By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

Hydrogen went from being the can't-get-no-respect answer to the world's energy crisis to being the latest alternative-energy fad, with even President George W. Bush, a former oil man, proposing hydrogen-powered cars.

But new concerns have arisen about using hydrogen as a fuel source, and it may not be as promising as thought.

It's been a rough ride for the lighter-than-air gas, which, when combined with oxygen, can create electricity. Its only byproduct is water.

The president's $1.7 billion FreedomCAR and Fuel Initiative would develop automotive fuel cells and other automotive technologies, and an infrastructure for getting fuels to the cars.

Fuel cell test centers are being set up across the country, including in Honolulu, but suddenly there are reports that the whole hydrogen scenario was perhaps a little too good to be true. Maybe it isn't all that environmentally friendly.

First, you have to break up the chemical bonds of hydrogen-containing products — such as water or natural gas — to get pure hydrogen. That takes electricity. If you use oil, coal or other fossil fuels to make that electricity, pollution still is being created.

So while making power from hydrogen doesn't pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the process of getting the hydrogen can.

In another blow to hydrogen's prospects, a recent report from the California Institute of Technology suggests that when some of that refined hydrogen leaks from pipelines and tanks, it will drift into the upper atmosphere, where it will continue the damage to the ozone layer — already damaged by chlorofluorocarbons.

The expanded use of hydrogen, its detractors say, could, thus, ultimately add to greenhouse warming and ozone holes.

It is reasonable to assume that hydrogen is neither the panacea that its supporters claim, nor the devil incarnate its detractors suggest.

On the global warming front, one key factor is that you don't need to use fossil fuels to make hydrogen. It can be used as a way to store energy created by renewable sources such as wind and solar, which work but aren't always available because of problems such as calm weather and nightfall.

On the ozone issue, supporters note that one of the keys to storing hydrogen is leak-free seals, which should dramatically reduce the amount that gets into the air.

Hydrogen: It's neither as good nor as bad as you'd heard.

Contact Jan TenBruggencate at (808) 245-3074 or e-mail jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.