One of the key issues with hydrogen fuel cell cars is where the hydrogen will come from. Up until this point, I thought hydrogen produced from natural gas would power the first hydrogen cars before eventually moving to the ultimate solution of hydrogen from wind, solar, etc.
However, my feelings on this issue changed recently after I watched the documentary movie Gasland on HBO. I had no idea the new natural gas drilling techniques were causing these problems. You can watch the Gasland trailer at the following link.
Fortunately, the industrial gas company Air Products is working on a way to produce hydrogen from wastewater facilities. The company has partnered with FuelCell Energy on a demonstration project at the Orange County (California) Sanitation District. You can read more about the project in the following article.
Furthermore, if you look on page 19-20 in the following presentation, you will see that Air Products estimates that approximately 210 million cars in the U.S. could be powered by hydrogen produced from wastewater facilities and landfills. There are currently about 250 million registered passenger vehicles in the U.S.
Can you imagine powering cars with locally-produced hydrogen that is renewable and not made from fossil fuel?! Municipalities that operate wastewater facilities would replace oil companies (and have a nice new source of revenue).
Furthermore, if the hydrogen fueling stations were financed by consumers via cooperatives (see how I have proposed doing this first in Southern California), consumers could power their hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with locally-produced hydrogen at a locally-owned hydrogen fueling station.
No fossil fuel. No oil companies. No government subsidies.
This sounds really good.
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