IN 2003 American President Bush announced a programme called the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative (HFI) during his State of the Union Address. This initiative, supported by legislation in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005) and the Advanced Energy Initiative of 2006, aims at developing hydrogen, fuel cell and infrastructure technologies to make fuel cell vehicles practical and cost-effective by 2020.

Keeping in mind the energy crisis that Third World countries like Pakistan are facing, we, a group of students from NED University, did some research in the use of fuel cell technology in vehicles and we are developing a prototype hydrogen car to lay the basis for further research in this sphere.

This is what we have to share with your readers: technically, a fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. It converts chemicals like hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process produces electricity.

According to studies, this technology has the potential to be highly efficient in comparison to other ones. If the fuel cell is powered with pure hydrogen, it has the potential to be up to 80 per cent efficient.

However, we still need to convert electrical energy into mechanical work. This is accomplished by the electric motor and inverter. A reasonable percentage for the efficiency of the motor/inverter is about 80 per cent. That gives an overall efficiency of about 64 per cent.

On the other hand, overall efficiency of an automotive gas engine is about 20 per cent and that of a battery-powered electric car is about 26 per cent.

If the electricity for the car is generated by a hydroelectric plant for instance (we didn’t burn any fuel to generate it), even then its efficiency would be about 65 per cent.

Lots of work has already been done in this field by notable companies like BMW, General Motors, Toyota, Fiat and Mercedes.

From the consumer’s point of view, this technology is highly economical.

Moreover, the exhaust of hydrogen cars is steam; therefore, they have the potential to be extremely environment-friendly.

Hydrogen cars replacing ordinary ones is still a distant dream, but in this age where our environment needs to be given
special consideration and where the world is highly reliant on oil and gas for its energy needs, there is an urgent need to shift to other forms of energy.

We urge the authorities concerned to give due consideration to boost research in this field in Pakistan.

M. RIZWAN HIRANI and MIRZA IBRAHIM BAIG
Students of NED University
Karachi