Good-bye Gas Tanks, Hello Hydrogen Fuel Cells
As a response to high fuel prices and calls for green energy, many in the automobile industry believe that the future lies in hydrogen fuel cells. Considered to be a cleaner, more efficient way to power vehicles, carmakers have been working for years to bring hydrogen fuel cells to the public, but so far little progress has been made.
A fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with water and heat as its by-product. As long as the cell has fuel, it will generate power, and since the conversion of fuel to energy is electrochemical, the process is clean, quiet and efficient.
Japanese automaker Suzuki has recently made headway with their plans to release a new hydrogen-powered vehicle. After revealing a concept vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2009, the company has spent several years developing a fuel cell and a vehicle built around it that would appeal to consumers.
The latest development in Suzuki's quest for hydrogen power was the recent unveiling of a new small-scale production facility that will manufacture both the SX4-based hydrogen car as well as the fuel cell used to power it.
Suzuki expects the facility, called SMILE FC, to be a major boon to their air-cooled fuel cell systems for cars and other applications.
The facility opens one year after Suzuki formed a partnership with Intelligent Energy, a clean technology company based in the United Kingdom. The joint venture allows Suzuki to use Intelligent Energy’s fuel cell technology under a non-exclusive license that should help accelerate the commercialization of hydrogen-powered vehicles.
For the time being, SMILE FC is Suzuki's path to bring the company closer to producing efficient and cost-effective fuel cell systems for clean energy vehicles. The next step for Suzuki is to scale up the manufacturing facility to supply fuel cell stacks for their vehicles.
The new manufacturing facility will produce the hydrogen fuel cells that the vehicle uses in the future, but a release date for the vehicle has not been determined. Suzuki is also hard at work on a hydrogen-powered scooter, known as the Burgman, which was recently approved as safe to use on roads in Europe.
Full story at Hydrogen Fuel News
