July 26th, reports said that earlier this year, the showed hydrogen fuel cell extended-range electric vehicle of Magna in the Engine Forum which held in Vienna have run on the road in Germany, and it does not rely on fossil fuel power at all, to achieve zero emission. It is reported that the world's most advanced non-nuclear submarines - the German U-series conventional submarine also use hydrogen fuel cell. Compared to pure electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells have the advantage of fast hydrogenation like refuel the car, and moreover, the hydrogen is truly environmentally friendly energy, the entire car has realized the four main aims of zero emission, high endurance, fast refueling and four-wheel-drive power system.

 

One of the important factors of a new car can be a lot of promotion is the price, which the target price is directly limited by the cost of fuel cell vehicle. The car has complex structure just like the conventional hydrogen fuel cars; however, the actual costs are lower with the fuel cell efficiency reaching to 51%. It is similar to a "hybrid" car, in the moving, the car will first consume the energy in the power battery; when the battery is depleted, the car will automatically switch to the fuel cell mode and trickle charge for the power battery, so as to enhance the number of km endurance .

 

The energy conversion of hydrogen fuel energy into electricity need to be carried out in the role of a catalyst, the former catalysts are always noble metal platinum which can generally be used in the experiment but could not be widely spread because of its high cost. With the ongoing research for new catalyst, the researchers found that tungsten trioxide (WO₃) can play a role in hydrogen fuel cells. WO₃, the yellow powder, is the most common tungsten oxide, and being a most important intermediate form of tungsten oxide in tungsten metallurgical industry, is also an important transition metal semiconductor material. WO₃ has a strong resistance to corrosion, especially suitable for the (hydrogen) fuel cell operating environment; research has shown that the use of WO₃ partially replace C as the carrier-supported Pt, the performance of the catalyst can be very good enhanced; and, since WO3 has cooperative catalysis with platinum, the use of precious metals can be reduced, and thus to improve the catalytic activity, also reduce the cost of the catalyst.