hydrogen
Science
World’s Smallest Fuel Cell Could Power Your Gadgets
7:40AM Sean Fallon | Chemical engineers working at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a hydrogen fuel cell that measures only 3 millimeters across. That could mean longer lasting, eco-friendly power for your gadgets.
Toys
Horizon H-Racer 2.0: Faster, Greener, Less Likely To Smash Into Walls
1:00PM Wilson Rothman | The original Horizon H-Racer hydrogen fuel-cell toy just got an update: Before, you could fill it with water and let ‘er rip. Now, you can actually steer the bastard. More »
Science
Amazing Hydrogen Fuel Tank Being Made Of Buckyballs And Graphene
10:14PM Kit Eaton | We’ve talked a lot about hydrogen and fuel cells here on Giz, mainly because it’s the wonder fuel of the near future, but storing dangerous H2 is tricky: something a team at the University of Crete thinks it’s solved. The US Department of Energy reckons a tank should store 6% H2 by mass, and current tech can only do about 2%. The Greek team’s tank is amazing: it’s constructed of two wondermaterials. Carbon Buckytubes connect layers of graphene to make a huge matrix—so far they’ve built a tank with Buckyballs instead of tubes, but they’ll have that finished by Christmas. And theoretically it can store 6.1% H2. [NewScientist] More »
Science
Korean Research Makes Hydrogen Manufacture 30 Times Cheaper
12:15AM Kit Eaton | Scientists at Korea’s S&P Energy Research Institute have worked out a way of manufacturing hydrogen that’s 20-30 times cheaper than current methods. Typical electrolysis methods in use take about 4 to 4.5 kWh of energy for each cubic meter of H2 gas but the new Korean method (apparently a chemical process) takes just 0.1 kWh, with associated production cost savings. Why should you care about this? Because as a component of some fuel cell technology, hydrogen might become one of the fuels of the future, and a lowering of its manufacturing costs seems like a fantastic way to help usher-in an era of hydrogen-powered gadgets. [Newswire] More »
Vehicles
First Ever Hydrogen Vehicle ‘Cross-Country’ Road Trip Had a Lot of Help
12:45PM Jack Loftus | I’m all for hydrogen–or any alternative fuel source for that matter (Shai Agassi, my man, let’s get cooking already!)–but if you’re going to heavily promote your cross-country trek as the “first ever” for hydrogen-powered vehicles, at least make sure large, 1,000-mile stretches of it did not involve having the vehicles carried along on flatbed trucks. This was the case today as the “Hydrogen Road Tour ‘08″ wrapped up in Los Angeles after its 60-strong vehicle fleet entered the Los Angeles Coliseum. From Rolla, Missouri, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the caravan was carried on the back of carbon-belching flat bed tractor trailer trucks. Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of an alternative fuel road trip right then and there? More »
Science
Much Cheaper Fuel Cells On The Way With New Prototype
2:00AM Gizmodo US Edition | Australian researchers have developed a new fuel cell prototype that could lead to much cheaper, more efficient fuel cell vehicles in the near future. Scientists at Monash University in Melbourne created a new cathode that could bypass the need for expensive platinum nanoparticles, which adds about US$3500 to US$4000 to the sticker price of current fuel cells. More »
Vehicles
Jack Nicholson Solves Oil Crisis 30 Years Ago, Drives Hydrogen Car in 1978
12:40AM Jesus Diaz | If you think hydrogen cars are the future, you are wrong. They are the past. You just have to look at this amazing video with Jack Nicholson showing his hydrogen Chevy, smashing the traditional car industry with his usual finesse, and extolling its virtues on network television, 30 years ago:
Computers
Methanol Fuel Cells to Power Military Laptops
2:00AM Mark Wilson | Under military funding, a Califorinia company named Ultracell has developed a 25W methanol fuel cell system capable of running a rugged laptop for 8 hours at a time. Using 250cc canisters of methanol (about the weight of a can of Coke), the system can convert the methanol to hydrogen and the hydrogen to electricity. More »
Vehicles
Genepax Unveils a Car That Runs on Water and Air
8:10AM Sean Fallon | Running a car on water has been the holy grail for car manufacturers for some time now, but it appears that a Japanese company named Genepax may have pulled ahead of the competition with a prototype vehicle that runs entirely on water and air. Their new “Water Energy System (WES),” generates power by supplying water and air to the fuel and air electrodes using a proprietary technology called the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA). The secret behind MEA is a special material that is capable of breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen through a chemical reaction. More »
Vehicles
