Yesterday Boeing announced that one of its pilots recently took to the air in an airplane powered by hydrogen fuel cells. This marks the first time a manned aircraft running on fuel cells has ever successfully completed a flight, though robotic drones have done so in the past.

What looks like a refugee from Mad Max is really a modified RC car that runs on water rather than conventional batteries. This proof of concept project gives you some practical meaningful experience using a fuel cell to generate usable electricity. Why wait for the Honda FCX Hydrogen Car when you can build your own working model prototype today?

The potential is huge, but the transition to the much-ballyhooed hydrogen economy won't be easy. Pure hydrogen isn't a naturally occurring fuel, and today the cheapest way to make it is from oil or natural gas, which does nothing to offset CO2 emissions.

Certain parts of a car´s engine can reach temperatures in excess of 1,500�F. With this in mind, the engineers at BMW developed a way to boost efficiency: Transform that otherwise wasted heat into energy the engine can use. The resulting Turbo- steamer reclaims more than 80 percent of the heat lost from the engine´s exhaust and cooling systems. It uses this surplus heat to generate steam that helps drive the engine. It boosts power and torque by 10 percent and cuts fuel consumption by 15 percent without using a single additional drop of gasoline.