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One of the questions people often ask the hydrogen industry is, “When will hydrogen be ready? How long before it’s actually used?” The simple answer is: right now.

.The real surprise for most is learning how many different ways hydrogen is being used already for everyday applications and how linked hydrogen technologies are with the deployment of traditional renewable technologies.

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Most people think of hydrogen as an alternative fuel for passenger cars. That’s true, but it’s only part of the picture. Adding hydrogen to the variety of clean car technologies in development today is hugely important and something that is developing steadily. In fact, hydrogen vehicles from nine car companies just completed a cross-country tour. At the same time, other products using hydrogen are being sold today for uses most folks don’t know about. Some well-known names, like FedEx, Wall-Mart, Sprint, Orlando and Vancouver International Airports, and others are among those who have begun to introduce hydrogen technologies to their operations. You can read about many of these real-world applications at www.h2andyou.org. In the meantime, I thought you might be interested in this quick overview of just some of the industries and technologies where hydrogen is being put to use today, besides passenger cars, and a reminder of how hydrogen technologies are an enabler for wider deployment of renewables.

Stationary Power and Emergency Back-Up Systems

Hydrogen fuel cells are increasingly being used for backup power to improve reliability in facilities where interruption of grid electricity can spell trouble for public safety or capturing revenue. Telecommunications is a prime example. Fuel cells are currently being used to support over 400 cell phone towers across the U.S. Hurricane Katrina taught us the importance of having cell phone communication for rescue operations. Since then, new legislation now requires cell phone towers to have at least 8 hours of back-up power. Some major wireless providers have found that fuel cells can be more effective than batteries as a reliable back-up source and maybe even cheaper over the life of the system. These fuel cell systems and larger ones can support entire buildings or industrial process, providing clean, reliable off-grid electricity.

Portable Power

Today, some small, portable, emissions-free power generators are using hydrogen fuel cells to power laptops, cell phones, tools, radios, fans, TVs and other appliances. In addition to use by travelers and campers, these systems are designed to be used by emergency responders, the military and others who need power on the “go”.

Forklifts and Other Specialty Transportation

Special function vehicles, like airport luggage tugs and forklifts, are also providing emerging markets for hydrogen fuel cells. These hydrogen-fueled specialty vehicles are particularly valued in locations where elimination of emissions is critical, like enclosed warehouses, and when down time for battery charging and swapping costs money. A hydrogen-powered tug or forklift requires only a minute or two to refuel compared to many times that for battery swapping and charging, and hydrogen can improve operating efficiencies and costs. See this article in Earthtoys.

Hydrogen Buses

Numerous transit systems around the world have conducted demonstration programs placing hydrogen fuel cell buses in operation which provide pollution-free, quiet urban public transportation. For example, AC Transit in the San Francisco Bay area currently has three hydrogen fuel cell-powered hybrid buses operating in real revenue service and is gearing up for more. As a result, these buses have measurably reduced local pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and are achieving efficiencies 2 times greater than their diesel buses. By visiting the AC Transit website, you can monitor their power usage and pollution reduction in real time. Additionally, three hydrogen buses helped move attendees around sports venues at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and hydrogen buses will be used at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Hydrogen Injection for Diesel Trucks

A small-scale application of hydrogen technology that is providing truckers with sizeable benefits is now available commercially. After-market hydrogen injection systems, which can be installed on virtually any of today’s heavy diesel trucks, draw a small amount of electricity from the truck engine’s alternator to split water held in a small container, producing hydrogen and oxygen gases. The hydrogen and oxygen gases are both injected along with the diesel fuel into the engine. The result is a significant reduction in air pollution emissions and greenhouse gases, reduced fuel consumption by 10% or more, and an average 5% increase in horsepower and engine torque. Trucking and shipping companies, FedEx among them, together have now logged tens of millions of miles with hydrogen injection systems.

Hydrogen and Renewables

Lots of people know that hydrogen needs renewables.  To make hydrogen, the most environmentally attractive option is to make it from water, with zero pollution, using renewable electricity from wind and solar resources.  Renewables are extremely important for producing hydrogen and helping with long-term pollution reductions in the energy and transportation sectors.  But did you know that renewables may need hydrogen?  Intermittent renewables can store their off-peak electricity for use later or for sale as a fuel.  What if most of the electricity in the grid came from wind and the wind stopped blowing?  Adding a hydrogen system to ensure reliability increases the value of renewables and gives utilities flexibility.  Utilities can use the hydrogen on demand to produce electricity when needed most, just like the back-up power systems mentioned above.  In this way, hydrogen technologies are a key enabler for the wider deployment of renewables.  See information from the Hydrogen from Renewables Forum here.

Jeffrey Serfass, President
National Hydrogen Association

For more informtation on the NHA, visit their website. This article first appeared here, in the Renewable Energy World Magazine.

For those of you who haven’t heard about Formula Zero, don’t worry - we have the Insider’s scoop ready for you.

Founded in 2003, Formula Zero is the world’s first zero-emission race car series, exclusively for hydrogen fuel cell single-seater cars. The 2008 Championship kicked things off recently with a competition between teams of students from 6 universities all over the world.  Mike Samaroo from Team Element One was kind enough to send us pictures and updates from the race in August, and of course we’ve got them for you.

Element One, made up of over 50 members from Lawrence Technological University in Michigan, placed first in the design competition back in March to win a race package of an 8 kW Hydrogenics fuel cell module and hydrogen storage.  The first actual race of the 2008 season was held August 22nd, in Rotterdam, Netherlands.  Although Element One wasn’t able to race that day due to issues with ground clearance, they received an award for “Best Vehicle Design” and made it clear they’d be ready for the next round.  You can see their beautiful design in the pictures below.  EuplatechH2, the team from Spain, came away with the win, beating the 2nd place team by just .172 seconds.  We’ll be watching Element One and the rest of the teams at the next race in March 2009 in South Carolina.

Thanks Mike!

For a few movies from the team, check out their YouTube channel.

There have been three important documents published in recent weeks. The first, from the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), focuses on the infrastructure necessary to fuel the thousands of fuel cell vehicles expected to be deployed in California after 2012. The (pdf) document, entitled “Vision for Roll-out of Fuel Cell Vehicles and Hydrogen Fuel Stations,” describes in some detail the infrastructure needed to accommodate the thousands of fuel cell vehicles expected to be on the road in California by 2012, along with some ideas about how to deploy and pay for the fueling stations. The bottom line is that a phased transition is possible and affordable, but needs government support in the start-up phase.

The second (pdf) document, from the Fuel Cell Commercialization Conference of Japan (FCCJ), is a collective endorsement of a 2015 passenger vehicle “commercialization date.” Issued July 4, it calls for a large demonstration of vehicles and infrastructure beginning in 2011, a date consistent with the anticipated second Learning Demonstration in the US and with the initial scale-up to meet California ZEV requirements. Professor Hisashi Ishitani, chairman of the FCCJ planning and steering committee, states: “The just-established clear schedule for commercialization can be considered a commitment which shows the willingness and seriousness of the parties in related industries to succeed with the technology and marks a significant step towards realization. With the way now clear to realize the difficult technologies, commercialization efforts will be gaining momentum in the years ahead.” The language in the FCCJ news release is careful, but support from government in encouraging local government and consumer acceptance appears to be a critical component, along with infrastructure development.

In Europe, the schedule is driven largely by Daimler, in my opinion, and Daimler has announced a 2012 availability for its next generation “commercial ready” vehicle, though the government support programs are not so ambitious.

Overall, at least on paper, the pathways seem quite consistent. The collective embrace of a specific target date will be useful and it possibly could be characterized as an acceleration of the US program, which calls (or more precisely, called, since the federal government’s language has softened on this point) for a commercialization “decision” by 2015. Some companies have been speaking of “commercial ready” by 2010, but these dates and commitments can all fit into a continuum, since “commercialization” tends to mean different things to different people.

There is a great deal of work remaining on technology and on infrastructure to meet the 2015 date. But the cost of producing hydrogen at small scale is coming down dramatically (based on various conference presentations in Europe, Asia, and the US), at least two technology pathways now exist to get high-volume “fuel cell engine” costs below $100 per kilowatt (DOE based on two contractor studies, found here and here), vehicle efficiencies are improving by leaps and bounds (Honda, Toyota announcements), and cold start issues seem to have been figured out by various auto makers.

The 2015 date is also consistent with the anticipated scale up of battery-based vehicle technologies and biomass fuel pathways, all of which, like fuel cells, depend on additional research and development. Some see this as an either-or competition from the perspective of the public’s interest, but we all should hope that all the pathways succeed; we need all the help we can get.

The last study, Transitions to Alternative Transportation Technologies - A Focus on Hydrogen (pdf), from the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NRC), while not as aggressive as the other two, estimates that by 2015 production of hydrogen vehicles could increase significantly. According to NRC, the maximum practicable number of hydrogen vehicles that could be on the road by 2020 is 2 million and by 2023, the total cost of fuel cell vehicles, including the cost of hydrogen fuel over a vehicle’s lifetime, could become competitive with conventional vehicles. Until then, fuel cell vehicle cost — although dropping rapidly — would still need to be heavily subsidized for consumers or purchased at a premium for government fleets.
The number of hydrogen vehicles on the road could grow rapidly, to nearly 60 million in 2035 and 200 million by 2050. NRC noted that federal and private research have produced “impressive technical progress” in the years since the President’s decision to increase funding for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and “paths forward have been identified for further reducing hydrogen fuel cell costs while increasing durability and fuel economy.” [page S-4]

NRC estimates that the government’s share of a 50-50 cost-shared program to install sufficient hydrogen infrastructure to meet demand by 2023 would be about $8 billion, at which time NRC estimates hydrogen sales will be sufficient (in this maximum practicable case) to attract 100% private investment.

This is an extraordinarily encouraging number. The annual government subsidy for ethanol fuel could grow to $15 billion per year by 2020.

NRC estimated another $5 billion in federally funded cost-shared research would be needed to overcome remaining challenges. Most of the additional cost of the transition would come in the form of support for or purchase of vehicles.

NRC pleaded for consistent, long term policies, but held out hope that environmental and energy security goals are achievable with a technology portfolio approach. A portfolio approach recognizes that technological and marketplace risks remain for all the technology pathways. Assuming success in cellulosic biomass commercialization, and steady improvement in conventional vehicles and hybridization, these technologies could provide significant benefits over the next 20 years. But as NRC states,

“. . . the longer-term benefits of such approaches [as biofuels and advanced combustion engines] were likely to grow at a smaller rate thereafter, even with continued technological improvements, whereas hydrogen offers greater longer-term potential.

Thus, as estimated by the committee, the greatest benefits will come from a portfolio of R&D technologies that would allow the United States to achieve deep reductions in oil use, nearly 100 percent by 2050 for the light-duty vehicle fleet [with more than an 80 percent reduction in light duty greenhouse gas emissions].” [Abs-2]

All three of these studies agree, and as I mentioned in my recent post, a portfolio approach is necessary as we look down the road towards a carbon-free future. 

This summary was compiled by Bob Rose, executive director of the US Fuel Cell Council and regular contributor to the Fuel Cell Insider.