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The B-Class F-CELL combines a high, emission-free range of around 400 km with short refilling times and as such is highly suitable for both everyday use in urban areas as well as longer journeys. At the heart of the B-Class F-CELL is the new-generation electric drive system powered by a fuel cell, which is compact, powerful, safe and fully suited to everyday use. The fuel cell generates the electrical power on board from a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen.

The newly designed catalysts are composed of a single layer of platinum over a palladium (or palladium-gold alloy) nanoparticle core. Their structural characterization was performed at Brookhaven's Center for Functional Nanomaterials and the National Synchrotron Light Source.

Using a common metal most famously found in self-cleaning ovens, Sossina Haile hopes to change our energy future. The metal is cerium oxide-or ceria-and it is the centerpiece of a promising new technology developed by Haile and her colleagues that concentrates solar energy and uses it to efficiently convert carbon dioxide and water into fuels.

Currently the system uses only one photon at a time, but a two-photon system, while more complicated, would be more effective in using the full spectrum of sunlight.

The research team also envisions that the method could lead to the study of irregularities and cracks on conducting surfaces in the materials sciences field. In addition, they add, the methods developed here could be highly valuable in the quest for enhanced battery performance and in the evaluation of other electrochemical devices, such as fuel cells.

"The technology that we have developed can be used to produce energy storage devices for integrated microsystems such as wireless sensors networks. These systems have to be really small in size-millimeter or sub-millimeter-so that they can be deployed in large numbers in remote environments for applications like homeland security, agriculture, environmental monitoring and more; to power these devices, equally small batteries are required, without compromising in performance."

Alane is one of the classes of materials known as chemical hydrogen storage materials. Like metal hydrides, chemical hydrogen storage materials provide a solid-state storage medium for hydrogen.

"Hawaii is on the cutting edge of developing the infrastructure for hydrogen-powered vehicles and adopting the latest clean energy technologies to move our islands toward energy independence and sustainability," said Richard Lim, acting director, state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. "H2I is a unique, innovative partnership that has brought together public, private and community partners to improve the quality of life for our citizens and become a worldwide model."

With very few cost and technical issues limiting commercialization and deployment, hydrogen powered vehicles can help create the demand needed to support the development of a hydrogen refueling infrastructure. The taxis will be refueled on site using technology supplied by Air Products.