Hydrogen Fuel Cells

After Tuesday’s State of the Union Address, everyone’s in a tizzy about the prospects for increased funding of hydrogen fuel cell research for vehicles. See, for example, this Financial Times article discussing the increase in price in platinum markets yesterday. Platinum is currently the best catalyst for making hydrogen fuel, which is also one reason why hydrogen fuel cells are currently 100 times as expensive as internal combustion engines. See also this BBC article, this Financial Times article, and this LA Times article (registration required). Note also the stock market response, with fuel cell companies rising, as reported in this AP story.