From: EcoNet (via Jym Dyer) <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,sci.energy,talk.environment
Subject: NEWS: "Minus-Emission Cars" Tap Hydrogen
Followup-To: sci.energy,talk.environment
Date: 30 Sep 1992 04:22:10 GMT
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: jym@remarque.berkeley.edu

[From EcoNet ecotopia.news Conference]

Minus-Emission Cars Tap Hydrogen 
 
by Elaine Weinreb 
 
One key focus at last month's Solar Energy Expo and Rally
(SEER), which drew 10,000 people to Willits, was hydrogen
technology.
 
Like wind, water and photovoltaics, hydrogen is a benign
energy source -- and the only one that can be burned, and
even substituted for gasoline.  Pure hydrogen contains no
carbon, and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect
since the only end-product of combustion is water vapor.
 
Cars that run on alternative fuels such as methanol are said to
be low emission, and electric cars are called zero emission --
but a hydrogen-burning car can be called "minus emission"
because it turns a pollutant into a clean fuel.
 
U.S. manufacturers have shown little interest in hydrogen-
powered cars, and the closest such commercial vehicle is made
by Mercedes in Germany.  But a hydrogen vehicle was on display
at the SEER fair.
 
                        Cheap Conversion
 
According to Dr. Roger Billings of the International Academy of
Sciences, the conversion from a gasoline to a hydrogen internal
combustion engine can be made for as little as $500.
 
Members of the SEER audience were open to the idea of forming
"hydrogen co-ops," for people to share the cost of a reformer,
purchase natural gas from PG &E as the feedstock for hydrogen
and merrily drive their minus-emission cars down the road.
 
Gasoline stations also could have their own reformers.  In fact,
hydrogen from commercial reformers could be piped into homes
using existing pipelines, to provide non-greenhouse energy for
cooking, heating and cooling.
 
Hydrogen as a conventional fuel, however, seems downright boring
when compared to the hydride fuel cell, a device somewhere on
the frontier between chemistry, electronics and nuclear physics,
producing electricity from hydrogen without benefit of
combustion.
 
                          How It Works
 
The fuel cell contains a metal hydride which is derived from
cheap low-grade titanium ore, a small amount of expensive
platinum catalyst and a special membrane which plucks off the
protons from hydrogen atoms, leaving a sea of homeless electrons
swarming about.
 
A mass of homeless electrons constitutes an electric charge,
and when given a path back to their protons, via a metal wire,
an electric current is produced which can then do such mundane
chores as turning a motor.
 
Fuel cells, according to Dr. Billings, can have up to 95%
efficiency.  Unfortunately, they are quite expensive; a one-
kilowatt cell costs about $5,000 to produce, even though it
would last more than four million miles.
 
The big three U.S. automakers -- General Motors, Ford and
Chrysler -- agreed this summer to form a joint partnership
to research low-emission technology.
 
At the same time, a study by the World Resources Institute found
that the U.S. government and the auto industry spend billions to
subsidize gasoline prices.  The true price otherwise would be
several dollars per gallon.
 
Billings foresees that the cars of the future will be hybrids,
using electric batteries for short in-city jaunts and fuel-cell
hydride engines for longer trips.  A hydride fuel cell can
multiply the range of an electric car 10 times, without adding
appreciably to the car's weight.
 
                           Trash, Too
 
Hydrogen also can be cheaply produced -- about 30 cents a
gallon -- from organic waste via experimental techniques
described by Dr. Roy McAllester of the American Hydrogen
Association.  Decomposing organic waste will produce methane,
a molecule made of hydrogen and carbon atoms, as a result of
bacterial action.
 
In fact, several pilot projects have tapped the methane produced
in city dumps and used it as fuel.  Methane, however, produces
carbon dioxide when it is burned.
 
Carbon, when further purified, has its own economic value.
It can be spun into fibers that are stronger than steel, then
treated and used to diamond-plate machinery, to filter air or
water or to use as a feedstock for other industrial products.
 
Instead of using microbial digestion, hydrogen can be produced
from organic waste by means of a solar parabolic reflector.
The solar dish concentrates the energy of the sun's heat on a
container of organic waste, breaking it up into hydrogen and
carbon, in a process somewhat analogous to burning a piece of
toast.  The advantage of this method over microbial digestion
is that it is odor-free.
 
Dr. McAllester said the combination of solar and hydrogen
technology could meet the energy needs of the world.  Solar
hydrogen plants in Arizona and southern California could
suffice to power the entire U.S.
 
(From ECONEWS, Newsletter of the Northcoast Environmental
Center, September 1992. Write 879 9th St., Arcata, CA 95521,
or e-mail nec@igc.apc.org, for a free copy.)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive