SOLAR TODAY - July/August 2008

RE News

Renewable Hydrogen Infrastructure

Evolving in Vancouver

In Vancouver, B.C., the Hydrogen Highways project is building an infrastructure to recover hydrogen from nonfossil sources, and use it to drive cars, trucks, buses and even a carwash.

Hydrogen has been promoted as an efficient way to store and transport energy. It’s especially interesting as a vehicle fuel, because the exhaust consists of hot water vapor. Renewable energy advocates object that manufacturing hydrogen uses a lot of energy. If the process generates CO2 or methane, then hydrogen is no solution at all. If the hydrogen can be made through electrolysis powered by wind, solar or hydro, then it’s carbon-neutral.

Hydrogen Highways (hydrogenhigh way.ca), a suite of projects of the trade group Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Canada ( h2fcc.ca), has five Ford sedans with hydrogen fuel cells and electric motors, and four transport buses, two shuttle buses and nine pickup trucks with hydrogen-fueled piston engines. A fuel cell is twice as efficient as an internal

combustion engine, because it incurs no mechanical-fric-tion losses. A kilogram of hydrogen contains about as much energy as 4 liters (1

U.S. gallon) of gasoline.

According to Gary Schubak, project manager,

Hydrogen Highways has set up four fueling stations around Vancouver, with a fifth in Victoria. Another station will be installed at Whistler, where fuel cell buses will constitute most of the transport system for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Right now, most of the hydrogen used by the project is a byproduct of sodium chlorate (NaClO3) production. Sodium chlorate is used to bleach paper in a pulp mill. It’s made through electrolysis of hot salt water, so it’s a perfect product for British Columbia, which has plenty of logging and plenty of hydroelectric power. The salt comes in by sea from evaporation ponds in Mexico, itself largely a

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This 150-watt fuel cell generates electricity
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