Many experts predict that over the coming decades, the world's industrial economies will begin to shift away from their heavy reliance on fossil fuels to the use of non-polluting hydrogen, to run our cars, our homes, our offices and our power plants. A hydrogen economy might still be many years away, but innovative products on display recently in Washington provided a glimpse of what's to come.
Members of the U.S. Congress joined leaders in the fuel cell industry and the public on Capitol Hill for the 2007 Congressional Fuel Cell Expo. Su Carroll from Martinsburg, West Virginia, showed up to test-drive a fuel cell car. "It is a little heavier than the cars I am used to driving, but it is something that I could get used to. It's smooth. It's quiet."
The metallic blue General Motors HydroGen3 Opel Zafira is a prototype of things to come, says Mathew Atwell, a GM fuel cell engineer who shows Carroll the fuel stack under the hood. "There is no engine, no internal combustion engine whatsoever. We do use hydrogen as a fuel source, but we are not burning it."
The fuel cell operates much like a battery. The box-like component takes hydrogen stored in tanks under the rear seats and combines it with oxygen from the air. That generates electricity to drive the vehicle. The only thing that comes out of the engine's exhaust pipe is water vapor, one reason the hydrogen car scores high marks with environmental groups.
Whatever its virtues, though, the hydrogen car isn't likely to solve today's auto pollution problems. Deron Lovaas runs the Vehicles Campaign for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. He says hydrogen fuel cell cars won't be on the road any time soon. "One of the first barriers is designing cars and trucks so that they have adequate on-board storage to power the fuel cells, and the cost of the fuel cells themselves."
Lovaas says another obstacle is infrastructure, the network of hydrogen-fuel pumping stations on which the new cars would depend. He adds that a better strategy for solving U.S. energy and pollution problems is to sharpen the national focus on energy conservation and to promote increased gasoline fuel economy for vehicles already on the road.
While the fuel cell car may not be in Su Carroll's future, it is the hook that gets her inside the nearby congressional office building for a closer look at a wide array of products with applications for aircraft, telecommunications, and small industrial facilities.
UTC Power has a long history in the field. Their giant parent firm, United Technologies, developed fuel cells early on for the American space program. Spokeswoman Judith Bear says UTC Power has brought the fuel cell back to earth and deployed it worldwide. "Things like a 200 kilowatt fuel cell system for stationary power plants, for schools, hospitals, military installations, for hotels and for data centers."
In addition to power plants, Bear says UTC is also working on fuel cells for cars, buses and other mass transit vehicles, the largest emitters of carbon dioxide and other climate-changing greenhouse gases. "We're really excited. We have a fuel cell bus operating in our home state of Connecticut. And just Monday of this week we announced another fuel cell bus operating in Belgium."
Fuel cells could soon play a major role in consumer electronics, too. Greg Moreland with MTI Micro-Fuel Cells in Albany, New York, says his company is designing a fuel cell, currently about the size of a thick paperback book, which will eventually power mobile phones. "What we are going to be doing is reducing the size of this to make it more and more consumer friendly, and a person who really lives off of a cell phone is going to be able to take a device like this, attach it to a cell phone and talk for hours."
Bob Rose, Executive Director of the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, the trade group that organizes the annual event, urges the federal government to contribute more research money, to provide tax incentives for product development, and to adopt fuel cell technology in government operations.
Su Carroll, who came to the Expo to test drive a fuel cell car, backs these initiatives. She says she hopes tomorrow's hydrogen economy will create a world where her grandchildren will be able to breath easier. "This is something that can benefit all Americans, all people of the earth."
|
|
很多专家预期在未来几十年当中，全世界的工业化国家将不再高度依赖化石燃料。汽车、住宅、办公室和发电厂都将使用不会造成污染的氢气。这种对氢气的利用可能还需要许多年之后才能实现，但是，最近在美国首都华盛顿展出的一些创新的产品，让人们看到了未来的情形。
美国国会议员和一些工业界的主管，最近出席了在国会山举办的2007年燃料电池博览会。来自西维吉尼亚州马丁斯堡的卡洛尔在展览大厅试开了一辆燃料电池车，她说：“这辆车比我习惯驾驶的汽车略微重一些，但是，我也能够习惯，这辆车开起来很顺，很安静。”
美国通用汽车公司展出了一部浅蓝色的“氢气三号”汽车的原型。通用公司的燃料电池工程师艾特维尔把车的前盖打开，让卡洛尔看一看里面的装置。艾特维尔说：“首先可以看到的是里面没有引擎，根本没有传统的内燃引擎，我们是用氢气做为燃料，但是我们并不燃烧氢气。”
燃料电池的作用和普通电池大致相似，箱型的燃料电池装置在汽车后座的下面，电池所储藏的氢气和空气中的氧混合之后产生推动车辆的电力，这种引擎从车尾所排出的是水气，所以，氢气汽车获得环保组织的高度赞同。但是，不论有多少好处，氢气汽车一时还不可能解决当前的汽车污染问题。
环保团体“天然资源保卫联盟”的车辆革新运动领导人罗瓦斯认为，使用氢气原料电池的车辆，目前还不会在路上出现。他说：“坦白说，我们要等到几十年之后才能看到这样的汽车。”
罗瓦斯说，要发展以氢气为动力的汽车，仍然有重重障碍需要克服，他说：“障碍之一是，汽车和卡车的设计必需使车上能够储存足够燃料电池所需要的氢气，同时还有燃料电池本身费用的问题。”
另外一个障碍是基础设施，怎样建立新的汽车所需要的氢气添加站，罗瓦斯说：“建立氢气添加站是必要的，目前建造一个这样的添加站需要花费100万美元。”
罗瓦斯说，要解决美国的能源和污染问题，一个更好的方法是在全国集中力量，节约能源，提倡使用省油的汽车。
虽然燃料电池的汽车一时还不会出现，但是，卡洛尔在国会的办公大楼里看到很多其他的燃料电池产品，这些产品可以用于飞机，电讯塔以及其他的小型工业社会。
主办这次博览会的“美国燃料电池协会”执行会长洛斯说：“我们在这里看到的大部份是相当新的产品，这些产品开始进入世界各地的市场。”
属于“联合科技公司”的“U-T-C 电力公司”曾经为美国太空计划研发燃料电池，这家公司的发言人毕尔说：“U-T-C 公司”把燃料电池从太空带回地球，供全世界使用，她说：“我们制造的两千瓦的燃料电池系统，可以用于发电厂，学校，医院，军事设备，旅馆以及资讯中心。”
毕尔说，除了发电厂，“U-T-C 公司”也在研究把燃料电池用于小轿车，公共汽车和其他大众交通车辆，二氧化碳和其他导致气候改变的温室气体，大都是由这些车辆排放的。
毕尔说：“我们确实很兴奋，在我们的家乡康乃迪克州已经有一辆燃料电池公共汽车在行驶，我们刚刚宣布有一部燃料电池公共汽车也在比利时行驶。”
燃料电池不久可能在电子消费品方面占居重要地位。美国纽约州阿巴尼的“M-T-I 微燃料电池公司”负责人莫兰说，他的公司目前正在设计一个体积和一本书大小相似的燃料电池，准备用于行动电话。
他说：“我们要设法把这种电池的体积缩小，让消费者使用起来更为方便，时常使用手机的人可以把这种电池接在手机上，然后就可以连续通话许多小时，这项概念也可能适用于摄影机。”
“美国燃料电池协会”的洛斯预期燃料电池，将会在全世界成为越来越重要的工具，他呼吁美国联邦政府为燃料电池的研究，提供更多经费，为这种电池的研发提供减税优待，同时，鼓励政府部门使用燃料电池技术。
|
