Hydrogen Fuel Cells

International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Developments

New developments in hydrogen and fuel cells continue as several countries like Canada, Japan, Korea and Australia are a significant part of the discoveries in this sector.

[br]In July 2008, the government of Canada announced its plans to invest $1 million to develop and commercialize hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and services. The funding is meant for HFCC (Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Canada) to execute a five-year strategic plan to stimulate further growth and create new job growth possibilities for Canadians in the fuel cell sector.

Again in July 2008, Japan launched ambitious initiatives to develop fuel cell use to power private homes. Panasonic conducted extensive field testing in Japan before rolling out the latest polymer electrolyte fuel-cell co-generators that will not only generate electricity but will heat water too and power a home’s heating and air-conditioning requirements. It is estimated that this device would result in an average reduction of 22% in energy consumption and 12% in carbon dioxide emissions will take place vis-à-vis the conventional systems. In fact, this will place Japan at the forefront of power generation in the coming years.

In August 2008, the clean energy debate sparked off a potential breakthrough in Korea. This was spearheaded by a research team led by Lee Huen of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology along with Kang Young-soo from the Sogang University. Their discovery is that icy organic hydrates will not only help to create hydrogen atoms but will also trap these. This means that freezing water using a small quantity of organic matter will create a nanometer of space that is vacant. In this space, it will be possible to store hydrogen atoms safely. Storing hydrogen, which is basically a clean energy source, will be eco-friendly and economical if this method is utilized.

[br]Another discovery took place at the Australian Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at the Monash University. In August 2008, a new cathode was developed by Professor Maria Forsythe. The conventional method of powering green cars is expensive as it uses fuel cells that have a cathode containing platinum nanoparticles. The amount of platinum that a passenger car typically requires is worth about $3,500 to $4,000, which makes up a major chunk of the fuel cell cost.

The new cathode is made from a conducting polymer termed as PEDOT. What this implies is that cathode material for green cars will now cost only around $700 and will be more stable than platinum ones. Further, this new cathode can be used in zinc air batteries, which are currently in the development phase to facilitate the storage of energy in cars.