Turkey tests electric car operating on solar power and boron
Turkey imports 60 percent of its energy…
On the other hand it has 70 percent of the world’s boron reserves as well as major solar potential, and continues to increase the number of projects involving boron and solar power daily.
Within this framework, Turkey has promoted a car which operates on solar power and boron by test driving it.. There is a strong possibility we could see vehicles operating on boron on the streets soon..
As part of a project conducted by TÜBİTAK and the National Boron Research Institute (BOREN) a test drive of a vehicle operating on a sodium borohydride fuel cell was realized. The Fuel Cell Vehicle Project was started with the support of Boren in December, 2009.
Vehicle operating on solar power and boron
The vehicle developed for the project is a domestic production. It has a 20 horsepower electric engine specially designed for this project and made in Turkey.
The vehicle can go a maximum distance of 100 km at a speed of 80 km per hour
The car consumes 1 kg of borohydride for a distance of 35 km. The target is to improve the performance of the vehicle in terms of speed and range covered.
At present, lithium ion batteries are used in electric vehicles which is quite unfavorable as they take too much space in vehicles and the energy they provide is not good enough in relation to their size.
It has been observed that that fuel cells using boron have a number of advantages compared to the current batteries used which are; They have high efficiency, low noise, low volume and are long-lasting.
Moreover automotive industry is not the only sector these batteries could be used in. The most important alternative sector to benefit from these products is the defense industry.
22.10.2012
BTT
