The dream of an almost silent family saloon car with only water as exhaust fumes will move a step closer this weekend when a hydrogen-driven vehicle tries to break the 10,240-mile per gallon record held by a petrol driven car.
The hydrogen car, using a fuel-cell to generate electricity, will be competing for the first time alongside petrol engines at the world record attempt, partly to draw attention to the technology, but also to learn how to build the next generation of cars.
Weighing 100kg (220lb), including a lightweight driver, Claudia Woon, 24, the car has a top speed of 15mph.
The project is being masterminded by Aberdeen-based Kenny Stewart, a builder of ultralight eco-marathon cars for four years, and Dave McGrath of siGEN, a Scottish company which markets fuel cells as back-up power supplies. Gas company BOC has supported the prototype.
The record attempt by the BOC Gh2ost will take place at the Shell Eco-Marathon Challenge held at the Grampian Transport Museum in Aberdeen this Saturday.
Although the technology has been around for 160 years, only recently have large amounts been spent on research and development, particularly by carmakers looking for a successor to fossil-fuel engines.
Sir William Grove invented the fuel cell in 1839 after realising that if electrolysis could split water into hydrogen and oxygen, then combining hydrogen and oxygen would produce electricity.
Fuel cells work by converting energy, which is stored in hydrogen atoms, directly into electricity. This is achieved by bringing together hydrogen and oxygen in an electrochemical reaction.
The only by-product is water, and the only current drawback is that hydrogen is derived mainly from natural gas, so it still uses fossil fuels.
But there is increasing interest in using surplus electricity from renewable energy such as wind power to make hydrogen to power fuel cells.
Mr McGrath, of siGEN, says that within 20 years hydrogen cars will be common, and commercially on sale by 2010.
"I have already driven one of these cars in California and they are almost silent and pollution free.
It has got to be part of the future - fuel cells will be getting cheaper as fossil fuels get scarcer and more expensive," he said.
Stornaway in the Western Isles is already investigating producing hydrogen from surplus windpower.
