U.S. Drops Research Into Fuel Cells for Cars

NY Times ^ | May 8, 2009 | MATTHEW L. WALD

[neverdem]

WASHINGTON — Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells, once hailed by President George W. Bush as a pollution-free solution for reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, will not be practical over the next 10 to 20 years, the energy secretary said Thursday, and the government will cut off funds for the vehicles’ development.

Developing those cells and coming up with a way to transport the hydrogen is a big challenge, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in releasing energy-related details of the administration’s budget for the year beginning Oct. 1. Dr. Chu said the government preferred to focus on projects that would bear fruit more quickly.

The retreat from cars powered by fuel cells counters Mr. Bush’s prediction in 2003 that “the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.” The Energy Department will continue to pay for research into stationary fuel cells, which Dr. Chu said could be used like batteries on the power grid and do not require compact storage of hydrogen.

The Obama administration will also establish eight “energy innovation hubs,” small centers for basic research that Dr. Chu referred to as “Bell Lablettes.” These will be financed for five years at a time to lure more scientists into the energy area.

“We’re very devoted to delivering solutions — not just science papers, but solutions — but it will require some basic science,” Dr. Chu, who won...

--snip--

He said he would probably reverse another Bush administration decision and restore funds for FutureGen, a program to build a power plant prototype. The plant would turn coal into gas, separate out the carbon dioxide — a major contributor to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming — and pump it underground. Then it would burn the hydrogen, which is nearly pollution-free...

[TheThinker]

Why do I get the “soylent green” feeling that these will exist to turn the elderly, frail and aborted babies into an alternative enery?

enviro-nazis hard at work

[Citizen Tom Paine]

As I understand it from a seminar a couple of years ago GM has a fuel cell car developed. The problem they had then was it cost10X too much and had a weight problems. But they had a working prototype and engineering models.

It seems as if this decision may gut that project but who knows.

[WHBates]

Frankly I've heard that this guy was sharp but he has made some various curious statements that seem to show that he's nothing but a lightweight when it comes to real energy science.

[WHBates]

Frankly I've heard that this guy was sharp but he has made some various curious statements that seem to show that he's nothing but a lightweight when it comes to real energy science.

Sorry the above should read:

Frankly I've heard that this guy was sharp but he has made some very curious statements that seem to show that he's nothing but a lightweight when it comes to real energy science.

[manc]

I’m counting on their arrogance to bring them down

The media have swooned over bozo since he came on the scene at the convention, it was well orchestrated by Soros I’ll give him that.

The media are being laughed at behind their backs and they are just too dumb to see it , same as when the white house have lied over matters like bowing to the king or not releasing the manifest for the airforce one flight.

There has to be a point when some in the media actually wake up and see that their messiah is not what they thought.

Right now even the decent journalist out there is too scared to find out about Kenya, his birth Odinga etc but for how long will they be like that?

[az_gila]

What this administration doesn’t understand is, the UAW makes the production of small cars in this country impossible.

If you want small cars you have to build them in another part of the country and where the UAW isn’t there

---

Like the present range of Fiats (err... Chryslers).

http://www.fiat.co.uk/Showroom/

This is their UK range... but I'm sure they make them with left side steering wheels...:^)

[expatpat]

Chu is totally screwed up about global warming, but at least he got this right.

[wolf78]

Developing those cells and coming up with a way to transport the hydrogen is a big challenge, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in releasing energy-related details of the administration’s budget for the year beginning Oct. 1. Dr. Chu said the government preferred to focus on projects that would bear fruit more quickly.

Except for the fact that Honda is already selling limited numbers of their FCX Clarity fuel cell car and Mercedes will join in 2009/10 with their B-Class "BlueZero F-Cell" (B-Class currently not sold in the US) and ramp up production by 2015.

If the Mercedes can store 250 miles worth of hydrogen today, how is the storage issue a dealbreaker? The only problem is lack of infrastructure, which is an economic problem, not an engineering problem (If you have already built a natural gas distribution infrastructure for several billions, how should doing the same for hydrogen be impossible?).

[Brilliant]

It was the libs who wanted to spend the money on fuel cells to begin with. Now that it’s a failure, why should we expect the next liberal gimmick to do any better?

[upchuck]

Dr. Chu said the government preferred to focus on projects that would bear fruit more quickly.

Ya mean like Drill Here, Drill Now? Cool!!

[element92]

the electric (battery) car is coming,
or is already here, depending on details.

the fuel-cell-concept was foolish from
the beginning. why bother with an additional
electric-chemical conversion,
when we have batteries that can do the job.

millions of people would be happy with an electric car with
a range of 40-100 miles, the US is not the whole
\world. any gasoline not used anywhere in the
world is less money for the ragheads.

[smokingfrog]

Fuel cells are now being used to power buses. No reason it could not work with cars.

The state and federal governments have a pretty good deal now with all the tax money they get from gasoline. Why would they want to change that?

[Wonder Warthog]

"Steven Chu is proving he isn't up to the job at Department of Energy. In fact he is proving himself to be a clown."

Correct.

"Yes it's known that hydrogen fuel cells aren't going to be feasible in immediate future. That's why this program was basic research and development."

Hmmm--when I was having the oil changed in my Acura Integra, I picked up one of the car mags laying around, and it had a review of one of their writers who was test-driving a fuel-cell electric around California (I think it was a GM prototype). Hydrogen storage was compressed gas (10,000 psig). Maybe economic and/or infrastructure unfeasible, but certainly not limited by science.

[Honorary Serb]

I love it!!!! I did not know how far Honda (or anyone else) had gotten with hydrogen powered vehicles. That makes my post #13 even more spot-on!

I imagine the Honda Clarity is now prohibitively expensive (do you know?), but that is probably a matter of engineering and manufacturing. The real issue is developing means of generating hydrogen from non-petroleum sources. Several “synthetic biology” labs and companies are working on that very hard, and there are other non-biological approaches as well.

This seems to me to be a better approach than “plug-in hybrids”, “using the grid”. and pushing battery technology to the limits. But that seems to be the preferred approach of most of the enviro-lobby and liberal establishment, coupled with coercive “cap and trade” and “carbon tax” legislation.

The REAL issue is that Obama is a muslim-kisser, and also wants to use the energy/environmental issue to destroy our sovereignty in favor of an international regime.

[theymakemesick]

The plant would turn coal into gas, separate out the carbon dioxide — a major contributor to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming — and pump it underground. Then it would burn the hydrogen, which is nearly pollution-free...

I'm no chemist but isn't CO2 created by the combustion of a hydrocarbon in the presence of oxygen?

[truthguy]

Yes you are correct and that's why we should continue the R&D. There are cars running on this technology but it's fantastically expensive. There is NO infrastructure for H2. There are safety considerations. But most importantly it that it takes more energy to get the Hydrogen than what you get out of it.

So the only way to get Hydrogen is to have a lot of nuclear Power plants to break down H2O. Well we don't have the Nuclear Power Plants.

[neverdem]

Yes you are correct and that's why we should continue the R&D. There are cars running on this technology but it's fantastically expensive. There is NO infrastructure for H2. There are safety considerations. But most importantly it that it takes more energy to get the Hydrogen than what you get out of it.

So the only way to get Hydrogen is to have a lot of nuclear Power plants to break down H2O. Well we don't have the Nuclear Power Plants.

Small steps toward big energy gains

There's more than one way to skin a cat. They found new catalysts for the electrolysis of water.

[dila813]

They look like death traps,

UAW cost to much to make these cars.

DOA

[Wonder Warthog]

"So the only way to get Hydrogen is to have a lot of nuclear Power plants to break down H2O. Well we don't have the Nuclear Power Plants."

Actually, solar works quite nicely. Better than nuclear, actually, because the output of solar cells is DC, and can be coupled directly to an electrolysis process. And with the huge drops in the cost of 14% efficient solar cells ($0.30/watt to manufacture--Nanosolar) solar is becoming more feasible all the time.

[FreedomPoster]

The idea that any gov’t, and especially this gov’t, can pick energy winners and losers, is frightening.

Get used to a future with vastly increased energy costs and reduced economic output.