ACID FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGIES FOR VEHICULAR POWER PLANTS

Fuel cells offer a number of significant advantages as vehicular power sources. These include high efficiency, virtually no pollution, and the ability to use nonpetroleum fuel. To date, most fuel cell systems have been designed for either utility or space applications, which have substantially different requirements than vehicular applications. Several fuel cell technologies were assessed specifically for vehicular applications. The results of these assessments were used to calculate the performance and fuel consumption of a fuel cell powered GM X car. Results indicate that the phosphoric acid technology, which has the most development experience, can power a vehicle with reasonable performance, with a range of over 350 miles on 20 gallons of methanol and with high energy efficiency. Solid polymer electrolyte technology, which is second in development experience, can provide performance approaching that of an ICE vehicle and an energy efficiency 149% higher than the ICE-powered version.

Media Info

  • Pagination: p. 663-666

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00386700
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Energy Research Abstracts
  • Report/Paper Numbers: CONF-82-814
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Aug 30 1984 12:00AM