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March Issue |
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Peter Hoffmann
Scientists and engineers on three continents are scrambling to
assemble technologies for producing and delivering the simplest
molecule and for using it as a source of heat or electricity.
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New design frredoms emerge with all-electric, hydrogen-based
transportation. The Hy-wire, a drivable concept vehicle by GM,
maximizes interior space by compacting control and propulsion
systems into an 11-inch-thick chassis.
 he world will move
another step closer to a global hydrogen economy in the spring of
2003, when the cities of ReykjavÆk and Madrid each welcome the
opening of their first hydrogen fueling station. In these cities,
buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells will start demonstrating the
benefits of pristinely-clean exhaust consisting of nothing more than
water vapor--teakettle stuff. The stations in Iceland and Spain will
be the first of 10 such stations scheduled to open in 7 European
countries during 2003.
Iceland is aiming to
become the first fossil-fuel-free country, starting with the hydrogen
fueling station on the outskirts of ReykjavÆk, the country's small
capital. All of the station's core machinery will arrive as a single
package, a containerized unit built by Norway's Norsk Hydro, one of 11
partners in Iceland's ECTOS (Ecological City Transport System)
project.
In its first stage of
operation, the station will sell not only hydrogen but gasoline,
diesel, and probably Icelandic food specialties. The station will be
run by Skeljungur, the Icelandic subsidiary of oil multinational
Royal/Dutch Shell Group, together with its clean-energy subsidiary,
Shell Hydrogen. The station will make and compress gaseous hydrogen on
the spot via water electrolysis. The system will use electricity
generated without pollution by using Iceland's abundant renewable
hydro and geothermal sources. Initially, the station will service
three Citaro urban transit buses made by DaimlerChrysler and powered
by fuel cells. The first is scheduled to open next summer, but
eventually anybody else with a hydrogen-capable car will be welcome as
customers.
Iceland has committed
itself to a wholesale switch--buses, cars, and the country's fleet of
almost 2,000 fishing boats--to hydrogen during the next 30 to 50
years. The country has, in effect, assumed the role of a planetary
laboratory to examine the promises and possible pitfalls of a hydrogen
economy. Such an energy system ultimately can run free of the
political uncertainties and environmental problems caused by reliance
on carbon-based fuels such as petroleum, coal, and, to a lesser
degree, natural gas.
ECTOS, launched last
year, has triggered a Europewide effort, CUTE (Clean Urban Transport
for Europe), which, like ECTOS, is partially funded by the European
Union. Starting in 2003, the CUTE program will deploy 27 additional
Citaro buses in nine European cities--three per city--to test entire
systems, from hydrogen production to passenger reaction and
acceptance. These three-year programs will be conducted in Amsterdam,
Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto (Portugal),
Stockholm, and Stuttgart. Additionally, three Citaros will be shipped
"down under" to Perth.
California pushes the envelope
 n the United States,
fuel cell buses are being readied for a somewhat delayed launch in
California, the state clearly in the forefront in the march to a
hydrogen energy economy as a result of the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV)
regulations set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Under
CARB's rules, original plans called for the state's acquisition of
some 20 fuel cell buses to be deployed in 2003. Several of
California's large transit agencies, such as AC Transit in Oakland,
the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency, and the San Mateo County
Transit District, were set to buy the buses. Late last year, however,
it became clear that DaimlerChrysler, then the only viable supplier of
such buses, simply couldn't deliver them because of the demands of
Europe's ECTOS and CUTE programs.
For a while
California's plans seemed doomed, but the situation changed for the
better this spring as new contenders in the bus market emerged.
Competing fuel cell makers UTC Fuel Cells of South Windsor,
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Interior space is further unencumbered because steering, braking
and other vehicle systems operate electronically rather than
mechanically.
Connecticut, and Ballard Power Systems of Burnaby, British Columbia,
both committed themselves to the task of getting fuel cell buses into
operation in California and have assembled teams, including U.S. bus
maker Thor and possibly others, that promise to deliver. The bottom
line: a delay of about one year. Instead of 2003, the first of these
quiet steam emitters is now expected to arrive in California in 2004.
California is clearly
getting another leg up with the expected offer of Toyota, Honda, and
Ford to make experimental fleets of fuel cell passenger cars to be
sold to paying customers. Last fall Toyota was the first manufacturer
to announce its intention to make fuel cell cars, in this case SUVs
based on its Highlander model. It upped the ante by announcing in July
that it would start leasing 20 fuel cell vehicles in Japan and the
United States (presumably California) near the end of the year.
Honda, in turn,
announced at the end of July it had won certification from both the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California's Air Resources
Board to operate fuel cell vehicles on public roads, and that it would
start leasing about 30 of them near the end of the year in both
California and Japan. Ford announced at the New York Motor Show this
spring that it will sell its fuel cell car, the Focus FCV, in small
volumes ("tens of vehicles," said a spokesperson) in 2004,
most likely to government or fleet operators. On top of that, other
car-making members of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, including
General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, and Nissan, will provide fuel cell
vehicles to the alliance for testing, perhaps as many as 60 by the end
of 2003.
As a consequence, a
sizable number of hydrogen fueling stations are on drawing boards as
well. The California Fuel Cell Partnership is planning at least 3 new
stations in the San Francisco Bay area in addition to the existing
hydrogen and methanol fueling facilities at its West Sacramento
headquarters. Carmakers Honda and BMW already operate hydrogen
stations at their respective research facilities in the greater Los
Angeles area, as does SunLine Transit. The South Coast Air Quality
Management District--the clean-air watchdog agency for the Los Angeles
basin, is considering building at least 8 and perhaps as many as 100
stations of various sizes and configurations.
Jules Verne saw it coming
he notion of a
hydrogen-based energy system has attracted visionary thinkers,
scientists, engineers, clean-energy advocates, and environmentalists
for more than a century. Jules Verne predicted hydrogen as fuel in The
Mysterious Island (1874): "Yes, my friends, I believe that water
will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which
constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible
source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not
capable."
The comparison of
hydrogen and oxygen as fuels with coal suggests that Verne was
imagining the burning of hydrogen, but not its alternative
use--powering a fuel cell producing electricity, heat, and water. In
1897, Wilhelm Ostwald, a distinguished German physical chemist who won
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 12 years later, urged that "fuel
cell research is to be strongly recommended as a route to protecting
the earth's resources."
In the late 1920s and
through the '30s, a handful of European engineers and scientists who
championed the Verne application of burning hydrogen fuel converted a
bus, a self-propelled railcar, and a number of trucks to hydrogen.
Later, and intensified greatly by the first OPEC-induced oil crisis,
interest in hydrogen as an environmentally benign and locally
producible fuel reemerged among scientists and environmentalists in
industrial nations in the late 1960s and early '70s. That interest
waned again in subsequent years, as memories dimmed and oil prices
fell. Nonetheless, during the last three decades, researchers in
several countries have developed experimental cars and even a
motorcycle or two powered by burning hydrogen directly in an internal
combustion engine.
In the early 1990s,
interest in hydrogen energy arose again, together with interest in
fuel cell technology. But it took the shock of September 11and the
long-in-coming realization of humanly induced global climate change
(still not accepted in all quarters) to shift this interest into high
gear. Today, the search for a commercially viable hydrogen-based
energy system is a serious matter for American policymakers at all
levels.
The faces of a hydrogen economy
o speak of a pure
hydrogen economy is to issue a long-term challenge to the prevailing
fossil fuel economy, which derives electricity and heat primarily from
coal, oil, and natural gas and powers its transportation with
oil-derived fuels. The pure hydrogen economy would use hydrogen for
both stationary and transportation applications, and even for portable
applications, replacing the electric batteries powering our many
portable electronic devices.
In practice, a mixed
economy of both hydrogen and fossil fuels is likely to be with us for
several decades at least, or even permanently. Hydrogen isn't free. It
is available in water but at an energy cost. Splitting water into
hydrogen and oxygen requires energy from another source, such as
fossil fuels, hydropower,
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Aiming to become the world's first fossil-fuel-free economy,
Iceland will open its first hydrogen fueling station (for three
buses) in spring 2003. The hydrogen fuel will be produced from
water by using Iceland's low-cost electricity generated by its
abundant geothermal and hydroelectric sources.
nuclear, or renewable sources. Hydrogen is also available at a lower
energy cost in hydrocarbon fuels, which can be seen as hydrogen
"carriers." These include natural gas (CH4),
methanol(CH3OH), and gasoline.
The emerging hydrogen
economy, then, may have many different faces. Many environmentalists
would like to see a hydrogen economy in which electricity from
renewable sources such as wind, photovoltaics, hydropower, or biomass
burning is used to produce pure hydrogen from water. The hydrogen
would be packaged, distributed, and reacted locally in fuel cells to
produce electricity.
Others with more
commitment to the existing energy system imagine using electricity
generated by coal-fired or nuclear power plants to extract pure
hydrogen from water. A third approach involves making fuel cells that
extract and use hydrogen directly from a hydrocarbon source, such as
natural gas, methanol, or gasoline, and using the existing
infrastructure for distribution. The blossoming hydrogen economy arena
has advocates and investors for these three approaches plus other
variants as well.
This year, to the
surprise of many hydrogen supporters, the Bush administration launched
its new FreedomCAR (Cooperative Automotive Research) program, which
embraces hydrogen as a plausible future consumer fuel. Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham announced on January 9 that the $150 million
program in the 2003 budget would "promote the development of
hydrogen as a primary fuel for cars and trucks as part of our effort
to reduce American dependence on foreign oil ... (and) ... fund
research into advanced, efficient fuel cell technology, which uses
hydrogen to power automobiles."
The government
commitment of $150 million pales in comparison with much more
ambitious corporate investment. DaimlerChrysler, for example, said in
1999 it will spend $1.4 billion over five years on automotive fuel
cell technologies. Overall, the private sector is estimated to be
spending somewhere between $1 and $3 billion every year on fuel cell
technology development. Big carmakers such as DaimlerChrysler, Ford,
General Motors, and Toyota have assigned what are said to be hundreds
of engineers to work on fuel cell technology. Japan reportedly has
budgeted about $183 million in the current fiscal year for hydrogen
and fuel cell technology, an increase of 34 percent over last year.
The biggest chunk, about $70 million, is earmarked for developing
proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells.
Hydrogen-powered transportation
 ost of today's
investment toward commercializing hydrogen power for transportation is
concentrated on PEM fuel cells because of their almost instant
start-up, high power density, and relative durability. Areas of
potential application include not only cars and buses but eventually
trucks, ships, and rail locomotives.
Fuel cells combine
oxygen and hydrogen through a process that uses a catalyst (usually
platinum) to separate electrons from the hydrogen molecule (H2 2
electrons + 2 protons). The "magic" of the fuel cell is that
it sends the electrons out from one terminal through an external
circuit as usable electricity while the protons simply travel a short
distance through the cell. Then, at the second terminal, the protons
combine with incoming electrons and oxygen to form water. The chemical
equation is simple: 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O. The fuel cell produces a steady
current of the borrowed electrons as long as hydrogen fuel and oxygen
are provided.
PEM fuel cells operate
at the relatively cool temperature of about 80_C (176_ F). They are
more than twice as efficient as a comparable gasoline-burning internal
combustion engine, and their exhaust contains none of the gasoline
engine's ozone-producing nitrogen oxides. The exhaust will, however,
contain minuscule amounts of carbon dioxide if the vehicle carries a
hydrocarbon fuel as its hydrogen source instead of pure hydrogen fuel.
Despite the fuel
cell's basic simplicity and the imminent prospect of small fleets of
fuel cell cars, most carmakers and others, including planners at the
Department of Energy (DOE), believe it will be a least
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Hydrogen from methanol or gasoline? The California Fuel Cell
Partnership opened its first methanol fueling station in
Sacramento in April with DaimlerChrysler's methonal-burning Necar5
(New Electric Car, Fifth Generation) as the first customer.
a decade before fuel cell vehicles come to market in sizable numbers.
Even then, sales of fuel cell vehicles are likely to be small compared
to conventional car sales, which in the United States alone fluctuate
around 15--17 million annually. Contrary to earlier, more optimistic
projections, today's conventional wisdom is that tens of thousands of
fuel cell cars, at best a few hundred thousand, will be on the world's
roads by 2012--2015.
A big obstacle is
manufacturing cost. A conventional internal combustion engine costs
$30--45 per kilowatt (1 kw = about 1.35 HP) to manufacture, while fuel
cell systems for mobile applications are believed to cost
$2,000--4,000 per kilowatt, with some systems costing as much as
$20,000 per kilowatt. Of course, the comparison isn't fair because
today's fuel cells are handmade specimens, unlike the engines that
pour out of Detroit's engine plants by the truckloads. Fuel cells will
be roughly the same size as the internal combustion engines they are
displacing, but they will probably look roughly like a box with vents
and a few exposed tubes and wires. (See "Fuel Cell Reality
2002," The World & I, June 2002, p. 148.)
Some studies project
costs of $300 per kilowatt for fuel cells produced in volumes of
500,000 units with current technology. These studies include so many
unknowns, however, that some experts consider the numbers as highly
tentative at best. In addition to costs, reliability is an unresolved
issue in need of much attention before fuel cell vehicles can be
offered commercially.
A third issue is fuel
choice and onboard storage. Because of the challenges of storing
hydrogen onboard, General Motors is working on technology for
extracting hydrogen from gasoline. This makes sense in the context of
infrastructure: California's early efforts notwithstanding, there is
no widespread hydrogen fueling infrastructure in comparison to gas
stations, which are everywhere--about 175,000 in the United States
alone, according to GM.
Taking a different
approach, DaimlerChrysler is developing technology for using methanol
(a liquid, hydrogen-rich derivative of natural gas) as an interim
fuel, mostly because extracting hydrogen from methanol is technically
easier and yields fewer carbon emissions than extracting it from
gasoline.
While major auto
manufacturers pursue alternate onboard fuels, the DOE has made
improved hydrogen storage a top research and development priority in
the next couple of years. During the past few decades, researchers
have tested a variety of portable hydrogen storage forms, including
compressed gas and ultra-cold "cryogenic" liquid stored in
insulated tanks and gas stored in metal alloys known as metal
hydrides, which soak up hydrogen almost like a sponge soaks up water.
As with so many aspects of the hydrogen economy, the hydrogen storage
area already has entrants racing to produce a winning technology.
Two leaders in
compressed hydrogen gas storage, probably the most promising near-term
solution, are Quantum Technologies of Irvine, California, and Dynetek
Industries, of Calgary, Canada. Both have extensive experience in
building storage tanks for compressed gases, including natural gas
used as fuel in vans and buses. In July, both announced important
advances. Dynetek successfully tested a 12,000 psi (pounds per square
inch) tank for hydrogen fueling stations, while Quantum gained
certification of its 10,000 psi onboard hydrogen tank. In hydride
storage, Energy Conversion Devices, Troy, Michigan, is one of the
acknowledged leaders, while Germany's Linde and Austria's Magna Steyr
are advancing the technology for storing cryogenic liquid hydrogen.
Several manufacturers
are also pursuing alternative solutions for generating hydrogen.
Honda, for example, has teamed up with Plug Power (Latham, New York),
a fuel cell developer, to develop an at-home hydrogen refueling system
that would be powered by natural gas. In addition to producing
hydrogen for the car's fuel cell, it would provide heat, hot water,
and electricity for the home.
Powering laptops and cell phones
 t this year's Hannover
Industrial Fair in Germany, with 6,900 exhibitors the world's largest,
the number and variety of hydrogen energy-related exhibits (96)
provided ample evidence that the worldwide move to hydrogen and fuel
cell technology is well under way. Exhibitors included 26 from the
United States and Canada, corporate heavyweights from France, Germany,
Norway, Switzerland, and Japan, plus a host of smaller companies.
One attraction was a
taxi prototype developed by the French automotive powerhouse, PSA
Peugeot Citroæn, and powered by a fuel cell system made by H Power
Corp. (Belleville, New Jersey). At the small end of the transportation
scale was a scooter made by Italy's Aprilia and powered by a fuel cell
designed by NovArs, the German research subsidiary of the American
venture capital firm Manhattan Scientifics.
Offerings from Germany
included a fuel cell--powered camcorder, a prototype production line
for miniature fuel cells, and a prototype notebook computer with a
tiny fuel cell integrated into the housing. Texas contributed a fuel
processor for converting pipeline-grade natural gas to hydrogen pure
enough to run sensitive PEM fuel cells.
Other hydrogen and
fuel cell applications also have the potential to come to market
fairly quickly. Scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory have
built a prototype of a single-seat, three-wheeled vehicle for the
elderly and handicapped powered by a small, relatively inexpensive
fuel cell. The regular battery version is already being sold by the
tens of thousands every year, and a fuel cell version could double its
range.
Energy Conversion
Devices (Troy, Michigan) has converted a Honda scooter with a small
internal combustion engine to burn hydrogen, with the fuel stored in a
metal hydride tank tucked neatly underneath the seat. The project
group's leader, Krishna Sapru, believes that similar simple, low-cost
scooter conversions could be big business in Asia, where scooters and
small three-wheelers, typically of the highly polluting two-stroke
engine type, constitute a main mode of personal transportation.
The Fourteenth World
Hydrogen Energy Conference drew about 1,000 participants from around
the world to Montreal in June, and the nearby public park became an
outdoor showroom of hydrogen vehicles. These included a BMW liquid
hydrogen sedan, a fuel cell--powered Ford Focus FCV, General Motors'
futuristic AUTOnomy fuel cell concept car, and a six-wheeled John
Deere utility/maintenance vehicle converted to fuel cell power by the
Savannah River Technology Center (Aiken, South Carolina).
Power to the buildings
 uel cells capable of
powering hospitals, schools, and office complexes are already a
reality, being available commercially from UTC Fuel Cells (South
Windsor, Connecticut). More than 250 of the company's 200-kW power
systems have been installed in 19 countries. Its phosphoric acid fuel
cells typically use natural gas, as do most large fuel cells being
developed by other companies. Companies including Siemens-Westinghouse
(Pittsburgh) and FuelCell Energy (Danbury, Connecticut) are working on
other types of systems, such as solid oxide (SOFC) and molten
carbonate fuel cells, respectively.
Last fall, Siemens-Westinghouse
announced plans for a $120-million, 430,000-square foot plant near
Pittsburgh to start manufacturing SOFCs commercially in 2006. FuelCell
Energy has reached an agreement with Caterpillar to make and jointly
sell fuel cell power systems large enough to meet the electricity and
heating needs of buildings, building clusters, or even small towns.
FuelCell Energy also intends to collaborate with Japan's Marubeni
Corporation in siting one of its fuel cell systems at a wastewater
plant. The system will produce electricity and usable heat using
digester gas (similar to methane) from municipal effluent.
The hydrogen dawn?
 ill the global
hydrogen economy stall out before it arrives? Or will its advancement
continue despite the ups and downs of economies, companies, and
countries?
The vision of an
economy in which hydrogen is the primary energy currency resonates
with environmental, security, and power reliability concerns,
especially among the younger generation. After years of promising
development, the technology is advancing into the commercial arena.
Enterprises across a broad sweep of the economy, including automobile
manufacturers, electric utility companies, municipal sewage systems,
manufacturers of power-generation equipment, high-tech start-ups, and
national governments, are all exploring options for making the
hydrogen economy work.
It may be too early to
say for sure, but signs are strong that hydrogen will occupy center
stage of the global economy in coming decades.
On the Internet
Fuel Cell Today
A global Internet portal devoted to fuel cells.
www.fuelcelltoday.com/index
The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter
www.hfcletter.com U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Program
www.eren.doe.gov/hydrogen
Peter Hoffmann is editor and publisher of The Hydrogen & Fuel
Cell Letter. He is the author of Tomorrow's Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel
Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet, foreword by Tom Harkin,
(MIT Press, 2001).
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