The prospect of using hydrogen as a viable and safe transportation fuel has never quite fully recovered from the Hindenburg dirigible disaster that occurred on May 6, 1937.
Recent estimates by the Alternative Fuels Data Center, an internet database containing information about alternate fuels, would suggest that it may in fact be 2-3 decades before hydrogen emerges as a feasible transportation fuel, and even then, "perhaps only in fuel cell-powered vehicles."
Hydrogen's acceptance into the world's fuel mix continues to be hampered, despite reports in recent years that hydrogen may have played little, if any, part in the Hindenburg fire.
A November 1997 Popular Science article by Mariette DiChristina de- scribed the research conducted by retired National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineer Addison Bain.
Through studying the make-up of the ill-fated dirigible's shell, Bain theorized that the blaze was likely fueled in part by the doping compound containing cellulose acetate or nitrate that covered the vessel.
Further analysis found a layer of aluminum powder over this layer. Add to this the wood spacers and ramie cord, the silk material of the balloon itself, and the lacquer-coated skeleton, and the Hindenburg becomes an airship that's been painted with what essentially amounts to rocket fuel, Bain deduced.
European hydrogen push
The use of hydrogen as an alternate transportation fuel may have received another push, albeit small, last month.
Norsk Hydro Electrolysers AS (NHE), a unit of Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA, signed a contract with Hamburg utility Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke AG (HEW) for the supply and delivery of a hydrogen filling station.
NHE's filling station design is based on hydrogen production from either electrolyzers or alternative methods, such as reforming. The stations are delivered to clients fully completed-"covering initial hydrogen production through to the vehicle filling dispensing unit," the company said. HEW's station will be delivered to Hamburg in April 2003, NHE said.
The station is the latest addition to the Clean Urban Transport for Europe, or CUTE, project, which is a demonstration program launched earlier this year based on the use of hydrogen as fuel in 27 buses in nine European cities.
The European Union-backed CUTE project is the first of its size to demonstrate the use of hydrogen as fuel in the transport sector, NHE said. CUTE is slated for a 3-year trial period.
Recently, NHE also was chosen by Icelandic New Energy Ltd. to supply a similar hydrogen filling station to the Icelandic Ecological City Transport System program, a sister initiative to CUTE. Starting in the third quarter of 2003, one hydrogen fueling station and three hydrogen buses will be operated in Reykjavik, NHE noted.
US hydrogen goal
According to AFDC, the US Congress passed Public Law 102-486, or EPAct, on Oct. 24, 1992, "to accelerate the use of alternative fuels in the transportation sector." With the passage of EPAct, the US Department of Energy hoped to decrease the nation's dependence on foreign oil and increase energy security through the use of alternate fuels that are produced in the US.
At that time, DOE was working toward replacing 10% of petroleum-based motor fuels by 2000 and 30% by 2010.
"Hydrogen gasellipsewill play an important role in developing sustainable transportation in the US, because it can be produced in virtually unlimited quantities using renewable resources," AFDC said. "However, hydrogen's real potential rests in its future role as fuel for fuel cell vehicles," the center noted.
Further initiatives
Currently in the US, the federal government is working hard to provide incentives-such as income tax deductions-for consumers to purchase alternative fuel vehicles (AFV), such as those that would use hydrogen as fuel. Meanwhile, some states and private companies are also offering credits or rebates and discounts for the purchase of AFVs, mostly to offset a portion of the consumers' initial cost of such a vehicle.
Also, vehicle makers continue to experiment with the design of AFVs that use hydrogen as fuel. AFDC, citing the California Energy Commission, said that currently there are no vehicles commercially available that use hydrogen as a fuel. Numerous research vehicles use liquid hydrogen. Other vehicles, such as the two operated by the American Hydrogen Association in Arizona, have been built to run on compressed hydrogen, AFDC noted.
"High production costs and low density have prevented hydrogen's use as a transportation fuel in all but test programs," the center said.
