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ВАРИАНТ 2

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Fuel Cells Start to Look Real

Fuel-cell technology

Unlike electrochemical batteries, which use chemical reactions to store and discharge electricity, fuel cells generate electricity from hydrogen fuel. Haul around enough fuel, and the fuel cell will power an electric vehicle as far as the motorist wants to drive.

The fuel cell was first demonstrated in principle by British scientist Sir William Robert Grove in 1839. Grove's invention was based on the idea that it should be possible to reverse the already well-known electrolysis process to produce electricity. In electrolysis, an electric current is introduced into a conducting liquid known as an electrolyte, where it flows between two electrodes causing the splitting of water or other chemical compounds into their ionic (charged) components, which then react chemically.

Many engineers believe that SOFCs {solid oxide fuel cells), tоgether with an onboard gasoline fuel processor or reformer, would be highly suited as auxiliary power units (APUs) for cars and trucks in the relatively near term. Engineers have long desired to rid automobiles of the alternator and its notoriously low efficiency. And as vehicles are crammed with more and more electronic equipment and move toward higher electrical loads, a larger burden will be placed on the alternator. An auxiliary power unit based on SOFC technology could provide an ideal alternative. A research alliance including BMW, Renault, and Delphi Automotive Systems is pursuing this fuel-cell application.

Daimler Chrysler, Ford, and their fuel-cell-stack development partner, Ballard Power Systems - the two automakers together own a third of Ballard and collaborate in a precompetitive development venture called XCELLSiS - have spent nearly a billion dollars on fuel-cell technology. Their current effort to mass produce fuel-cell cars and light-duty trucks over the next four years will cost billions more.

General Motors is making similar hefty investments in automotive fuel cells, while Japan's Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi reportedly laid out close to a billion dollars on the new technology during the past decade. With an estimated $6-8 billion having already been sunk into the fuel-cell industry, including both stationary and portable power types as well as transportation versions (according to analysts at Citibank), automakers are working to take fuel cells off the lab bench and move them onto the showroom floor.

Hybrid-electric vehicles

Another reason fuel-cell technology is favored is because it may be able to liberate electric cars from the electrochemical battery. While batteries are the cleanest automotive energy source, the technology is still highly problematic. And however responsive battery-powered electric cars are their limited range and slow charging constrains them to a niche market segment, as GM's EV-1, Honda's EV-Plus, and other abortive electric car models have shown. Despite decades of research and investment, electrochemical batteries simply haven't attained the power densities needed for effective automotive propulsion power.

One way to extend the range of the electric car is to carry fuel and a small 1С engine onboard to generate electricity to power the electric drive-train. "Hybrids convert the problem of energy storage in a battery to one concerning the storage of fuel," explained Scott Staley, Chief Engineer for Fuel-cell Systems Engineering at Think Technologies, Ford's electric-car enterprise. This hybrid-electric approach is employed in the recently introduced Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, which combine modest-size, high-efficiency combustion engines with batteries that supplement engine power during acceleration and hill-climbing, and recover energy from the brakes during stopping. Besides continuing to emit some pollutants, the combined electric and mechanical drives tend to make them complex and costly. Thus, automakers must subsidize current hybrid car models heavily to make them affordable.

Nevertheless, because hybrid vehicles use proven technology that has yet to be fully optimized and refined, many experts believe they will provide strong competition to fuel-cell-powered vehicles well into the future. A recent study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers concluded that hybrid-electric vehicles will be more common than fuel-cell-powered cars two decades from now. Indeed, the influential California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently reorganized its credit structure to emphasize hybrid-electrics as well as fuel-cell vehicles, while de-emphasizing battery-powered electric cars and trucks.

Whether fuel-cell-powered or any next-generation vehicles attain commercial success depends on three factors: technical feasibility (it must work), an appropriate fueling infrastructure (it must keep working), and customer acceptance (someone must buy it). Whereas the majority of today's efforts center on developing technical feasibility, in reality, all three factors are interrelated and interdependent. While the latter two issues remain unclear, it is evident that the three key elements must be developed in parallel.

Part III. A Mercy Machine

The helicopter changed from an obscure curiosity to an indispensable flying machine within a decade of first becoming established in 1942. It was as a mercy machine that it first proved itself- and won the affectionate nickname 'chopper'. The first life-saving mission was flown in January 1944 by the US Coast Guard. Flying through a blizzard, an experimental 180 hp machine brought blood plasma to victims of a shipboard explosion off the New England coast of the United States.

The first air-sea rescue by helicopter was in November 1945 off Long Island Sound, New York. Two men who had spent 16 hours on a tanker stranded on a reef were winched off despite a gale.

The first escape from the rooftop of a blazing building took place in 1958 when two air-traffic controllers were trapped in the 155 ft tower of the half-completed Brussels international airport. The rescue of victims from any inaccessible place is now one of the helicopter's major roles. Injured skiers, climbers and passengers from crashed aircraft can all be brought to safety.

In war, too, the 'chopper' rescued many casualties.

In difficult country the helicopter was used to bring in reinforcements quickly, or to help a retreat. It took supplies in and wounded out.

In the past 20 years, helicopters have multiplied their uses. They have _replaced the prospector's mule. They check remote power lines, monitor forest fires, hunt submarines and find a shipping path through ice-fields, gvery off-shore oil-rig has its helicopter platform. As flying cranes, helicopters perform jobs difficult to carry out otherwise - for instance placing the cross on Coventry's new cathedral in 1962 from an RAF Belvedere.

Vast territories with scant communications now rely on helicopters as work-horses. In the Soviet Union the Mil V-12 lifts and moves timber, minerals, TV masts and construction equipment.

In major disasters helicopters are invaluable. In the Bangladesh floods of 1970, and after the earthquake in southern Italy in 1980, helicopters were the only immediate means of delivering food and medicine to stranded communities.

For civilian passenger transport the helicopter's high cost of manufacture, heavy fuel consumption and restricted range and speed make it impractical; but on short trips - city centre to airport, for instance -nothing can equal its speed and convenience. There is a roof-top helicopter terminal on the New York Port Authority building on East 34th Street providing a shuttle service to La Guardia, Newark and Kennedy airports.

The helicopter is young yet and attitudes to its development are mixed - should improvements in it be directed towards its peaceful use as a rescue vehicle or towards its fighting potential?

British aviation writer Basil Arkell sums up its first 40 years: 'The helicopter is one of the most expensive means of transport yet devised by man, but its saving grace is that it is also one of the most effective.