A "zero emission" sports car that can reach speeds of nearly 100mph is set to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show this month. The Lifecar, which is powered by hydrogen, is based on the design of the Morgan Aero-8 roadster and produces only water vapour from its exhaust. Advanced fuel cells and an energy storage system that gives the car a range of 250 miles per tank of hydrogen powers the vehicle.

ITM Power has been awarded the CleanEquity Monaco 2008 Award for Excellence in the Field of Environmental Technology Research. Presented to Jim Heathcote, Chief Executive Officer of ITM, the award recognises the development and research taken by ITM Power over the last decade. "This is a great honour and recognition of the hard work that everyone at ITM Power is doing to make hydrogen fuel a commercial reality," said Mr Heathcote. ITM Power is also planning to open a factory in Sheffield to start commercial production of its hydrogen fuel technology.

Meanwhile Gunze has announced the development of a new hydrogen gas sensor that uses solid electrolytes. The new sensor is being exhibited at the Fuel Cell Expo 2008 and Gunze claim that it consumes less power and requires a shorter response time compared with existing catalytic combustion type hydrogen gas sensors. Fuel cell vehicles, stationary fuel cells and hydrogen stations will be the targets for the new product according to technon.co.uk.

Makers of fuel cell vehicles will focus on reducing the cost and improving the durability of their models. If the cars are to be commercialised, then these challenges will need to be overcome, according to some of the world's leading car manufacturers. Taiyo Kawai of Toyota and Taro Hagiwara of Nissan both agreed with Koichi Shinmura of Honda who told the Fuel Cell Expo that reliability and cost would need to be improved. However, Mr Kawai and Mr Hagiwara both agreed that the "extension of range per recharge", "startup at low temperatures" and "the improvement of vehicle power density per mass" were no longer regarded as major hurdles.

General Motors (GM) has presented its GM HydroGen4 fuel cell vehicle and has announced that three have been cent to America to test the technology. The scheme, known as "Project Driveway" will see the vehicles loaned to customers so that GM can obtain information and feedback on all aspects of the new fuel cell technology. The fuel cell stack consists of 440 series-connected cells.

Pininfarina has unveiled its Sintesi Concept Car that features state-of-the-art fuel cells. Distributed in four wheel power modules, the fuel cells allow the design of the car to focus on the passenger rather than the placement of the engine. Nuvera Quadrivium has supplied the fuel cell technology. "When faced with the ambitious challenge of making a high performance power train using ecologically benign technology, Nuvera engineers changed direction away from conventional technologies and embraced a radical new fuel cell concept," said Bill Mitchell, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Nuvera.

A new direct methanol fuel cell prototype will be used to power digital cameras after it was unveiled by MTI MicroFuel Cells. Operating like a battery pack, the fuel cell provides twice the energy offered by existing models and it can be easily refilled without the need for electricity. The cell can be filled with ethanol meaning the user can charge it anywhere. Peng Lim, chief executive officer of MTI MicroFuel Cells, said the fuel cell had been developed because battery life was becoming a key issue in digital cameras.

The world's first graduate programme in hydrogen energy technologies will be created at Kyushu University in Japan. According to reports from Green Car Congress, the masters programme for hydrogen engineering will cover many topics relating to hydrogen energy production including the development of fuel cells. About ten students are expected to enter the programme.

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