The non-government witnesses urged the government to adopt incentives to encourage additional research and development in hydrogen technologies and urged a dual-path approach that would focus on developing more immediate technologies that could improve fuel efficiency, while continuing research into alternative energy forms such as hydrogen, electricity and biomass.

“Hydrogen and fuel cells hold great promise for a cleaner and more efficient nation that is less dependent on foreign sources of oil,” said Subcommittee on Energy Chairman Judy Biggert (R-IL)“However, many of the benefits of a hydrogen economy, such as reduced greenhouse gas emissions, are not currently accounted for in the marketplace, which will make it difficult for hydrogen vehicles to compete with conventional technology.”

“The transition to a hydrogen economy holds great promise on many levels,” added Subcommittee on Research Chairman Bob Inglis(R-SC) “All along the way, the air will be getting cleaner, the oil pressure will be coming off the Middle East, entrepreneurs will be making money and employing people, and we will be winning our energy independence. Admittedly, there are technology and cost challenges ahead of us, but I do not believe them to be insurmountable. In fact, I think we’re up to the challenge”

In his 2003 State of the Union speech, President Bush announced the creation of a new Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, which built on the FreedomCAR initiative he announced in 2002. Together, the initiatives aim to provide the technology for a hydrogen-based transportation economy, including production of hydrogen, transportation and distribution of hydrogen, and the vehicles that will use the hydrogen. Fuel cell cars running on hydrogen would emit only water vapor and, if domestic energy sources were used, would not be dependent on foreign fuels.

Testifying on behalf of the DOE, Mr. Douglas Faulkner, Acting Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, cited significant advancements that the Department has made in helping realize the President’s hydrogen initiative. “I am pleased to report that our fuel cell activities recently achieved an important technology cost goal – the high-volume cost of automotive fuel cells was reduced from $275 per kilowatt to $200 per kilowatt,” Mr. Faulkner stated. “This accomplishment is a major step toward the Program’s goal of reducing the cost of transportation fuel cell power systems to $45 per kilowatt by 2010.”

While citing hydrogen’s benefits as a fuel that can be made from a variety of sources and its lack of emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gasses, witnesses told the Subcommittees that before a hydrogen economy can become reality significant obstacles related to the production and storage of hydrogen must be resolved.

Dr. David Bodde, Director of Innovation and Public Policy at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research, discussed challenges in hydrogen storage. “The most important long-term research challenge is to provide a more effective means of storing hydrogen on vehicles than the compressed gas or cryogenic liquid now in use. In my judgment, failure to achieve this comes closer to a complete ‘show-stopper’ than any other possibility.”

Most hydrogen today is produced from natural gas, which does not resolve the issue of U.S. reliance on foreign energy or greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. George Crabtree, Director of the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, testified that advancements in the production of hydrogen are imperative for the fuel to become a practical solution. “To power cars and light trucks in the coming decades we will need 10 to 15 times the amount of hydrogen we now produce. This hydrogen cannot continue to come from natural gas, as that production route simply exchanges a dependence on foreign oil for a dependence on foreign gas, and it does not reduce the production of environmental pollutants or greenhouse gases. We must find carbon-neutral production routes for hydrogen,” he said.

Testifying on behalf of the automotive industry, Mr. Mark Chernoby, Vice President for Advanced Vehicle Engineering at the DaimlerChrysler Corporation, discussed the advancements his company has made in developing hydrogen powered vehicles. “DaimlerChrysler has been working on fuel cell technology for transportation utilizing hydrogen for over ten years,” Chernoby said. “We have invested over $1 billion in R&D and have developed five generations of vehicles. We have 100 fuel vehicles (cars and buses) participating in various international demonstration projects in the United States, Europe, and Asia.”

Citing the significant technical barriers that must be overcome, Dr. John Heywood, Director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the subcommittees that hydrogen will not become a widely used fuel for a number of years. Given that, Dr. Heywood urged a two-part plan: immediate attention to improving fuel efficiency in the short term, and continued development of alternatives to fossil fuels, such as hydrogen, electricity and biomass fuels. “It is very much in our national interest to pursue both of these paths aggressively, and with a real sense of urgency. The only feasible way to impact our steadily growing U.S. petroleum imports and consumption within the next twenty-five years is through reducing the fuel consumption of our U.S. transportation fleet.”

Dr. Heywood also testified that the U.S. Government should play a more active role in increasing fuel efficiency standards, as well as alternative fuel R&D. “There are many ways to improve current vehicle technology to increase efficiency, but for most of these, the initial vehicle cost goes up by more than past experience indicates this consumer market will support. There is a strong need, therefore, for the U.S. Government to provide incentives to all the involved stakeholders (including consumers), as soon as possible, to ‘pull and push’ this technology into the marketplace and ensure it is used.”

- Source: House Committee on Science Press Release