New Honda Fuel Cell Car Drops The Water

Honda is bringing out a new car powered by fuel cells.

It’s just a "concept" car, called the FCX. But inside a very ordinary body is a very efficient design, which turns 60% of the energy produced by its fuel cell into power. That’s three times what a car engine can do.

In the new car Honda has also tweaked the fuel cell design. But not in a good way.

The previous version placed the hydrogen and water produced in the reaction next to one another, so the water could be drained. The new version stacks things horizontally, dumping water as the car moves. Environmentally this sucks, because you can change an area’s climate (from dry to wet), and because you’re unable to get the water into the water system, where it belongs.

If you capture and hold the water produced in a fuel cell, then dispose
of it at a station when you "fill up" with more hydrogen, the water you
produced goes into the city water system, where it can be chlorinated
for drinking, cleaning, and watering plants. (Here’s a tank which does just that, from Autometrics Motorsports.)

If you just dump the water you
get an improvement in mileage, because you’re not carrying it,  but the "waste" water goes onto the road
or into the air, where it can cause problems. 

There are other improvements in the new Honda concept car. The new fuel cell is lighter and takes up
less space. It can even start in cold weather, as cold as -30 Centigrade, or about -20 Fahrenheit if my math is right.

Concept cars aren’t real cars, but American companies aren’t even
working with fuel cells as concepts, preferring batteries. This concept
needs to be tweaked, especially regarding water storage, but it’s a
good effort in the right direction.