A study has been carried out in view of the significance of vehicles for us to predict what sort of engines will be put into practice in 2010 year. However, the prediction cannot be made before predicting what sore of fuels will be used for vehicles in 2010. The consumption rate of fossil fuel will be getting slower for fair that the fossil should be depleted and there should happen the serious global warming caused by burning fossil fuel at a seriously high speed. Instead of the fossil fuel, hydrogen produced from the sun and water will increase. in conjunction with the large amount of hydrogen production, vehicles will use hydrogen as the fuel. There has reached a conclusion that hydrogen fueled internal combustion engines with internal mixture formation will work in practice carrying liquid hydrogen on board with high pressure liquid hydrogen pumps.

Diesel vehicles is thought as one of the sources of air pollution, as diesel vehicle emits NOx, PM, and so on. Diesel engine’s issue is the improvement of exhaust gas emissions. Therefore, the trend of energy resources, exhaust emission regulation and fuel economy standard, end advanced diesel engine technology for ULEV and high thermal efficiency are reviewed. From the results, it is found that future diesel engine has a great potential for the reduction of exhaust emissions and the improvement of fuel economy.

Fuel cell vehicles now become on the stage of public road demonstration. And the development of hydrogen infrastructure is promoted by the government and industries. The element technologies such as fuel cell stack, fuel cell system and onboard fuel storage device are also progressed. This paper interprets the technologies of the state of the art fuel cell vehicles and the promotion projects by the government.

A catalyst-assisted 2-propanol/acetone/hydrogen chemical heat pump (CHP) system, proposed for upgrading low-quality heats (90°C) to more valuable levels (200°C) by combining a reversible reaction pair of 2-propanol dehydrogenation/acetone hydrogenation with a fractional separation process by cooling. was analyzed with use of Aspen Plus in order to elucidate important factors for enhancing the system thermal efficiencies. It was pointed out that the extents of dehydrogenation conversion in the endothermic reactor, selective condensation of 2-propanol at 25°C in the partial condenser and set-up of heat exchanges were indispensable.

The research and development of fuel cell, especially polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), is earnestly done for the introduction and the penetration. The fuel cell vehicle will be sold by the lease this December. The fuel cell vehicles with pure hydrogen tank will be introduced for the time being through on-board reforming technology with fossil fuel is being developed. Therefore, the system and the infrastructure where hydrogen is supplied by a cheap cost are necessary for the penetration of fuel cell vehicles. In this report, the current and future hydrogen costs and a targeted hydrogen cost supplied to fuel cell vehicles have been evaluated.

A new national demonstration project of fuel cell vehicles, which is called Japan Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Demonstration Project, has started this year on a three-year plan. In this project, five hydrogen refueling stations are constructed in Tokyo and Yokohama area in FY2002-2003. The five stations adopt the following different hydrogen supply sources from each other: LP gas reforming, methanol reforming, naphtha reforming, desulfurized gasoline reforming, and liquid hydrogen. Fuel cell vehicles will run on public roads using these stations.

The PEM fuel cell cost for vehicle application in massive production is analyzed by learning curve. In order to apply learning curve, the progress ratios and the bottom line cost of each element, such as proton exchange membranes, platinum, electrodes, bipolar plates and peripherals are estimated. Learning curve calculation was performed for the case of cumulative production of 50 thousands vehicles in 2010 and 5 millions in 2020. The results showed that the fuel cell stack cost could be reduced to the same level as that of internal combustion engine today and that power density improvement and cost reduction of bipolar plates and electrode are effective for reducing total cost of fuel cell stack.

Current limitations related to the development of effective, durable and reliable MEA components for PEFC applications are addressed. Advancements made in the development of materials (catalyst, membranes, bipolar plates, etc.) for PEFC are shown. The effect of the catalyst on PEFC performances based on cells fed by hydrogen, direct methanol, direct propane, or direct acetal fuels are presented. The progress in cell performance and cathode research are discussed. Perspectives related to CO tolerance are indicated. The effort of the membranes depending on the fuel are suggested. Openings for the future in materials processing and development for PEFC mass production are discussed.

Recently several auto-manufactures are aiming to develop fuel cell vehicle (FCV) because fuel cell is recognized to have potentials for future power source of vehicle. A lot of effort to develop FCVs has also been carried out in Nissan and direct hydrogen type Xterra FCV as a prototype was already developed.

Therefore this paper describes the current status of FCV development in Nissan, main features of Xterra FCV as well as technical issues for FCV. Besides them, social problems for the penetration of FCV are also obtained.