Hydrogen fuel cell technology for cars

The fuel cell technology is currently an emerging trend of the automobile industry. Different manufacturers are using different technologies in catering the problem of loosing non renewable resources. Toyota, Honda was more concerned on hybrid technology while Nissan tried to make it purely with battery power. It doesn't mean that one overtakes another, thus all have drawbacks compared to other, With the introduction of Toyota's new fuel cell vehicle "Mirai" it seems that Toyota is taking a different leap in the automobile industry in search of resources to power up. 

image via http://www.boldride.com/

What is a fuel cell and how does it work?

A fuel cell in simple form can be called as a device that generates electricity by a reaction of chemicals. Every fuel cell consist with two electrodes, one positive and one negative, namely, the anode and cathode. The reactions that produce electricity take place at the electrodes. Every fuel cell also consist with an electrolyte, which carries electrically charged particles from one electrode to the other, and a catalyst, which is used to speed up the reactions at the electrodes.

Hydrogen is used as the basic fuel, but fuel cells also require oxygen. One main advantage of fuel cells is that they generate electricity with very little environmental pollution. While the reaction generates electric power, water is generated as another outcome of this reaction which is purely an environment friendly substance.

This clearly illustrates how a fuel cell works

image via https://en.wikipedia.org

A fuel cell generates electricity from an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and air. Hydrogen atoms compressed and stored in high-pressure tanks the Mirai has two that together hold about 11 pounds of hydrogen at 10,000 psi are sent through a platinum-coated membrane that separates their electrons and protons. Those electrons produce an electrical current to power a drive motor, in this case a synchronous AC unit capable of 151 horsepower and 247 lb-ft of torque. The freed protons combine with oxygen on the other side of the membrane before exiting the tailpipe as water. How much water? About 100 cc per mile, according to Toyota, or a little less than half a cup.

How toyotas fuel cell system is organized

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image via http://www.autocolumn.com/

In Japanese, “mirai” means “future,” and the Mirai is the future of motoring: It runs solely on hydrogen and its only emissions are water. Expected later in 2015, the Mirai initially will be sold or leased just in California, where the infrastructure for hydrogen fueling exists. Range is around 300 miles, refueling will take about five minutes, and fuel is included for the first three years of ownership. The powertrain has an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty to allay early-adopter concerns.

In simple, its the same concept with the hybrid, where the torque is supplied by both the battery and the engine, and just the engine is replaced with a fuel cell. so nothing is burning under the hood. 

But not just toyota, Hyundai, one of the leading korean car manufacturer has also developing an SUV with the fuel cell technology. It seems like hyundai is well ahead of the competition with toyota. They have marketed the product already with head to head. 

image via http://www.greencarreports.com/