The Future of Hydrogen Cars
Over on
my blog, I'm wrapping up my notes on the 2007 TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design), a reality-altering, four-day series of 50 speakers, most of whom are absolutely brilliant.ยด
But for me, one of the most enlightening talks this year took place "off-campus."
On the second day of the show, attendees were invited to attend a lunch-hour presentation by Dr. Frank Ochmann, the head of BMW's clean-energy development project, who had flown in from Munich for the event.
BMW believes that liquid hydrogen is the best bet as the next-generation fuel for cars. A memorable opening slide depicted a timeline of human history, in the middle of which was a narrow, tall spike showing our relatively brief fossil-fuel-burning period. The blank area to the left was labeled, "First solar civilization," and the one to its right, "Second solar civilization."
It reminded attendees that no matter what you believe politically, fossil fuels are finite. Period.
Anyway, BMW has the first fleet of hydrogen-powered cars (100, a quarter of which are in the U.S.). Other car companies, of course, are experimenting with hydrogen as fuel, but these 100 cars aren't hand-built prototypes or concept cars; they were factory built like any other BMW model, which is a significant milestone.
Anyway, the advantage of hydrogen cars is that they don't pollute. The only thing coming out of their tailpipe is pure water vapor. In fact, each audience member was given a bottle of bottled water--whose label, instead of "Evian" or "Dasana," was "EXHAUST." (Dr. Ochmann took a swig from it to make the point.)
Afterward, attendees were invited to test drive one of the hydrogen cars. I did. It was just exactly like driving any other car (well, any other BMW 7 series)--after all, the engine was the same. The only thing different was the fuel system.
Actually, there are two; like many alternative vehicles these days, this one is a hybrid. If you're far from a hydrogen tank (and you will be for years), you can press a button on the steering wheel, labeled H2, that switches seamlessly between hydrogen and gasoline.
Some car companies are experimenting with hydrogen gas; BMW's fleet uses liquid hydrogen, which must be kept at -423 degrees Fahrenheit. That's pretty cold; -459, after all, is absolute zero. The fuel is kept in a superthick insulated tank at the back of the car--a tank so bulky, it makes a visible bulge behind the rear seats.
A video illustrated how you fuel up one of these cars. The "gas pump" hose doesn't just slip into your tank's opening; you actually lock it on, creating a seal. Inside the tube, two spherical valves rotate 90 degrees; each of these balls has a hole drilled through it to permit the passage of a second, thinner, inner hose. This inner hose passes through the two valves and all the way down into your car's tank to "rain" the hydrogen.
After the talk, I asked if hydrogen could explode (think Hindenburg). The engineers responded that in Germany, they've tried shooting bullets at the tank, slamming a construction girder into it, and so on; liquid hydrogen may burn, but it doesn't blow up. In that regard, it's actually safer in a spill situation than gasoline.
Now, I'm well aware of how hostile some critics are to the concept of hydrogen cars. Their primary objection, of course, is the amount of energy that's consumed (and pollution generated) in producing hydrogen in the first place.
BMW agrees that hydrogen cars are pointless unless the hydrogen itself is produced using clean, renewable energy sources: solar, wind, geothermal and so on.
"At the beginning, some of it's going to be nonrenewable," said Dr. Ochmann, "but the percentage will increase." (In the meantime, even if fossil fuels are used in the short term, at least the byproducts of burning them can theoretically be controlled at a single source.)
Another objection raised by an audience member: What about getting fillups? Our government is making a big push toward ethanol as a new fuel (despite dubious environmental prospects), but there are still only several hundred ethanol filling stations in the entire country. Isn't the situation even worse for hydrogen pumps?
BMW reiterated that moving to hydrogen will be a long-term proposition. At the moment, in fact, there are only three hydrogen pumps in the U.S. at the moment (California and Washington, D.C.) "It will be a difficult process," Dr. Ochmann said: "station by station, gas company by gas company."
The point is that, as he put it, "This is a marathon, not a sprint." Many pieces have to be put in place: governmental, public, technological and legal. "We all have to move together at the same time," he concluded.
But BMW's point, and I agree, is that at least the technology part of the auto-fuel problem has been solved.
Yes, yes, of course, taking hydrogen to the mainstream still requires staggering amounts of investment, legislation, policy, and political will. But from a purely technological standpoint, using today's renewable power sources and liquid hydrogen, the balance sheet for the entire cycle, from hydrogen production to driving the cars, could reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by at least 90 percent, by BMW's calculations.
Of course, BMW's way isn't the only way. There are many approaches to using hydrogen in cars, each with pros and cons, each exhibiting both recent breakthroughs and significant obstacles. (The Wikipedia.com entry on "hydrogen cars" offers an excellent, balanced and up-to-date presentation on the issue.)
Most car companies, in fact, are pursuing hydrogen fuel cells instead; they transform hydrogen into electricity, which then powers the car--or, in their current incarnation, underpowers it. Plenty of people positively spit on BMW's approach (
here's an example).
But people like this are completely ignoring the fact that all of these experiments are in their earliest stages, and will improve.
Meanwhile, the biggest obstacles are presented by people's attitudes, not technology: "Oh, that'll never work."
Guess what? It's going to have to work. Sooner or later, hydrogen, or something like it, is all we'll have to work with.
