Livermore Labs Roll Out Hydrogen-Powered Vans

What do two Ford shuttle buses, a 2006 Toyota Prius, and a mobile electric light stand have in common?

They are examples of hydrogen-powered technologies developed by the U.S. Department of Energy and showcased in Livermore Tuesday by and California national laboratories.

Officials from the two labs were joined by DOE representatives in a parking lot next to the to introduce residents to two hydrogen gas-powered Ford E-450 passenger vans. They arrived this month as part of a demonstration project at Sandia and LLNL. The 9-passenger vehicles will ferry passengers from building to building on the two sprawling campuses.

The demonstration will test how well the hydrogen-powered vans and their fueling stations stand up to the normal wear and tear. 

They will replace conventional diesel fuel-burning taxis resulting in roughly a 50 percent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas closely linked with global warning, said Leonard Klebanoff, Ph.D., a principle member of the Sandia California lab in an interview.

The arrival of the shuttles provided an opportunity for LLNL and Sandia lab officials to educate the public about the safety and environmental advantages of hydrogen as a fuel, he noted. Public outreach will involve and area high schools and elementary schools.

“This is a celebration of our hydrogen technology programs,” Klebanoff said.

The alternative fuel technologies powering the vans did not originate at LLNL and Sandia, however. Ford Motor Company in Detroit modified its internal combustion engine and added a special hydrogen tank pressurized to 5000 psi for gas storage at room temperature.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., is providing hydrogen gas fuel. It also built and installed hydrogen fueling stations at the LLNL and Sandia campuses.

The vans have a range of 150 miles between refuelings. The only byproduct of hydrogen as a fuel is water-vapor, making it an attractive alternative to carbon-dioxide producing gasoline, according to Robert Glass, Ph.D., hydrogen program leader at LLNL.

The shuttles also served a technical baseline for innovations officials at the two labs plan to implement soon. That’s where the Toyota Prius factors in, noted Timothy Ross, a senior technician with the hydrogen storage program at LLNL. The experimental hydrogen-powered car has a potential range of about 650 miles, thanks to a compact hydrogen tank developed at LLNL. It generating extra mileage by pressurizing the gas to 5000 psi but also cools it to a minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit.

The storage unit underwent rigorous safety testing to earn Department of Transportation approval, Ross said. The tank survived high impact car crashes, bonfires, and even gun fire from an armor-piercing bullet, he said.

The energy storage and conversion group in the energy and environment directorate at LLNL developed the tank. Costs were covered by the DOE hydrogen program and a hydrogen fuel initiative started by the George W. Bush administration, Ross said.

The mobile light stand demonstrated Sandia lab’s ongoing work on fuel-cell energy technologies. From a practical standpoint, the fuel-cell approach substitutes for diesel-generated electricity for mobile lights that illuminate highway construction, airport operations, and movie production, said Mike James, Sandia’s communications officer. But this clean energy source has also powered mobile external lighting over the red carpets outside recent Academy Awards and Golden Globe awards presentations, he said.

During formal comments on Tuesday, Robert Carling, director of the Transportation Energy Center at Sandia, contrasted the performance of diesel generators which he characterized as “noisy and smelly,” with odorless fuel-cell electrical generation “that you can barely hear.”  

Fuel-cell technology has been used to power experimental lift trucks and cell phone telecommunications towers. Its development is financed by $42 million of federal economic stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and matching funds from Federal Express and other companies that adopt the technology, said John Garbak, technology development manager with the DOE’s fuel cell technologies program.