Technical issues stall hydrogen vehicles

Automakers differ on a likely launch date

A few years ago, it looked like we would all be driving pollution-free hydrogen-powered vehicles someday very soon. The signs, after all, were everywhere.

Automakers debuted concept vehicles with fuel cells under the hood. Investors poured money into hydrogen startups. News stories abounded about the new “hydrogen economy.” Even President Bush, in his 2003 State of the Union message, said babies born in 2003 should be in hydrogen cars by the time they hit driving age.
But today, four years after that prediction, big technical challenges remain in using hydrogen to power passenger vehicles on a wide scale. These range from storing it safely aboard a car to producing it from something other than the fossil fuels it is supposed to replace.

That reality has caused hydrogen to lose some of its public momentum. And it is starting to make some predictions of when hydrogen cars could be in showrooms appear overly optimistic.

But hydrogen research is still making progress on many fronts, say oil companies, automakers, government officials and analysts. And despite the challenges, hydrogen appears destined to be at least part of the fuel mix for automobiles in the future.

One version of the energy bill now making its way through Congress would dedicate $3.7 billion over five years for hydrogen and fuel cell research as well as infrastructure to support hydrogen-powered cars — more than double the Energy Department’s current budget.

But Bush has threatened to veto the bill because it does not do enough to encourage more domestic oil drilling.

Houston Chronicle