Crystallizing the switch to hydrogen
Friday, December 2, 2011 - 09:01
in Physics & Chemistry
Hydrogen gas is an almost infinitely inexhaustible fuel source that emits only clean water during combustion. Switching from hydrocarbon-based transportation to systems powered by state-of-the-art fuel cells therefore seems a natural choice, but numerous obstacles have kept this technology confined to laboratories. A prime example is the problem of on-board hydrogen storage for vehicles: because ambient hydrogen gas is roughly 10,000 times less dense than gasoline, it would require impractically large tanks to obtain comparable mileage.