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Donald Huberts is CEO of Shell Hydrogen, a Royal Dutch/Shell subsidiary established in 1999 to explore development of the fuel-cell car industry. The fledgling sector received a boost last month when the Bush Administration decided to help subsidize the development of fuel-cell cars, with the goal of lowering pollution and U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
Fuel cells work by converting hydrogen or a hydrogen-rich fuel into electricity, which powers the motor. Pure hydrogen would be the ideal fuel, as it produces no emissions, but the element presents certain challenges, says Huberts. On Jan. 25, he spoke from Amsterdam via telephone with BusinessWeek Reporter Christine Tierney. Edited excerpts from their conversation follow:
Q: How do you view the Bush Administration's new policy to help subsidize the development of fuel-cell cars and the necessary infrastructure?
A: Rather than focus on short-term solutions, the Administration is saying we should try to make a fundamental shift in the way cars are fueled, because that would help ensure secure supplies. Hydrogen can be produced from almost any primary energy source. At ground level, it has zero emissions, and it's better from a global-warming perspective. You kill three birds with one stone.
The transition isn't going to happen overnight. But it's important for all of us working on hydrogen and fuel cells that the Administration has embraced this [long-term] vision and is willing to [apply] resources to helping develop it.
Q: How much did the September 11 attacks reawaken interest in renewable fuels such as hydrogen?
A: The events of September 11 brought home once again the concerns [about] Western economies [being] very dependent on specific energy sources. Solutions that can reduce that dependence by bringing renewable and domestic energy sources into the transportation system are even more important today than they were a year ago.
This debate has always been driven by three factors: concerns about ground-level emissions, global warming, and secure supplies. In different parts of the world, factors can [carry more weight]. In California, local pollution is the strongest factor. In Germany, it's concern about global warming. [Overall in the U.S.], concern about supply security is perhaps the strongest driver. But once you get the solution into the transportation system, you can satisfy all those needs.
Q: What's the next step in making this new technology a reality?
A: The phase we're moving into is precommercial demonstrations of these vehicles and the refueling infrastructure on a larger scale than we've known to date. Industries will be focusing on R&D and problem-solving -- a lot of details still need to be worked out. We're active in California [where carmakers and energy companies are road-testing fuel-cell cars as part of the California Fuel-Cell Partnership], and you'll see such programs expand.
Between now and 2008, we'll see expanding fleet trials of buses and cars in select communities in Europe and in the U.S., and there will also be trials on a smaller scale in Japan. Depending on the feasibility demonstrated in those trials and what we learn, the fleet use will be scaled up toward the end of this decade, to perhaps thousands of vehicles. But not until 2012 or so will we see these vehicles in the showroom. This is not a sprint, it's a marathon.
Q: Do you sense that the tough times auto makers now face has led some manufacturers to quietly scale back funding for these projects?
A: No. I think their commitment is growing. GM's recent display of the Autonomy [fuel cell-powered chassis at the Detroit motor show in January] signals new thinking about...how to make a car that's irresistible to the consumer, and not just look at it from an environment or supply standpoint.
In Europe, DaimlerChrysler is producing fuel-cell buses for 10 cities, and that's the leading project to demonstrate these technologies in Europe under real-life conditions. Daimler has been working on this for a long time, but they're not alone. General Motors is right up there.
Q: One of the key challenges seems to be finding a safe and affordable way to store hydrogen. Why is it so hard to store safely?
A: It's one of the lightest elements, and it's very difficult to put into a confined space. Hydrogen molecules move extremely rapidly, and they don't like to be slowed down [into solid or liquid form, which facilitates storage]. They don't like to attach themselves to anything. They're hyperactive, little, independent, crazy molecules. That's just the nature of hydrogen.
Q: What are the most promising technologies for hydrogen storage?
A: One is to compress it into a small space. The second is to put it to sleep: You make it extremely cold, and finally the hydrogen gives up and goes to sleep, and then it's a liquid. The third way is to make it fall in love [and bond with] a metal, and then the hydrogen will sit quietly [until it's extracted for use as fuel in the vehicle]. We call those [compounds] metal hydrides.
This technology requires much more development, but once we get past that, we believe it'll be possible to store big amounts of hydrogen in them. Also, because of the bonding between the metal and the hydrogen, it's very safe because the hydrogen is quiet without being under extreme pressure or extremely cold. Some researchers are trying to make the hydrogen sit comfortably in a carbon, such as charcoal. Because charcoal is very light, that may turn out to be even better than metal.
Q: What are you working on at Shell Hydrogen?
A: We're trying to make hydrogen as cheaply and in as compact a form as possible in a joint venture with UTC Fuel Cells called Hydrogen Source. We're doing that using natural gas and gasoline now, because we think we have to find a practical, affordable solution first, and then in the longer term, we can make hydrogen from renewable fuels.
We're working on metal hydride storage tanks in a joint venture called Hera with Hydro-Quebec of Canada and GFE of Germany. We're also working on projects demonstrating how hydrogen can be supplied. We're building a hydrogen station in Iceland and one in Amsterdam. We've built a liquid hydrogen station for the California Fuel-Cell Partnership, and we'll be building more.
Q: What do you estimate it will cost the energy industry to overhaul the fuel-distribution system to dispense hydrogen?
A: If you want to make a fundamental transition on a worldwide basis, you would be talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. But the investments won't be made overnight, and they won't be out of line with investments done in the past and that we continue to make to build and maintain the existing infrastructure.
We can only afford to make such an infrastructure transition once. We have to make sure that what we're going to do is feasible, that it will deliver not only environmental and supply security, but that customers want it. And we have to phase it in in a way that's affordable.
Edited by Patricia O'Connell
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