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One of the centerpieces of the second Bush administration's
energy policy will be the long term hydrogen fuel initiative, aimed
at reducing dependence on petroleum products, that the President
launched in his State of the Union address in January 2003. The
Department of Energy is responsible for implementing the President's
initiative, but there are a number of other federal agencies
engaged in hydrogen and fuel cell research and development.
In announcing the initiative, President Bush added three new
elements to existing research: he called for the development of a
national refueling network for fuel cell vehicles; he significantly
increased funding to accelerate the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies;
and he gave the program a timeline by saying that a child born today would drive
a hydrogen-powered vehicle. As Americans begin driving around the age of 16, these
vehicles would have to be available by 2020. That is an ambitious schedule, but we are
working toward it.
In support of the initiative, the Administration
is increasing its budget request
for hydrogen and fuel cell research
and development to about $227 million
for 2005. That is considerable higher
than the $160 million appropriated for
fiscal year 2004 (against an administration
request of $180 million), which was
in turn significantly larger than in 2003.
In addition to research and development
of fuel cell and renewable hydrogen
technologies, different branches of
the Department of Energy are focusing on coal-based and nuclear-based hydrogen
production and basic science. We
also work with the Department of Transportation
on safety, codes and standards.
The Department is also developing technologies
based on wind, geothermal,
solar and biomass energy sources, and
improving the energy efficiency of buildings
and industrial processes.
Any plan to reduce dependence on
petroleum in the United States, however,
means focusing on the transportation
sector, which accounts for over two-thirds of U.S. oil consumption. The gap
between domestic oil production and
consumption is continuing to grow, primarily
because of increased use of light
duty vehicles ø cars, sports utility vehicles
(SUVs) and light trucks. That is why
we are targeting the light duty vehicle
sector in our hydrogen and fuel cell activities.
We can have an impact by improving
fuel economy. We can decrease the
amount of oil used in the transportation
sector by regulation or by developing hybrid
vehicles. While such methods will
somewhat reduce oil dependence in the
near term, however, they will not solve
the long-term problem. The gap between
oil production and consumption will
continue to grow because the amount of
vehicles and the number of vehicle miles
traveled will continue to increase. To
achieve a long-term solution we need a
substitute for petroleum.
Forecasts show that greater use of
hybrid vehicles could reduce oil consumption
from around 2025, but that
after 2040 oil use would start to rise
again. At least in the transportation sector,
we can get down to zero oil consumption
in the long-term only by using
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. So we are developing
hybrid vehicle technologies for
the near term, and hydrogen for the long
term.
Hydrogen is not only the key to a secure
energy future; it also has other advantages.
It has obvious environmental
benefits in terms of reducing pollutants
and greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen
also has economic benefits because it can
be made from a number of domestic
sources in the United States.We shall be
replacing dependence on one source of
fuel with opportunities for other feedstocks.
And while it takes energy to make
hydrogen from these feedstocks, the efficiency
of the fuel cell more than compensates
for the initial energy outlay.
This is obviously not going to happen
overnight. It will take years to build
a refueling infrastructure. And although
a child who is almost two years old now
may drive a fuel cell vehicle in 2020, we
shall not complete the transition to a hydrogen
economy for another couple of
decades after that.
"In the transportation sector, we reach zero oil consumption
in the long-term only by using hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
We are still in the research, development
and demonstration phase. We
hope to develop the technologies that
will enable industry to make a decision
to sell vehicles powered by these new
technologies in 2015. But that will depend
on getting the money we need and
on meeting certain targets, which are
based on current fuel costs and vehicle
performance. A number of those elements
could change.
We face difficult technical challenges,
of which the most significant is
finding ways for vehicles to store enough
hydrogen to give them sufficient range.
Current storage technologies do not
allow vehicles to achieve their normal
ranges within the weight and volume
constraints of the vehicle. Today's most
advanced technology is compressed hydrogen
storage, but the tanks take up a
lot of space and the range is limited. In the United States, the average range of
vehicles is 370 miles, and we are setting a
conservative target of 300 miles. And by
2015 or 2020 hydrogen vehicles will be
competing with hybrids with significantly
more range.
"In the U.S., the average vehicle range is 370 miles, and
we have set a target of 300 miles
While compressed hydrogen tanks
will be important for developing fuel cell
vehicles in the early stages, we are focusing
on developing new materials that can
store hydrogen reversibly with high capacities.
In hydrogen production and
fuel cells, on the other hand, the main
challenge is to reduce costs. Our target
for hydrogen production is $1.50 to $2
per kilogram - the equivalent of a gallon
of gasoline, in terms of energy content -
untaxed and delivered to the station.
That would be similar to the cost of
gasoline today. If the price of gasoline
continues to rise, those targets may
change.
The cost target for fuel cells is under
$50 per kilowatt, which would make
them competitive with the internal combustion
engine. We are also looking at
safety, codes and standards and other
challenges. As for the delivery of hydrogen
to refueling stations, it will take time
to create a centralized production system.
So during the transition period, our
aim is to produce distributed hydrogen
by steam-reforming of natural gas at existing
gasoline stations, and by smallscale
electrolyzers. Education is also
important because the public thinks hydrogen
is an unsafe fuel.We also need to
teach people about the benefits of hydrogen
and why this revolutionary
change is important.
We have made a lot of progress over
the past couple of years. In terms of hydrogen
storage, we need to improve capacity
by a factor of about three. The
current cost of producing hydrogen
from natural gas is about $5 per kilogram,
so we need to reduce that by a factor
of two to three as well.
We need to get fuel cell costs down
by a factor of six or seven. But it is here
that we have made the most progress.
The steep fall in the cost of fuel cells over
the past ten to 15 years is really what
spurred the hydrogen initiative and
prompted this accelerated activity.
Our long-term aim is the development
of techniques to produce hydrogen
from renewable resources and from coal
with carbon sequestration. This will require
a partnership with the industries
involved.We have been working with the
auto companies for about 15 years, and
the President's initiative helped us to
bring the energy companies on board,
too. We need their cooperation to address
the fueling infrastructure, and we
are collaborating with them very closely
to help guide the necessary research and
development.
We believe we have a balanced program,
and that all aspects of research
and development are necessary to make
this happen. For hydrogen storage, for
example, basic research is very important
because we really need a breakthrough
in materials. The same applies
to the long term-production of hydrogen
by photo-biological and photo-electrochemical
systems.
We also need basic research to find
out how to reduce the cost of fuel cells,
either by using platinum better or by de-veloping a non-precious metal catalyst.
But applied research and technology development
are also important to meet
the milestones, deliverables, and technical
targets that will enable industry to
make a positive commercialization decision
in 2015.
We also believe that practical tests
are critical to identify problems that we
might have missed in the laboratory.We
are just starting a program of "learning
demonstrations, in which we shall look
at fuel cell vehicles and fueling stations
in different conditions, for example hot
and cold weather. The Freedom Car Partnership, which began a year before
the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, is addressing
the vehicle technology side.
Our research, development and demonstration plans are developed
in cooperation with all those who have expertise in the technologies
and a stake in the program. We are working with the industries involved,
universities and national and federal laboratories. And in November
2003, the Secretary of Energy launched the International Partnership
for the Hydrogen Economy, through which we want to include our international
partners in this endeavor.
JoAnn Milliken is the Chief Engineer in the
Office of Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies at
the U.S. Department of Energy, where she oversees research, development,
and demonstration activities in fuel cells, and in hydrogen production,
delivery, and storage technologies. Before joining DOE in 1994,
she was a Research Chemist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
and a Program Manager at the Office of Naval Research.
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