Just Add Water: Hydrogen Car Backers Defend The Dream

Posted by admin on May 11, 2009

The White House is channeling money towards plug-in hybrids and taking away research funding for hydrogen powered cars.

But hydrogen-fuel-cell car proponents are not ready to concede defeat. At corporate and university labs, researchers continue to work on getting this technology on the road.

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German chemical company BASF, for one, opened a new state-of-the-art fuel cell plant earlier this month. At least initially, the cells produced at the Somerset, N.J., plant are probably destined for readily-established commercial uses, such as powering forklifts or heating industrial plants and other buildings. But BASF is also working to develop the next generation of hydrogen cells for cars. (They’re also spreading their bets around by working on lithium-ion batteries.)

The Alternative Energy Technologies Group at the University of Montana built a prototype of a hydrogen-powered maglev monorail system and is looking to commercialize it. Hydrogen vehicles, says its director Paul Williamson, are “the only sustainable option.”

Fuel cells have an undeniable advantage: aside from electricity, their only emissions are heat and water. Back in 2003, President Bush touted the hydrogen car as the future of transportation in his state of the union address, and posed next to fuel-cell cars for photos on multiple occasions.

But these days even its staunchest proponents admit the fuel cell has lost much of its allure with the general public. That’s because for all their promise, fuel cells still have many obstacles to overcome, critics say. They are still very expensive, and producing the hydrogen on which they run is not cheap, or completely clean, either. At the moment, most hydrogen used in fuel cells is extracted from natural gas, a non-renewable hydrocarbon just like oil. A new hydrogen distribution system would also have to be built from scratch – and won’t be cheap.

This is not enough to call the whole fuel-cell thing off, though, says David Friedman, research director for the clean vehicle program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He’s familiar with all the green-vehicle alternatives on the table—and there are many others aside from plug-in-hybrids and hydrogen cars, including vehicles powered by electricity and natural gas. Even plain-old gasoline cars are emerging as a green option as they become more efficient.

Some technologies are farther along than others, but all of them have problems, he says. For example, the darling of the moment, the plug-in-hybrid, is still too expensive, and there are still concerns about the longevity of its batteries.

Instead of picking winners, says Mr. Friedman, the government must place bets on all of the above contenders and give them enough of a chance to prove themselves.

“We keep jumping from silver bullet to silver bullet,” he says. “It takes longer than that to revolutionize the auto industry.”