Hydrogen Fuel For Flymos
By Anne Pawsey
An recent improvement in fuel cell design has brought hydrogen-powered lawnmowers a step closer, but why the heck would we want that?
Well, fuel cells are currently the favourite replacement for the internal combustion engine and as a technology they have much to recommend them. The most popular type of fuel cells (PEM) use hydrogen as a fuel and emit water clean enough to drink and not much else.
Fuel cells generate power by combining hydrogen and oxygen to make water; this generates an electric current which can be used to power pretty much anything the fuel cell will fit in. And there’s the catch, although the cell itself can be pretty small the accompanying paraphernalia can be pretty big.
Hydrogen cells require a load of electronics to govern the power output and previously they also required bulky apparatus to recycle the unused gas. However, new technology will allow the cells to be smaller, so small in fact that they could be fitted to lawn mowers and small cars potentially reducing emissions.
You will however still need somewhere to store the hydrogen, which is a little tricky. Hydrogen is a very light, explosive gas, so it’s not a great thing to have sitting around. However, it’s actually getting it to stay put that’s most difficult.
To store hydrogen as a gas you need big bulky cylinders which would leave you with no boot space in a car and a pretty huge lawn mower. Alternatively you can store it as a liquid; all you need to do is cool it to a mere -252.88oC and hope it doesn’t evaporate. It would be very difficult to sell a fuel which would have disappeared if you left your car over the weekend.
The technologies to overcome these problems are still in development but smaller cells are a good step in the right direction.
More of Anne's articles can be found here. She knows a lot of stuff.
Well, fuel cells are currently the favourite replacement for the internal combustion engine and as a technology they have much to recommend them. The most popular type of fuel cells (PEM) use hydrogen as a fuel and emit water clean enough to drink and not much else.
Fuel cells generate power by combining hydrogen and oxygen to make water; this generates an electric current which can be used to power pretty much anything the fuel cell will fit in. And there’s the catch, although the cell itself can be pretty small the accompanying paraphernalia can be pretty big.
Hydrogen cells require a load of electronics to govern the power output and previously they also required bulky apparatus to recycle the unused gas. However, new technology will allow the cells to be smaller, so small in fact that they could be fitted to lawn mowers and small cars potentially reducing emissions.
You will however still need somewhere to store the hydrogen, which is a little tricky. Hydrogen is a very light, explosive gas, so it’s not a great thing to have sitting around. However, it’s actually getting it to stay put that’s most difficult.
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To store hydrogen as a gas you need big bulky cylinders which would leave you with no boot space in a car and a pretty huge lawn mower. Alternatively you can store it as a liquid; all you need to do is cool it to a mere -252.88oC and hope it doesn’t evaporate. It would be very difficult to sell a fuel which would have disappeared if you left your car over the weekend.
The technologies to overcome these problems are still in development but smaller cells are a good step in the right direction.
More of Anne's articles can be found here. She knows a lot of stuff.
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