General Motors has alluded to the strong possibility that hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles will be on the road in the USA for real around 2020.

According to Tom Krisher (associated press)

Larry Burns, vice president of research and development, offered the prediction this week as GM announced it has moved 500 fuel-cell engineers and scientists from the laboratory side of the company into the chain of command that actually produces cars.

Burns said he’s not yet willing to say exactly when hydrogen vehicles will be mass-produced, but he said it should happen before 2020, the year many experts have predicted.

“I sure would be disappointed if we weren’t there” before 2020, he said Wednesday at his office in GM’s sprawling technical center campus in the Detroit suburb of Warren.

GM’s organizational change, announced Friday, shows the company is confident enough in its research to take the step toward making the cars, Burns said.

“We’ve passed another milestone where we have come far enough in the development of this technology to start preparing for real production,” Burns said. “That’s a very significant milestone, in our judgment.”

The article cites obstacles such as lack of refuelling stations and storage capacity of hydrogen tanks as the main barriers to widespread adoption of the hydrogen fuel cell technology into the mainstream.

The move of the specialists into the production division is thought to be more than symbolic since a similar shift occurred, when it’s hybrid vehicles were in development. There are now 5 actual production hybrid vehicles available.

We found the following article at Wikipedia. The yardstick of Wave Energy Generation is Salter’s duck with a 90% efficiency. Why are we talking about this on hydrogen autos. Well, mere creative logic.

There is a large reservoir of hydrogen in the earths oceans. In Australia at least and in many countries, large segments of the population live on coastal areas. Hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis of sea water.

Electricity can be produced by wave energy.

Wave Energy => Electricity => Hydrogen => Hydrogen Fuel Cells => Automotive Motion

We posit that members of the Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Lobbies were not under the principal of law and juries a properly constituted jury to decide the fate of wave energy. Read on dear reader to discover the fate of the UK Wave Energy Program.

Discussion of Salter’s Duck

While historic references to the power of waves do exist, the modern scientific pursuit of wave energy was begun in the 1970s by Professor Stephen Salter of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in response to the Oil Crisis.

[Historically speaking - another oil crisis and an inventor comes up with something that looks viable]

His invention, Salter’s Edinburgh Duck, continues to be the machine against which all others are measured. In small scale controlled tests, the Duck’s curved cam-like body can stop 90% of wave motion and can convert 90% of that to electricity. While it continues to represent the most efficient use of available material and wave resources, the machine has never gone to sea, primarily because its complex hydraulic system is not well suited to incremental implementation, and the costs and risks of a full-scale test would be high. Most of the designs being tested currently absorb far less of the available wave power, and have for this reason much higher Mass to Power Ratio than is theoretically possible.

According to sworn testimony before the House of Parliament, The UK Wave Energy program was shut down on March 19, 1982, in a closed meeting, the details of which remain secret. The members of the meeting were recruited largely from the nuclear and fossil fuels industries, and the wave programme manager, Clive Grove-Palmer, was excluded.

[Does this look slightly suspicious? Representatives from the nuclear and fossil fuel industries were according to Wikipedia, the main members of a meeting deciding the fate of the UK Wave Energy Program in a secret closed meeting]

An analysis of Salter’s Duck resulted in a miscalculation of the estimated cost of energy production by a factor of 10, an error which was only recently identified. Some wave power advocates believe that this error, combined with a general lack of enthusiasm for renewable energy in the 1980s (after oil prices fell), hindered the advancement of wave power technology

In 1989 according to Energy Ocean Tom Thorpe raised the profile of wave energy - by his own lobbying. As describe here.

Tom Thorpe—while managing part of the UK’s Department of Energy research program in 1989 he carried out a review of wave energy for the UK government and became a supporter of both wave and tidal technology. He then took his promotion of ocean energy to an international stage with work for the European Commission, the International Energy Agency and the World Energy Council. Continuing to raise the profile of Ocean Energy his support eventually led to the rebirth of the UK Wave Energy Program (WEP).

What is the relationship between Fuel Cells and Nanotechnology.

The current hydrogen fuel cell technology uses a catalyst — an agent that does not participate in a chemical reaction but facilitates it.

The most commonly used catalyst at the moment is platinum which at current prices is $1300 per ounce and will always be expensive due to it’s rarity and demand for industries such as jewellery and other high tech applications. Platinum is very resistant to oxidization - corrosion.

The cost of the platinum currently accounts for around 20% of the manufacturing cost of a fuel cell, which is quite significant. Since cost is a major obstacle for adoption of a hydrogen fuel cell technology worldwide cheaper replacement catalysts would seem to be called for.

Researchers in China have developed nanoparticles (small artificially made structures) with a catalytic activity up to four times greater than commercially produced catalysts. The only problem is the size. They need to do further research to reduce the size so they are better than the current catalysts. You can see the details of this research at nanotechnology as a fuel cell catalyst

It has struck the authors of this site that a hydrogen fuel cell is not in itself an invention but is a “system”. It should be thought of as a functional device - it’s function is it’s essence. By drawing upon the resources of science in many field such as nanotechnology, metallurgy and other branches of chemistry as well as the disciplines of mechanical engineering significant cost reductions can occur which will make this technology viable.

What is needed is a scientific facilitator, a specialist in communication and project management, a visionary and goal finder plus executives to get the job done. The government may throw money and the market may do also but how often is money used as a smokescreen that something is actually being done when in fact it is someone else’s money and the signatory on the check stands to lose nothing and already has his PR story prepared when the project comes to naught. The answer is to call the bluff and get something done and the PR will be that we were behind you all the way.

FOLSOM, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Altergy Systems today officially unveiled the world’s first and only automated, high volume fuel cell assembly line.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell investor reveals that Altergy Systems has developed the worlds first automated hydrogen fuel cell assembly line.

The details are sketchy, but the news was greeted with excitement. Replete with robotic arms and computer controlled assembly this is really moving forward into the future.

“Altergy’s automated, high volume assembly line is an important leap forward in the commercialization and worldwide deployment of fuel cells as a viable and clean power generation alternative,” stated Eric S. Mettler, President and CEO of Altergy Systems. “These California-built fuel cells are already providing distributed electrical power generation to customers around the world. Our new line greatly expands our capacity and our ability to meet our growing customer demand.”

Did you know that most of the worlds major car manufacturers have already constructed a hydrogen vehicle prototype. They mostly use hydrogen fuel cell technology.

A Vancouver company named Ballard Power Systems, is the principle provider of the hydrogen fuel cells. While most of us unless they are in the hydrogen automobile field have not even heard of Ballard Power Systems, it behooves hydrogen afficianados to dig into the nitty gritty of the industry.

Our little web site, while in its early days has big ambitions. We want to provide factual information for the hydrogen millenium. We will be writing now in anticipation of the future. The dots that connect the present to the future are the composite of the present manufacturers of hydrogen technology, consumer awareness, government policy makers, economic drivers and not the least of all, the impending demise of the fossil fuel industry due to ultimate extraction.

It is posited that a total removal of all fossil based fuel primary stock would be counterproductive. We should not leave a mere 2 barrels of oil left in the earth, lest we may need this material for other goods and services. Petroleum is not the only product made from oils, it should be remembered that once the oil is gone these other products will also require alternatives.

But we digress, as is so easy to do when writing of the future, since it is all creation, and there is no preponderance of authoritarianism dogma chaining down an accepted reality.

Back to Ballard Power Systems. Surprisingly enough the projected revenues of Ballard Power Systems in 2007 is projected at 65 million dollars. This is not too shabby at all in our opinion. Imagine what this will turn into if the hydrogen fuel cell goes into serious and stable consumer production. Yes folks, Ballard Power Systems will be like the Shell Oil company if this happens and it’s shares( if there are any will steadily go through the roof )

Economically we will see other companies providing a fuel cell technology infrastructure to the automotive industry as soon as the hydrogen model becomes a reality. The primary obstacle is cost at the moment but cost is so easily resolved by the power brokers, if they really want something that it is really a PR reason for not going ahead.

Look at what is considered to be a vital expense now. I don’t have to name names, but I’m sure you can look around at some of the expenses that are considered vital, that really are uneconomical in the total human interest. Every government on earth if they really are looking at a sustainable future has a vested interest in keeping the planet here and healthy, and as populations and voters we have a responsibility to vote for governments that are representing the future survival of earths populations.

From concept to reality - the driver is consumer demand. Consumer demand starts with education. We are realists and not dreamers, we have no certainty that the hydrogen car will ever be broadly available, not because it will never work but because of the transition effects involved in fuel politics.

Politicians must be seen to care, must be seen to be doing something. We have no faith that one of them will bring home the bacon and complete the actual job of following through with the
hydrogen millenium, but we do have faith that one or two countries will like avant gard artists on crack break the status quo and usher in a better future. They may suffer and get no recompense as all leaders have suffered they will have served and future generations will remember them.