![]() ![]() The Toyotas were leased to four ministries for $17,200 a month under a 30-month contract. The Hondas were leased to the Japanese Cabinet Office for $11,500 a month under a 12-month contract. The other was the Toyota FC HV pickup truck, with a range of 300km and a top speed of 155kmh. One was the Honda FCX four-seater hatch, with a range of 355km on one tank of hydrogen and a top speed of 155kmh. The world's first two commercially-produced fuel-cell vehicles were delivered in December 2002. It wasn't very practical as a car but it was the first step. Whenever all the parts of the Electrovan did stay together, all the extra stuff doubled the weight of the car. ![]() On one occasion, the liquid hydrogen tank blew up and tossed pieces of metal 400 metres away. The electrolytes alone weighed over 200kg and produced brilliant fireworks whenever they leaked. It had two large tanks (for liquid oxygen and for liquid hydrogen) as well as nearly 200 metres of pipes. It was so full of stuff there was hardly any room for the front seats. He and 250 engineers spent two years stuffing a fuel-cell into a 1966 GMC Handivan - which turned it into the Electrovan. The first fuel-cells date back to the early 1800s but it took until the 1960s before Dr Craig Marks made the first fuel-cell car. Hydrogen is an odourless, colourless and tasteless gas and the simplest and lightest chemical element. But it's only the ninth most abundant element on earth and makes up just under 1 percent of the mass of our planet. ![]() Internal combustion engines burn liquid fuel and turn it into a much greater volume of hot expanding gas and then try to extract as much energy as possible out of that expanding hot gas.įuel-cells are based on hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe - making up about 75 percent of all mass. But while batteries can go flat and run out of energy, fuel-cells will keep on delivering electricity as long as you feed them fuel.Ī fuel-cell propulsion system is between 40 and 80 percent efficient while an internal combustion engine propulsion system is between 15 and 30 percent efficient - despite more than a century of development. They convert chemical energy into electrical energy. What is a fuel-cellįuel-cells are like batteries. Author and science commentator Dr Karl Kruszelnicki on the physics and future of fuel cells. ![]()
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