U.S Army joins forces with GM to take on Hydrogen fuel cell
So, you may have heard about a hydrogen fuel cell before, you also may have heard about it being able to power a car, and if you stick it into google you fill find some pretty hippy looking concept cars that I can almost guarantee you will not see on any UK road.
Well this hydrogen fuel cell business is very interesting and useful in the automotive industry. A specific group that has shown interest in it is none other than the US army, who have engineers from GM and the Army’s Tank Automotive research, Development and Engineering Center are modifying the truck for a strenuous year-long test where engineers can assess the fuel cell's performance.
The are a number of reasons why the Army is having a proper look at these fuel cells, first and foremost, any car enthusiast will know that electric motors produce all of its torque the instant you put your foot on the throttle, this is so incredibly beneficial for the Army as they will be moving big big heavy guns around at slow speeds and revs, so, the electric motor is beneficial in that regard.
Another interesting aspect of this cell is its ability to generate electricity out in the field. Without going into too much detail on how the fuel cell works, one of the end products is water, water is good for drinking, i assume you already knew, but in a situation where you want to carry as little as possible having a machine that does two jobs is a massive win.
You may also be aware that electric motors do not make any noise, this is unfortunate for petrol-heads, but not for combat situations where secrecy and stealth is utmost priority.
One of the downside to a hydrogen fuel cell is that the ‘fuel’ for the cell is hydrogen (as the name suggests) and one of the properties of hydrogen makes it less of an efficient source, it's not a particularly dense element, so it has a much more limited range even when stored under really high pressures, some test yielded results of around and about 170 miles, which is not tragically bad, but not particularly reliable, especially since it's being tested for Army use.
Via: | AutoNews |
Source: | GM |
