Hydrogen: Future of Fuels Finally Drives Up

Live Science

What emits no carbon, stores electric energy from renewable sources, and makes engines run fast and powerfully? Hint: the Universe is mostly made of it (so it should be cheap).

Transcript

00:00Officer Tom McClockery is a cop on the beat, patrolling downtown Columbia, South Carolina,

00:18working to keep the streets safe.

00:19And though these days it's not so unusual to see police on Segways, this one is different.

00:26It's a hydrogen hybrid.

00:28With the Segway and with the hydrogen cell, it keeps it nimble going around parking garages,

00:36down alleyways, and quietly with those that I have to interface with and socially motivate

00:46them.

00:47In just the last few years, Columbia has transformed itself into a hotbed of hydrogen research,

00:55thanks in large part to the Industry University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells

01:00at the University of South Carolina, funded by the National Science Foundation.

01:05What we're focused on specifically in this center is how to make a better fuel cell,

01:11how to make the fuel cell less expensive, how to make the fuel cell more reliable.

01:17Hydrogen is widely hailed as the fuel of the future, plentiful and non-polluting, discharging

01:22only water vapor into the environment.

01:25Perfecting the fuel cell, which converts hydrogen into a steady stream of electricity, will

01:30be one of the keys to making prototype hydrogen vehicles like these commonplace.

01:35We're not tied to the barrel of petroleum.

01:38The long-term goal of the hydrogen economy and fuel cells in themselves is to be completely

01:45renewable.

01:46That means developing ways to generate hydrogen using renewable sources like wind and sunlight.

01:53Hydrogen fuel cells allow us to store the energy when the sun's not shining and when

01:58the wind's not blowing.

02:00And it allows us to put that energy, that renewable energy from sun and wind, to work

02:07in our transportation sector.

02:10A cop on a hybrid Segway is just one example of what a city can do to promote the powerful

02:15potential of this technology.

02:19Columbia's mayor, Bob Coble, sees hydrogen research at the university as a huge opportunity

02:24to create high-quality jobs in the community.

02:29While we don't know exactly how it's going to unfold and what technologies will be the

02:34primary technology 50 years from now, we know that there's going to be a green economy,

02:40a knowledge economy, and we better be part of it or we'll be left behind.

02:46To support the push to hydrogen, the city of Columbia, along with the university and

02:50local business and industry, are coordinating to put these new hydrogen technologies to

02:55work around town.

02:58Over at the Carolina Baseball Stadium, the scoreboard is partly run by a hydrogen fuel

03:03cell.

03:04The city Department of Homeland Security is testing this hydrogen generator that could

03:08be used during emergencies to power lights and computers for first responders.

03:14And this hydrogen bus will soon be zipping around town.

03:17I think it's part of sort of getting it, getting it that there's a new economy out there, there's

03:22a green economy out there, we don't have all the answers, but you know if you're not in

03:27the game, you're not going to be there in the fourth quarter to score the winning touchdown

03:32unless you've done the preparation work on the front end.

03:36So how far away are we from a hydrogen economy?

03:39There's much more research that needs to be done on fuel cells.

03:43But we have working fuel cell cars right now.

03:46They're expensive, but the price will come down as we produce more of them.

03:52How fast that happens, he says, is up to us and boils down to a few big issues.

03:57One, a real recognition that CO2 will be a problem for our children and that we want

04:07to do something about greenhouse gases.

04:09Second, a recognition that sooner or later the price of gasoline is going to be so expensive

04:16that we won't have control over it.

04:18And we as Americans will now worry about how soon do I fill up my gas tank.

04:24For Science Nation, I'm Bruce Burkhardt.

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