High energy conversion rate, low noise, modern fuel cell technology

Recently, Hyundai Motor officially announced its fuel cell technology at the Paris Motor Show, and released the ix35 Fuel Cell model using fuel cells. Let's take a look at this relatively rare technology.

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What is Fuel Cell

Fuel Cell is literally translated as a fuel cell. It uses the chemical reaction of fuel and oxidant to directly convert it into electricity. However, it cannot store electricity and can only produce electricity. The difference between a fuel cell and a conventional battery is that the fuel cell needs to continuously input fuel and oxidant into the battery during operation, and as long as the supply continues, the fuel cell will continue to provide electrical energy.

The advantages of fuel cells

The fuel cell has two distinct advantages. First, the energy conversion efficiency is high. The fuel cell directly converts the chemical energy of the fuel into electric energy without going through the combustion process. Another advantage is that harmful gas emissions and noise are relatively low.

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After understanding what a fuel cell is, let's take a look at the chassis of the modern ix35 Fuel Cell model. We can divide it into three parts, the drive part, the energy storage part, and the hydrogen storage tank. Corresponds to the red, green, and yellow parts of the diagram below.

● Drive section

The driving part is located at the front of the engine compartment of the traditional gasoline engine model. The ix35 Fuel Cell is a fuel cell model. The reaction of the oxyhydrogen cell occurs in the reaction chamber of the fuel cell. The chemical energy of the fuel is directly converted into electric energy to provide power for the motor and drive it. The vehicle is moving forward and the product of the reaction is water, which is another advantage of this fuel cell model.

● Energy storage section

At the beginning of the article, it was mentioned that one of the disadvantages of fuel cells is that they can only generate electricity and cannot store energy. The ix35 Fuel Cell is equipped with a bi-directional high-voltage DC converter and battery to recover the excess energy released by the fuel cell under braking, coasting and under low load conditions through an energy recovery system. The ix35 Fuel Cell is stored in the battery for driving and powering the vehicle. The device provides additional energy and extends cruising range.

● Hydrogen storage tank

The ix35 Fuel Cell's hydrogen storage tank is in the rear of the vehicle. There are a total of 2 hydrogen storage tanks of different sizes. A total of 5.64 kg of liquid hydrogen can be stored, and liquid hydrogen can be added to the vehicle through the liquid hydrogen filling port. The filling time is approximately A few minutes.

to sum up:

At the Paris Motor Show, Hyundai announced that it will mass-produce the ix35 Fuel Cell model and will provide private rental services. However, this time it is no match for us. The ix35 Fuel Cell models and private rental services are only available in Europe. Because the "fuel" used is liquid hydrogen, the practicality of such models is directly constrained by the number of hydrogen refueling stations. Although current fuel cell technology has matured, it is still too far away for “fuel cell vehicles” to talk about “popularization” before hydrogen refueling stations can flourish like gas stations.