Publication date: 17-November-2003 
Source:The Arizona Republic

Vast arrays of solar panels could generate electricity to crack hydrogen from water, garbage or natural gas, enabling the state to produce enough hydrogen to fuel its own vehicles and export to other states.

Gasoline shortages and spills would be history.

"We could be the hydrogen capital of the world," says Roy McAlister, head of the American Hydrogen Association in Mesa, author of the 2003 book The Solar Hydrogen Civilization and a 40-year proponent of hydrogen.

Although his vision is uneconomical now and probably decades away, hydrogen power has been getting more attention over the past few years because it could solve several problems related to fossil fuels, such as pollution, dwindling supplies and vulnerability to international conflicts.

But it received a boost in January when, in his State of the Union speech, President Bush proposed spending $1.2 billion on research into hydrogen-powered automobiles to relieve the United States of its growing dependency on imported oil.

Hydrogen is a non-toxic gas and the most common element in the world. It's the H part of the H20 formula for water. It can be made from natural gas, gasoline, methane and water, but so far is expensive to mass-produce.

This country imported 55 percent of its oil supplies in 2001, up from 42 percent in 1990 and 37 percent in 1980, according to the federal Department of Energy.

McAlister and other proponents say the United States can and should start converting to hydrogen now. Cars can be converted to run on hydrogen for a cost of $2,000 to $3,000 each, and the hydrogen can be made from natural gas until more sophisticated technologies like hydrogen fuel-cell cars become cheaper.

But Mark Ellery, energy policy adviser for the state's energy office, doesn't see this hydrogen revolution happening soon.

"The oil industry has been around 134 years, and they will be around another 135 years. They have deep roots in society. For hydrogen and fuel cells, there's going to have to be that infrastructure in place. Hydrogen is not free," he said.

"It's kind of interesting. The super pro-hydrogen fanatical proponents make it sound like it's the most abundant substance in the universe," Ellery said. "It's true, but it costs money to get it."

Widespread uses

Consumers are going to see hydrogen power a lot quicker than they realize, though not to power their vehicles.

Several companies plan to start offering hydrogen fuel-cell cartridges, which would function like replaceable batteries, for cellphones and laptops in a year or two, said Bernadette Geyer, outreach director for the Fuel Cell Council, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group of companies making or researching fuel cells.

"People developing cellphone fuel cells say they could provide 200 hours of talk time," she said. "You wouldn't have to wait eight hours for a charge."

Also expected to become more common over the next few years are large, commercial, stationary fuel cells that can provide the heat and electricity for a building or serve as a backup generator, Geyer said. Salt River Project for two years has been testing a 5-kilowatt residential fuel cell that uses hydrogen to make electricity to power a 2,000-square-foot home.

"It's technically feasible, but it's probably not economically feasible. It doesn't compete with electricity off the grid," said Richard Hayslip, SRP's environmental manager. But someday, he predicts hydrogen fuel cells will be part of the country's energy mix.

And in north Scottsdale, Yvette and Bryan Beaulieu are building an experimental $2 million house that will use solar panels to create electricity and an electrolyzer to create hydrogen from city water. The hydrogen, a gas, will fuel the heater, water heater and other gas appliances in the house and even the family's vehicles.

It's expensive but they are doing it to test several of McAlister's theories and mainly because hydrogen has the ability to clean the air. The gas tends to attach itself to hydrocarbons, pollens and other pollutants.

The Beaulieus admit they don't know if the system will work. Bryan said, "We think it will work. It's time to move on it and try it out."

Hydrogen cars

For hydrogen to really make a dent in fuel imports, it has to be used for motor vehicles.

Most auto manufacturers are researching electric vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells. They wouldn't have to be plugged in like existing electric cars. They either would create their own hydrogen from natural gas or just run on hydrogen, Geyer said.

But these cars are still too expensive. The goal is get them down to $45 a kilowatt, which is comparable with the cost of today's internal combustion engines, by 2010. Fuel-cell cars are still $275 to $325 a kilowatt, Geyer said.

Some fuel-cell test cars are on the road. But Geyer said, "Currently, they are kind of building these cars by hand. They are not being built on an assembly line."

McAlister said the country should start converting now to move the country toward a hydrogen economy and reduce air pollution.

"Fuel cells are tomorrow's problem," he said. "There are 100 million internal combustion engines. They all should be running on hydrogen."

He should know. He's been driving a hydrogen-powered truck for a decade, getting refills from hydrogen fueling stations at SRP and Arizona Public Service Co.

Ray Hobbs, senior consulting engineer at APS, also is impressed with hydrogen, as the utility has a Mercedes Springer van running on pure hydrogen and other vehicles running on 60 percent hydrogen and 40 percent natural gas.

In an old warehouse south of downtown Phoenix, APS uses solar panels to create its own hydrogen from city water. The hydrogen is stored under pressure, and the oxygen is released into the atmosphere.

The only thing that comes out of the Mercedes' exhaust is a little clean water. "People are not used to being able to put their face in the exhaust and inhaling," he said.

"What we're finding is that the engine stays extremely clean, and we don't see carbon in the oil, so we can go longer between oil changes," Hobbs said. Oil changes are only needed about every 15,000 miles instead of 3,000.

He also would like to see cars switch now to run on hydrogen or a mixture of hydrogen and natural gas. "We don't know when the cost of fuel-cell cars will come down or when it will be cheap enough to drive them," he said.

Limited sources

A major hurdle to creating a hydrogen economy is that there is no widespread source of the gas. Even if lots of cars started hitting the market, there's no string of hydrogen stations where motorists could refuel.

But they are increasing. When APS opened its hydrogen station two years ago, it was the sixth one in the world. Now there are almost 60, including about a dozen in California, according to www.fuelcells.org.

The most common and inexpensive way to make hydrogen today is to re-form it from natural gas. But because natural gas is a non-renewable fuel and long-range supplies are questionable, proponents like McAlister want the country to start looking at other sources, such as water, wastewater, or the methane produced in landfills.

Hydrogen can be made anywhere in the world, using whatever raw or electricity sources are available. Arizona could use solar power, Wyoming could use wind power, and California could use the power of ocean waves, McAlister said.

"Arizona could do all of North America itself," McAlister said. "But we recommend you spread it out so you didn't have a hazard of a hailstorm or concentrated event where you lose part of your production."

He knows this is all into the future but said it's not too early to begin preparing. "If we make the switch, it's already too late," he said.