A Microbrewery for Hydrogen

IN the standoff between hydrogen supply and hydrogen demand, neither side has blinked yet. While cost remains the overwhelming obstacle facing fuel-cell vehicles, the question of a hydrogen infrastructure also looms. Drivers will not rush out to buy vehicles they can refill at only a handful of local stations, and automakers are not likely to plunge ahead with petroleum-free powertrains powered by a substance that is not widely available. True, a few signs have emerged: In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced in 2004 a plan for a “hydrogen highway” that would make hydrogen available at hundreds of stations across the state. And several automakers are rolling out pilot projects that would put handfuls of hydrogen-powered vehicles on the road to gain real-world experience. Still, the suppliers and consumers are only dating; a deeper commitment awaits.The stalemate could be broken, at least on a small scale, by a device Honda calls the Home Energy Station. Still in the experimental stage, the station extracts hydrogen from natural gas, which contains hydrogen and carbon, using a process known as steam reforming. Natural gas already has a well-developed infrastructure — it heats more than half of America’s homes, according to the Energy Department — making it a convenient feedstock for meeting the needs of a vehicle like the FCX Clarity.Honda, which is developing the unit with Plug Power of Latham, N.Y., has not announced a price or an introduction date. Even scaled down for home use, the refilling appliance would be costly, but that would be partly offset by the station’s byproducts: electricity, heat and hot water for the home.Making hydrogen by reforming natural gas still releases carbon dioxide, so a station would not eliminate an FCX driver’s contribution to greenhouse gasses. But Honda says that as a system — using the energy station to supply heat and electricity for the home as well as to fill the car’s tank — carbon dioxide output would be 30 percent lower than for a household that uses grid electricity and drives a gasoline-powered car. The idea of home refueling is not a new concept at Honda. The company leases the Phill refueling unit to some owners of natural-gas Civic GX sedans for overnight refills. Like the energy station, Phill draws natural gas from the house supply.Now in its fourth generation, the energy station is somewhat more convenient. After it has been separated from the natural gas, the hydrogen is purified and dried, then compressed for storage. The FCX Clarity can be refueled in three to five minutes at the car’s full 5,000 pounds-per-square-inch limit, though it takes the station a day to produce the next tankful. The latest version of the energy station, while about one-fourth the size of the first units, is still fairly large — about 5 feet high, 5 feet wide and 2 feet deep. Its output is four kilowatts, enough to serve as a backup source for an average-size home, Honda says.