August 17th 2002
'Fuel by post' plan for cars;
Source:The
Evening Standard (London)
ROYAL Mail bosses are going to love this: an American company, FST Inc (FuelSell
Technology), has come up with a way of storing hydrogen in a cassette which can be
delivered by post. So, no more queuing at the fuel pumps for fuel-cell car owners, just log on to the internet and get your fuel delivered by Postman Pat.
FST claims that its H-Matrix cassette stores 99.999 per
cent pure hydrogen in a
nonpressurised, non-liquid form, and that it is delivered
on demand in sufficient volumes to power fuel cells small enough for a
laptop computer, and large enough to drive a car.
The hydrogen cassette, according to FST, can be approved
by the US Department of
Transportation as non-hazardous material and can be shipped
anywhere at anytime to power vehicles, homes, offices, factories or devices.
FST has declined to explain how enough nonliquid, non-pressurised
hydrogen gas can be
stored in something small enough and light enough to
be delivered by post. If you don't
compress it, if you don't liquefy it, the only other
way of storing hydrogen is to keep it in a tank filled with metal hydride.
The use of the term "H-Matrix" itself implies "Hydride", in which hydrogen is absorbed in a sponge-like metal alloy.
However, this would make a practical FST cassette for
a car heavy enough to give most
postmen a double hernia.
Metal Hydride storage of hydrogen is indeed "non-hazardous" as long as the metal hydride doesn't get hot. When hydrogen is absorbed in a metal hydride, heat is generated. Conversely, to release the stored hydrogen, the hydride has to be heated.
A few car makers have dabbled in the technology and have so far found it wanting.
The problems have been weight and the start-up electrical energy needed to heat the hydride tank to get the hydrogen flowing. Even then, once the car's fuel cell stack starts to generate electricity, some of it has to be diverted back to the hydride tank's electric heater to maintain the flow of hydrogen.
So there's less power available for the electric drive.
FuelSell's breakthrough H-Matrix doesn't actually exist yet: the hydrogen cassette should be operational at the end of 2003. Meanwhile, the company has launched a software package forhandheld computers that uses GPS satellite tracking to tell fuel-cell car drivers how close they are to a hydrogen filling station.
If postmen ever get fuel-cell vans, that could be very
useful for them.
