Finding a clean way to drive

PETER BUFFA

What’s in your tank?

Gas, probably. Diesel, maybe. But if the people with the really

big brains and the white lab coats have their way, soon it will be

the lightest chemical known to man.

Deep thinkers at UCI’s National Fuel Cell Research Center have

been poking and prodding and thinking deep thoughts about two

hydrogen-powered SUV’s from Toyota.

Hydrogen-powered is a technical term that means “powered by

hydrogen.” If you were a scientist, you’d know that. It all has to do

with something called the “hydrogen engine.” Is the hydrogen engine

new? It is not. In fact, the idea for a

little-hydrogen-engine-that-could has been around for a long time.

How long? 200 years, that’s how long.

In 1820, a British vicar at Cambridge University named William

Cecil pulled on his wig, buttoned up his robe and presented a paper

called: “On the Application of Hydrogen Gas to Produce Moving Power

in Machinery.” What did I tell you? There are no new ideas. The other

vicars laughed and laughed and said, “Bill, stop, you’re killing us

with this stuff.”

But William Cecil was one smart vicar and only 200 years early.

As far as hydrogen-powered cars go, which is far, Mazda was the

first to crack the code. More recently, Honda and Toyota have whipped

up a hybrid gas-electric engine. The Honda Insight and Civic Hybrid

and Toyota’s Prius each get about 60 miles to the gallon, which is a

lot of miles to the gallon where I come from.

In addition to electric-, hydrogen- and solar-powered cars, there

are engines that run on propane, ethanol, methanol, natural gas and

my personal favorite, the bio-diesel engine, which basically runs on

garbage -- recycled grease and animal fat to be exact -- which gives

a whole new meaning to bringing home the bacon.

But the biggest buzz in the buggy biz these days is the hydrogen

engine, even though the first, true mass-produced hydrogen engine is

still decades off. Why is everyone so high on hydrogen? Simple. Of

all the green machines, it is the greenest and the cleanest. Its only

by-product is water, which even Mother Nature can put up with, and

she doesn’t put up with much.

But whether it’s hydrogen or electric or solar, all of those

rather odd looking vehicles you pass on the San Diego Freeway now and

then are part of the never-ending quest for “alternative fuels.”

You already know all about the problems with fossil fuels, of

course. Everybody and their dog, which is a lot of dogs, have been on

the case of alternative fuels for years. The idea of finding

something that doesn’t make the sky brown and lets us say “bub-bye’”

to those wonderful people at OPEC at the same time is what makes the

quest for alternative fuels so intense.

Okay, fine. We got the clean part. But how does it work? Do you

just jam the garden hose in there and fill it up? Umm ... no. The key

is a “fuel cell” that rearranges molecules of hydrogen to create two

by-products: water (see “Mother Nature” above) -- and electricity,

which can power the car. What you end up with is never going to beat

a Chevy 454 on a hot August night, but it’s a whole lot cleaner,

smoother and incredibly quiet, which is the first thing anyone who

drives an electric car notices.

Scott Samuelsen, director of the UCI Fuel Cell Research Center,

says the Toyota SUV’s being tested can handle themselves just fine,

thank you.

“It’s almost too easy. You get in, turn the key and drive off

quietly and elegantly. There’s a certain ambience to it,” he said.

AQMD spokesperson Sam Wood is even more jazzed.

“The handling and driving characteristics are fantastic,” said

Wood. “They’re like happy little gasoline-powered cars.”

Hmm, I’m not sure about the last part, but the hydro-buggies are

obviously getting very high marks.

Both President Bush and Gov. Schwarzenegger are pumped up on

hydrogen and have pledged to support R&D; programs at the federal and

state level, to the pleasant surprise of Samuelsen.

“Nobody could have guessed both a Republican president and our

governor would come out proactively with plans to be committed to

hydrogen for the future,” said Samuelsen.

Oops. Apparently, Scott knows a lot more about making fuel cells

than getting federal grants. So are we all going to driving a

hydro-huffer in the future? Hard to say. New technologies take years

to grow up and some never do. Most people who know about such things

think that hybrid cars like the Civic, Prius or Insight are the wave

of the future.

That’s what Bill Ford thinks, and he should know. When you’re the

CEO of Ford Motor Company and your great-grandfather Henry

practically invented the darn things, you learn a lot about cars.

According to Ford, Bill that is, within a few decades, about 75

percent of cars and light trucks could be hybrids.

“The next big event for this industry is going to be the creation

of a hydrogen economy,” he said. “The transition from where we are

today to a hydrogen economy is going to be a huge national and

international issue that is going to require coordination with

governments as well as fuel providers and ourselves in a scale that

we have never seen before.”

Wow. And you thought it was just something from your chemistry

class. Somebody up there agrees with Bill, because within a year,

there will be 14 hydrogen refueling stations in Southern California,

including stations in Huntington Beach and Irvine.

So that’s it. I have seen the future, and it is hydrogen. Next

time you see a car with a “Honk If You Like Hydrogen” sticker, say

hi. It’s just a test. I gotta go.

* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs

Sundays. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].