Hydrogen News
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Hydrogen News |
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California Air Resources Board to Lease HICE VehiclesThe California Air Resources Board (ARB) has posted a notice of intent to award contracts for the lease of six vehicles that will lower the cost of using hydrogen. Hydrogen will be used in conventional engines, not fuel cells. This will expand to 37 the total number of hydrogen internal combustion engine (HICE) vehicles in California. Four of the hydrogen vehicles will be Toyota Priuses modified by Quantum Technologies to run on gaseous hydrogen. Other fleets that each uses five of these Quantum Priuses include the cities of Riverside, Burbank, Santa Ana, and Ontario. AQMD in Diamond Bar also uses five Quantum Priuses. This June 15, Santa Monica will start using five. Cheap Hydrogen FuelGE says its new machine could make the hydrogen economy affordable, by slashing the cost of water-splitting technology. Among the challenges to replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen is how to make hydrogen cheaply in ways that don't pollute the environment. Splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from energy sources such as wind turbines is one possibility. Electrolyzers are fairly simple technologies: water is mixed with potassium hydroxide electrolyte and made to flow past a stack of electrodes. Electricity causes the water molecules to split into hydrogen and oxygen gases, which bubble out of the solution. Now researchers at GE say they've come up with a prototype version of an easy-to-manufacture apparatus that they believe could lead to a commercial machine able to produce hydrogen via electrolysis for about $3 per kilogram. Since fuel cells are more efficient than gasoline engines, this would make hydrogen less expensive than gasoline. Feedback Loops in Global Climate Change Point to a Very Hot 21st CenturyU.C. Berkeley Professors Harte and Torn conclude "that the upper value of warming that is projected for the end of the 21st century, ...could be increased to 7.7ºC [13.9ºF].” Studies have shown that global climate change can set-off positive feedback loops in nature which amplify warming and cooling trends. Now, researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have been able to quantify the feedback implied by past increases in natural carbon dioxide and methane gas levels. Their results point to global temperatures at the end of this century that may be significantly higher than current climate models are predicting. Report
100,000 Daily Hydrogen Riders in California by 2012
Daily ridership of hydrogen vehicles has already doubled in California since the start of 2006. The biggest growth of ridership is the result of eight hydrogen buses now running six to 16 hours daily, carrying an average of 200 to 400 riders per bus per day. Jaimie Levin, Director of Marketing for AC Transit, reports rider enthusiasm and strong community support and predicts that the day will arrive when some hydrogen buses will carry over 1,000 riders daily. SunLine Transit Agency and Santa Clara VTA report enthusiastic rider acceptance of their hydrogen buses. California Fuel Cell Partnership reports 100 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles of its member organizations on the California roads. Honda accounts for 21 of those. Honda will expand from one personal family to several families as it seeds the market in anticipation of its production FCX Concept vehicle shipping by 2010. In 2008, we will likely see over 10,000 daily riders of hydrogen vehicles. In 2012, we will likely see over 100,000 daily riders of hydrogen vehicles. Both forecasts assume that vehicle growth will slow to 70% annually. Large public transit operators, by law, must start buying 15% of their fleet as zero emission. Some starting in 2010. 200 hydrogen buses transporting 500 passengers daily is 100,000. The actual scenario is for fewer than 200 buses and about 5,000 vehicles in various government and commercial fleets with some early consumer buying. These fleets are like anchor tenants in a shopping center. SunLine started with one bus. Soon other hydrogen vehicles were using the same fueling station. CNG vehicles then started using hydrogen-CNG blends, increasing fuel efficiency and reducing damaging emissions. Stations are being expanded in capacity to support larger fleets. A sage said that we tend to over estimate success in the short term and under estimate it in the long term. The same growth will happen with hydrogen transportation. As fleets expand and as the hydrogen stations expand in capacity, costs will diminish and ridership will continue to grow. Will Hydrogen Become Less Expensive?There is uproar over the cost of gasoline. Congress is threatening a windfall tax on oil companies. State governments are suing. Even former oilman President George Bush announced that “we are addicted to oil.” The IRS now lets us deduct 44.5 cents per mile for our business driving. Odds are that you are not making money on that, unless you drive a hybrid like the Toyota Prius that I own. A hydrogen future is being promoted as a way to end our dependency on oil, but will hydrogen ever be less expensive than gasoline? The long-term answer is yes. Cheap hydrogen has the same theme as buying the right house – “location, location, location.” In Torrance, the major oil refiners use hydrogen to make our gasoline cleaner and high octane. In Torrance, there is a hydrogen pipeline. That pipeline is being extended to a new hydrogen fueling station, where hydrogen will be less expensive than gasoline. Hydrogen is expected to cost under $3 per gasoline gallon equivalent at the pump. Complete Article AC Transit Leadership with Hydrogen Buses and Cars
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Copyright (c) 2006 OPTIMARK |
The HyRoad program is considered the most comprehensive hydrogen fuel cell demonstration in North America. Over 1,000 riders per day in full service on 3 zero-emission fuel cell buses. AC Transit supervisors will also use 10 zero-emission Hyundai and Kia fuel cell cars. 
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