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Hydrogen vehicles: Fuel of the future?

29.04.10

"The first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free," declared former US president George W. Bush in 2003, as he announced a US$1.2-billion hydrogen-fuel initiative to develop commercial fuel-cell vehicles by 2020.

The idea was appealing. Ties to foreign oil fields would be severed, and nothing but water vapour would emerge from such a vehicle's exhaust pipe. Congress duly approved the money, and the Department of Energy and other research agencies got to work. But then the whole effort faded into obscurity, as attention shifted first to biofuels and then to battery-powered electric vehicles. Both seemed to offer much quicker and cheaper routes to low-carbon transportation.

The shift seemed complete when the US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu entered office last year. Chu outlined four primary pitfalls with the hydrogen initiative. Car manufacturers still needed a fuel cell that was sturdy, durable and cheap, as well as a way to store enough hydrogen on board to allow for long-distance travel. Hydrogen also required a new distribution infrastructure, and even then the greenhouse-gas benefits would be marginal until someone worked out a cost-effective way to make hydrogen from low-carbon energy sources rather than natural gas.

Source: Nature.com

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