Morgan LifeCar and the QinetiQ fuel cell

The LifeCar is based on the Morgan Aero Eight, and is powered by a QinetiQ-made fuel cell, which converts hydrogen - and oxygen taken from the air around it - into electrical energy. It is clean, quiet and economic, and the only waste product is water. The car's power system is incredibly efficient, producing significant improvements over current fuel cell prototype vehicles, with the fuel cell powering four separate electric motors, one at each drive wheel.

The key to delivering this step change in energy efficiency lies in a combination of factors, including weight reduction and a different design approach. This approach exploits opportunities across the vehicle to reduce energy losses and requirements.

FAST FACTS – LifeCar and the QinetiQ fuel cell

The LifeCar is powered by a hybrid of a fuel cell and a supercapacitor.

The first fuel cell was built by Sir William Grove in 1843 but it wasn’t until 1959 that Francis Bacon built the first multi-kilowatt version.

The Life-Car fuel cell is a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) system which has been custom made for the project by QinetiQ, an international defence and security technology company.

The PEM fuel cell is the most common type used in automotive applications but other types are available, such as solid oxide, phosphoric acid, alkaline and molten carbonate.

The PEM fuel cell produces electricity from the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen (contained within air). The hydrogen used in the PEM fuel cell has to be of high purity, as any trace elements contained within it would reduce its reliability.

The fuel cell itself produces zero emissions with the only exhaust being water. If the hydrogen is produced from water, using electricity from renewable sources, the overall emissions are zero.

High purity hydrogen is readily available. It can be produced by applying an electrical current to water, by reforming it directly from fossil fuels or by the decomposition of chemical compounds.

The fuel cell itself has no moving parts and is therefore inherently reliable. The complete system does however contain a number of components including humidifiers, pumps, compressor, control valves, a heat exchanger and a DC/DC converter.

The supercapacitor powers LifeCar as it accelerates and generates energy through regenerative braking

The QinetiQ PEM fuel cell in LifeCar is built up from 4 off 6KW sub stacks. This is better than one large fuel cell as it allows for lower cost maintenance, helps in automated assembly and broadens the market applications (driving up volume and driving down costs.)

Each 6KW fuel cell is made up of over 50 individual plates that have fine structured grooves etched in them to control the flow of hydrogen, air and water within the stack. The structured grooves within the QinetiQ stack follow a pattern that mimics natural growth patterns in nature which promotes better flow and increased efficiencies.

The stack uses a range of materials to make up the various components including graphite (bi-polar plates), polymers (membranes), carbon composites (end plates) and titanium

Although the fuel cell has been produced specifically for the Life car project there is potential to exploit it within other lightweight vehicles and other portable power applications.

The fuel cell is the subject of an ongoing development programme with QinetiQ constantly seeking to improve power output, reduce weight, increase efficiency and optimise the manufacturing process.