Alan Alda and Stan Ovshinsky In Scientific American Frontiers — "Hydrogen Hopes"

Will hydrogen ever become the oil-replacement fuel that many in industry and government are betting on? Can hydrogen help avert a global warming crisis?

In Scientific American Frontiers' Hydrogen Hopes, Alan Alda meets with hydrogen pioneers working toward a future when hydrogen can be made in unlimited quantities from renewable, non-polluting resources. "Hydrogen Hopes" will be airing on PBS, Wednesday, 23 February 2005, 8:30-9:00 p.m. (ET), Detroit time.

The stars of the show are a couple — Stan in his early 80s and Iris in her mid-70s — who now run one of the largest hydrogen-based companies in the world and who, for well over 40 years, have been actively working on the technology needed for a hydrogen economy. Alda visits Stan and Iris Ovshinsky at their company headquarters in Rochester Hills, Michigan.

The Ovshinskys begin by showing Alda the foundry where they brew unique metal alloys that soak up hydrogen as a sponge soaks up water. One of these alloys is the basis for Stan Ovshinsky's most important invention - the nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery that now powers everything from a cell phone to the latest hybrid cars. "No one had ever built them before," Stan tells Alan. "They tried to do it, but they failed."

Alda is surprised to learn that a variant of the same alloy can be used to store hydrogen in solid form, absorbing twice as much hydrogen as can be stored under high pressure in a tank. Solid-state storage of hydrogen, making it much easier and safer to transport and dispense, could be one of the breakthroughs needed to make hydrogen a practical alternative to gasoline.

Another needed breakthrough is in the making of hydrogen. Today, it's mostly manufactured from fossil fuels like natural gas or coal, but these put global warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The ideal source - the one the Ovshinskys have long pursued -- is the sun.

Stan Ovshinsky has patented a novel solar cell material, made from ultra-thin layers of his alloys, able to make electricity from the sun even in dim daylight - or even, as Stan delights in telling Alan, when it rains. Stan sees his solar electricity becoming cheap enough to compete with coal as a source of hydrogen, and shows Alan a football-field-length machine he's invented that can turn out nine miles of his solar cells at one time.

These pictures were taken during Alda's tour of our production facilities and R&D laboratories in Rochester Hills, MI, on 16 September 2004. For more information about this visit, please see our news item about the interview and the airing of the segment on PBS.

Here, Alda is setting the order of business for the Ovshinskys for Monday: send him a hydrogen-fueled car!

 

Alda is sharing with the Ovshinskys his experience driving the hybrid-electric vehicle modified to operate on clean hydrogen fuel.

 

Stan is describing to Alda the equipment used by the Ovonic Battery Company engineers to make the hydride materials that are used for NiMH batteries and hydrogen storage.

 

Stan is explaining to Alda how materials are engineered to provide the properties for battery performance.

Additional pictures taken during Alan Alda's tour of our production facilities and R&D laboratories. For additional information about his visit, please see our news item about the interview and the airing of the segment on PBS.

The Ovshinskys demonstrated for Alda how ECD Ovonics has a solution to the hydrogen fueling infrastructure challenge.

 

Alda and the Ovshinskys toured the solid hydrogen storage vessel assembly facility of ECD Ovonics' wholly owned subsidiary, Ovonic Hydrogen Systems.