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Hydrogen in every home

How the Japanese are trying to slash energy use and CO₂ emissions—by installing fuel cells in people’s backyards.

Fukuoka: Japan's hydrogen hot spot

With home cogeneration units slated to hit the market in April, one area of Japan is getting a running start on promoting hydrogen. The Fukuoka region, on the southern island of Kyushu, is home to a massive project that’s bringing together government, industry and academia to build a hydrogen-powered community. “We think hydrogen is the best method for solving our energy crisis,” says Hiroyasu Tashiro of the Fukuoka regional government’s Department for the Promotion of New Technology and Industry. “We want as many people as possible to use fuel cell technology.”

In February, cogeneration systems using liquefied petroleum gas were installed in 150 homes in Maebaru, nicknamed Fukuoka Hydrogen Town. The appliances will be used to collect data in a study aimed at lowering costs and extending the lifetime of the technology. It’s the largest project of its type in the world. “This is the first time so many residential fuel cells have been concentrated in one area,” says Tashiro, who notes that aside from being happy about lower electricity bills, many Maebaru families are proud to be reducing CO₂ emissions.

Meanwhile, scientists at Kyushu University’s new hydrogen research facility are working out some of the technological difficulties hindering widespread industrial and automotive use of hydrogen. For instance, since hydrogen is the smallest element, it tends to diffuse into metals and other materials when stored under high pressure. That can weaken holding tanks and car parts, reducing the working life of the hydrogen infrastructure.

So scientists at the university are researching the behavior of the element to address such problems. “Creating infrastructure and cars that are both safe and affordable is our top goal right now,” says Yukitaka Murakami, director of Kyushu University’s Hydrogenius Research Center. Training the next generation of engineers and increasing public acceptance of hydrogen are equally important, Murakami says. “If people don’t understand this technology, we’re not going to avoid global warming.”

Ballard Power tries to make fuel cells competitive with conventional energy

Ballard's fuel cell is designed to have a working life of 10 years.

Photo: Ballard Power

At Ballard Power, a small firm on the outskirts of Vancouver, even the forklifts are powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The company has been developing fuel cell technology for more than 25 years, long before climate change hit the headlines and hybrid cars filled driveways. When the media suddenly fell in love with hydrogen in the late 1990s, touting it as an ideal environmentally friendly fuel, the publicly traded company’s stocks soared, and investment flowed in. But when enthusiasm shifted to electric, battery-powered cars like the Prius, Ballard fell out of favor.

In 2007, with hydrogen cars still an estimated seven years from commercial availability, Ballard decided to sell most of its automotive division to carmakers Daimler and Ford, and focus on alternative fuel cell applications that promise faster profitability, such as back-up power units for the telecommunications market and batteries for forklifts, as well as combined heat and power units like those it supplies to Japan. The company is betting these applications will bring hydrogen into the mainstream—and Ballard into the black —well before hydrogen cars are on the road. “We’ve arrived at a tipping point in public opinion, the media and among public officials” about the need for new clean energy sources, says CEO John Sheridan.

Making fuel cells affordable enough to compete with conventional energy sources is key to market success. In the case of cogeneration systems, that means halving cost and improving lifetime to 15 years. To do that, the company is researching how to reduce the pricey platinum catalyst used in the cells, increase automation on the assembly line and simplify components. “Our biggest challenges technically at this point are how to lower costs and how to make [the fuel cells] more durable,” says Ballard’s chief technology officer, Chris Guzy. “But the technology is moving very fast now.”

A growing part of Ballard’s business is power units for buses, which company leaders see as ideal vehicles for spreading public awareness about fuel cells. Their technology will power 20 buses in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics, which the company claims is the largest hydrogen-powered bus fleet in the world.

“Fuel cells are the only source of power we know of that is pollution-free,” says James A. Cusumano, former research director at Exxon and co-author of Freedom From Mid-East Oil. “There is nothing else on the horizon that would not pump more CO₂ or nuclear waste into the environment.”

Winifred Bird, who has a solar water heater on her roof, lives in Japan and writes about science and nature.

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