Conference touts the power of hydrogen

In a physical sense, it was a bus powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. It rolled onto the streets of Seattle for a daylong conference at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center. In a metaphoric sense, Locke was riding the vision of a "hydrogen economy" in which Washington state might be a major player.

"This is really exciting technology," Locke said. "We hope that with the national emphasis on hydrogen and fuel cells, the state of Washington will be a true leader around the world. This represents an incredible opportunity for clean energy, a sustainable environment and lots of jobs for people in the Pacific Northwest."

But participants in yesterday's conference, sponsored by the Richland-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Seattle's Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative, said it will take a decade or more to build a nationwide system of pipelines, filling stations and other infrastructure while bringing down costs and increasing efficiency. Researchers writing in the recent journal Science also raised concerns that leaked hydrogen might indirectly deplete some of the ozone layer.

"We don't want to put blinders on," said Steve Chalk, a Department of Energy (DOE) program manager. "We still face a lot of hurdles."

Toward that end, DOE plans to award $270 million to companies pursuing hydrogen technology research and development in fiscal 2004. Other hurdles include public acceptance, safety and hydrogen-storage capacity.

The Bush administration has unveiled a $1.2 billion initiative to fund research and development for fuel-cell vehicles over the next five years. In his State of the Union address, President Bush said "the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free."

Proponents say hydrogen technology has the potential to address the impacts of fossil fuels on air quality, greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as the U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Hydrogen is either produced from hydrocarbons, such as natural gas, coal and gasoline; or by using hydroelectric, nuclear, wind or solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Hydrogen can be used to directly power vehicles or in fuel cells, which generate power through an electrochemical reaction leaving only heat and water as byproducts. The fuel cells can be used to power vehicles, buildings and portable devices such as cellphones and laptop computers.

Leaders from power utilities, the transportation sector and federal funding agencies spoke yesterday, including officials from the U.S. Department of Energy, Bonneville Power Administration, Boeing, Avista Labs, Freightliner, SunLine Transit Agency and the National Fuel Cell Research Center.

The Pacific Northwest, already a leader in fuel-cell technology, is home to Spokane-based Avista Labs, which develops fuel cells for commercial and industrial backup power, and Vancouver, British Columbia-based Ballard Power Systems, which develops fuel-cell technology for the transportation sector, including the bus showcased yesterday.

"The fact that we have hydropower here might give us an opportunity to jump-start hydrogen production ... ," said Mike Lawrence, PNNL associate laboratory director, "but we should also be using nuclear energy and fossil fuels like coal to produce hydrogen."

However, producing hydrogen from fossil fuels, which is the most widely used technique today, worries some because of the carbon-dioxide byproducts that result. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas — it absorbs and retains solar heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

Amory Lovins, a keynote speaker yesterday, said the carbon emitted by this process could be sequestered, or stopped from going into the atmosphere. He said switching to a hydrogen-based economy would greatly reduce carbon-dioxide emissions in the short term, and eliminate them entirely in the long term.

Concerns about carbon-dioxide emissions should not prevent development of hydrogen fuel technology, Lovins said:

"We shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

Alison Bickerstaff: 206-852-2298