Hawaii University Develops Charcoal-Based Fuel Cell
The idea of using fuel cells to power our vehicles has been the holy grail of inventors for decades. The dream of using a device that is powered by by something as common as hydrogen and oxygen, with water vapor as its only byproduct, has led to millions of dollars in research. However, except in a few instances, hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells have not proven to be practical.
Another approach is the carbon based fuel cell. The University of Hawai'i has developed a fuel cell that uses charcoal and air to create energy. The chief advantage of this system is that charcoal, or carbon, is a renewable resource. Further, you can store and transport charcoal much more easily than hydrogen.
Other cells typically use hydrogen as a fuel. However, useful quantities of hydrogen are impractical or difficult to create, store and distribute. Typically, you get hydrogen by burning fossil fuels to create electricity to split the hydrogen atoms from methane (itself from fossil fuels) or water. Burning fossil fuels to create hydrogen is extremely energy inefficient. That is, you may as well just use the electricity directly then use it to create hydrogen. The solution to this problem is nuclear power. However going nuclear has its own set of problems - practical and political.
In addition, whether compressed or in liquid form, it is difficult, if not impossible, to contain hydrogen without some leakage. This leakage can lead to rapid reactions (i.e., explosions) or other less spectacular, but no less serious, mechanical failures.
On the other hand, charcoal/carbon fuels have their own problems. Chief among these, as noted in the article, is how to feed the solid powdered charcoal into the fuel cell. Also, even though the article kind of down plays it, creating charcoal releases various gases collectively called green house gases. In addition, the byproduct of the carbon fuel cell is carbon dioxide - another so called green house gas. Whether such gases are the cause of what is referred to a global warming is still open to debate.
In any case, research into fuel cells continue. Perhaps someday a practical fuel cell will power your car, but it probably won't happen very soon.
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