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Nissan’s “Nissan Green Program 2010″ seeks out eco-friendly technologies to develop products and services that cut CO2 emissions, produce clean emissions and recycle resources. As part of this program Nissan has been developing technologies for Fuel Cell vehicles. As reported a while ago, Nissan’s XTrail Fuel Cell Vehicle set the world’s first speed record on the Nurburging track for a Fuel Cell Vehicle. It was slow, but it proved the point that Fuel Cell Vehicles can race around a track. With Nissan’s current success at having developed a fuel cell stack that doubles the power output compared to the previous generation, we may see a Fuel Cell Vehicle doing lap times closer to that achieved by the GT-R. Well maybe not in the near future, but one day at least. What’s also notable about this next generation Fuel Cell Stack is that it cuts down 35% of the cost of production. It does this by using less Platinum, an integral part of a Fuel Cell Stack. This is important as one of the drawbacks of alternative fuel vehicles is cost. Hybrids are still quite expensive and even more so are other technologies.
More info from Nissan’s press release:
MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly): Double the power density is achieved through improved conductivity of the electrolyte layer within the MEA, where the main chemical reaction occurs, coupled with a more densely-packed cell structure.
Cell Structure: A more densely-packed cell structure is achieved through the replacement of the carbon separator with a new thin metal separator. The separator functions to break down the hydrogen, oxygen and cooling water necessary for the chemical reaction. A specific coating applied to the separator helps improve conductivity and prevents chemical corrosion, leading to increased efficiency and durability throughout the fuel cell stack’s life-cycle.
Electrode: Higher durability electrode material results in a 50% reduction of the platinum required compared to the previous generation. This in turn, provides a significant breakthrough in the cost of these components.
Stack size and cost: The combined improvements in the cell result in double the power density, which enables a downsizing of the fuel cell stack size by one-third and significant cost reduction, without sacrificing performance. Compared to the previous generation, the new generation stack’s power output is increased 1.4 times from 90kW to 130kW, which can power larger vehicles. Stack size is reduced by 25% to 68L from 90L, which allows for improved packaging flexibility.