Honda's guide to how the technology in its hydrogen fuel cell production vehicle – the FCX Clarity – works.

/"Fuel cell cars, which run on electricity produced from compressed hydrogen, emit no harmful emissions and could be the future of automobiles. They can be just as fast, convenient and can travel as far as a conventional gasoline or diesel engine car, but the technology is very different. And above all, the only thing that comes out of the exhaust gases is water vapor.

Rather than having a gas or diesel tank like a conventional car, the fuel cell car has a tank that stores compressed hydrogen as a gas. Hydrogen is used as an energy carrier, so the fuel cell car can produce its own electricity on board, rather than storing it in batteries.

This compressed hydrogen is expanded and then introduced into the fuel cell. The fuel cell is like a small power plant. Inside, hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to produce electricity and water as a byproduct. Water vapor is the only emission from fuel cell cars.

The electricity created inside the fuel cell is used to power the electric motor, which is in turn used to drive the car. The fuel cell is made up of hundreds of individual cells stacked like a loaf of bread. In fact, each cell is like a sandwich, with an assembly of membrane electrodes (or MEA) between two separators (or bipolar plates). The MEA consists of a proton exchange membrane, or PEM, located between the hydrogen and oxygen electrode layers and the gas diffusion layers.

In each cell, hydrogen gas passes over the hydrogen electrode. Each hydrogen atom is converted to a hydrogen ion in a catalytic reaction, releasing an electron. The hydrogen ions then pass through the electrolyte membrane, where they bind to oxygen ions coming directly from the atmosphere. The electrons previously emitted by the hydrogen molecules arrive at the oxygen electrode via an external circuit. The released electrons create a continuous flow of electrical current in the external circuit and water is generated at the oxygen electrode as a by-product. This water is drained from the system and exits the car as water vapor via the exhaust gases.

Since electricity is produced from hydrogen and oxygen, no carbon dioxide or other pollutants are emitted by the car. This is the ultimate in clean performance.

Honda's FCX Clarity is the world's first production fuel cell car and is already on sale in the United States and Japan./"

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