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Norway puts hydrogen-powered cars on the road

Norway is creating a network of hydrogen filling stations to power cars that run on fuel cells.

Although hydrogen can be produced from renewable sources, most is made using natural gas, leading critics to point out that more energy is potentially spent making hydrogen than the gas generates. But while hydrogen from renewable sources has less impact on the environment, hydrogen made from natural gas is still viable. According to the National Hydrogen Association 's Serfass, Even making it from natural gas still will reduce emissions from transportation by 50 percent compared to using gasoline. It 's also one of the cheapest ways to produce hydrogen now. In the end, one of the most important things to preserve is the diversity of resources.

The Norwegians aren't relying solely on hydropowered electrolysis for their hydrogen, however. Stations along the hydrogen highway will derive their energy from different renewable sources. Oslo will use hydropower; Drammen, biomass waste; and a future station, in Romerike, just north of Oslo, solar power. At the StatoilHydro station in Porsgrunn, hydrogen is produced from chlorine manufactured in a petrochemical plant two and a half miles (four kilometers) away. "The by-product from chlorine production is hydrogen, so it 's industrially produced hydrogen, originally for another purpose," explains StatoilHydro 's manager of hydrogen activities, Torgeir Nakken. The electrolysis process uses electricity to produce chlorine and hydrogen, but the electricity is based on hydropower, so it 's renewable. One of our goals with HyNor is to show the different renewable ways to produce hydrogen.

At the moment, two types of hydrogen cars are available those using hydrogen engines and those using hydrogen fuel cells. Engine vehicles (like the Prius and Mazda versions) burn hydrogen in a traditional internal combustion engine, while in fuel cell vehicles (such as Think's) the cell replaces the engine, making it electric. Nakken favors the hydrogen-engine vehicles, at least for now. "They're much less expensive and more robust," he says. The fuel cell technology isn 't advanced enough, but I think the problems with it will be solved. The issue isn't if, but when.

The hydrogen highway could help make Norway an early test track for hydrogen cars, accelerating the pace at which fuel cell technology advances. "Not only does the country have the great benefit of its hydroelectricity, which makes hydrogen really attractive there," Serfass says, but There 's a combination of public and private resources working together to enable hydrogen. When you get that combination of resources, that 's when you can really make innovation happen.

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