Bob Lutz and I Are on the Same Page About Hydrogen

Timing is everything, I suppose.

Just posted last week about my lack of enthusiasm for hydrogen. Well, it turns out that GM's Bob Lutz isn't exactly setting his watch by the anticipated arrival of the hydrogen economy. Here's what Lutz had to say to US News and World Report's Rick Newman on November 16:

Newman: "So of all the different technologies GM is working on, how would you prioritize them?"

Lutz: "Electric. Advanced hybrid. Plug-in hybrid. Advanced clean diesels. And far out, there's hydrogen."

Not quite a ringing endorsement for the near term (or even long term) application of hydrogen. Click here for the full text of the interview.

Easy Hydrogen a Nice Idea, But No Quick Fix.

I admit it. I'm biased against hydrogen. I rarely write anything about it here because, frankly, I remain overly dubious about hydrogen ever making a meaningful impact on personal transportation. The number of hurdles that hydrogen has to surmount to become viable (processing, infrastructure, vehicle development, etc) are well chronicled. And after decades of work and billions of dollars spent, we don't seem any closer to the proverbial "hydrogen economy."

That all said, there's some interesting research going on at Penn State. In work funded by Air Products and Chemicals and the National Science Foundation, scientists have filled out patent applications for a process that converts organic waste to hydrogen "cheaply and efficiently."

Now let's be clear. If I tried to track all the research that's going on this area, I'd have to quit my day job (and you people aren't clicking on my adwords enough to let me do so...) And frankly, much of the research falls into the, shall we say, overly academic space (like using spent eggshells as a fuel source.)

There's something about Professor Bruce Logan's research, though, that's interesting. Maybe it's because he seems to solve problems associated with cellulostic ethanol (to difficult to break down the sources) and hydrogen (too expensive/wasteful to produce the hydrogen) in one fell swoop.

Using microbial fuel cells and a variety of fairly generic ingredients (e.g. off the shelf exchange membranes, acetic acid, etc.), the researchers were able to generate hydrogen at a rate about 4x - 5x more efficient than standard water hydrolysis. The results, it would seem, are remarkable:

"This process produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added to the process. Water hydrolysis, a standard method for producing hydrogen, is only 50 to 70 percent efficient."

Too good to be true? Time will tell. And we'll have lots of it, because even if Logan's research continues to bear fruit, there's still a long way to go before hydrogen is the future fuel many want it to be.

Will It Really Be A Better Place?

Shai Agassi's been in the news a lot recently. The former SAP wunderkind recently launched Project Better Place, a company focused on developing recharging systems to support a presumed mass adoption of electric vehicles. With $200 million in first round startup capital (from sources like Venture Partners and the Israel Corporation), the resources are in place to get Agassi's unique concept rolling.

His plan is to attack two sides of the EV equation. The first, and this is the part that's gotten most of the attention, is to develop "extension cords", or places where EVs can either power up. This would involve developing infrastructure at fixed locations such as parking lots, homes, office parks, etc. For long range travelers, Agassi envisions battery "hot swap" locations: drive in, pull out a drained battery, push in a charged battery, drive off.

The second, less visible part of the company strategy involves, for all intents and purposes, the infrastructure for the infrastructure. Agassi is leveraging his SAP experience to develop the software that will "run" these new charging systems: integrating disparate grid systems, managing demand, setting priority, etc. From the man himself:

"This is where my expertise comes from. I had a great school at SAP, [I've developed] an understanding of business models and the complexity of multiple different systems in multiple different industries."

With enormous start up capital, management pedigree and experience, PBP would seem to be one of the new alternative transportation darlings of Silicon Valley. And why not? PBP has requisite trappings: a game changing, disruptive idea that (if successful) will fundamentally change the way people approach driving.

But is it a viable idea?

Personally, I love the concept, as it wholly re-envisions the auto industry. The idea of battery "hot swapping" is particularly interesting, as it helps remove one of the major obstacles to mass adoption of EVs: concerns about the cost, capability and longevity of batteries.

But it seems that a project of this magnitude is going to have a very long burn. There are enormous hurdles to clear, mostly around getting government, grid operators, auto manufacturers, etc. to place nicely in the sandbox together. And then there was this tidbit from the Q&A at the company launch (video here):

"You'll see us scale to a pretty wide test to test hundreds of thousands of vehicles in 2009."

Now unless he's going to be using some of that money to greatly expand the current fleet of EVs currently on the road, I'm not sure where these test subjects are going to come from. Maybe that line is for the investors, but its one of a number of comments that seems slightly disconnected from the current state of EVs.

In the end, I suppose that the real goal of Project Better Place is the software development component. If they plan on rolling out regionally (with local investment playing a significant roll in doing so), the software becomes to the money maker, while putting the onus of hardware implementation on others.

Range Fuels Featured in NYT

Nice article on the front page of the NYT business section about Range Fuels today. While Range isn't the only biomass-focused company to be mentioned (Bluefire, Virent Energy Systems, and Dynamotive Energy Systems all receive nods), Range gets the lion's share of the attention due to the ground breaking on their Georgia facility.

Not much new information explored or revealed that we didn't already know (see earlier Range posts here and here.) That said, the groundbreaking and ensuing media attention point to a company that, while still in its infancy, appears to have its act together.

Telsa Starts Getting Its Act Together

The regime of new Tesla Motors CEO Michael Marks (earlier post) has already started to pay dividends .

Back at the beginning of the year, Tesla announced that, in addition to launching a new car company, it was going to into the battery systems market. What, taking on the established old guard automotive industry isn't enough? You also need to pick a fight with the rapidly growing a hyper-competitive new battery technology crowd? Sounded like a two front war... one that would have stretched company resources to the breaking point.

Enter Marks (replacing former CEO Martin Eberhardt) and exit the battery business. In the company blog, Marks makes clear that the focus is on the company's nascent vehicle business.

While tearing up the $43 million contract the company had with Norwegian EV maker Think (careful following the link: annoying audio after the jump) couldn't have been easy, it allows Tesla to concentrate resources on nailing down outstanding issues related to the launch of their roadster and, ultimately, the four doors sedan.