Since you seem to have run a long thread on energy issues, I assumed you would be familiar with fuel-cells. Basically, it involves a semi-permeable membrane, combined with liquid hydrogen, that produces electricity and water (as waste). Newer versions can run on a variety of substances, including gasoline.
Here's an excerpt from a NYTimes article (email me for the whole thing):
The Great Green Hope; Are Fuel Cells the Key to Cleaner Energy?
By ANTHONY DePALMA ... It is a fuel cell -- a flimsy-looking tablet about a foot across and no thicker than a computer diskette, which experts say may hold at least a partial answer to some of the world's most troubling energy problems.
''They may have the Holy Grail,'' said Roland Hwang, head of transportation programs for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Berkeley, Calif. ''The innovation we have seen from them over the last five years has just blown us away.''
For years, Ballard has been a leader in fuel cells, which create electricity not by burning fuel but by the process of chemically rearranging the fuel's molecules to produce current with no emissions but water. ... International Fuel Cells has already installed 95 stationary power plants of 200 kilowatts each, the longest-running of which has been in service five years. The company has also developed a simpler design than Ballard's for ridding the automobile fuel cell of its waste water. And others have already put fuel cells in cars and submarines.
Last year, the Toyota Motor Corporation presented a fuel-cell vehicle that did not use a Ballard cell and was based on an unusual hydrogen storage system. At the Frankfurt Auto Show in September, Toyota introduced another fuel-cell car, this one based on carrying the hydrogen in methanol.
While even its rivals have been impressed by Ballard, some claims have been hard to believe. How, some ask, could a handful of engineers at Ballard so drastically reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of the membrane that is at the heart of Ballard's success when industry leaders like W. L. Gore & Associates, maker of Goretex, have not made similar claims? Others suspect some degree of hype by a small company that needs to catch the eye of investors.
There are still plenty of obstacles to mass-producing a system that could someday replace, or at least compete head to head, with the internal combustion engine. One of the biggest is simply deciding which fuel to use and how to supply it. This debate pits fuel-cell supporters against big oil companies, since the fuel of choice is pure hydrogen, which does not come from an oil well but can be derived from methane and natural gas. ... Still, most top auto companies are rushing forward with fuel-cell cars. Besides Daimler's Mercedes division, the General Motors Corporation, the Ford Motor Company, the Chrysler, Corporation, the Nissan Motor Company, the Honda Motor Company, Volkswagen A.G. and Volvo A.B. have all bought Ballard fuel cells for their research.
Some, like Ford, are sticking with hydrogen gas in tanks, while others use liquid methanol. Chrysler is working on a fuel cell that runs on gasoline. ... Ferdinand Panik, senior vice president at Daimler-Benz, said in a telephone interview from Germany that he had a chance to drive the fuel-cell-powered car in Frankfurt. ''Frankly, it was terrible,'' he said. The cell fit in the floor cavity, but the methanol reformer, which liberates hydrogen gas from the methanol, took up the whole back seat. But at the pace Mercedes is moving, with full production planned for 2004, such problems should be cleared up soon. ... Any high school chemistry student who has run an electrical charge through a beaker of water to separate hydrogen molecules from oxygen has been introduced to fuel cells, but in reverse. That is, if electricity causes water to split into hydrogen and oxygen, then combining hydrogen with oxygen creates electricity.
Simply put, a fuel cell isolates the hydrogen, then combines it with oxygen to produce power, and Ballard found a way to vastly increase the amount of power produced. To capitalize on that discovery, the founder, Geoffrey Ballard, took the company public in 1989. A new chief executive, Firoz Rasul, was found, and shortly afterward Mr. Rasul brought his old friend Mr. Umedaly on board. ... In 1989, Ballard's earliest stack of about a cubic foot of cells produced 3 kilowatts of power -- ''totally insufficient to run an automobile,'' Mr. Umedaly said. Refinements pushed output to 10 kilowatts in 1993, 28 in 1995 and, most recently, well over 35, -- enough to power a car.
John St. Clair University of South Florida Department of Philosophy Cooper 107 Tampa, FL 33647
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