May 27, 2009

How Goes the Hydrogen Car?

If you can believe the Environmental Protection Agency, one-third of “greenhouse gas” emissions in the United States come from petroleum-powered vehicles used for transportation. There is some debate about the actual effects of these gases on the climate, but with oil prices unstable and environmental concerns increasing, many automakers are testing vehicles powered by hydrogen even though the Obama administration has made recent efforts to de-emphasize hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in favor of battery electrics.

Despite the vagaries of politics, researchers are continually working to replace the fossil fuels we currently depend on to power our vehicles with clean, renewable sources of energy. Hydrogen fuel cells run more cleanly than gasoline engines and emit only water vapor, which is, of course, the most prevalent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, but making more doesn’t seem to bother anybody. For that matter, hydrogen isn’t “renewable” either, but it is a very abundant. In Buffalo, N.Y., hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls supplies clean, renewable electricity to Oxy Chemical, whose chlorine manufacturing process creates hydrogen as a byproduct. Their researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology found that the reduction in greenhouse gases was 85 percent, and that means…well, we’re not quite sure what that means.

If this might seem confusing and convoluted to you, think how researchers at General Motors must feel. The company’s Project Driveway is the largest real-world test of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the globe. Over 100 hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinoxes are currently being used by everyday consumers to help understand what it will take to bring the vehicles to market. At the same time, the government seems to be working both for and against future fuel cell vehicles.