Gadgetory

now we talk about a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle today a couple things to understand we're talking about a Pamella fuel cell proton exchange membrane that's what goes on inside this box shape thing about yeah it's not very large secondly it's hydrogen fuel in other words you're putting hydrogen in on one side to create the chemical reaction this generates the electricity hydrogen from a tank in the car is exposed to a plate coated in platinum on one side of a sort of sandwich the Platinum plate causes the hydrogen to break up into positive protons and negative electrons a membrane in the middle of this sandwich only allows the positive ones to get through so those negative electrons have to go around that circuit creates the positive and negative poles the potential that makes the electric current when the electrons and protons do meet on the other side they combine with oxygen from the air to form h2o and a huge PR win for hydrogen backers so what's a like driving a fuel cell car just like driving an electric car because remember a fuel cell is a source of electricity powered by a very clean very abundant fuel but it is not the powertrain source that moves the car that's a difference so really when it comes down to is electric cars that fork two ways one toward hydrogen fuel-cell one toward battery electric the big difference here is when you go to refill it's a whole another world so the benefits number one clean hydrogen fuel cell electric cars emit nothing but water vapor and not much of it this is like a week's worth of driving and yes it is clean enough to drink number two renewable hydrogen is the most abundant thing earth I'm told 75% of the mass of the planet is hydrogen found in things all around us it's found in water it's found in plant material and it's bounded everything that's a hydrocarbon convenient refilling a hydrogen fuel cell car takes a few minutes at the pump compared to hours plugged in for most electric charges it's quick clean and easy and not you're on your way in less than five minutes now some challenges first distribution hydrogen to be useful as a fuel in a fuel cell car needs to be highly compressed but naturally it wants to be 14 times lighter than air it wants to be very gaseous and low density so it's got to be managed it's got to be created has to be compressed has to be kept in that state from the point where it's stored to the point where it's put into the vehicle that makes it trickier than gasoline which is very happy to be this oily liquid it's lives underneath your service station durability current hydrogen fuel cells are good for maybe a hundred thousand miles before they're spent that's rather below what consumers expect from a gas or diesel number three pollution now just told you that hydrogen fuel cell cars are incredibly clean but creating the hydrogen may not be depending where you live and what kind of a source you're a local filling station has for the hydrogen there is upstream pollution created much as there is with battery electric cars it'll vary widely by how and where you refill the Holy Grail is to run solar powered plants that crack water into hydrogen making no upstream pollution and using a virtually unlimited resource this station in Emeryville makes its hydrogen from solar power and water in a process called electrolysis other stations make their fuel on site for instance from waste water or even landfill gas cost fuel cells catalytic converters and wedding rings none of them are cheap because they all use a bunch of platinum devine automakers who are members of the fuel cell partnership are starting to introduce their commercial vehicles some of them are for lease now and limited areas where there are stations but we're hearing them talk about starting to sell them in just about 18 months and 2015 that sort of OEM loss leadership will be key but perhaps more than any other alternative vehicle hydrogen fuel cell cars will need leadership from government to foster a new network of fueling points and supporting infrastructure you