Fuel cells are pollution-free power sources that convert chemical energy to electricity with high efficiency and zero emissions.
Fuel cells are pollution-free power sources that convert chemical energy to electricity with high efficiency and zero emissions. Fuel cell cars, trucks, and buses would allow people to travel long distances with convenient refueling and less of a carbon footprint.
Researchers at the University of Delaware are working on technology to make fuel cells cheaper and more powerful so that fuel cell vehicles can be a viable option for all someday. Traditional fuel cell research involves hydrogen fuel cells, but the UD researchers are engineering fuel cells that utilize ammonia instead.
In a new analysis published in the journal Joule, a team of engineers at the Center for Catalytic Science and Technology found that among fuels produced from renewable energy, ammonia has the lowest cost per equivalent gallon of gasoline.
“As a nitrogen-based liquid fuel, ammonia is cheaper to store and distribute than hydrogen and avoids the carbon dioxide emissions of other liquid fuels, which are expensive to capture” said Brian Setzler, one of the lead authors and a postdoctoral associate at UD.
Read more at: University of Delaware
Traditional fuel cell research involves hydrogen fuel cells, but UD researchers are engineering fuel cells that utilize ammonia, the molecule pictured above, instead. (Photo Credit: Photo illustration by Joy Smoker)
