Fuel Cell Economy

The problem is an old one. Which came first...the chicken or the egg? It would really be great if we could end our dependence on forign oil by switcheing to a hydrogen fuel cell economy. The problem is that even if cars are perfected, or home power stations are perfected (and there are workable models out there right now) who would buy such cars. There is no where to get fuel! Of course that could be solved if gas stations would put in hydrogen storage and dispensing systems nation wide but who would do that when there are no customers to buy the hydrogen?

See the problem. Well there may be a solution that could help the process along and of course I am more than willing to tell the world how to solve its problems. In the world of industry there is a piece of equipment called a "package boiler." This is a boiler to provide industrial quantities of steam that comes completely assembeled in a container about the size of a semi trailer. It is brought in, hooked up to the plant electrical system and piped for natural gas (or perhaps it will use deisel from a portable tank). It can be delivered, set up and running in a matter of days. Great huh...but just how does this solve the "chicken or the egg" problem for fuel cell powered cars? Well there is another device that is critical to the solution. It is a machine called a reformer that takes gasoline (plain ol' regular like you put in your car) and converts it into its constituent parts to produce hydrogen. There are actually test bed vehicles that have on board reformers to produce hydrogen from gasoline as it is needed. Of course this really complicates the fuell cell powered car and raises the price of the car beyond practical limits but it is one way to get hydrogen anywhere in the country. Although the on board reformer may not be practical in each and every car on the highway, it would be possible and perhaps even economical to develop a "package reformer." This would be a stand alone, turn key unit that could be brought in to a gas station, plopped down on the ground, hooked up to the stations electrical power and plumbed to draw gasoline from the stations existing underground fuel tank as needed. The cost of installation would be minimal and would not require the delivery of hydrogen to the station. When a fuel cell powered car pulls in to fuel up, the reformer would then convert gas to hydrogen and everyone is happy. No new distribution system is needed and it is an expandable system that could carry the United States over the rough conversion from gas to hydrogen process.

Eventually, of course, demand for fuel cell powered cars would invcrease and a hydrogen distribution system would be developed to meet demand. The package reformers would eventually go away, sooner in metropolitan areas and more slowely in rural areas, but they would eventually all be gone.

Where would hydrogen come from other than from gas? I look out my back window and see a large wind farm on the ridge overlooking my home town. It happens to be at the confluence of two important resources...wind and a power grid to take the generated power away. Unfortunately many locals which have ideal wind characteristics are not located on a power grid and the cost of building the kind of high voltage power lines to carry the electricity to where it is needed is prohibitive. The solution is simple (as are all of my solutions to the worlds problems althought this is certainly not an original idea that I came up with). Put the wind generators where they need to be to take advantage of the wind resource then rather than producing electrons to send down a wire to the big city, use the generated power on sitte to produce hydrogen through electrolisis. The hydrogen can then be stored on site (where as electricity can not be stored) then trucked to where it is needed (e.g. hydrogen fueling stations).

The "package reformers" would all be designed to be identical to take advantage of cost reductions through mass production. They would be designed to be simple to operate although it may perhaps require the station attendent to actually fill the tank. Write to your congressman or better yet to the big auto makers and oil companies and pass this idea along. Who knows where it could lead.