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The search for a fuel-cell vehicles

Going to work in 2030. A traveler gets into a car and turns the key. There is a faint noise of target = "_blank"> auto parts pumps and compressors. The instrument panel comes to life. The engine did not really turn around, however, until the driver step on the accelerator. Then the vehicle moves heavy traffic.

Looking like its predecessors of the twentieth century, the cars run so quietly the hiss of the tires is stronger than the purr of its electric motors. Do not throw gas exhaust, only shreds of pure water vapor. No fog spoils the view of the mountains. Environmentally friendly transportation has arrived.

This journey began in 1975 in Arizona cactus country when Geoffrey Ballard, a geophysicist Canadian 43 years old, poked his way through a small motel, sloppy cement block just a short walk from the border with Mexico. He was looking for economic laboratory in which to fulfill his dream of finding an alternative to internal combustion engine fuel.

He bought the motel, and burned $ 1,400 dirty mattresses, but the building still smelled, so I convinced the local fire department to come from a training exercise. Looking at their hoses explosion the place clean, too Ballard thought the world of fossil fuels. The reduction would be difficult, but it had always been tenacious.

In the crisis 1973 energy was called to Washington to conduct research in energy conservation. His wife, Shelagh, and their three school-age children stay in Arizona. During six months supervised the studies of virtually anything that is not dependent on oil, coal or gasoline. But disillusionment soon set in. Only ideas promised results within a few years would be financed. On a visit home in early 1974, Shelagh told he wanted to return to Arizona and resume their search for a technology energy.

Ballard thought battery-powered electric cars were the best alternative energy. A major problem was the weight of lead batteries storage. Can lithium, the lightest metal, be replaced? He had a friend, Ralph Schwartz, a quirky engineer who had been working with lithium and sulfur dioxide.

Needing an electrochemical, who went to see Keith Prater at the University of Texas at El Paso. Prater said he had no experience with batteries. I do not know want someone who knows about batteries, "said Ballard." They know what will not work. I want someone willing to try things that others can not. "

Within six months Prater was able to isolate a key ingredient, lithium dithionite. It is mixed in a beaker solvent, add the strips of copper and charged it with electricity. Then he caught a bulb of the torch - and he shone! Prater was ecstatic. However, a battery of practice, it takes money to develop.

Just at that moment was a known re-install a submarine to explore Vancouver oil. Need a set of instruments designed, located in Ballard, was hired as a consultant and soon agreed to finance a lithium battery.

That's when Ballard and Schwartz bought the motel summarized in Arizona and began to conduct experiments. On weekends, Keith Prater flew from El Paso, landing his two-seater Piper in an adjacent field. Living on pizza and beer, who worked to exhaustion, taking naps on the patio furniture, then back to chemistry.

After two years, Schwartz surrendered. Ballard was still in favor of alternative energy, but he felt the attraction and Shelagh Canada. Prater had met and married a woman from Vancouver. So they moved the warehouse operations submarine in Vancouver.

sponsor project finally withdrew financial support. But his cousin, Horace Koessler, he had money. He owned a seaplane and wanted a companion in an Arctic trip. "You have one month to convince to invest in the project of the battery," he said. Desperate for funding, Ballard made a flying course.

His trip was a near disaster. Engine problems and deteriorating weather forced them down in a pond isolated for three days and sat out the torrential rains. Radio calls brought no help. Finally, Ballard hung a tarp over the engine, placed the problem, fixed carburetor and has a link to your home. Koessler put over $ 200,000.

Then a smoke detector company to inject money. At this point a great engineer, jovial named Paul Howard had joined Ballard. Late on Friday in 1979 he received a phone call. The signing of smoke detector had gone bankrupt, which means the company was bankrupt Ballard.

That weekend, Prater, Howard and Ballard agreed to form a new company. Ballard was the biggest in 11 years, with an excellent track record and business contacts but he gave them an equal partnership. "There are a lot of responsibility for everyone," he said. They rented a small office and called themselves Ballard Research.

Over the next four years who rushed to pay the bills, primarily the sale of lithium batteries from a single use. The rechargeable version worked but each recharge was weaker than the previous one, as the spring of a clock running. Then a very interesting alternative.

In 1983, the army Canadian wanted a fuel cell with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) to silent. A fuel cell is like a battery, but better. It does not require load during the night. Reverses the family experiment in high school science which electricity is put through the water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. In a cell PEM, a polymer membrane coated with platinum plastic between two flat electrodes. Hydrogen flows on the one hand, oxygen from the air on the other. They combine to form water and generate electricity without combustion and emissions unpleasant.

"A fuel cell is electrochemistry," said Prater colleagues. "It is a right our alley." Ballard won the contract and hired a technical team. Engineer David Watkins established the laboratory. Danny Epp, a sailor who had worked on the submarine, made the most of the building everyday. Ken Dircks made tests. They bought a sample of an expensive membrane DuPont has developed for the U.S. space program. But their budget was so tight that Epp scrounged materials from dumpsters. When I was grooving to the electrode plates to channel the gases, he asked a business selling trophies to lend him an engraving machine. In three years he had in the PEM cell more powerful, weight and size in the world. Watkins set up a display at an international conference in Phoenix. Hardly anyone had heard of Ballard research, but scientists noted the impressive results. Soon they were visiting the laboratory.

In 1987 the businessman Michael Brown read an article about fuel cells in dentist surgery. A few weeks later received a tip about Ballard. Excited by the fuel cell promise, he persuaded the Business Development Bank of Canada to join his company, Western companies, in a union that raised $ 880,000.

Progress continued. Ballard's team replaced the membrane DuPont, a Dow Chemical and let it run. To his surprise, generated four times the previous power. As they watched, a finger-thick electrical cable became so hot that the copper wires began to melt and fuse. Screaming and jumping around. With this momentum second, drastically in power, the electric car suddenly seemed feasible.

In 1998, Ballard's research required additional funding. Brown and his partners decided that before they commit more money, the founders had Ballard that bringing a new leadership with more business skills.

Brown introduced them to Firoz Rasul, an engineer of 36 years who had been vice president MDI marketing of mobile data. Recognizing its limitations in the world of megabusiness, Ballard Rasul founders gave an equal share of the population and make president. Rasul and Brown wrote a new business plan and raised $ 5 million.

To refine and commercialize the fuel cell would be a tremendous growth and at least ten years with no net gains. Employees increased from 37 in 1989 to over 450 today. The company, now called Ballard Power Systems, changed headquarters. A need to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, had to set annual targets for increased power, greater reliability, lower cost - and meet them. And they did.

A key advance, led by Alfred Steck polymer specialists, it was a cheaper membrane, the heart of the fuel cell. Polymer blend new plastics, Steck group of them spread to form films, dried in a "clean room" and put in cells. The membranes garment first fragile and not after 300 to 500 hours is not enough for a commercial vehicle. The "third generation" of the membrane, however, continued working. When it passed 1000 hours, broke a bottle of champagne. At 5000 hours, another bottle. After 10,000 hours. More champagne. When Steck had a shelf of empty bottles, Ballard Power Systems has its own membrane rugged and affordable.

In mid-1990 Ballard wanted to put in a small cell bus to demonstrate that it really can turn the wheels. He had been playing tennis with the British Columbia Energy Minister Jack Davis, who said: "Give me a" green "opportunity to take photos of the premiere and I will get funding." Province provided $ 2.7 million cost $ 4.1-billion.

It was announced the project in June 1993 outside the Vancouver Science World. Premier Mike Harcourt looked Ballard and media. Suddenly, Paul Howard, who was in charge, received a call from walkie-talkie of the bus. "The compressor just stopped." A small bolt - no part of the cell, but crucial - was broken.

After a stunned moment of horror, Howard operetta orchestrated a sham. Six employees of Ballard, hidden sight, drove the bus until it was made in silence for a slight tilt toward the podium. Harcourt gave a speech and then said: "Now we for a walk. "But the crowd would gather. Reporters asked Howard a question after another. He went on. There were too many people to move the bus safely so the ruse worked. Harcourt went to another appointment. "Come back this afternoon for a ride," Howard told reporters. By then, the problem was solved.

Government and the motor company officials began to visit for test runs. Vancouver and Chicago have even put in orders for city buses. Meanwhile, California adopted laws requiring that ten percent of all vehicles sold after 2003 be zero emission vehicles. Other American states have followed suit, creating a market potential for fuel cell cars.

Daimler-Benz Germany, the first major car company to experiment with a cell from Ballard in the late 1980s, took the initiative. In 1996 we launched a minivan powered by Ballard cells. In a series of offers from several million dollars, Daimler-Benz bought a 20 Ballard percent in 1997, while Ford bought a 15-percent next year. The three companies formed two new joint ventures for manufacturing cells and fuel market and drive trains for electric vehicles.

"The starting gun in the race to produce the first fuel cell car has exploded, "says Jürgen Hubbert, chairman of Daimler car division." A new era is dawning in transport. "

"It's an amazing leap," says David Scott, professor of mechanical engineering at Canada's University of Victoria. "The fuel cell have an impact on transport comparable to that of the microchip in communication. "

Ballard can barely keep up with invitations to give lectures universities. He advises students: "Do not be patient. All things come to those who wait. Dare to be in a hurry to change things for the better."

About the Author

Jedd Sullivan is an automobile writer specializing in automobile and car accessories products and has written authoritative articles on the Automotive industry. He also works as a Market Analyst for one of the leading discount auto parts retailers in the country today.

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