Hydrogen

Strange as it is to see Jeremy Rifkin in favor of any new technology, there really is something to be said for widespread use of hydrogen (Commentary, Sept. 2). On the other hand, there are some problems that Rifkin did not say much about. He points out that hydrogen is plentiful. It is indeed--but not in the useful free state. It's tied up tightly in compounds such as water. He says, "All that needs to be done is to extract hydrogen from various elements so that it is useful in fuel cells."

Industrial gas producer Praxair Inc. said it would build a hydrogen facility at Chevron Corp.'s Richmond, Calif., refinery amid rising demand for low-sulfur fuels. The facility will supply hydrogen to Chevron over a 15-year period, Danbury, Conn.-based Praxair said. The company said it also would build a pipeline network to supply hydrogen to other refineries in Northern California.

ChevronTexaco Corp. opened a hydrogen fueling station Friday, the first of six pilot stations in a federal program to promote study of the fuel's potential. The Chino station will fuel three or more Hyundai Corp. sport utility vehicles designed especially for this test. The research project is part of a five-year Department of Energy cost-sharing program designed to demonstrate safe, practical hydrogen technologies.

University of Minnesota researchers say they have produced hydrogen from ethanol in a prototype reactor small and efficient enough to heat small homes and power cars. Current methods of producing hydrogen from ethanol require large refineries and lots of fossil fuels. The reactor is a 2-foot apparatus of tubes and wires that produces hydrogen from corn-based ethanol. A fuel cell, which acts like a battery, then generates power. The research appeared in the Dec. 13 issue of Science.

Albert Gore III was clocked at more than 100 mph in a Toyota Prius. Perhaps police should be glad he didn't get his hands on a Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999. Ford Motor Co. said this week that it set a land-speed record for a production-based hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered car when its prototype racer ran 207.3 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah.

General Motors Corp. is trying to enlist the Chinese government in promoting cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells instead of gasoline, in hopes that the nation's potentially huge market might generate enough sales to make the new technology profitable. GM officials in Beijing said China could jump straight into alternative-fuel cars if it begins setting up special hydrogen filling stations now -- perhaps alongside new gas stations as they are built.

To help foster development of hydrogen fuel, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has approved a $4-million pilot program to convert a fleet of Toyota Prius hybrids into hydrogen-powered vehicles by this time next year. The Prius project is intended to push development of a hydrogen fuel infrastructure by providing more vehicles that use the fuel, said Chung Liu, deputy executive director of the regional air district.

Joseph J. Romm's piece, "Lots of Hot Air About Hydrogen" (Opinion, March 28), is a shortsighted and unenlightened view of a developing technology that is likely to play a crucial role in cleaning up the Southland's smog. Romm should spend a summer in Southern California -- where residents last year suffered 68 days of unhealthful air quality -- to appreciate the urgency for developing zero-emission vehicles. Southern California has just six years left to meet federal health-based standards for ground-level ozone air quality, or else potentially face sanctions that could hamstring the region's economy.

General Motors Corp. estimated that adding enough hydrogen pumps for low-pollution fuel-cell cars and trucks at U.S. gasoline stations will cost about $12 billion. Larry Burns, the Detroit-based automaker's research chief, provided the estimate at the opening of a hydrogen pump at a Washington station operated by a Royal Dutch/Shell Group unit. He said that amount might be needed to place pumps at 12,000 stations in U.S. cities and along major highways.

Stepping up its clean-fuel research, Ford Motor Co. said Monday that it would develop an experimental car powered by a hydrogen-burning internal combustion engine by year's end. The plan was revealed at the opening of a hydrogen fueling station on Ford's research grounds, the first such facility in the United States. The nation's No. 2 auto maker is expected to spend more than $1 billion on alternative-fuel research over the next five years, including $400 million on hydrogen-based projects.