High development costs, implementation hurdles -- and competition from electric and hybrid-electric vehicles -- have kept hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) out of the mainstream for now, but FCVs aren't dead in the water yet and research and development continues in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. Pictured: The Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell car. (Media credit/Raymond Chen via Flickr)

It is true that just a few years ago everyone was talking hydrogen fuel cells as the future of petroleum-free automotive transport. Fuel cell cars can run on infinitely renewable hydrogen gas and emit no harmful tailpipe emissions whatsoever. A 2005 Scientific American article bullishly reported that car company executives “foresee no better option to the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle in the long run.” Likewise, the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggested, also in 2005, that some 30 percent of the global stock of vehicles—700 million cars and trucks—could be powered by hydrogen fuel cells by 2050.

But high development costs and implementation hurdles have kept fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) out of the mainstream for now. And in the face of competition from a new crop of all-electric and hybrid-electric vehicles lately, some analysts wonder whether the fuel cell’s future is as bright as once thought.

That’s not to say the technology isn’t impressive, and still potentially very promising. The concept was first developed by NASA some five decades ago for use in space travel and has since been implemented in a wide range of other mobile and stationary power applications. In an FCV, a stack of fuel cells under the hood converts hydrogen stored on-board with oxygen in the air to make electricity that propels the drive train. While automakers have been able to make fuel cells small enough to fit in and power a conventional size car or truck, the price per unit is high due to the need to incorporate expensive, cutting edge components. And the lack of widespread demand precludes cost-saving mass production. Also, the lack of hydrogen refueling stations around the country limits the practicality of driving a fuel cell vehicle.

According to Richard Gilbert, co-author of the book, Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight without Oil, another big issue for hydrogen-powered fuel cells is their energy inefficiency. Creating hydrogen gas by splitting water molecules via electrolysis ends up using up about half of the energy it creates. Another half of the resulting energy is taken up by the conversion of hydrogen back into electricity within fuel cells. “This means that only a quarter of the initially available energy reaches the electric motor,” reports Gilbert. (Making hydrogen by reforming natural gas is also highly inefficient and relies on a fossil fuel from the get-go.) Such losses in conversion don’t stack up well against, for instance, recharging an electric vehicle (EV) like the Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt from a wall socket—especially if the electricity can be initially generated from a renewable source like wind or solar.

But FCVs aren’t dead in the water yet. A few dozen Californians are already driving one of Honda’s FCX Clarity fuel cell cars. A $600/month lease payment entitles qualifying drivers to not only collision coverage, maintenance and roadside assistance but also hydrogen fuel, available via a handful of “fast-fill” hydrogen refueling stations. General Motors is part of an effort to test FCVs and implement a viable hydrogen refueling infrastructure in Hawaii, currently one of the most fossil fuel dependent states in the U.S. The Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative aims to bring upwards of 20 hydrogen refueling stations to Hawaii by 2015. Other efforts are underway in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.

CONTACTS: IEA, www.iea.org; Honda FCX Clarity, www.automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity.

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A Chinese company is releasing a product that you might not be able to show off at the fifth grade science fair this year.

The Horizon Fuel Cell Bio Energy Discovery Kit is a simple enough product. It allows you to put water and alcohol in solution — like, say, diluted vodka — to create an electrochemical reaction.

“Unlike methanol, or past attempts to use alkaline ethanol solutions, Horizon’s device can use plain water and alcohol which is easily accessible to consumers,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “Tiny amounts of alcohol can thus be placed in contact with Horizon’s fuel cell and slowly converted to electricity that can power small devices.”

The promise is that this is a step toward fuel cell-powered devices.

The kit is available now for $99.

Sci Fi Channel’s DVICE has a popular article up about liquid-filled fuel cell cell phones. We let Matt react…

I’m honestly not sure what to make of this.

I’m highly tempted to say people are confused and that it’s a concept mock-up or something, because I don’t see how this could possibly exist as a real product in this form.

Fuel cells need a catalyst assembly to operate, and there appears to be nothing of the sort to be found here, to say nothing of the single chip with no apparent connections to anything (like the magical mystery touchscreen), or any hint of an antenna.

I don’t see how a liquid-based fuel cell could even be practical in the first place anyway. All fuel cells produce a byproduct as part of the chemical reaction — if you’re not storing that byproduct in a holding area (which these “phones” don’t appear to be, if it’s to be believed that the colored liquid is the fuel and that it drains away during use) you have to disperse it into the atmosphere somehow.

This means your phone is either going to be peeing or farting questionably hazardous chemicals all day. On top of that, typical fuel cells have an efficiency of like 50 percent, which means you’d have to refill it rather often with some esoteric substance (’cause, you know, it’s just so easy to find pure ethanol on the street these days) … possibly very often depending on which angle you happen to be holding the device at.

Whether this is supposed to be a real product or some kind of internal artist’s rendering that got leaked, someone at NEC has a lot of explaining to do. I’m certainly not going to be saving any money waiting for a cellphone based on a very questionable concept, especially not one with pictures that raise more questions than answers and no data or press release to back anything up.

All I see here is a bunch of wild speculation being passed around among tech mags.