On a summer day in Paris in 1783, Jaques Charles did somthing as tonishing. He roared 3,000 feet above ground in a balloon of rubb er-coated silk bagfilled with lighter-than-air hydrogen gas. Though this event had no significance for the next two centuries,yet Charles had launched a quest to harness the power of hydrogen for transportation.
Burned or used in fuel cells,hydrogen is an appealing option for powering future automobiles. This nontoxic gas could serve as a pollution-free energy carrier for machines of many kinds. When it burns, it releases no carbon .dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
And if hydrogen is fed into a fuel-cell stack—a batterylike device that generates electricity from hydrogen and oxygen— it can propel an electric car or truck with only heat and water as by products. Fuel-cell powered vehicles could offer more than twice the efficiency of today’s automobiles. Hydrogen could, therefore, help ease environmental problems, including air pollution and its hazards.
Weight for weight,hydrogen contains three times the energy of gasolene (petrol) but it is impossible to store hydrogen gas as compactly as the conventional liquid fuel. One of the most challenging technical issues is how to efficiently and safely store enough hydrogen onboard to provide the driving range and performance the motorists demand.
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