FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

11 July 2008

NISSAN AND IMPERIAL COLLEGE

There are a number of good, practical reasons why Nissan has chosen to launch its FCV to the media and interested parties at London’s Imperial College.

For a start it is in the centre of one of the world’s busiest cities, where the local government has put into place legislation attempting to reduce the levels of harmful emissions created by the internal combustion engine, something the Nissan FCV notably lacks.

Imperial College is also a superb venue for such a presentation. But there’s more to it than its location and facilities, for Imperial College is Britain’s leading research establishment into fuel cell technology. Work carried out at the College entirely complements that being undertaken by Nissan: in fact, a student at Imperial has just won a year’s placement with Nissan in Japan on the company’s FCV programme.

And there’s one more pragmatic reason why Imperial College was chosen as the launch venue… the College can house Nissan’s mobile hydrogen refuelling rig, thus enabling the launch to become a ride and drive event giving guests practical experience of the technology rather than just theory. The College is used to handling hydrogen for research purposes and has hydrogen safe laboratories.

Heading fuel cell research at Imperial College is Professor Nigel Brandon, Executive Director of the Energy Futures Lab and Shell Professor of Sustainable Development in Energy in the Faculty of Engineering.

The College started research into fuel cell development more than 30 years ago and currently has 60 researchers working on the technology. Imperial College leads the UK fuel cell consortium and collaborates extensively with industry and academic partners, both within the UK and internationally.

Current research involves understanding and improving the performance and lifetime of the materials used within fuel cell stacks, modelling the behaviour of fuel cells, stacks and systems under operating conditions, and exploring the social and economic barriers to the uptake of fuel cell technology.

On a practical, educational (and fun) level, Imperial College is developing a racing car powered by a fuel cell under the banner ‘Imperial Racing Green’.

In welcoming Nissan to Imperial College, Professor Brandon said: “The opportunity to demonstrate the future potential of the fuel cell vehicle today is one not to be missed.”

Imperial College effectively divides its research into fuel cell technology into two areas. On the one hand it is helping to improve the hardware. “We are researching the structure of the cells, the materials used and the way they work. The aim is to develop a better fuel cell in terms of performance and endurance,” said Professor Brandon.

At the same time, more than 20 academics and students are looking into the production of hydrogen itself. “Our main aim is to develop effective production of hydrogen from renewable sources,” said the Professor. “Currently the simplest and most cost effective way to produce hydrogen is from natural gas, but this has an unwanted by-product in the form of carbon dioxide. While the levels of CO₂ generated are lower than those created by the internal combustion engine, clearly the less carbon we release the better.”

Among the renewable resources being investigated are algae and solar energy, but extracting hydrogen from both sources is currently relatively inefficient and costly. “Our research is seeking a breakthrough in this area,” said Professor Brandon.

Imperial College is also undertaking research into the storage of hydrogen on the fuel cell vehicle. Due to the difficulty of storing hydrogen in quantity, current FCVs have a maximum range of between 250 – 300 miles. The College hopes its work will eventually lead to the doubling of that figure without resorting to huge heavy storage tanks reducing the practicality of the vehicle.

Before the FCV can become our regular mode of transport, the hydrogen infrastructure needs to be developed. Said Professor Brandon: “We are working closely with energy companies such as Shell, looking at the most practical methods of supplying hydrogen to refuelling stations. This could either be done via pipeline from a central production facility, which needs massive central investment, or it could be generated on site which requires significant regional investment.

“There is still a great deal of parallel action that needs to be completed before the FCV can be made totally viable, but the work being carried out by Nissan and other car makers is extremely promising.”

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