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Arnold will convert his hummer to hydrogen power Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Hydrogen fuel faces hurdles
Environmentally friendly power source called panacea; cost still prohibitive to widespread use
By Eric Johnson
Staff writer
While oil reserves in faraway lands are slowly depleted, the most abundant resource on earth surrounds us.
Hydrogen, first in the periodic table of elements and foremost on the minds of environmentalists, automakers and air regulators, is likely to cause a paradigm shift in our transportation system within the next few decades.
A growing number of people believe that hydrogen will eventually replace gasoline as the source of power for most vehicles, from commuter cars to military machines.
But there are many hurdles to clear in order to transition from an economy based on petroleum to one based on hydrogen - namely, time and cost.
Automakers are scrambling to find the magic formula to make hydrogen power cost-effective.
Environmentalists are keen on hydrogen power because of its environmental friendliness and its sustainability.
But most agree that we're still years away from a true hydrogen highway.
Why hydrogen?
In theory, hydrogen power is pollution-free. Using a fuel cell (see accompanying diagram), hydrogen and air create electricity (to power a motor, for instance) and produce water vapor as exhaust.
Electricity is created through the separation of the hydrogen molecule's proton and electron. When the electron is separated, it produces a charge before it reunites with the proton and air to make water.
Stack enough fuel cells together and you can power a car with no carbon dioxide, no smog- forming nitrogen oxides and no diesel soot particles - all byproducts of the internal combustion engines we've come to rely on.
"We're converting a combustion process into an electro- chemical process,' says Chung Liu, deputy executive officer for technology advancement for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates air locally.
"This will fundamentally change the picture here."
The picture most Southern Californians are accustomed to is shrouded in brownish-gray smog. Hydrogen vehicles could change that.
Its main advantage is that it's everywhere.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, making up more that 90% of all matter. It's found in water and all organic matter on earth.
The problem, however, is that hydrogen doesn't exist naturally as a gas. Rather, it exists as a component of water (remember, H2O has two hydrogen molecules), petroleum and natural gas, among other things.
Hydrogen also doesn't produce a great deal of energy, so more of it is needed to produce the same amount of energy as petroleum fuels.
Research
That's where research comes in.
President Bush has proposed spending $1.2 billion over the next five years to support a hydrogen fuel initiative. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has also backed the hydrogen economy, even promising to convert his Hummer to hydrogen power.
Soon, he's expected to announce his vision of the state's "hydrogen highway,' an infrastructure where hydrogen cars can refuel at hydrogen stations.
But will it be enough?
"It depends on political might,' says Todd Campbell, policy director for the California Coalition for Clean Air. "It's not just providing $2 or $3 billion one time. It's providing tens of billions for a number of years. It will require a tremendous amount of support."
Meanwhile, the world's biggest automakers have sunk more than $4 billion into hydrogen vehicle research.
"They're not going to invest that much unless they're seriously interested,' says Cathy Johnston, communications director for Irvine-based Quantum Technologies, which among other things, designs hydrogen storage systems for vehicles. Quantum has a strategic partnership with GM.
"It sounds daunting, but that's why GM has 500 engineers on three different continents working on fuel cell engines."
The costs
What makes hydrogen so daunting for the industry is that it's prohibitively expensive.
The hydrogen equivalent of a gallon of gas, in terms of energy produced, costs anywhere from $4 to $12 (compared with $2.30 for a gallon of gas).
And the cleaner the source of the hydrogen, the higher the price, Liu says.
This is a key distinction, because hydrogen can come from many sources. It can be extracted from coal or natural gas - so- called black hydrogen - or it can come from water.
Obviously, environmentalists prefer it to come from cleaner sources.
Either way, hydrogen extraction requires a great deal of electricity, and environmentalists want that electricity to come from renewable sources, like wind or solar power.
"The future of hydrogen is not just, 'Can we make a car or put in a fueling station?" Campbell says. "It's 'Can we harness the ability to make pollution-free hydrogen efficiently and cost-effectively, and duplicate it all over the state?"
Hydrogen produced through electrolysis (extracting it from water) using green sources of electricity production is the most expensive - about $10 to $12 to provide the equivalent energy as a gallon of gas.
Federal energy administrators agree that the main barrier to hydrogen use is cost. According to a report released in February by the U.S. Department of Energy, the costs of production, delivery, storage and use must all be reduced.
"Fuel cell stacks are still very expensive,' Liu says. "We need advancement in materials, storage and electric motor integration."
The irony, both economically and environmentally, is that it takes a lot of electricity to create hydrogen just so that hydrogen can create electricity.
Why not just use the electricity to power the car and cut hydrogen out of the equation? Liu explains: "Hydrogen can be stored more easily than electricity. The battery would just be too heavy."
Too heavy to travel any reasonable distance, that is. The hydrogen vehicle industry is focused on producing cars that can travel 300 miles, much farther than a vehicle with a simple electric battery could go.
Goals
Beyond that, the basic goals of the hydrogen economy are simple - make hydrogen a cost-effective alternative to gas.
But more specifically, the federal energy department report set these goals for the hydrogen industry to achieve:
*Development of hydrogen storage systems for vehicles that would account for 9 percent or less of the vehicle's weight and would allow a driving range of 300 miles. *Production of hydrogen from natural gas at a price equivalent to $1.50 per gallon of gas.
*Development of fuel cells that cost $30 to $45 per kilowatt and deliver 5,000 hours of service.
*Construction of zero-emission coal plants that produce hydrogen at a price equivalent to 80 cents per gallon of gas.
Transition to hydrogen
In its Lake Forest lab, Quantum Technologies will convert 30 Toyota Prius hybrid electric cars to run on hydrogen instead of gasoline.
Converted cars from the $4 million project (funded primarily by AQMD) will go to municipal fleets of five Southern California cities. The Priuses won't be fuel cell vehicles. They'll run on hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines, meaning the hydrogen will be burned like gasoline.
This produces some emissions, but vastly less than gas engines.
The point, Liu says, is to stimulate demand for hydrogen by slowly introducing the idea of hydrogen power to a public that is dependent on internal combustion engines.
"We know the hydrogen fuel cells will come, but it will be a while away,' Liu says. "So we'll work on internal combustion engines to create a demand for hydrogen and hydrogen fueling stations.
"We hope we can develop a much larger commercialization by the time vehicle fuel cells are ready."
Johnston says it will be a slow but steady process, just as we were slow to accept the reality of cell phones - especially when they were expensive.
"This is a disruptive technology,' she says. "It will change the way we do things."
Quantum, which specializes in creating hydrogen storage and delivery systems, is a key cog in the development of hydrogen- powered vehicles.
While others, including some automakers, are tied up in the development of the fuel cell itself, Quantum is focused on how to get the hydrogen into the car's storage tank, and then from the storage tank to the fuel cell.
Quantum is even developing a hydrogen military vehicle that would eliminate fossil fuel consumption and would lower the noise and "heat signature,' allowing soldiers to move in a more stealthy fashion.
Meanwhile, major automakers (Honda, DaimlerChrysler, Nissan, Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford and GM) are working together on the California Fuel Cell Partnership to develop a marketable product to ultimately replace the internal combustion engine.
It's a unique situation given the usual fierce rivalry for market share.
"Every company is spending big bucks and nobody wants to fall behind,' Liu says.
The hydrogen highway
The ultimate vision is a fleet of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles cruising our roads, stopping at hydrogen fueling stations (or even filling up in home garages), spouting nothing more harmful than water vapor into the air.
It's legitimately exciting to those who want to clean our skies.
"I don't believe there's any other alternative fuel more promising than hydrogen,' Campbell says. "It's ultimately one pathway to the goal of zero emissions. The question is: are we ready to go to the moon or just sit twiddling our thumbs?'
And there's probably a simple reason why hydrogen has yet to take hold.
"You don't have a hydrogen station on every corner,' Johnston says. "And most people aren't going to pay extra just because it's an environmentally friendly vehicle.
"But as gas prices increase, are people willing to pay $5 a gallon? For hydrogen to become accepted, there has to be some parity."
Once there is parity, government funding, market innovation and early adopters markets will pave the way, she says.
"And then the masses will follow."
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