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Fact Sheet on
Fuel Cells
THE
BREAKTHROUGH: A gasoline-powered technology that would allow you to double
the fuel efficiency of a car and emit half the greenhouse gases and virtually
no other air pollution. For the first time, gasoline was used to produce
electricity from a pollution-free fuel cell, allowing the use of the existing
gasoline infrastructure. Previously, fuel cells have been powered by hydrogen
or methanol, which are less convenient for use in cars.
The Department of Energy, together with
Los Alamos National Laboratory, and A.D. Little, have developed a breakthrough
fuel processor, which can extract hydrogen from gasoline and other fuels such
as ethanol and natural gas. Last week, this fuel processor was combined with a
fuel cell from Plug Power to demonstrate for the first time that a fuel cell
electric car could be fueled by gasoline or ethanol. This eliminates the
limited driving range and lengthy recharging times associated with electric
cars that run on batteries.
WHAT IS A FUEL CELL: The fuel
cell converts the chemical energy of a fuel directly into usable electricity
and heat without combustion. Fuel cells are similar to batteries in that both
produce a direct current by means of an electrochemical process, but fuel
cells can operate indefinitely as long as fuel is supplied to them. Fuel cells
can provide power for cars and other applications, such as electricity and hot
water for buildings.
The Department of Energy working with
its partners has brought down the cost of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel
cells by a factor of twenty in the last ten years. Continued R&D, coupled
with the economies of scale from mass production of fuel cells as they enter
the marketplace, should allow us to maintain this pace of cost reduction for
another decade.
PARTNERSHIP FOR A NEW GENERATION OF
VEHICLES (PNGV): The fuel cell breakthrough was accomplished as part of
President Clinton’s PNGV initiative, an innovative partnership between the
government, the national laboratories, the big three automakers, and their
suppliers. PNGV’s goal is to develop a family-sized vehicle with triple the
fuel efficiency of today’s cars, without compromising cost or convenience.
POTENTIAL GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTIONS:
One-third
of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions comes from the transportation
sector, primarily cars. Fuel cell technology alone can directly double fuel
efficiency and cut carbon dioxide emissions in half. In combination with other
PNGV advances, such as lightweight materials and regenerative breaking, fuel
cells will allow a tripling of fuel efficiency and a further reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions. Powering the fuel cell with renewable fuels, such as
ethanol, could eliminate automotive greenhouse gas emissions entirely in the
long run. The buildings sector also generates one-third of the nation’s
emissions of carbon dioxide. A building that uses the electricity and hot
water from a fuel cell fueled by natural gas would have about half of the
greenhouse gas emissions of the average building today. Plug Power expects to
introduce fuel cells for homes and other buildings in 2000 that will provide
electricity for less than the current residential rate. By 2010, fuel cells in
buildings could be providing emissions savings of five million metric tons of
carbon.
U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
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