While the means to alternatively power cars seems to be converging towards “plug-in” battery powered electrics, Mercedes recently announced that it is bucking the trend by continuing on a production path for its B-Class F-CELL hydrogen fuel cell powered electric car.  The B-Class, when it goes into small scale production in 2010, will have a 136HP electric motor powered by a fuel cell that converts gaseous hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen into electricity.  Refueling the car will require refilling the liquid hydrogen tank approximately every 240 miles.  For the environmentalists, the hydrogen-oxygen reaction yields harmless water vapor (steam).

It’s not hard to understand why in an age of soaring gas prices and environmental concern a car that doesn’t use gas and has zero harmful emissions could have mass appeal.  Cars being scheduled for production, like the Chevy Volt, Tesla Roadster, and Nissan Leaf, will propel their owners via an electric motor that “refuels” by recharging in much the same was as we recharge our cell phones.  With relatively simple conversions, any electrical outlet can become a fueling station.

But undoing 100 years of highly integrated gasoline infrastructure won’t be easy.  The major barrier to hydrogen fuel cell acceptance won’t be fuel cell technology, which has advanced greatly in the last decade.  Instead, it will be the enormous cost of converting existing gasoline distribution systems into those suitable for hydrogen.  Unlike gasoline, hydrogen isn’t a liquid at standard temperatures and pressures, and thus must be stored under pressure during transportation to keep it in its liquid state.  Oh, and in case you spill some liquid hydrogen on your hands while refueling, that annoying stench that doesn’t go away will be your frozen hand falling off since, after all, liquid hydrogen is the coldest substance on Earth.