Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 14:43:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Green Bean
Subject: Hydrogen car near, energy firm says
Jul. 23, 2003. 07:31 AM
Hydrogen car near, energy firm says
Stuart Energy sells filling station
Firm's technology `bridge to fuel cell'
TYLER HAMILTON
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
Consumers won't have to wait 10 or 20 years before
hydrogen-powered cars make it to the local dealership,
says the chief executive of Stuart Energy Systems
Corp., a leading supplier of hydrogen fuelling
stations.
Jon Slangerup said internal combustion car engines
that run on hydrogen gas, similar to vehicles powered
by natural gas, could see "mass commercialization"
within two years, at least a decade sooner than
hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles that companies such as
Burnaby, B.C.-based Ballard Power Systems Inc. are
helping to develop.
"The fuel cell, indeed, is the ultimate in the ideal
future state," said Slangerup. "But instead of waiting
15 or 20 years for that to be perfected, we now have
internal combustion engines running on hydrogen for
stationary and mobile applications."
Slangerup said Mississauga-based Stuart Energy will
detail at its annual meeting in September the progress
being made with internal combustion car engines that
run on non-polluting hydrogen gas. He said a related
announcement will be made at that time, but would not
elaborate.
The company has a partnership with Ford Motor Co.,
which is testing both fuel cells and traditional
internal combustion engines that can be powered by
hydrogen. The latter is being produced at Ford's
manufacturing facilities in Windsor, potentially a
permanent home for the product, said Slangerup.
Ford's Model U vehicle contains an electric drive and
a hydrogen internal combustion engine that could be
replaced by a fuel cell when that technology is ready.
In both scenarios, a hydrogen-fuelling infrastructure
will be needed to keep the vehicles going — and that's
where Stuart Energy enters the picture.
Within two years, the company expects to have a
hydrogen fuelling system for the home — called a
personal energy station — that's about the size of a
large residential air conditioner, said Slangerup.
This energy station, along with storage containers,
would initially cost less than $20,000 and would be
capable of fuelling two hydrogen-powered cars each day
and providing back-up or primary electricity to the
home, depending on whether solar panels are used to
charge the system.
"We're working with the largest home builder in the
United States right now, which is absolutely wild
about the idea of offering a total green solution,
including solar panels, to their customers and
incorporating (the cost of the system) into the
mortgage," said Slangerup.
"This is going to be a big market for us."
The energy station takes in water from a standard
garden hose and converts it into hydrogen and oxygen
through a process called electrolysis. The hydrogen is
either used right away as a power source or stored in
a carbon-fibre tank for later use, such as filling up
your car. Pure oxygen is released as the only
by-product.
One criticism of any hydrogen production process,
including electrolysis, is that it consumes power,
typically through the burning of fossil fuels, to
create the hydrogen fuel. So while the end product may
have zero emissions, the process to create it doesn't.
Slangerup said that the ability to store hydrogen
offers flexibility in creating it. Renewable and clean
energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro and
geothermal, are one option. The other option is to use
energy from the traditional power grid during off-peak
times and store the hydrogen for later use.
To walk the talk, Stuart Energy buys six-month blocks
of wind power from an Ontario wind farm to power its
85,000 square foot Mississauga facility, which employs
160 people. Another 50 employees work out of
Belgium-based Vandenborre Technologies, which was
acquired by Stuart Energy earlier this year for $10
million.
The personal energy station concept is gaining
momentum. Stuart Energy signed a co-development deal
last month with the hydrogen division of oil giant
Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which gets the non-exclusive
right to act as an agent of the technology.
"Why would they want to do that? What's in it for
them?" asked Slangerup rhetorically. "They see the
future as a highly distributed system of hydrogen
generators."
He said it may take 50 years before gasoline-powered
cars go the way of the dodo, but as the price of gas
and other oil products go up, hydrogen and the
infrastructure to provide it will gain momentum.
In that future, hydrogen will be produced in the home
and sold at fuelling stations along the highway,
creating a more decentralized infrastructure that
literally changes the balance of power.
Internal combustion engines that run on hydrogen will
get us to that reality faster, laying the foundation
for fuel-cell cars when they're ready for the mass
market, added Slangerup. "We call it the bridge to the
future of fuel cell."
For example, the Ford Focus fuel-cell car being
showcased across North America cost more than $1
million to build. Modifying the fuel injectors and
fuel-management system of an internal combustion
vehicle that uses natural gas so it can run on
clean-burning hydrogen costs less than $1,000.
"The fuel-cell guys love the idea of internal
combustion engines because it gets hydrogen out there,
it gets the infrastructure in place, and when the fuel
cells come along, you're not dealing with any big
disruption."
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