Breakthrough Honda | Green Energy News

October 5, 2003 – Vol.8 No.28

BREAKTHROUGH HONDA.

The innovative automaker has done it again. It may have tackled head-on two more obstacles in the race for fuel cells-for-vehicles commercialization.

Honda has announced that it has developed a new fuel cell stack known as its FC Stack that can operate at below freezing temperatures. And, the stack has fewer parts and uses common materials that may lead to lower production costs. It’s more efficient as well.

Up until now fuel cells for use in vehicles have been warm weather beasts. Filled with small amounts of water they would freeze up when shut down in chilly climes. Honda’s new design uses a new type of electrolyte membrane that will allow the fuel cell to operate in temperatures as low as -4 degrees F (-20 C) and as high as high 203 degrees F (95 C), though the upper temperature limit isn’t a much of a concern. Warm-up time too, according to Honda, has been reduced by 20 percent over a conventional stack, but the company did not express how long that is.

Typically, auto manufacturers look to parts reduction, as well as production automation to keep vehicle costs down. The new design replaces a conventional stack of bolted together cells separated by carbon plates with cells separated by metal plates and rubber seals that are attached together in a unique molding process, then enclosed by panels. The new design reduces the number of parts by 50 percent compared with Honda’s own and other stack designs. The whole thing is recyclable too.

The company says that the new design doubles the output density of the fuel cell, thus increases the range of the test bed Honda FCV by 20 miles to 180 real world miles on the same amount of pressurized hydrogen used for the previous design.

In the FCV the new stack has an output of 86 kilowatts. The car is propelled by an 80 kilowatt Permanent Magnet AC motor. Additional electricity for passing and hill climbing is stored in an ultracapacitor. Visit Honda at http://www.hondanews.com/ .