Breathing life into fuel cells

Daimler unit NuCellSys has been making advances in the air supply for fuel-cell stacks, with a new system in the works.

The hydrogen electric fuel-cell vehicle has the advantage of not only producing zero CO₂ itself, but also zero or very limited CO₂ during fuel production. That is especially so if the primary energy is produced from renewable sources, but even when produced from compressed natural gas the improvement in CO₂ emissions over a conventional internal-combustion engine is 46%. This improvement owes to the high overall fuel-cell powertrain efficiency.

The hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle has a fuel cell system including a fuel-cell stack, hydrogen storage system, high-voltage battery to recover energy during braking, and an electric motor.