By: Anthony Lewis
Date: September 1995
Stuttgart - Daimler-Benz is optimistic about the development of its revolutionary new fuel-cell vehicle and has said it will present a smaller system next year.
Research director Michael Kraemer said he was confident Mercedes would eventually produce a fuel-cell car and was expecting to make a decision about production before 2000.
Daimler has reduced the equipment's size by a factor of four but its aim is to shrink the fuel cell by a further two-thirds with the intention of fitting it in any Mercedes including the A-class and Smart. The bigges problem remains cost as the price of a fuel cell vehicle is many times higher than one using a comparable petrol or diesel engine.
The company is working on the project with Ballard Power Systems of Canada which makes the fuel cells. The technology works by passing hydrogen through polymer cells which, with the aid of catalysts, convert it to water. In the process it generates electricity which powers a motor. Unlike normal car engines, the process has no combustion or moving parts and is emission-free and noiseless. It is also more efficient than a petrol or diesel engine.
There is nothing new about fuel cell technology, but its application has been limited to submarines and spacecraft due to the size, weight and cost of the system and the problem of storing sufficient hydrogen. Daimler's first prototype system filled the entire van it powered.
Daimler is considering using methanol, a liquid derived from a variety of sources including natural gas and plants, as a convenient way to store hydrogen. When passed through an on-board converter, the methanol is split into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is not toxic but is said by scientists to be one of the main greenhouse gases.
The vehicle produces one-third less CO2 than a conventional one, however, and if the
methanol is produced from plants, it only gives out the CO2 the plant absorbed while it grew.