Environmental issues fuel cells

What are the uses of batteries and fuel cells How is electrochemical technology used to produce and protect metals How can you assess the environmental and safety issues associated with these technologies ... 

Toyota believes there are three essential conditions for successful dissemination of fuel cell vehicles. First, there is the issue of vehicle marketability. Technical challenges discussed earlier must be resolved, and the cost of the vehicle must be at a level that the market can support. As with other vehicles today, fuel cell vehicles must be packaged in a way that is attractive to the consumer. Also, there need to be plans in place that anticipate a hydrogen society. Finally, there must be a consumer shift to understand and prefer environmental vehicles. 

A glance through the table of contents provides an overview of the issues commonly encountered by chemists in the automotive industry. The author discusses fuels cells, lithium ion batteries, carbon nanotubes, and nickel metal hydride technology, all of which requires the technical knowledge of a chemist but crosses the lines of various disciplines. He covers future technology including items such as battery technology, fuel cell membranes, and environmentally friendly plastics such as nylons that use castor oil as a primary component. 

To date, lithium-ion battery is the gold standard for miniaturized power supply. However, it has potential safety issues, and it is neither carbon-neutral nor renewable. Almost all other miniaturized power supplies including hydrogen fuel cells, nuclear batteries, Ni-Cd batteries, and lead-acid batteries suffer from either safety or environmental issues. MFC is a potential substitute of miniaturized power supply, for its carbon-neutral, renewable, and environmentally friendly characteristics. By applying microfabrication and microfluidic techniques, the advantages of economical mass production and large surface-area-to-volume ratio will enable MFC, a potential candidate in the miniaturized power supply. 

Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) produce power directly from ethanol without prior reforming. Compared with methanol used as the fuel for DMFCs, ethanol is nontoxic, environmentally friendly, and universally available, and making the handling easy. Since ethanol is also a liquid alcohol like methanol, the technological issues of crossover, discharge of carbon dioxide, and passive operation are comparable. 

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