July 27, 2008
Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council - 4th Annual Implementation Conference
Laramie, WY July 22-24, 2008
Many conferences promise to be “High Level”. This year, the Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council, 4th Annual Implementation Conference delivered. According to Richard D. Masters, "This is the first High Level hydrogen conference" he has covered. There were many great presentations from government officials, private business and responsible individuals. Here is a quick overview provided for your information:
Wyoming Governor Dave Fruedentahl started the conference with a speech presenting what he thinks is imperative. Basically, Gov. Freudentahl stressed the need for transmission. We need to add transmission lines to get renewable energy from where it is produced to market. We also need to develop a Renewable Energy Portfolio according to Gov. Freudenthal.
Al Unione of Parsons presented information on the proposed NFPA-2 standard covering hydrogen fueling stations.
Mike Holmes representing NHA stressed Safety, Codes, and Standards. Mike showed how hydrogen follows the 3 “E’s”, Economic Growth, Energy Security and Environmental benefits. He also highlighted how hydrogen has diverse feed stocks such as from coal, nukes and methane, (also note that hydrogen can be made from renewables). Mike thinks that hydrogen has chalenges ahead such as storage and reliable, low cost fuel cells. I believe that storage is only a challenge if you let it be. I find the storage of hydrogen on board my vehicle to be very doable. Mike finished by stating how Hydrogen reduces foreign oil dependance, reduces Green House Gas emissions and cleans the air until we put so many more hydrogen vehicles on the road that the brake dust and tire particulate pollution becomes a problem that we will then need to clean up.
Richard W. Farmer stated the DOE H2 programs mission is to reduce oil consumption and GHG emissions. Richard also stated that hydrogen is a clean, reliable source of energy for stationary power and that a fuel cell is 2x as efficient as an ICE. (I would disagree, the best fuel cell vehicle today gets about 55 miles per kilo of hydrogen which is a small economy car with hybrid drive including regenerative braking, my 4x4 truck gets 39 miles per kilo without any regenerative braking and it is a big truck!) Richard is correct in stating that hydrogen produces low emissions and that it is fuel flexible because it can come from multiple feed stocks. Richard stated that their are technology barriers including the cost of hydrogen, the storage capacity and cost along with the fuel cell cost and durability. Again, I disagree. Today I can drive my truck on renewable hydrogen for less than 1/4 the price of burning finite, toxic gasoline. It is true that H2 takes up 3 times the storage volume of CNG, which takes up 3 times the storage volume of gasoline, but we can work around this.
Paul Williamson from the University of Montana posed a question for us on the difference of leadership and followership. Paul stated that hydrogen is available today for $5 per kilo. So, lets take a look at that price. One kilo of hydrogen contains the same BTU’s as a gallon of gasoline. When we burn hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, (ICE) we increase the thermal and mechanical efficiency. So, my truck that would get 18 miles on a gallon of gasoline if you choose to use this toxic fuel can get 39 miles on a kilo of hydrogen. With gasoline almost 5 dollars per gallon, that makes a $5 kilo of hydrogen less than one half the price of finite gasoline....
Barb Heydorn from SRI international covered the abilities of their nonprofit testing facility and how they can be very helpful in testing and developing your products.
ECOtality was represented by Don Karmer of Etec. ECOtality is focused on hydrogen as a motor fuel, the fuel infrastructure and their Hydrality storage medium. Don explained the difference of a top down investment in hydrogen such as from wall street, versus a bottom up investment by building the products that a customer wants. A top down investment relies on National Energy Policy, Federal funding, secondary projects are also required such as infrastructure and providing transition vehicles. A bottom up strategy takes into consideration the energy costs, availability and carbon uncertainty concerns of consumers.
David Habermann of IF, LLC gave an enlightening talk about how our energy is headed towards a train wreck. David proposed taking a look a the strengths, threats, opportunities and weaknesses of hydrogen to gain a better understanding of what we need to do to move forward. David stressed the difference of our emerging hydrogen energy business with the existing hydrogen chemical business. In our hydrogen energy business, commercialization continues, competition is fierce, we need to overcome the implementation barriers and create customer acceptance. David said that it takes $0.02 cents of water to produce as much hydrogen as $4 worth of natural gas. So, where do you want your H2 to come from? Some other statements: Compression works; H2 chemical business is not a model for H2 energy business; safety, risks and liabilities are controllable; ICE is a transition to Fuel Cell; H2 electrolysis from coal power beats the price of gasoline today. David also gave us insight to anti-H2 tactics. When faced with the question, which comes first, the chicken or the egg, the answer is the rooster, which is making hydrogen from water and coal! Their is wide spread exception going on that Americans demand liquid fuels and that vehicle range is paramount. Remember that hydrogen is anti-status quo. We are the hydrogen rebels and we are bringing about a clean fuel revolution. Stand up for your rights! David also stressed the importance of calculating the benefits, reaching a consensus resolution and declaring “Hydrogen is a Safe Fuel”.
Julio Friedmann of LLNL presented the most innovative idea of UCG. UCG, or underground coal gasification would allow the extraction of syn gas from coal without mining it out of the ground! The first step is to collect the Coal Bed Methane, (CBM). Then you have the wells in place to start the UCG. This is game changing technology to produce H2 from the syngas. This process captures the carbon and makes sequestration easy, along with leaving everything you do not want underground, where it belongs. There are world wide projects but in the USA, it seems the United Mine Workers are keeping this from happening because they would rather dig coal out of the ground than allow this new process. Wyoming contains the US test beds for UCG. Existing pipelines would make it easy to get this gas right to market in a much cleaner way than mining coal out of the ground to be burned in power plants.
Ray Hobbs of APS has some of the most excellent ideas. They are already making biodiesel from the oil produced from algae. APS also has my favorite hydrogen station in the country using solar panels to electrolyze water during the day and utilizing off peak grid power that would otherwise be wasted at night to produce hydrogen for use as a motor fuel. Now, Ray would like to make synthetic methane by adding the extra carbon from the biodiesel production to the hydrogen made from wind! What amazing uses of each industries wastes. This is true American innovation
There were many more wonderful presentations that maybe we will have time to cover in the future. until then, check out the Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council website for the presentations to be posted:
http://www.mountainstateshydrogen.com/index.html
Thank You!
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Tai W. Robinson
www.IntergalacticHydrogen.com
801-201-7370
MADE-IN-USA renewable energy products & cleaner fuel options that work with today's infrastructure and beyond. We build multi-fuel, hydrogen (H2), methane (CNG), propane (LPG), electric (EV, HEV & PHEV), biodiesel (B100), SVO and ethanol (E85) automobiles, appliances and infrastructure. We promote the cleaner, safer, local fuels through educational workshops and engineering consultation. Reduce your footprint on the planet with American Fuel Vehicles (AFV's) and declare your energy independence.
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