Hydrogen cars start hitting the road
By Miguel Morales miguel@theacorn.com

The answer to our fuel problem is all around us: hydrogen, contained in the water that covers more than 70 percent of earth's surface. Many carmakers are looking at hydrogen-powered fuel cell systems as they seek ways to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Honda, BMW and General Motors Corp. report they are developing vehicles that will run on hydrogen, the simplest, lightest and most abundant of elements.

GM predicts it could have cleanburning, hydrogenpowered fuel cell vehicles on the road within the next five or six years. The company estimates that fuel cell propulsion is about twice as efficient as that of an internal combustion engine.

Earlier this year BMW presented its new hydrogen vehicle, the Hydrogen 7, as part of the company's global clean energy promotional campaign.

Other major automakers do not predict mass production of hydrogen vehicles until at least a decade from now, citing the difficulty and cost of producing, storing and transporting the element in either its gaseous or liquid form.

The FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership, made up of the U.S. Department of Energy along with BP America, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Shell Hydrogen LLC and a council of three major automakers, believes that by 2010 it can create the national hydrogen fuel infrastructure needed to support fuel cell vehicles.

The partnership is one of many similar research and development groups seeking to fill the need for affordable alternative fuels and vehicles.

The 2007 Fuel Cell Seminar and Exposition, planned for Oct. 15 through 19 in San Antonio, Texas, is expected to draw more than 175 exhibiting companies and 2,300 participants.

Research on interim technologies such as hybrids that blend electric or fuel cell energy sources contributes to overall progress in reducing petroleum consumption and vehicle emissions. Over the past two years advances have been reported in hydrogen conductivity at less extreme temperatures, and a catalyst has been found that may lessen the difficulty of extracting hydrogen from water.

The White House has called for increasing renewable/alternative fuel use to 35 billion gallons a year by 2017, with a corresponding 20 percent cut in the country's use of gasoline. By 2012, 7.5 million gallons of such fuels must be blended into U.S. vehicle fuel supplies.

The plus side

The United States' hydrogen industry produces more than 9 million tons of the element each year, according to the National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, a "blueprint" for development efforts. Only a small portion is used as an energy carrier, mainly by NASA.

According to the roadmap, 9 million tons of hydrogen could power 30 million hydrogenfueled vehicles or 8 million homes.

Costly hydrogen conversion packages are already available for a small number of vehicles, including the Toyota Prius, Hummers and Shelby Cobras, but the starting price of $30,000 could scare many customers away.

Larry McKinney, public works fleet services supervisor for the city of Thousand Oaks, recently test-drove the Sequel, the GM hydrogen concept car unveiled at last year's Los Angeles Auto Show.

"You would never know you were driving anything different," McKinney said.

Natural gas, electric-gas

For his city, the use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel is not a viable option, McKinney said. A third of Thousand Oaks' 239 public works vehicles, including transit buses, street sweepers and garbage trucks, are already powered by either natural gas or electricgas hybrid engines, he said.

Plans are in the works to raise that number to more than 50 percent of cityowned vehicles. Hydrogen engines and fuel cells could, however, be a direction the city takes in the future, McKinney said.

"We are trying to get away from being so dependent on fossil fuels," he said. "We don't want to depend on any one alternative fuel source either. The day may come when we deplete our fuel supplies, and if hydrogen proves to be an option before that time, we will use it as well."

The average natural gas vehicle on the showroom floor today will run a person well above the $20,000 range, according to Ozzie Mejorado of Honda of Thousand Oaks. The automobile market trend is turning toward natural gas and alternative fuel vehicles, he said, but the infrastructure isn't ready to handle a large number of NG vehicles on the road.

"The hard part is not affording the car," Mejorado said. "It's finding where to refuel."

Specific difficulties

There are gas stations on almost every corner, Mejorado said, but the lack of sufficient hydrogen and natural gas refueling stations has left many car buyers second-guessing their purchases.

"People all say buying an alternative fuel vehicle is a great idea, but when they start to think of how they will be getting fuel it becomes more trouble than it is worth to them," Mejorado said.

Ira Goldberg, who teaches chemistry and physics at California Lutheran University and is a research scientist in electrical engineering at UCLA, said the benefits of alternative fuels are great, but he does not see such fuels as an efficient source of energy.

Goldberg said he believes that in the long run, more energy and money will be consumed than saved in the effort to produce cleaner burning fuels.

"Major revolutionary leaps in technology will have to come about before we are able to reach the full potential of some fuels such as hydrogen," Goldberg said. "But to get there we will produce almost as many byproducts as we will eliminate."

Goldberg said hydrogen in any form is very difficult to store. The amount of pressure needed and the temperature required, minus 253 degrees Celsius, makes storage highly inconvenient, he said.

Also, "Hydrogen under the wrong conditions can be dangerous," Goldberg said. "Being able to store and transport large enough quantities to make it a convenient fuel alternative will be a challenging matter."

Acorn staff writer Jeanne Pedersen contributed to this report.