Spurred by a series of technical breakthroughs in recent years, major automakers are pouring money into developing fuel cell technology, according to news articles. Automakers predict fuel cell vehicles could be available as early as 2004, news articles say. It was sitting unused at a federal lab in Chicago when the DOE agreed to give it to UF for research and demonstration, he said. When the bus's fuel processing system converts methanol to hydrogen, it also produces carbon dioxide, but at lower levels than diesel engines. The bus emits much less hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and particulate matter than diesels, Fletcher said.
Fuel cells create electricity from an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen.
The process reverses electrolysis, which many may recall from a high school experiment that involved placing two electrodes in water, passing an electric current through them and collecting the hydrogen and oxygen that bubbled off. The technology has promise in a couple of areas. Fuel cells that use only hydrogen and oxygen don't pollute. Their only emission is water. And fuel cells are more efficient than internal combustion engines because they do not create as much unused heat.