Fuel Cell Cost-Cutting

By Caty Weaver¹
Broadcast: July 25, 2003
This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Environment Report.
Researchers say they have found a way to reduce the cost of some 1)fuel cell production. The researchers are from Tufts University in the American state of Massachusetts.
Fuel cells create heat and electric power without pollution. Fuel cell technology uses 2)hydrogen to create electricity. Hydrogen gas passes over a metal, like 3)platinum² or gold. Electrons from the hydrogen separate to form electricity. 4)Proton particles that remain in the atom combine with oxygen to form water.
Some fuel cells require a lot of metal. And platinum costs even more than gold. Prices went up at the beginning of this year. That was after President Bush said the government would spend more than one-thousand-million dollars on fuel cell research.
But the scientists from Tufts say their findings could save millions of dollars. Their work involved the agent that causes the chemical reaction used to make hydrogen. Normally that agent is about ten percent gold or other costly³ metal.
The researchers used a chemical to slowly remove the gold from the agent. They discovered that the agent remained effective even after they removed ninety percent of the metal.
Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos is a professor of chemical and biological engineering who led the work. She says it will help researchers find a way to produce clean energy from fuel cells in a cost effective way. Another scientist says they must continue research to learn if smaller amounts of costly metals will work in other fuel cell processes.
The National Science Foundation provided money for the research. The findings appear in Science.
That publication also reported about a new, less costly agent for making hydrogen. The report says scientists at the University of Wisconsin made the agent from tin, 5)aluminum⁴ and 6)nickel. They say the process works as well with these as it does with platinum and other metals that cost much more.
Some automobile⁵ makers⁶ have tested hydrogen-powered vehicles. The American space agency has used fuel cells to produce electricity since the nineteen-sixties. But cost is an issue. Currently, hydrogen costs four times more to produce than gasoline. And fuel cells cost ten times more than traditional gasoline-burning engines.
This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is Bill White.
注释：
1) fuel cell  燃料电池
2) hydrogen [5haidrEudVEn] n.氢
3) platinum [5plAtinEm] n.白金，铂
4) proton [5prEutCn] n.（核）质子
5) aluminum [E5lju:minEm] n.（化）铝
6) nickel [5nikl] n.（化）镍

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 platinum   

n.白金

参考例句：

• I'll give her a platinum ring.我打算送给她一枚白金戒指。
• Platinum exceeds gold in value.白金的价值高于黄金。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

5 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

6 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》