UCI research lab frowns on funding cuts

UC Irvine researchers are doing some cutting-edge work on hydrogen-powered cars, which they say could be commercially available in a few years, but they aren’t getting good signs from the Obama administration.

The Department of Energy cut almost all funding for hydrogen-vehicle technology out of its budget in favor of alternatives like plug-in electric vehicles, which Secretary of Energy Steven Chu sees as more near-term solutions to energy independence.

UCI houses the National Fuel Cell Research Center and runs a hydrogen-filling station patronized by a small number of people in Orange County who were chosen to test drive the prototype vehicles put out by automakers. The cars run silently and emit only water from their tailpipes.

The station, at Campus Drive and Jamboree Road, has one pump. It is surrounded by trees and bushes and would be easy to miss unless you knew it was there.

Aside from providing fuel for area motorists, the filling station — one of 26 in the state — serves as an important laboratory for UCI scientists, said center director Scott Samuelsen.

“We’re able to look at how the public responds to that method of refueling. It is different so we know it’s not pleasant to have a change, but we’re trying to get around that aspect,” Samuelsen said.

Eleven hydrogen-powered vehicles made by Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, Chevy and several other manufacturers stopped by the station Tuesday on a publicity road trip from San Diego to Vancouver, Canada.

Filling the cars with pressurized hydrogen gas is similar to filling a normal car with gasoline. A hose is inserted into a tank, locked into place and left to run for about three to five minutes.

Stephen Ellis, the manager of Honda’s hydrogen fuel cell division, said that hydrogen vehicles already get comparable miles per dollar to gasoline-powered vehicles, but some aspects of the vehicles’ production drive the cost up.

For instance, the gas tanks on gasoline-powered cars need only be thin metal containers capable of holding liquid, whereas the tanks on hydrogen cars have to be heavy-duty carbon fiber capable of withstanding high pressures without leaking gas.

And the fuel cells themselves require the expensive precious metal platinum in quantities that are diminishing, but still substantial, Ellis said.

Mass production of the vehicles and technological improvements will likely help bring prices down, but hydrogen cars may never be as inexpensive to build as gasoline-powered ones. Nonetheless, if gasoline gets really expensive, hydrogen cars could become a bargain, Ellis said

While the federal government has cut funding for hydrogen-powered cars, the state has drastically increased its investment. For the first time the California Energy Commission has committed money to hydrogen development: $40 million over the next two years out of a total of $176 million it allotted for alternative fuels.

California Energy Commissioner James Boyd said it is important to have a variety of alternative fuels and disagreed with the federal cuts in hydrogen spending.

“It doesn’t cripple us financially, but it sends a bad signal,” Boyd said.

Samuelsen says that the costs associated with producing hydrogen vehicles are nowhere near where they need to be, but thinks that within five years they could be brought to market if the administration supports it. It could take 15 to 20 years without the support, he said.

“Due to the lack of political guidance and consistency, the oil companies have been conservative in investing in putting up many stations,” Samuelsen said.