DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR VEHICULAR FUEL CELL POWER PLANTS

Fuel cells show great promise as an efficient, nonpolluting vehicular power source that can operate on nonpetroleum fuel. As with other power sources, design tradeoffs can be made that either improve vehicle performance or reduce the size and cost of the fuel cell power system. To evaluate some of these tradeoffs, a number of phosphoric acid fuel cell power plant designs have been studied to determine the performance level they would provide, both for a compact passenger vehicle and a 40-ft. city bus. The fuel is steam reformed methanol. The analyses indicate that 1978 fuel cell technology can provide a 22 to 50% improvement in fuel economy over the 1980 EPA estimate for the conventionally powered General Motors X car. With this technology the city bus can meet the DOT acceleration, gradability, and top speed requirements. A reasonable advance in fuel cell technology improves performance and fuel consumption of both vehicles substantially.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • IECEC Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, 9 August 1981.
• Corporate Authors:

  Los Alamos National Laboratory

  P.O. Box 1663
  Los Alamos, NM  United States  87545
• Authors:
  • Lynn, D K
  • McCormick, J B
  • Bobbett, R E
  • Srinivasan, S
  • Huff, J R
• Publication Date: 1981-3-31

Media Info

• Pagination: 14 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternate fuels; Electric buses; Electric vehicles; Fuel cells; Fuel consumption; Methanol; Performance evaluations; Technology assessment
• Subject Areas: Energy; Geotechnology; Highways; Materials; Public Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00386279
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: CONF-810812-7
• Contract Numbers: W-7405-ENG-36
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 30 1984 12:00AM