A Study of Vehicular Propulsion Systems
The world is suffering from a severe oil crisis. Half of the oil present beneath the surface of the earth has been consumed and remaining oil in the oil reserves will be used up in the near future. Consumption of two-thirds of oil produced in transportation indicates the extent of our oil dependency. On the other hand emissions of pollutants like CO, HC, and N0% are a health hazard and cause serious damage to the environment. If the consumption of oil would continue at present rapidity, and new fuels and other vehicular power systems were not developed, the world would face a disastrous situation. There is an urgent need for successful development in new technologies to replace gasoline/ diesel dependent internal combustion engine (ICE).The aim of this study is to find both a short-term and an unending solution to environmental damage caused by vehicles, and the current oil crisis. In this report different vehicular power systems i.e. internal combustion engine, fuel cell, hybrid system and electric system are studied with regards to technical, environmental and cost issues to find a solution to the oil crisis and environmental damage.It is concluded that an interim solution would be a hybrid system vehicle that has a PEM fuel cell and a battery. However, the permanent solution to the problem is a hybrid vehicle that uses a reformer-independent PEM fuel cell and a battery, and is supplied with pure hydrogen onboard. The hydrogen to be used in the hybrid vehicle must be obtained from electrolysis of water, using electricity generated by solar, wind or hydro resources.
