Wayne State's police issued a ticket to an errant driver earlier this month for a routine driving violation in the fuel cell car.

The virtually silent silver blue Mercedes “F-Cell” vehicle emits only pure water vapor as exhaust and is the only fuel cell police car in the world.

The police officer made the traffic stop the morning of June 5 and issued the moving violation to a student driving through a stop sign on her way to class.

The car runs on pure hydrogen converted to electric power by a fuel cell membrane under the floorboard. It has a range of about 110 miles, and can achieve a top speed of 87 miles per hour.

It is one of more than 100 vehicles in the DaimlerChrysler fuel cell vehicle fleet, distributed to companies around the world, to gather valuable data under daily driving conditions.

 “This glimpse of the future in alternative energy transportation is quite encouraging,” said Ralph Kummler, dean of Wayne State’s College of Engineering where the car serves as a learning laboratory for Alternative Energy Technology students. “Through our degree programs in AET and research conducted in our National Biofuels Energy Lab, we hope to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make Michigan a technology leader in this emerging industry.”

The WSU police car, outfitted with police lights, sirens and WSU police department logos, often perks people’s interest, said Sgt. Frank Smith, who drives the car on routine patrols and made the June 5 traffic stop using the vehicle.

“The first question people ask is if it is an electric car,” he said.

One of the partners in the WSU Police F-Cell project is NextEnergy, the state of Michigan's alternative energy industry accelerator, which is based in Wayne State’s TechTown technology park. The NextEnergy installation includes a hydrogen refueling station, where the car is refueled. The other partners are BP, which owns the hydrogen refueling station; DaimlerChrysler and the College of Engineering. The project is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The three-year project will deliver unique drive-cycle data which will help in developing production-line fuel cell vehicles in the future.