In tempi di crisi energetica e di prezzi incredibili per i combustibili
fossili, presi giusto in mezzo tra i ruggiti di una vecchia economia e i
desideri di rivoluzione tecnologica e ambientale, in quanti non hanno
sognato di vivere in un mondo senza inquinamento e ad energia
illimitata? Pensate se le auto potessero viaggiare ad acqua anziché a
benzina! E se fosse possibile? La società giapponese Genepax
ha depositato la domanda di brevetto per un motore elettrico alimentato
ad acqua. E quando dico “acqua” intendo dolce, salata o piovana. Ha il
sapore di una rivoluzione, l’annuncio fatto dalla società giapponese; se
tutto verrà confermato, dopo un immancabile lunga fase industriale
post-prototipo, potrebbe essere una pensata destinata a stravolgere
l’ordine attuale delle cose.
Kiyoshi Hirasawa, CEO dell’azienda ,ha dichiarato che il motore, con un
solo litro di acqua, sarebbe in grado di far viaggiare un’auto per circa
un’ora a 80 km orari. Il motore funziona grazie a un generatore che
converte in energia elettrica l’acqua versata nella tanica, posizionata
sulla parte posteriore dell’auto, secondo quanto ha spiegato Hirasawa
all’emittente di Tokyo.
‘Non c’è bisogno di costruire un’infrastruttura per ricaricare le
batterie, come avviene di solito per la maggior parte delle auto
elettriche’, ha aggiunto Hirasawa.
Hirasawa ha ammesso che l’applicazione pratica non è nel futuro
immediato e spera che il brevetto sia di interesse delle grandi case
automobilistiche giapponesi. Serve ancora una fase di sviluppo e bisogna
sperare che almeno uno dei grandi produttori creda in questa
prospettiva.
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Genepax Co Ltd explained the technologies used in its new fuel cell
system "Water Energy System (WES)," which uses water as a fuel and does
not emit CO2.
The system can generate power just by supplying water and air to the
fuel and air electrodes, respectively, the company said at the press
conference, which took place June 12, 2008, at the Osaka Assembly Hall.
The basic power generation mechanism of the new system is similar to
that of a normal fuel cell, which uses hydrogen as a fuel. According to
Genepax, the main feature of the new system is that it uses the
company's membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which contains a material
capable of breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen through a
chemical reaction.
Though the company did not reveal the details, it "succeeded in adopting
a well-known process to produce hydrogen from water to the MEA," said
Hirasawa Kiyoshi, the company's president. This process is allegedly
similar to the mechanism that produces hydrogen by a reaction of metal
hydride and water. But compared with the existing method, the new
process is expected to produce hydrogen from water for longer time, the
company said.
With the new process, the cell needs only water and air, eliminating the
need for a hydrogen reformer and high-pressure hydrogen tank. Moreover,
the MEA requires no special catalysts, and the required amount of rare
metals such as platinum is almost the same as that of existing systems,
Genepax said.
Unlike the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), which uses methanol as a fuel, the new system does not emit CO2.
In addition, it is expected to have a longer life because catalyst
degradation (poisoning) caused by CO does not occur on the fuel
electrode side. As it has only been slightly more than a year since the
company completed the prototype, it plans to collect more data on the
product life.
At the conference, Genepax unveiled a fuel cell stack with a rated
output of 120W and a fuel cell system with a rated output of 300W. In
the demonstration, the 120W fuel cell stack was first supplied with
water by using a dry-cell battery operated pump. After power was
generated, it was operated as a passive system with the pump turned off.
This time, the voltage of the fuel cell stack was 25-30V. Because the
stack is composed of 40 cells connected in series, it is expected that
the output per cell is 3W or higher, the voltage is about 0.5-0.7V, and
the current is about 6-7A. The power density is likely to be not less
than 30mW/cm2 because the reaction area of the cell is 10 x 10 cm.
Meanwhile, the 300W fuel cell system is an active system, which supplies
water and air with a pump. In the demonstration, Genepax powered the TV
and the lighting equipment with a lead-acid battery charged by using
the system. In addition, the 300W system was mounted in the luggage room
of a compact electric vehicle "Reva" manufactured by Takeoka Mini Car
Products Co Ltd, and the vehicle was actually driven by the system.
Genepax initially planned to develop a 500W system, but failed to
procure the materials for MEA in time and ended up in making a 300W
system.
For the future, the company intends to provide 1kw-class generation
systems for use in electric vehicles and houses. Instead of driving
electric vehicles with this system alone, the company expects to use it
as a generator to charge the secondary battery used in electric
vehicles.
Although the production cost is currently about ¥2,000,000 (US$18,522),
it can be reduced to ¥500,000 or lower if Genepax succeeds in mass
production. The company believes that its fuel cell system can compete
with residential solar cell systems if the cost can be reduced to this
level.
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