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Green Highways?
More than 1.5 million new vehicles are sold each year in California,
making motor vehicles the largest single cause of global warming in the
state. |
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Pioneering on the
Hydrogen Highway
Non-polluting. Sustainable.
Energy secure. These terms wouldn’t apply to the automobile as we
know it. “Gas-guzzler” is the standard epithet for the SUVs
that Americans have embraced, and air pollution and greenhouse gases are
two of their hazards.
The State of California, however, is at the forefront of efforts to
transform our vehicles. One effort is the
California Fuel Cell Partnership
(CaFCP), a public/private collaboration composed of 31 member
companies: automobile manufacturers, fuel cell technology companies,
energy providers and representatives from a number of state and federal
government agencies. Its purpose is to promote the commercialization of
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Analisa Bevan, Chief of Sustainable Transportation, Technology Branch of
the California Air Resources Board says, “The California Fuel Cell
Partnership is an opportunity to develop relationships with those entities
involved in the commercialization of fuel cell technology. Our zero
emissions policy adopted in 1990 requires automakers to produce and
deliver zero emission vehicles to California. The fuel cell vehicle is one
of the technologies that can meet the regulation, so we’re deeply involved
in making sure that technology is successful in the marketplace.’
The California Fuel Cell Partnership was announced in 1999. “The State of
California was a very important initiator of this project, and they are a
member through two important agencies, the Air Resources Quality Board and
the California Energy Commission, both founding members,” says CaFCP’s
Executive Director, Catherine Dunwoody. “California is the place where the
members believe the fuel cell-powered vehicle will first come to market.
They’re using California as a proving ground because the state has been a
leader for many years in advanced transportation technology, environmental
awareness and interest in low- and zero-emission vehicles.”
The partnership, first envisioned as a small demonstration project for
alternative fuel vehicles, quickly grew to 31 members. A headquarters
facility in Sacramento provides leased space to each of the automobile
companies where they can test and evaluate their vehicles. “It’s an
opportunity to get real world learning,” Dunwoody says.
The partnership’s members cooperate on issues such as providing education
and outreach to the public, determining standards for fueling stations and
offering first responder training—necessary because fuel cells, which have
hydrogen and high voltage electric power, will be new to firefighters and
police at an auto accident scene. The partnership also works with the
California Air Resources Board in planning the
Hydrogen Highway, a network of hydrogen
fueling stations throughout California. “We look at the partnership as an
umbrella. We help all the members in implementing their individual
programs,” Dunwoody says.
Automakers give the partnership high marks for helping to bring fuel cell
technology to the marketplace. “The California Fuel Cell Partnership is
dong a great job of leading the way, says Nick Cappa, manager of advanced
technology communications for
Daimler Chrysler. “We’ve been able to
work with other manufacturers, oil companies and fuel cell companies and
gain a lot of shared information.”
While they collaborate on issues of common concern, each company’s
technology solution is its own. All are at different points in research
and development. Most have a small number of vehicles being driven and
tested in real world conditions in the State of California and a few other
states, in addition to some international sites.
Daimler Chrysler has over 100 fuel cell vehicles on the road. Cappa says
the company has put well over a billion dollars into research. “About a
year ago, we started the F600 fuel cell concept. It takes fuel cell
vehicles to a range customers are accustomed to, about 300 miles per fill.
The next generation has a fuel cell system that is much more efficient and
also has higher capacities. We’ll build hundreds,” he says.
Craig Scott, manager for alternative fuel vehicles, says, “In alternative
fuel vehicles, there are multiple pathways. We don’t see hydrogen fuel
cells as the ‘silver bullet’ that will meet everyone’s needs. It’s the
most promising environmentally from our standpoint, but because there are
a lot of unknowns with regard to hydrogen, we’re also pursing other
pathways and powertrains.” He says that Toyota was the first automotive
company to launch a consumer hydrogen fuel cell testing program in the
United States with seven cars in 2002. Currently the company is testing
nine cars in Northern and Southern California.
Beginning in 2007,
Hyundai is
bringing 30 fuel cell vehicles into the country in a Department of
Energy/private enterprise cost sharing program. The company, which
currently has a small testing program in California and Michigan, will
place the vehicles in fleet testing environments in California and
Michigan through 2009 to demonstrate their usability in real world work
environments. “We’re working with
Chevron, which supplies the energy, and
UTC Power, which supplies the fuel cell
and system technology, in a kind of coalition, sharing technology with
that small group to bring it along quickly,” says Kevin Oates,
communications consultant for Ketchum, Hyundai’s public relations agency.
CaFCP’s Dunwoody says, “We’ll see the first hydrogen fuel cell cars in the
next few years—not millions of them, but thousands of them.”
Honda plans to either lease or sell its
fuel cell vehicles in 2008, she says.
General Motors has a similar goal for
2010. In preparation, General Motors will begin placing more than 100
Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles with customers in 2007 in California,
the New York metropolitan area and Washington D.C. Dave Barthmuss, GM
spokesperson, says, “Our goal is to get our engineering right by 2010. We
aim to develop a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that is affordable and can
compete with an internal combustion engine in terms of reliability and
durability.”
Ford’s Greg Frenette is less optimistic. Chief engineer for
Ford’s fuel cell vehicles program, he
says that many challenges have to be solved before the vehicles are
commercially viable. These include lower cost per vehicle, technology
breakthrough in on-board hydrogen storage and improved durability. “We’ve
built a fleet of 30 vehicles in our third generation hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles, based on the Ford Focus, and placed them with customers in
various parts of the world. We’re currently designing our fourth. We see
great improvements with each generation,” he says.
JoAnn Milliken, hydrogen program manager and chief engineer with the
Department of Defense says, “California
was the first state to promote fuel cell technology and is the farthest
along.” The department has been working on developing hydrogen fuel cells
for automobiles for the past 20 years, making progress in reducing the
cost of fuel cells and producing hydrogen and in working on materials that
could lead to better hydrogen storage facilities. These gains have led to
increased funding that is helping to accelerate the technology.
In addition to developing the vehicles, other tasks need to be
accomplished to make hydrogen fuel cell vehicles commercially viable. GM’s
Dave Barthmuss names infrastructure development, building code and
standards development for fuel storage and fueling stations, insurance
regulations and first responder training. “This is where the California
Fuel Cell Partnership will play such a crucial role,” he says.
Other links:
DOE Hydrogen fuel cell site:
http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/pdfs/doe_h2_tech_validation.pdf
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