Tech Check: Rising gasoline prices drive desire for fuel cell vehicles
The big silver tank trailer was depositing its gasoline load, blocking most of the lanes in front of the pumps.
My wife turned left into the convenience store/gas station and I pointed.
“If you go around him, there’s a pump in the far corner,” I suggested. She pulled up and I got out to fill up her car.
I hadn’t really paid attention to gasoline prices for a few months because they hovered around the $1.70 to $1.90 range.
But I was a little alarmed; the price was $2.07 at this pump.
I put the nozzle in, and locked the handle so it would fill up on its own. The guy driving the silver gasoline tanker truck was still putting gasoline in the underground storage tanks.
The shape of his truck reminded me of some recent video I’d just seen of the Hindenburg, the last of the great German airships, or zeppelins, filled with hydrogen.
And that made me wonder when we might finally see a real alternative to gasoline: the hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle.
Holy Grail
We’ve been reading about them for years.
According to Environmental Media Northwest, hydrogen “is the only existing fuel that can be 100 percent pollution-free and 100 percent renewable.”
Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity by causing a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen as a hydrogen atom passes through a catalyst membrane. The passage creates an electric current.
Fuel cells are stacked in a series to provide more electricity. And the only emission is water.
Fuel cell vehicles such as Ford's, above, and Honda's, below, could offer much-needed relief from high gasoline prices.
So where are all these fuel cell cars?
Steve Stewart would like to try some out.
Stewart, the city of Lawrence’s central garage superintendent, has been keeping watch for years on viable alternatives to gasoline engine cars.
Under his watch, the city bought three Toyota Prius hybrid gasoline-electric cars.
But the Holy Grail — the hydrogen-powered, fuel cell vehicle — is still out of reach, he said.
“There’s nothing available right now on the market. The cost of hydrogen fuel cells right now is still extremely high. They’re still in pretty much an experimental state,” Stewart said. “They’re producing more and more for test purposes and for limited use. There’s nothing really available right now that we can jump into.”
Building the FC buzz
Audio: Steve Stewart on the GM Hy-wire concept
HondaThree companies — Honda, Toyota and Nissan — have developed prototypes that they lease to larger cities to build more public awareness of fuel cell cars.
For example, last month, the city of Las Vegas announced it was leasing two Honda FCX fuel cell vehicles for two years, at a cost of $500 a month. They will be fueled at the city’s own hydrogen fueling station.
San Francisco now has two Honda FCX vehicles and Los Angeles has five. Honda’s prototypes have been around since 1999.
General Motors is working on a fuel cell vehicle that it has been demonstrating at auto shows. It’s called Hy-wire.
The company is working on a dual concept — moving toward a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (the hy) and at the same time ending mechanical linkages and replacing them with electronics (wire).
Ford currently is in its third generation of fuel cell cars.
And Chrysler is working on a fuel cell vehicle prototype that extracts hydrogen from sodium borohydride, which is chemically related to borax, which is used in laundry soap.
The idea is that by using a nonflammable powder, it’s safer than storing hydrogen in tanks in the vehicle.
Honda FCX
Not for the common Joe
The voice on the phone laughed.
“It’s not around the corner. It’ll be awhile,” said Trung van Nguyen, a Kansas University professor of chemical and petroleum engineering.
I had asked Nguyen, who specializes in fuel cell research, when we could see fuel cell cars being sold in our local dealerships.
“I would say from 10 to 20 years,” Nguyen said. “Actually, there was an announcement from GM saying they were going to try to target for 2010, which is quite optimistic.”
Nguyen has been researching Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells. He plans to work with KU students during the next year to build a fuel cell-powered three-wheeler by next spring.
The biggest hurdle for commercial fuel cell cars, he says, is the cost of the fuel cell stack.
Putting together a stack that will power a car will lead to costs ranging from $500,000 to $1 million per vehicle, he said.
“Unless you can mass produce, you cannot bring the cost down to a level that is suitable for someone like you and me to buy,” he said.
And there are more hurdles.
“You need the hydrogen refueling infrastructure to be in place before you can do that in a large quantity,” he said. “And we need the chemical industry to jump in and find a more efficient way to generate hydrogen.”
Currently, hydrogen is produced from hydrocarbon fuel. Eventually, we’ll need to produce it with other means, such as solar or nuclear power, he said.
Mazda opened its first hydrogen filling station in western Japan.
“It’s around the corner, but not for a common Joe like me or you,” Nyugen said.
Hybrids will be the bridging technology between fuel cell cars and existing cars, Nguyen said.
“The first application of a fuel cell vehicle is most likely to be some form of hybrid,” he said. “And that’s to minimize the size of the fuel cell system, to minimize the cost.”
Exploding prices
As I filled up my wife’s car, I again looked at the silver gasoline tanker truck. Maybe someday, they’ll eventually be carrying hydrogen or liquefied hydrogen, I thought.
That thought sparked a memory of the Hindenburg crashing in flames, and a radio broadcaster’s often-repeated line.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the “thunk” as the pump finished its fill-up.
I looked at the cost. I couldn’t believe it — only 12 gallons for $25.
And the radio broadcaster’s voice filled my thoughts: “Oh, the humanity!”