Demonstration of Aluminum-Air Fuel Cells in a Road Vehicle

This paper discusses recent progress in the application of aluminum-air fuel cell technology to road vehicles. Preliminary road tests were conducted to compare the performance of an aluminum-air/lead-acid hybrid battery energy source with that of a conventional lead-acid-only energy source. One of Unique Mobility's Electrek hatchback vehicles was converted into a highly instrumented testbed for testing the aluminum-air/lead-acid hybrid. Tests showed that at least a doubling of the range was achieved in an all-electric vehicle using the aluminum-air/lead-acid hybrid approach. The demonstration provided focus to necessary future developments in aluminum-air fuel cell engineering for vehicle applications. Test data are presented, as well as projections on future developments of the aluminum-air fuel cell as a vehicle power source.