As much as we liked the Chevy Volt, it’s only really efficient when it’s running on electricity. When you kick the gas engine in as a middleman, it gets much less eco-friendly, but a new type of fuel cell is able to convert gas into electricity. And it’s tiny.
Traditional fuel cells use fuels like hydrogen or alcohol to generating electricity. A solid-oxide fuel cell (or SOFC) also generates electricity from fuel, but you can put just about anything you want in there, from gasoline to diesel fuel to natural gas. SOFCs have a power-to-size ratio that’s 10 times better than other fuel cells, and if you put gasoline into them, they’re just as efficient at producing electricity as a gasoline-powered generator in a tiny fraction of the space. via Dvice
December 8, 2011
