Green Tech

BILLERICA, Mass.--It's a 21st century twist on the whistle stop train tour.

A caravan of 11 vehicles on Monday started off from Portland, Maine, on the Hydrogen Road Tour, a cross-country trek of hydrogen-powered vehicles that will end in Los Angeles after two weeks.

The event, which will make 31 stops in 18 states, was organized to educate U.S. consumers and policy makers about hydrogen and fuel-cell vehicles. It's sponsored by nine automakers, the U.S. Department of Energy, the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the National Hydrogen Association, and the Department of Transportation.

The stop on the tour after Portland was here at the headquarters of Nuvera Fuel Cells and now the home of the first hydrogen refueling station in the state.

During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Cheryl McQueary, the deputy administrator of transportation research and innovative technology at the Department of Transportation, said that the U.S. currently produces enough hydrogen to power 34 million vehicles.

Right now, however, there are only 16 hydrogen refueling stations in the U.S., used by hundreds of consumers. Most experts expect that the distribution infrastructure will develop as a series of clusters around cities like Los Angeles and New York.

"The question is not if hydrogen-powered vehicles will be available commercially, but when," Paul Brubaker, the head of the U.S. DOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, said in a statement.

That's a sentiment voiced by many politicians and technologists. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles only give off water vapor as exhaust, and hydrogen can be produced domestically, potentially decreasing the use of imported oil.

Fuel-cell vehicles, which convert hydrogen to electricity onboard, ride largely the same as gasoline cars but are far more quiet. Some of the demonstration models on the Hydrogen Road Tour also incorporate batteries as a plug-in hybrid does.

But there are several practical and technological hurdles blocking fuel-cell vehicles from the road. In addition to a lack of a refueling infrastructure, engineers are working on ways to make fuel cells more durable and to expand the storage capacity.

The driving range of Nissan's X-Trail Fuel Cell Vehicle, for example, is rated at 200 miles but practical use is more like 150 miles, according to a representative.

I took a "bi-fuel" BMW 7-Series for a ride, a model which lets you switch between hydrogen or gasoline. Unlike a fuel-cell car, this car has an internal combustion engine that burns hydrogen or gasoline. The fuel economy and performance are the same as a traditional 7-Series but has much cleaner emissions, according to the company.

Fill 'er up with H2. The first hydrogen refueling station in Massachusetts will be used primarily by its manufacturer, Nuvera Fuel Cells.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News)

The reason BMW chose to build this model is to show politicians that hydrogen is a viable fuel today, said Jason Perron, clean energy program manager at BMW of North America. The consumer also has the flexibility of taking trips to places that don't have hydrogen filling stations.

Other auto manufacturers with cars on the tour are DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Toyota, and Volkswagen.

Making H2
Beyond the political speeches and looks at the cutting-edge fuel cell vehicles, the event here demonstrated on-site hydrogen production.

Filling stations often use an electrolyzer which splits water to make hydrogen using electricity.

The Nuvera hydrogen refueling station will make hydrogen from natural gas and water. The natural gas-based system, which also has a storage tank and refueling pump, is more energy-efficient than an electrolyzer, said Wes Hansen, the lead systems engineer at Nuvera Fuel Cells.

Nuvera is first targeting the market for forklifts powered by hydrogen fuel cells. But hydrogen-powered passenger cars are about a decade away, said Roberto Cordaro, the company's president and CEO.

Today's fuel-cell vehicles will mature over multiple generations, much like hybrid cars have.

"These cars (here) will be the first generation. The second and third generations will be needed before we move to products with hundreds of thousand or millions made a year," Cordaro said in an interview. "So it will probably take no less than 8 years and no more than 12 years before you get to that level that we have seen with the Prius (hybrid)."

Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor John Heywood, an expert on automotive technologies, said that hydrogen faces many questions on the role it will play in transportation.

Hydrogen is being used to fuel fleets but whether it becomes widespread and environmentally beneficial for a large part depends on where the hydrogen comes from, Heywood said in an interview last week.

"Whether it starts to take off in a serious way towards big time depends a lot on (whether) we see good ways to produce hydrogen that fit our future energy strategies," he said. "People are working hard on these questions, but it's going to hover at the modest level for quite a while before we get a sense of whether this is ready for big time."

Most efforts to "green" transportation focus on car technology, but roads can also be revamped to reduce carbon emissions. A national effort to improve millions of miles of highways and streets seeks to make asphalt more eco-friendly and less expensive.

The Asphalt Research Consortium aims to increase the use of recycled materials and improve energy efficiency of asphalt, which makes up more than 90 percent of U.S. roads.

Sand and other binder materials are being explored to make asphalt at the Modified Asphalt Research Center (MARC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

(Credit: Jeff Miller/University of Wisconsin-Madison)

"It has been a challenge to get the industry to look at this seriously just because our pavements have been performing relatively well and there have not been many complaints about failures," said Hussain Bahia, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which is using $5 million for the studies.

The research project includes five institutions and is backed by the Federal Highway Administration. Increasing costs of energy and materials are driving up interest.

Until recently, asphalt has been relatively cheap to make in the United States. But the price of paving and repairing roads is rising along with that of gasoline. Asphalt costs of $568 per ton have risen from $315 last May, according to the California Department of Transportation.

Asphalt is a byproduct of the process of refining crude oil for fuel and lubricants. To prepare the gooey substance for application on roadways, Americans and Europeans may heat asphalt up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, creating hefty emissions of greenhouse gases.

Less-wealthy nations including South Africa and India have many years of headway in using so-called cold or warm mixes of asphalt, which require less heat and energy.

South Africans shave asphalt into smaller bits and mix it in water and soap-like surfactants, which don't harden until after being laid on the road.

Bahia is interested in exploring modified, cold mix asphalts that might use plastics to achieve a longer-lasting, quieter, and safer end result.

And cold mixes also can use more recycled materials. Asphalt is the most frequently recycled material in the nation, according to the industry. Still, recycled asphalt contains only about about 15 percent reused materials, which Bahia wants to help expand.

"My best hope is to get the paving industry to recognize that they can save tremendous amounts of energy and impact on the environment by using different ideas in building our roads," Bahia said.

Porous asphalt, used on Italian toll roads, is also considered more eco-friendly because it allows rainwater to seep into the ground and reduces noise. And it helps to reduce skidding and accidents. Bahia said cold mix, porous asphalt might be a possibility to explore.

In the remaining four years of the U.S. asphalt project, Bahia said he hopes cold mixes from the labs will be good enough for the asphalt industry to test in the field. Down the road, getting approval for any new material from state highway agencies will be another challenge.

Also involved in the Asphalt Research Consortium are the Western Research Institute, Advanced Asphalt Technologies, Texas A&M University, and the University of Nevada at Reno.

GreenRoad Technologies exists because, as a driver, you probably suck.

The company has developed a software program that analyzes a person's driving habits and then reports back to their boss, insurance company, or, conceivably, the rental car agency. The idea is to identify problem drivers and/or bad driving habits (rapid starts and slamming breaks). Conversely, good habits can be rewarded. The software largely gets sold to owners of large fleets of cars, like delivery companies. But it's not all criticism. The program also provides drivers tips on how to improve on safety and fuel economy.

By installing the software, some corporate customers have managed to reduce accidents by 54 percent and lower accident costs by 65 percent. Carbon dioxide emissions have declined by 7 percent in some instances.

In a test with T-Mobile, the software helped reduce "risky driving behavior" (like talking on a cell phone while driving?) in six weeks by 50 percent. After several months, accidents dropped by 23 percent.

Nissan Motor is working on similar technologies.

Benchmark Capital and Virgin Green Funds, among others, announced today that they put $14.5 million into the company. You have to wonder if Sir Richard Branson from Virgin would put this in his car. Ten points off--playing Tubular Bells at high volume.