EV&RE(General Motors Achieves Fuel Cell Breakthrough)

[Bruce {EVangel} Parmenter <BruceDP@iname.com>]

EV&RE(General Motors Achieves Fuel Cell Breakthrough)
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 --- {EVangel}
General Motors Achieves Fuel Cell Breakthrough
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- General Motors announced today a
performance and engineering breakthrough in the effort to bring fuel
cells to automobiles.  Byron McCormick, co-director of GM's Global
Alternative Propulsion Center, announced that the company can
immediately draw power from a fuel cell at an ambient and stack
temperature of -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees F).

Speaking at the Earth Technologies Forum conference here today,
McCormick told a panel gathering that GM engineers at the company's
Rochester, N.Y. fuel cell development facility have successfully
operated GM-designed and built fuel cell stacks at temperatures as low
as -20 degrees C.

Engineers routinely place a fuel cell stack inside an environmental
chamber and reduce the temperature below freezing.  Once the entire
stack reaches the desired test temperature it is started and operated
at full power. Sub-zero start up tests have been repeated on the same
GM stack as many as 25 times with no reduction in performance.

"Fuel cells must meet customer expectations if they are to be
commercially successful," said McCormick, "and a simple expectation to
customers living in Detroit, Frankfurt or Tokyo is that their vehicle
start on a cold January morning."

Starting a fuel cell stack in sub-freezing temperatures has been a
technical challenge for engineers and scientists for years due to the
role water plays in fuel cell operation.  Fuel cells use hydrogen and
oxygen, obtained from air, to produce electric power.  This is
accomplished using a specially constructed membrane.  Hydrogen is
delivered to one side of the membrane where it is separated into
electrons and ions (molecules without electrons).  The membrane allows
ions to pass through but it blocks electrons from passing.  The
electrons must pass through an electric circuit to get to the other
side of the membrane where they combine with the ions and oxygen to
form water.  Since water expands when it freezes the potential exists
for the stack to be permanently damaged if not designed correctly.

According to McCormick, the discussion around fuel cells has been too
much hype on things engineers and scientists know, and little valuable
dialogue on the issues that will bring these zero-emissions propulsion
systems to vehicles soon.

"There's been a lot of industry discussion about tanked hydrogen fuel
cell vehicles," said McCormick.  "Everyone involved in fuel cell
development have known how to do that for 30 years.  If the issues
were so simple, then the industry would have vehicles selling today."

"The road to an affordable and reliable consumer fuel cell vehicle has
three stages," he said.  "First, we need fuel cell systems that will
work in vehicles in the near-term, and that means processor-based fuel
cell systems running on a readily-available fuel that is familiar to
the customer, like gasoline.  Second, as the technology and
innovations continue, we'll need safe and reliable on-board vehicle
hydrogen storage systems.  Finally, we'll need a distribution system
that delivers hydrogen to locations convenient for the customer.  And
through the entire evolution of these systems, they must meet customer
expectations for performance and cost."

McCormick said that GM engineers had to develop a non-conductive stack
coolant that is compatible with automotive and fuel cell materials,
and is capable of operating through the spectrum of customer use
temperatures ranging from -40 C to 120 C.  "This coolant is one of the
developments that allows us to operate fuel cells in the sub-zero
conditions.

"Starting the fuel cell stack at -20 degrees was important," he said,
"but more importantly, we showed that we were producing power
instantaneously.  Now the task is to fully develop the coolant and
fuel cell system that can go to -40 degrees and draw full power
instantaneously."

According to McCormick, solving the issues surrounding development and
commercialization of fuel cells is an industry challenge.  "That's why
we think collaboration on base technology issues is important," he
said.  "Our work with Toyota on advanced technology will speed the
pace of innovation and deployment of technology to the customer."

"Ultimately, this is a marathon, not a sprint," said McCormick.
"Solving cold-start issues is just one of the many technical obstacles
to commercially viable fuel cells."

SOURCE  General Motors Corporation CO:  General Motors Corporation ST:
Michigan, District of Columbia, New York IN:  AUT ENV SU: 09/29/1999
00:30 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
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