Hydrogen could possibly be the next alternative source of energy for mobility, meaning no more petrol and no more diesel fumes polluting the air.

The new era of "Fuel Cell Technology" - a technology utilising hydrogen and oxygen energy sources, has slowly unveiled itself with the Mercedes Benz F Cell A-Class car which runs on hydrogen and combines with oxygen in the air to power the engine.

In short, the hydrogen-powered fuel cell only emits pure water vapour instead of the noxious fumes.

With driving forces such as long-term energy supply, energy independence, global climatic change and air quality, there is potential for a hydrogen future.

"The world is running out of oil supply," stressed the Managing Director Asia Pacific of Ballard Power Systems, Mr John Harris at the DaimlerChrysler "Development of Alternative Energies" seminar held July 19, 2004, in Singapore.

He and three other speakers from DaimlerChrysler and British Petroleum Singapore delivered their paper to some hundred people from energy related companies and foreign media.

Speculations from the audience towards F-Cell Technology and hydrogen as the alternative source of energy dominated the seminar during the question and answer session, with the technical challenges and the question of cost as the major problem.

Dr. Michael Jones from BP in his paper "Hydrogen - an energy company's perspective", did not deny that these challenges needed to be overcome, adding that "cost and performance must be comparable to the conventional fuel".

In his paper on "Propulsion technology and fuels - the future development", Professor Herbert Kohler, DaimlerChrysler's Vice President, Body and Powertrain Research and Chief Environmental Officer, outlined the car giant's roadmap for sustainable fuels.

He observed that by the year 2030 synthetic fuels (GTL) and natural gas (CNG) would roll out, which is an efficient way to Carbon Dioxide reduction.

On the challenges of fuel cell technology, he mentioned "power density, cooling, hydrogen storage, reliability, lifetime and the difficulty to start in cold freezing whether".

There will be a lot of modifications in the technologies towards the hydrogen economy in the next 20 years.

The handing over of South East Asia's first ever Mercedes Benz F Cell A-Class car to Singapore for the two year pilot road testing under the hot tropical climate, is a testament of DaimlerChrysler's commitment towards perfecting this environmental friendly technology since the early 1990s.

Dr. Andreas Truckenbrodt, Daim-lerChrysler's Director of Fuel Cell and Alternative Powertrain Vehicle, while delivering his paper on 'Hybrid Cars and Fuel Cell Cars', stressed on the project objectives.

   

Among its' objectives mentioned were; to test this new technology under real world condition world wide, data recording and analysis, customer acceptance and feedback, for further development and standardisation and to initiate the build up of hydrogen infrastructure.

With confidence, he believes that the Fuel Cell Technology will pave the way into the new era of mobility.

The reasons were; zero emission vehicles, efficiency twice as high as the Internal Combustion engine, the driving pleasure with increased dynamic characteristics provided by electronic driving and the comfort of pure electronic driving.

But for ordinary drivers to have the pleasure to whizz about in this hydrogen-powered car - reportedly built at a price tag of 1.8 million - will have to wait in the next ten years as DaimlerChrysler do not expect commercial roll outs before 2010.

Earlier at the seminar, Dr. Michael Inacker, Vice President and Head of External Affairs and Public Policy at DaimlerChrysler, in his keynote speech on 'Environmental Protection in the focus of corporate responsibility' took note that ecological status has become relevant in international economic stability.

With this, on the environment aspect, he states this global company's mission in protecting the environment, which is a logical expression of a responsible, farsighted attitude, towards the use of natural resources.

However, all five of the prominent speakers at the recent seminar agreed that it public opinion and political will to gain public acceptance on hydrogen as the alternative future energy.