News Watch

FUEL CELLS COULD POWER VEHICLE OF THE FUTURE

As the manufacturers of battery-powered electric vehicles attempt to make inroads into the automotive market, there is another power-generating technology under development. It’s called fuel-cell technology, and it has been around since the 1850s. In fact, small fuel cells were used in space flights in the 1960s. A fuel cell, like a battery, uses electrochemistry to convert the fuel’s chemical energy directly into electricity in a device with no moving parts. But a fuel cell does not have to be recharged because its fuel is stored in a separate container. Thus, when the fuel is depleted, the operator could fill up in minutes like he or she would with gasoline.

One type of fuel cell uses hydrogen. The hydrogen reacts with atmospheric oxygen via a negative anode and a positive cathode in an electrolyte. The resulting reaction moves electrons through an electrical load, such as a motor. The only by-products of the reaction are waste heat and water vapor.

Energy Partners, West Palm Beach, Fla., is working with a special proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell that promises to offer an operating life that far exceeds an internal combustion engine. One fuel cell has already delivered more than 57,000 hours of operation. If used in a car for four hours a day, the cell would last nearly 40 years!

"We have already delivered a 10 kilowatt fuel cell that weighs 150 pounds to Ford for testing," says Ed Trlica, president of Energy Partners, "and we are currently working on a 50 kilowatt one – the size needed to run a car." Trlica says that right now the fuel cell still needs to come down in price and weight to be competitive. Even so, the company expects to break ground on a fuel cell production facility later this year.

JAPAN REMAINS THE LARGEST IMPORTER OF U.S. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

The United States exports vast quantities of agricultural products. To date, Japan is still the largest consumer of food, fish and forest products imported from the U.S., according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington. Last year, Japan increased its intake of American snack foods, vegetables, meat and dairy products by 5 percent – from 30 percent to 35 percent. Also, the country’s purchases of fresh fruit and pet foods increased from 16 percent to 26 percent.

In second place was the European Union with $10 billion in agricultural purchases from the U.S.; Canada with $7.4 billion; Korea with $4.2 billion; Mexico with $3.8 billion; Taiwan with $2.8 billion; and China with $2.7 billion.

As China’s need for more food rises due to its growing population, analysts expect the country to increase its purchases of U.S. agricultural products. China currently accounts for only 4 percent of total U.S. agricultural exports.

GROOVING WITH COPPER TUBING

The shift to alternative, ozone-friendly refrigerants has spurred the redevelopment of copper tubing lines to carry the refrigerants in air conditioning and refrigeration systems. Because the new refrigerants are less efficient than the chloroflurocarbons than they replace, more surface area is needed inside the tubing to dissipate heat. To accomplish this, internal grooves are being added to newer tubing.

According to Cerro Copper Tube Co., St. Louis, projections for world demand of both smooth-wall and internally-grooved tube could go as high as 1.2 billion pounds by the year 2000 – a 50 percent growth from the current market. Feeding the growth will be China’s air conditioning manufacturing base, which alone is expected to produce more than 6 million air conditioners by the end of the decade.