Custom essay on Should Automobiles Have Better Fuel Efficiency?

The use of fuel cells in cars is expected to bring the greatest benefit. Here, as nowhere else, the compactness of fuel cells will matter. In the direct conversion of the fuel into electricity, the fuel economy will be about 50%. In addition, the efficiency of fuel cells can remain at a fairly high level, even when they are not used at full rated capacity, which is a major advantage compared to gasoline engines. When using fuel cells, practically no harmful emissions are produced. In any case, the replacement of today’s conventional internal combustion engines to fuel cells would lead to an overall reduction in CO2 and nitrogen oxides emissions. Fuel cells are durable, have no moving parts, and produce a constant amount of energy (Solomon, 2010; Energy Efficient Cities, 2010).
In 2002, the presidents of Toyota and Honda handed the Prime Minister of Japan the keys of the first mass-produced fuel cell vehicles. Mr. Koizumi personally tested the cars of the both companies. According to him, they differ little in driving from ordinary models and are practically noiseless (Solomon, 2010). The prices for fuel cells cars are so far 40 times the price of their counterparts with internal combustion engines and the most accessible form of their acquisition is leasing.
Although combined with DC motor fuel cells will be an effective source of car driving force, wide use of fuel cells requires significant technological advances, reduction of their cost and the possibility of effective use of cheap fuel, in order to make fuel cells competitive in relation to other energy-saving technologies. In addition, the installations must be durable, free from expensive materials and use the fossil fuels with minimal preparation. Only under these conditions fuel cells will make electricity and mechanical energy widely available around the world.
It should be noted that when considering costly characteristics of energy technologies, the comparison should be based on all components of the technological characteristics, including capital maintenance costs, emissions, power quality, durability, decommissioning, and flexibility. Although hydrogen gas is the best fuel, there is practically no infrastructure or transport base for it, which would entail the need for large money infusions (Energy Efficient Cities, 2010).
On the other hand, in the near future to provide the power installations with the sources of hydrogen in the form of gasoline, methanol or natural gas it could be possible to use the existing supply system of fossil fuels (gas stations, etc.). This would eliminate the need for special hydrogen filling stations, but would require each vehicle to be equipped with a converter (reformer) of fossil fuel into hydrogen. The disadvantage of this approach is that it uses fossil fuel and thus leads to emissions of carbon dioxide. Methanol, which is currently the leading candidate, has fewer emissions than gasoline, but it would require the installation of a larger container into the car, because it takes twice as much place with the same energy content (Solomon, 2010).
Unlike fossil fuel supply systems, solar and wind systems (using electricity to create hydrogen and oxygen from water) and systems of direct photoconversion of energy (using semiconductor materials or enzymes to produce hydrogen) could provide the supply of hydrogen without reforming phase, and thus, it could be possible to avoid emissions of harmful substances, which are observed when using methanol or gasoline fuel cell. Hydrogen could be accumulated and converted into electricity in the fuel cell when needed. In the long term, the connection of the fuel cells with this kind of renewable energy sources is likely to be an effective strategy to provide a productive, environmentally sustainable and universal source of energy (Solomon 2010).
Major car manufacturers in America are now developing hybrid-electric vehicles. Some companies are jointly working on a prototype of a car which for the actuation of the electric engine would use the energy produced by fuel cells. At the exhibition Hitachi uVALUE Convention 2006 held in the frameworks of Tokyo International Forum, the Japanese company introduced a prototype of the fuel cell, built on the principle of direct conversion of methanol – direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The specificity of Hitachi development – small size – makes the new product suitable for powering mobile machinery. According to the experts, the technology of direct conversion of methanol has a chance to be one of the first among the currently developing fuel cell technologies to be available at the mass market (Easton, 2009; Energy policy, 2009).