Why we're still waiting for a hydrogen-powered car

Steve Carlic | By Steve Carlic | The Post-Standard
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on March 23, 2009 at 9:51 PM, updated March 23, 2009 at 9:56 PM
Onondaga Community College Professor Karl W. Klein in his Toyota Prius hybrid. He'd rather be driving a jet pack.
The United States is a country in love with technology. Our devotion to technology is especially apparent when it comes automobiles. The increase in oil prices last summer prompted increased interest in alternatively fueled vehicles. For automakers, this interest usually translates into vague promises of hydrogen-fuel-cell powered cars. Yet, the similarity between the promise of these vehicles being available (and affordable) and the decades-old promise of jet packs is hard to ignore.

The potential of hydrogen as a fuel source is compelling. Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and the only thing coming out of a tailpipe is water. In fact, if the hydrogen is produced from renewable sources (like wind, photovoltaic, or hydroelectric), the potential seems nearly limitless.

Yet there are embarrassing holes in this hydrogen emperor's clothing. The biggest misconception is that hydrogen is an energy source. It is not. Hydrogen is an energy carrier. Hydrogen is almost never found in a pure state in nature (unlike petroleum, natural gas and other fossil fuels). This means we must find some way to separate it from compounds such as water.

The process of separating hydrogen from other elements takes lots of energy. Today, most industrial production of hydrogen starts with non-renewable natural gas, applies a lot of energy (in the form of steam -- again often using natural gas), which then results in hydrogen gas. Why not simply burn compressed natural gas? It can run in today's engines with only slight modifications and an infrastructure already exists to distribute it.

As a curious child, I once used an 9-volt transistor radio battery to rejuvenate a dead "D" cell battery. To my surprise, this actually did work (sort of). However I remember my Dad was quite annoyed when he discovered I had used an expensive battery to "charge" a cheaper one. Since my weekly allowance did not buy either battery, from my perspective, this small-scale "demonstration project" was an amazing success!

However to Dad, it was a financial waste since I took a high-quality energy source and reduced it to a lower-value one. I am reminded of my experiment when I see taxpayer dollars spent on hydrogen demonstration projects. The second law of thermodynamics rules: The energy returned via hydrogen is always going to be less than the energy invested to create the hydrogen produced by these projects.

There are other problems with fuel cells. Today's fuel cells rely on the availability of platinum (usually more expensive than gold). During last summer's increase in commodity prices, catalytic converters (which contain platinum) were being stolen from parked cars. Anyone who has this misfortune intuitively understands that platinum is very expensive.

As a result of these, and other difficulties -- such as, how much will it cost to create a network of hydrogen refueling stations? -- I am afraid that despite the efforts of physics professors and automotive engineers, the dream of a nationwide fleet of hydrogen-powered cars will remain as elusive as my quest for my personal jet pack. I would very much like one. It would be very, very cool to fly around Syracuse and avoid the summer highway construction projects.

Karl W. Klein is an associate professor at Onondaga Community College.