UA researchers team up for hydrogen fuel breakthrough

TUSCALOOSA | Earlier this month, some researchers at the University of Alabama working with counterparts at Los Alamos National Laboratory announced a discovery that, they contend, provides new hope for powering vehicles with hydrogen fuel cells.

“This is a pretty big step because it’s the first demonstration that it can be economically viable,” said UA chemistry professor David Dixon.

The lead chemist at Los Alamos in New Mexico called the findings, published in an academic journal, a breakthrough.

Yet, outside of science-specific publications the findings have received scant attention.

Hydrogen-powered cars have fallen out of fashion lately, and President Barack Obama’s secretary of energy, Steven Chu, announced in May a massive shift in the type of research the Department of Energy will pay for. Hydrogen-powered cars weren’t on the list.

That could be a problem for UA, which spends $500,000 annually on hydrogen fuel cell research. The research has been the major focus of the UA Center for Advanced Vehicle Technology.

“We are going to have to shift our focus to the goals of the Obama administration rather than the goals of the Bush administration,” said Clark Midkiff, engineering professor and director of the center.

“This is something that happens in academic research periodically when a new administration comes in,” he said. “Often we are capable as engineers and scientists to work in different areas, so when priorities and funding change, we have to be flexible to adapt.”

Former President George W. Bush switched gears from President Bill Clinton, heralding hydrogen fuel cells as the future of vehicle technology, predicting in 2003 that “the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.”

Like many research universities, UA rode the sentiment for hydrogen-powered cars, getting millions in grants. UA was named a partner in the Department of Energy’s Center of Excellence for Chemical Hydrogen Storage.

But despite significant advancements — hydrogen cars, once the size of vans, are now the same size as traditional cars — many scientists, environmentalists and economists believe the technology is too expensive and cannot meet the short-term needs of reducing tail-pipe emissions believed to contribute to global warning.

“There have been lots of projects [at UA] and many of them have had good outcomes, but it appears fuel cells are going on the back burner,” Midkiff said.

The Obama administration will pay for research related to getting more mileage and less emissions from petroleum fuel, mostly through hybrid cars that rely on electric batteries and petroleum.

The shift in attention and money is a sign that hydrogen-powered cars are not ready for prime time.

Hydrogen fuel cells work by chemically combining hydrogen with oxygen to produce electricity without releasing harmful gas as a by-product. It’s more energy efficient than a combustible engine, and does not depend on oil, which mostly rests under foreign soil.

However, critics point out that making hydrogen still requires burning fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, which releases greenhouse gases. At best, hydrogen-powered cars are pollution neutral, critics contend.

But Midkiff said that challenge could be overcome. The biggest roadblock is cost. Fuel cells are fragile, making hydrogen-

powered cars expensive to make.

It’s also more expensive to keep a hydrogen-powered car running since the gas, which isn’t underground like oil, is more expensive to make than petroleum fuel.

A vehicle’s fuel cell also will not last as long as a combustible engine, lasting for around 150,000 miles, Midkiff said.

UA professor Dixon said he hopes the research he does with Los Alamos researchers will answer one of the concerns: the cost of fueling the vehicle.

Their process would use a solid fuel that when spent — this is the breakthrough — could be re-used.

“We have to be able to regenerate our spent fuel,” Dixon said. “If you can’t do that, you can’t make hydrogen economically viable.”

Hydrogen, the lightest known element, has been difficult to corral into a fuel tank since it can escape easily. Getting hydrogen from solid fuel has been looked as a way to get more fuel into the car, but what to do with the spent fuel has been a mystery.

The latest finding by UA and Los Alamos shows that a certain solid fuel can, when spent, be removed easily from the vehicle to be recycled.

Dixon, who does predictive computer calculations as part of the research team, said work will continue to make the technology more efficient and closer to the distance a tank of gas can carry a car.

The grant paying for the research ends in March, but Dixon said the team will re-apply.

“You need to keep a suite of technologies to have at your disposal,” he said.

Midkiff and Dixon expect some money for hydrogen-powered cars to remain in the federal budget, and all current grants will be honored. Plus, a lot of the stable money for hydrogen fuel cell research at UA has come from noncompetitive earmarks in the budget put in by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, Midkiff said.

“That money is not threatened,” he said.

The shift in focus has already begun, and many UA researchers have been working on vehicle technology unrelated to fuel cells, Midkiff said.

However, any researcher focusing on hydrogen-powered cars will likely have to shift their focus to remain competitive for federal dollars, he said.

Whatever the method of fueling cars will be in the future, there is a still a lot of work to do, he said.

“I don’t disbelieve in hydrogen fuel cells,” Midkiff said. “Ultimately, if we are going to go to an individual vehicle transportation system much like we have today that is greenhouse neutral, it’s either going to have to be batteries, or it’s going to have to be hydrogen.

“At this point, both technologies have a lot of challenges.”

Reach Adam Jones at adam.jones@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0230.