Benefits of Fuel Cells in Transportation

For the Vehicle
For Our Health
For the United States
For the Planet

For the Vehicle:

After a century of constant improvements, the internal combustion engine still only converts on average about 16 percent of the energy in gasoline to turn the car's wheels. All heat engines have efficiencies limited by the Carnot Cycle. The theoretical thermodynamic derivation of the Carnot Cycle shows that even under ideal conditions, a heat engine, used to power a vehicle or generator, cannot convert all the heat energy supplied to it into mechanical energy. Some of the heat energy is rejected. In an internal combustion engine, the engine accepts heat from a source at a high temperature (T1), converts part of the energy into mechanical work and rejects the remainder to a heat sink at a low temperature (T2). The greater the temperature difference between source and sink, the greater the efficiency:

Maximum Efficiency = (T1 – T2) / T1

Where the temperatures T1 and T2 are given in degrees Kelvin

Fuel cell vehicles, not limited by the Carnot Cycle, are expected to achieve energy efficiencies of 40 to 45 percent and very possibly higher. Given this significant improvement in energy efficiency, fuel cell vehicles offer substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and higher mileage too.

Fuel cell vehicles have already proven much more efficient than similar internal combustion vehicles. Toyota has published their efficiency results showing their conventional gasoline vehicle having a tank-to-wheel efficiency of only 16%, while their FCVH-4 running on hydrogen shows a 48% tank-to-wheel efficiency - an amazing three times more efficient. GM has also announced that their fuel cell prototypes running on hydrogen have twice the efficiency of their conventional gasoline vehicles.

As fuel cell vehicles begin to operate on fuels like natural gas or gasoline, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 50%. In the future, the combination of high efficiency fuel cells and fuels from renewable energy sources will nearly eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.

Because fuel cell vehicles operate with electric motors which have very few moving parts (only those pumps and blowers needed to provide fuel and coolant), vehicle vibrations and noise will be vastly reduced and routine maitenence (oil changes, spark plug replacement) will be eliminated.

Fuel cells also have a great advantage over battery powered electric vehicles because they eliminate charging time, allow a wide range of speeds, and operate as long as fuel is supplied.

For Our Health:

Throughout the world, over one billion people, including over 113 million Americans, living in urban areas are suffering from severe air pollution, and according to the World Bank, over 700,000 deaths result each year.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), today's motor vehicles in the U.S. account for: 65% of U.S. oil consumption, 78% of all carbon monoxide emissions, 45% of nitrogen oxide emissions and 37% of volatile organic compounds.

Also, for every gallon of gasoline manufactured, distributed, and then consumed in a vehicle, roughly 25 pounds of carbon dioxide are released.

If hydrogen is carried onboard and used as fuel with a fuel cell vehicle, they will have zero emissions. Fuel cell vehicles operated on methanol or other alternative fuels can achieve emission levels for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and non methane organic gas far less than those levels established for the California Ultra Low Emission Vehicle standards, and approaching almost zero emissions.

Benefits obtainable with only a 10% penetration of the light-duty vehicle market by fuel cell vehicles include avoided emissions of regulated air pollutants of more than 1 million tons per year, and carbon dioxide reduction of 60 million tons per year.

Fuel cell vehicles will also save the consumer money in many ways. First of all, maintenance costs will be minimal since a fuel cell vehicle has practically no moving parts. The consumer will also be able to use their fuel cell vehicle like an electric generator, connecting it to their home and decreasing their paid electricity use from the grid or even supplying supplemental energy back to the grid during peak hours and getting paid for it.

For the United States:

Fuel cells will increase national energy security by reducing and eventually eliminating the reliance on foreign fossil fuels. Fuel price instability and international tensions due to competition for limited fossil fuel resources will be reduced.

A successful U.S. transportation fuel cell program will also greatly enhance the international competitiveness of U.S. industry in the worldwide transportation sector.

The transportation sector accounts for $975 billion in gross domestic product and over 13 million jobs in the U.S., according to a study done by the Department of Energy (DOE). The transportation industry is essential to the economic well-being of the U.S. Establishing U.S. leadership in the development of fuel cells for transportation will lead to increased export opportunities and the creation of jobs.

For the Planet:

About 25% of all human-generated greenhouse gases come from transportation - more than half of that from light-duty vehicles. Because fuel cells significantly reduce greenhouse gas and other pollutant emissions, it is an important strategy/technology in the fight against global warming, smog and any other pollution problems.

Unlike air pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and particulates - soot, smoke, etc.), greenhouse gas emissions (primarily carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, etc.) from vehicles cannot be easily or inexpensively reduced by using add-on control devices such as a catalytic converter.

Fuel cells will reduce local air and noise pollution, groundwater contamination, and improve public health and safety from reduced exposure to fuel and emissions dangers.

Fuel cells will also be responsible for reduced motor oil spills and disposal into groundwater and streams; reduced gasoline tank leakage and resulting groundwater contamination (except for FCVs using future pump grade gasoline); and creation of a long-term pathway toward an environmentally sustainable transportation energy future based on renewable natural resources.