest in fuel-cell cars among American consumers.
It seems that less-famous citizens across the country are ready to go fuel-cell, with or without celebrity endorsement.
“I really hope that by the time I am ready to buy my first car post-graduation, that fuel cell vehicles will be a more available option,” says Christian Cuoco, 20, a senior at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. “I mean, save the Earth and save on gas. What’s not to love?”
Erik Hetel, 21, a senior at Nichols College in Dudley, Mass., also thinks that fuel cells are the way to go.
“If more companies follow Honda’s example and go with this, I mean really go with it, then I think that fuel cell cars could really take off. I would drive one.”
Hetel adds, “No one wants to rely on foreign oil anymore. I think that fuel cell cars really are the future.”