Fuel Cell Research Moving “at Light Speed”

by Terry Costlow

Rising oil prices and geo-political concerns have once again brought energy-saving technology back into the forefront of the automotive industry. Several U.S. consortia are pushing to commercialize fuel cells and meld a corresponding infrastructure for them into American’s transportation network.

While the popularity of fuel-hungry SUVs isn’t expected to fade anytime soon, government agencies and the consortia are pushing hard for fuel cell development, which could reduce both gasoline consumption and vehicle pollution. President Bush recently proposed spending $720 million to develop more efficient ways to make the hydrogen used in fuel cells, augmenting the $1 billion already allocated for fuel cell vehicle R&D.

Right now, there’s more promise in fuel cell technology than in production of the resulting products themselves. But many experts feel the technology is progressing steadily toward a bright future in the coming decade. “When you look at the rapid rate of change from 1998 to today, you see this field is truly moving at light speed,” said Ned McClurg, general manager of power train engineering at General Motors.

Why Such Promise?

One reason for the excitement about fuel cells is that there aren’t any other bright prospects in technologies available today. Internal combustion engines have made significant consumption and pollution reductions in the past couple of decades, but it has become increasingly difficult to squeeze additional reductions from them. Observers note that it is getting more expensive to tighten corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards; moreover, continued tightening won’t yield the same fuel consumption benefits enjoyed in past years.

Augmenting gasoline engines with electric motors is not expected to have a great impact during this decade, most observers say. “Hybrids barely account for half of one percent” of Toyota and Lexus sales today, and “they will only account for about five percent in the 2005 and 2010 timeframe,” said Takehisa Yaegashi, senior general manager of Toyota Motor’s power train planning department.

Gasoline engines are expected to be a core technology for at least 30 more years, and the numbers of cars and average miles driven probably won’t decline, given the fact that the U.S. population will continue to rise and average commutes will continue to get longer. Currently, vehicles account for about two-thirds of annual fuel use in the United States — twice the consumption rate in Europe.

Even if such controversial options as tapping new oil sources eventually became reality (Congress recently voted against opening ANWR for drilling), or if we continued tightening of fuel consumption regulations, the United States might face an oil shortage. “Even if we introduced tougher CAFÉ standards to reduce consumption by 60 percent, and introduced oil from other sources, we still wouldn’t be able to close the gap,” said Patrick Davis, the U.S. Department of Energy’s technology development manager for hydrogen fuel cells. Regardless, fuel cells aren’t expected to make a big impact for quite a while. “I think things will start coming on line around 2015,” Davis estimated.

Testing the Technology

As the technology continues to develop, proponents are trying to figure out the best way to road-test the equipment. Some feel it would be best tested by agencies that address such long-term goals as transit lines. “We’re looking at fuel cell buses,” said Tom Cackette, chief deputy officer at the California Air Resources Board (CARB). “We feel that’s the best way to get this commercialized.” Transit companies would benefit from reduced costs even in the early commercialization stages, since buses are low-mileage vehicles that generally run long hours without being turned off.

CARB has a fuel cell partnership, as does the state of Ohio. These groups are attempting to determine the best way to produce and transport the hydrogen used for fuel cells, as well as firming up the vehicle technology that must support it. One goal is to make sure that the various technologies emerge in ways that make them commercially viable.

Another determining factor for fuel cell profitability will be where the hydrogen for them gets created. Transporting hydrogen is not easy; creating it at such local sites as service stations would be much more cost effective than making it at a central facility and transporting it, according to Murray Davis, chief technology officer at DTE Energy Technologies. Comparing the price to fuel a car with gasoline for a 300-mile trip, he said that producing hydrogen fuel at local sites could reduce the total cost of hydrogen creation and storage from dollars-per-gallon to cents-per-gallon.

“The success of fuel cells requires four winners,” said GM’s McClurg. “Customers must gain substantial benefits, society and government must see improvements, and auto and energy companies must both be able to profit.”

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Terry Costlow has written about the electronics industry for more than 20 years, covering a wide range of technologies and topics.