hydrogen fuel

In preparation for the inaugural Global Green Challenge across the Australian outback, a team of Turkish students have assembled a hydrogen-powered vehicle that has an efficiency of 568 kilometers per liter (roughly 1,335 mpg). In order to get across the outback, they hope to only use three liters of fuel in the vehicle, dubbed the SAHİMO.

The SAHİMO weighs 110 kg--a carbon fiber frame keeps the weight down--and the scary thing is that these Sakarya University students want to up the efficiency to 1,000 km/L.

Fuel cell technology is all the rage, and some say it might even revolutionize transportation. Boeing is bullish enough to begin designing a small fuel-cell-powered propeller plane. If its research bears fruit, there could be a place for fuel cells in jetliners too -- replacing the gas turbine auxiliary power units (APUs) built into the rear fuselages of jets.