Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new fuel storage system for hydrogen cars of the future. This new system will allow the car to take on enough hydrogen in only 5 minutes to be able to drive 300 miles.
The system uses a fine powder called metal hydride to absorb hydrogen gas. Researchers have created a heat exchanger to remove heat generated as the hydrogen is absorbed by the powder. It works by circluating coolant through tubes and also utilizes fins to remove generated heat.
Leading the research, Issam Mudawar, a professor of mechanical engineering, said that the heat exchanger is critical because the system stops absorbing hydrogen effectively if it overheats.
“The hydride produces an enormous amount of heat,” Mudawar said. “It would take a minimum of 40 minutes to fill the tank without cooling, and that would be entirely impractical.
The researchers hope this will birth a system where motorists will be able to fill-up their hydrogen car in minutes. The hydrogen would then be used to power a fuel cell to generate electricity to drive an electric motor.
The research, funded by General Motors Corp. and directed by GM researchers Darsh Kumar, Michael Herrmann and Abbas Nazri, is based at the Hydrogen Systems Laboratory at Purdue’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories. In February, the team applied for three provisional patents related to this technology.
As time passes and new inventions and solutions surface, it does seem more and more likely that we may very well be driving cars that only emit pure water vapor in future.
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