Fuel Efficiency Trumps Fuel Cells

Two U.S. energy experts cast more doubt Friday on a push to develop hydrogen-powered cars as a means to cut air pollution and reduce oil imports.

Reuters in Wired.com

Cheaper and faster ways already exist to achieve the same effect, including raising fuel efficiency and toughening environmental standards, David Keith and Alexander Farrell wrote in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

"Hydrogen cars are a poor short-term strategy, and it’s not even clear that they are a good idea in the long term," Farrell, assistant professor of energy and resources at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.

"Because the prospects for hydrogen cars are so uncertain, we need to think carefully before we invest all this money and all this public effort in one area."

President Bush has proposed spending $1.5 billion over five years to spur development by 2020 of cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells in order to cut dependence on imported oil.

The European Commission has said it plans to spend close to $2.3 billion (2.1 billion euros) on hydrogen-related research over the next four years.

Hydrogen is present in water, oil, gas and coal. Supporters of a "hydrogen economy" regard it as a clean source of energy that would cut pollution and the carbon dioxide emissions many scientists link to global warming.

Farrell and Keith, associate professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, noted that hydrogen is derived mostly from oil and coal, which produce substantial carbon dioxide.

They said better fuel efficiency, improvements to car technology and stricter environmental rules could reduce air pollution at less than one-hundredth the cost of hydrogen cars, and would be more effective for several decades.

"Automobile manufacturers don’t need to invest in anything fancy. A wide number of technologies are already on the shelf," Farrell said. "The cost would be trivial compared to the changes needed to go to a hydrogen car."

Other scientists have also questioned the benefits of hydrogen fuel cells. Leading environmental groups have also criticized the U.S. government and Europe for failing to put renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power at the heart of their hydrogen policies.

http://wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,59687,00.html