August 8, 2008

For the construction industry, it’s hybrids today, hydrogen someday

Construction Corner

Korky Koroluk

It will take substantial investment by both the United States government and private industry, but a new report says hydrogen could become a competitive fuel within about 15 years.

But until then, the report says, the fastest way to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles will be quicker adoption of technologies already available.

The report is the work of a blue-ribbon panel of experts from both public and private sectors under the auspices of the National Research Council of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. It was released at mid-July with little fanfare in the U.S., and almost no mention in Canadian news media.

In the early stages of the concern over global climate change, many people pinned their hopes on some new technology they hoped would provide a single, comprehensive answer to the need to reduce carbon emissions created by burning fossil fuels. For many, the great hope lay in hydrogen fuel cells.

It didn’t turn out that way. Proponents of hydrogen fuel cells have got the chemistry of the systems right, but so far the engineering problems haven’t been solved.

In the meantime, other alternatives have been under development with little publicity, except for Toyota’s wildly successful Prius.

But now we’re hearing more and more about the sort of vehicles that contractors might want to buy. After all, you don’t get a Bobcat to the jobsite by strapping it to the roof of a Prius.

Volvo is hurrying ahead with its production of hybrid medium and heavy trucks. Kenworth will begin full production of two models of medium-duty trucks powered by hybrid diesel-electric engines. International and Sterling Trucks are going into the hybrid business.

General Motors is expected to reintroduce its Silverado and Sierra pickups as hybrids later this year. Ford is expected to aim at 2010 for gasoline-electric versions of its popular F150, F250 and F350 lines.

All of these can be configured many ways, making them ideal for the construction industry, which needs both general- and special-purpose vehicles.

There is a number of rather esoteric hybrid systems under development, and some pretty extravagant claims have been made. But the companies involved aren’t willing to say much beyond generalizations for the automotive press.

It’s going to be interesting, therefore, to see whether some of the research is abandoned in light of the U.S. panel’s somewhat optimistic view of hydrogen technology.

For that optimism to be rewarded, though, a number of things must happen.

The panel assumes that the U.S. government will invest $55 billion in hydrogen technology between now and 2023. That’s a big assumption, and whether it happens or not will depend to a great extent on the result of the coming presidential election, and the degree of political will the winner brings into office with him.

The panel also assumes that private industry will invest $145 billion over the same time period, another problematic assumption that will depend on a regulatory framework that ensures a level playing field.

A third assumption is that the government will impose a tax on carbon dioxide, which would encourage low-emission production of hydrogen.

If even one of those “ifs” doesn’t happen, then it’s likely that a sustainable hydrogen economy won’t happen either.

The panel on hydrogen was chaired by Michael Ramage, a former vice-president of ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co.

As he announced the results of the study, he said that the United States, “could potentially, in the best case, eliminate all oil from U.S. transportation, and most of the carbon dioxide emissions.”

So that’s the brass ring. Surely it’s worth grabbing for.

Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.

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