FUEL CELLS—ENERGY FOR A POWER-HUNGRY WORLD - Chemistry: Notable Research and Discoveries - page 157

Iceland is already taking the first steps in this process. This island na-
tion of about 300,000 people has a penchant for self-sufficiency in terms of
energy, deriving the bulk of their energy from hydropower (energy from
the flow or fall of water) and geothermal energy, which uses Earth's heat.
Iceland began operating a few hydrogen buses in Reykjavík, the capital
and largest city, in 2003. In order to fuel these buses, and also to prepare
for a future in which hydrogen-powered vehicles become more plentiful,
the first public hydrogen refueling station opened on April 24, 2003.
As hydrogen fuel cells become more common, the demand for hydro-
gen will grow. But fuel cells are not the only method of obtaining energy
from hydrogen. Hydrogen can be burned in combustion engines, similar
to gasoline. All heat engines suffer from the constraints of thermodynam-
ics, but burning hydrogen instead of gasoline produces water instead of
harmful emissions. The German manufacturer BMW has been working
with engines that can run on hydrogen since 1979, when the company
built an engine capable of burning either gasoline or hydrogen. In 2004,
BMW made the H2R, a sleek hydrogen-powered racer that has an engine
capable of generating 232 horsepower—173 kilowatts—and the car can
reach a speed of 187 miles per hour (300 km/hr).
But the zero-emission promise of a hydrogen economy, whether it
comes from highly efficient fuel cells or less efficient hydrogen combus-
tion, cannot be fulfilled solely by the development of hydrogen-powered
vehicles. The problem is that there are no major sources of hydrogen read-
ily available. This is not to say that there is little hydrogen—it is by far the
most abundant element in the universe and is found in a lot of compounds
on Earth, such as water. Methods such as electrolysis to extract hydrogen
from these compounds are not cheap and require energy. If, for example,
the electricity needed for electrolysis comes from coal- or oil-powered
generators, which emit pollution, the zero-emission benefit of hydrogen
fuel cells is compromised. Although fuel cell operation emits only water,
air pollution was generated in the production of the hydrogen fuel.
Iceland escapes this dilemma because most of their energy is from
“clean” sources, hydropower and geothermal, rather than from hydro-
carbon combustion. Since there are few emissions in the production of
their electricity, providing hydrogen by electrolysis does not spoil the
zero-emission advantage for Iceland's fuel cells.
But using electricity to generate hydrogen, as in electrolysis, is quite
expensive. Hydrogen is more commonly made in the rest of the world