For a long time now, fuel cells have been a major dream for the environment. Although fuel cells have been used, it’s not something that is talked about too much. This has to do with the fact that fuel cells, overall, are just way too expensive for practical use. However, the Carbon Trust is setting out to fix that. Right now the Carbon Trust has put £8 million into bringing down the cost of these fuel cells. Overall, the goal is to someday get them used in the mass market.
The Carbon Trust, which is a government funded company that promotes low carbon technology in the UK, has just recently launched this £8 million competition to promote the most promising advanced fuel cell technology. A wider adoption in fuel cell technology could actually end up saving the UK millions of tonnes of CO2 as the fuel cells replace dirty power sources.
Fuel cells can convert the chemical energy of fuel, such as hydrogen or methanol, into electricity. It can do this without any polluting byproducts, thus, fuel cells could be used for everything, like powering cars and heating homes.
The biggest problem facing fuel cells is the cost. Most of the modern cells have components made from expensive metals. Thus, the technology, although very promising, has never been a breakout success. However, if the fuel cells could be cheaper, then they could be used for mobile phones, trucks, campers and just about anything else. The Carbon Trust says that, right now, fuel cells are about 10 times too expensive for mass deployment.
Tags: Carbon Trust