A New Mexico start-up is betting on automakers to develop hydrogen cars and wants to provide material for them as nations and companies scramble to bring pollution-free vehicles to drivers.
Albuquerque-based Pajarito Powder is developing material for hydrogen fuel cells that chief executive Tom Stephenson hopes will one day aid those concept hydrogen-powered cars, KOB-TV reported.
“Every fuel cell vehicle is going to need material like what we produce,” Stephenson said.
Fuel cell vehicles are zero-emission, running on power produced when hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to create water.
Stephenson’s company of 17 employees is creating a thin film built directly into the hydrogen fuel cells.
He dubbed the material Pajarito Powder, inspired by Pajarito Mesa in New Mexico — the site of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
JAPAN
Japan in May announced that it was backing a push for pollution-free vehicles that run on hydrogen.
It is planning to build more hydrogen refueling stations so that fuel-cell vehicles on roads could grow to 40,000 by 2020.
Now, only a handful of such vehicles are on the roads, partly because of the scarcity of hydrogen stations.
Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co, for instance, has delivered only 245 of its latest Clarity fuel-cell vehicles in Japan and the US. Toyota Motor Corp has delivered about 3,000 of its Mirai fuel cell cars.
COOPERATION
Automakers and energy companies have been working together on fuel cells and view collaboration on technological investment and hydrogen station infrastructure development, and agreement on standards, as crucial for the technology’s success.
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