Fuel Cells: Energy Savior Or Hot Air? | Local experts sound off on technology's potential
Photo/Edd Cote
HY9 CEO Brad Bradshaw holds the company's HyPurifier device, which uses fuel cell technology.
They are, quite literally, the future of energy.
Fuel cells will power your iPod, warm up water for your morning shower, keep your car running smoothly...
Just not yet.
Patience Is A Virtue
Local experts say fuel cells will be one of several viable power generators in the years to come — but today, there are still roadblocks in terms of cost, performance and durability.
“Any time you introduce a dramatically new technology, these issues are universal,” noted Ravindra Datta, professor of chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Still, he says it’s worth the wait. “You can never with 100 percent certainty say where things are headed, but technologically, environmentally, this is the best option.”
Fuel cells — which are classified by the electrolyte they employ — are electrochemical conversion devices that principally use hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity. Water and heat are their by-products; as a result, the process is clean, quiet, highly efficient, pollution-free and results in very little waste heat, according to experts.
They’re versatile, too. All told, fuel cells have potential in small-scale devices such as laptops and MP3 players; larger-scale systems such as generators, home electricity producers and telecommunications equipment; and, perhaps most highly-anticipated, transportation, including cars, scooters and boats.
Datta said some of those applications are a long ways off, and technologies will ultimately roll out in phases. First, smaller applications will emerge, likely within the next five years. Some niche items have already appeared: For instance, companies are manufacturing and selling fuel cells that provide battery charging for construction equipment such as forklifts and pallet loaders.
Heat/electricity fuel cell devices for homes, meanwhile, should be available between 2015 and 2020, according to Ramesh Divakar, business manager of solid oxide fuel cells at Saint-Gobain in Northborough.
Cars will also arrive later, Datta noted; maybe in another decade or two.
“It won’t be here tomorrow,” agreed Divakar, “but we’re definitely making a lot of progress.”
That’s especially true in Massachusetts.
One initiative spurring local innovation is the state’s green jobs bill, which designated WPI as the Massachusetts Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Institute. That distinction comes with $2 million a year in funding for the next five years, explained state Rep. Robert Spellane (D-Worcester).
He compared the current fuel cell economy to the biotech boom of the 1980s, and says 14,000 new jobs will be created in Massachusetts around the technology. The hope is to capture many of those here in central Massachusetts.
Homegrown
Currently, there are about 80 companies and institutions with roughly 1,000 employees in the state doing research around fuel cells, according to Spellane.
Locally, some of those include WPI, Nanoptek Inc. in Maynard and Protonex in Southborough. Saint-Gobain, an international entity with more than 1,000 companies worldwide, has concentrated its fuel cell research almost exclusively in Northborough, according to Divakar.
That facility is working with fuel cells that use solid oxide for an electrolyte, are comprised of ceramic and are optimal at 800 degrees Celsius. Once fully developed, those will be implemented into appliances the size of a refrigerator that will generate electricity and will also heat hot water for homes, Divakar explained.
Meanwhile, Hopkinton-based HY9 Corp., which designs and manufactures hydrogen generating and purifying systems, is, among other things, developing a device the size of a tennis ball cylinder that will be used in military vests. Weighing less than 10 pounds, it will generate an average of 20 watts of power for 100 hours, according to HY9 CEO Brad Bradshaw, who is also president of the Massachusetts Hydrogen Coalition.
“It’s a phenomenal technology,” Bradshaw said of fuel cells.
However, cars will be the true test, said Datta; the eventual solution will be electric vehicles running on hydrogen-powered fuel cells.
There have been some advancements in that arena: Technology has been developed that uses 6 kilograms of hydrogen to motor a car 300 miles, Datta said.
Despite this, there are barriers to mass production. The first factor is cost, Datta said — the ideal would be $50 a kilowatt, but the price is now “several times that.” Also, as it stands now, hydrogen-powered cars aren’t as durable as gas-running cars, he explained.
Similarly, there’s a lack of infrastructure for refueling, he noted. Although there are hydrogen stations scattered across the country — including one in Billerica and several along California’s “hydrogen highway” — there are nowhere near enough to meet regular demand.
“It’s a chicken and egg thing,” said Datta. “You need many more (fueling stations) before people can drive these cars.”
In the end, he said, government funding is essential for furthering fuel cell research — but private entities, at the same time, have to be willing to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure.
“Eventually we will have electric cars,” said Datta. “The question is how to we get from here to there?”
Taryn Plumb is a freelance writer based in Worcester.
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