Hydrogen Is America’s Secure Fuel NHA Home Page • NHA News Index
United States taxpayers have invested millions of dollars and decades of innovation in hydrogen energy technology. More than fifty years of direct investment by NASA and the Department of Defense has created a national competency in using hydrogen energy. The Department of Energy’s National Laboratory system has contributed consistently to the evolution of technologies that support the implementation of the hydrogen energy chain. These National Laboratories are important resources for our energy future. They are unique in the world as centers of science that can address complex and risky technical questions. In the United States today, few industries can afford to conduct the R&D; that can be accomplished at these labs.
Hydrogen use is continuing to grow in the United States, building a national core competence in hydrogen applications. It is used as an industrial chemical, an energizing additive to fossil fuel, a coolant and an aerospace fuel. Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe. It can exist as a gas or a liquid and can also be stored at room temperature in a solid form (hydride) as a compound.
For the past several years both industry and government have explored ways to use hydrogen as a commercial fuel. Hydrogen may be used to generate power by combustion or by using direct conversion with fuel cells. Both generation methods are highly efficient and environmentally clean. Hydrogen may be produced from electrolyzing water or from reforming fossil fuels, and is currently used in over one hundred different industries from petrochemical and glass manufacturing to food processing and electronics. The use of hydrogen is growing rapidly worldwide. The “Hydrogen Economy” will be realized when hydrogen becomes competitively priced as an energy commodity rather than as a chemical.
Hydrogen energy for commercial power is primarily the result of the initial investments U.S. taxpayers have made in defense and aerospace technology. NASA is one of the largest users of hydrogen as a fuel. The Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation are expanding their interests in hydrogen both as a fuel and in the uses of fuel cells. The potentially large economic and security advantages of using locally produced hydrogen as a widespread energy carrier for both stationary and transportation applications is now recognized by both the Administration and the Congress. Enabling legislation, including reauthorization of the Hydrogen Future Act, enjoys widespread bipartisan support. The Vice President’s task force on energy also gave formal recognition to hydrogen as a key element in the National Energy Policy Report.
A growing number of states are taking initiatives in implementing hydrogen energy projects. California is doing so with transportation applications. The California Fuel Cell Partnership seeks to place more than 70 fuel cell passenger cars and fuel cell buses on the road by 2003. In addition to testing the fuel cell vehicles, the Partnership will also identify fuel infrastructure issues and prepare the California market for this new technology. Texas is taking action with stationary and portable applications through the newly formed Texas Fuel Cell Alliance. Florida has just launched a hydrogen business council to increase awareness and initiate hydrogen projects, building on NASA’s longstanding commitment to hydrogen.
Hydrogen is a proven, effective carrier of energy that has been used regularly by NASA and the petrochemical community. Today our cars are fueled with hydrogen enriched gasoline, our automobile industry is developing fuel cell powered cars operating on hydrogen, and the capacity to produce and distribute hydrogen in the United States is growing. Hydrogen is a complement to the better-known renewable energy technologies such as wind or solar because of its unique ability to store energy and release it efficiently, and should be embraced by all clean energy advocates.
Foreign governments are investing heavily in hydrogen energy. Japan’s WE-NET program and the Canadian/German direct sponsorship of Ballard are strong examples. Iceland has made a policy announcement that it will be implementing hydrogen energy with government money in concert with Norsk Hydro Electrolysers, DaimlerChrysler, and British Dutch Shell. Congress has a responsibility to assure there will not be false regulatory barriers or trade restrictions that prevent this new American industry from competing internationally.
The Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel, appointed by the Secretary of Energy, has recognized this pertinence and initiated a discussion of hydrogen’s unique ability to address national security imperatives. Many at the October meeting in Reno, Nevada, hosted by Desert Research Institute were anticipating in-depth examination of the topic, and this will remain on future agendas.
The hydrogen community needs to better articulate hydrogen’s role in a secure energy future for the United States. The U.S. could be energy self-sufficient with hydrogen, ensuring our nation’s stability from a national security, supply, and economic perspective.
It is time for hydrogen energy to become a recognized component of a secure national energy strategy. Many U.S. companies can support the implementation, compete effectively on an international stage, and build a true economic force for the U.S. Increased use of this renewable energy source will reduce the United States’ vulnerability to physical attack, economic attack by OPEC sanctions or embargo, terrorist attacks (because hydrogen dissipates faster than gas or jet fuel), and cumulative environmental liabilities.
Hydrogen can compete and win economically. Many utilization concepts, from fuel cells to internal combustion of hydrogenated fuels, offer applications flexibility without sole-source dependency. As an energy carrier, hydrogen has several key attributes:
The NHA has been leading an important initiative to protect the U.S. position to compete in world markets by assuring that there is a level playing field in terms of the rule sets that govern the mechanization, interface and performance of hydrogen energy equipment. This is a key part of our security because we want our industries to build equipment that can be exported to our allies. It is also important that our industrial base enjoy access to world markets without having to comply with rules that are designed to force adaptation of proprietary features.
Today, we must collectively work to support champions for hydrogen on Capitol Hill and in the current Administration. These champions see the promise of hydrogen as it evolves into an American energy commodity—changing the economics of energy here and around the world forever.
There is great significance in the fact that support for hydrogen is bipartisan. Hydrogen’s inclusion in the National Energy Policy was a victory. There are increasing calls for national hydrogen imperatives of meaningful scale based upon the emerging technologies. We must not allow splinter groups to spin hydrogen’s goodwill as the rationale for any specific agenda. All boats rise with the rising tide of hydrogen. A recent visioning exercise resulted in amplified cries for real resources with unassailable policy foundations aimed at implementation. As members of the hydrogen community we must be vigilant in focusing the administration, congress, and industry to better coordinate a major national action plan.
There is a need to recognize that the primary objective for Government participation in these activities is the absorption of the high risks in the development and deployment of these enabling technologies. The Government recognizes the promise of hydrogen energy, and assists industry with certain carefully placed investments designed to promote commercialization of the technologies, the growth of industry and the development of a compatible infrastructure.
Hydrogen energy is an important long-range solution to our dependence on foreign oil. Yet gas prices may be impacted by actions, and every person who must drive a car to work pays the penalty. Witness the sudden rise in gasoline prices by 15 cents a gallon when even one West Coast refinery shuts down. The truth is we are becoming more dependent than ever on foreign oil. In 1997 petroleum imports accounted for a record 53% of U.S. consumption. The decline in oil prices in recent years is the reason for lower investment in oil exploration and poor economic comparisons of alternative fuels. Yet the price of oil itself is not clearly accounted for until the subsidies for exploration and the actual cost of Middle East defense is added. Only recently have the true costs of fossil fuel energy been studied, from defense commitments to long term health care for nationwide respiratory illnesses. We all know that hydrogen must face economic comparisons to gasoline, but let us pursue the truth of fair accounting. Let us also duly note that the traditional oil and gas industries are already investing directly in the hydrogen economy.
There are three actions we can take individually and collectively to support hydrogen and help illuminate its potential contribution to national security;
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