Across the globe, many thousands of miles of public transit service have been successfully run using electricity provided by hydrogen fuel-cell engines in public buses and other transportation systems.

Ten cities in Europe and Iceland each have three hydrogen buses in public transportation operations as does Perth, Australia, and San Mateo, Calif.

Another program will be added later this year in Beijing, where DaimlerChrysler will operate three more fuel-cell buses.

Thus, by 2005 there already were 39 fuel-cell buses in public transportation operations worldwide. Hydrogen-fueled transportation is here.

Ballard Power Systems Inc. has recently announced that "the fleet of 33 Mercedes-Benz Citaro fuel-cell buses currently operating in Europe, Iceland and Australia has surpassed 1 million kilometers of service."

There also are other programs for fuel-cell cars.

This makes one wonder what would happen to gasoline consumption within the U.S. if all the major bus lines, city transportation and school systems were required gradually to convert their buses to hydrogen-powered electric engines.

After several years of using buses powered by electricity supplied by hydrogen fuel cells, we could then switch all of our state and city vehicles to hydrogen fuel-cell systems.

Switching post office, FedEx and UPS vehicles could save a lot of oil. After this, we could also switch all of the trucks on our Interstate highway system to fuel cells. Just these few changes might remove our dependence on Middle Eastern oil for transportation.

This might even cause a major reduction in the price of crude oil and sleepless nights for the CEOs of major oil companies. They might even fear breaking an oil price bubble.

Within a few years, we would need hydrogen in large supply. That need could be furnished, at least initially, by converting biomass to ethanol and ethanol to hydrogen. Our farmers might like to plant more corn or sugarcane and put idled land back into production.

Burning ethanol as a substitute for gasoline is being done within the U.S., but a gallon of ethanol contains only about 80 percent of the power in a gallon of gasoline. The efficiency quotient switches, however, when gasoline is compared to hydrogen.

Ethanol-to-hydrogen converters are now possible, and using electricity from hydrogen fuel cells is about three times as efficient as burning gasoline in internal-combustion engines.

The use of hydrogen in fuel cells is pollution-free with just two byproducts: water pure enough to drink and heat — much less heat than in a gasoline engine.

And there is a third major advantage: The fuel-cell engine has no moving parts and is very quiet. With no moving parts, there is no disposal problem created by used engine oil.

In many countries there are multiple efforts to switch fuels or improve on fuel efficiency. Many U.S. car owners, for example, do not realize that their vehicles will run on a fuel mixture called E85 that is primarily ethanol with a small amount of gasoline.

More than 4 million U.S. cars and trucks (flex-fuel vehicles) now in service have the ability to run on E85. In addition, Brazil has switched en masse to ethanol derived largely from sugarcane as its vehicle fuel.

It is interesting that a subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has a sugarcane-processing operation on Maui that is burning the biomass from sugar production and using the heat to produce electricity to operate the plant.

However, this A&B subsidiary produces more electricity than it can use, so Maui Electric Co. buys the excess. There would be far less pollution and a better use of the biomass if it were converted to ethanol and the ethanol to hydrogen.

Sugar might become a prized crop again if it resulted in both sugar and hydrogen. Each major island could grow its own fuel supply and not have to worry about the excessive transportation charges to move gasoline from O'ahu to the other islands.

Today, ethanol is being added to gasoline to increase the amount of fuel, but all of the water must be removed from the ethanol through extensive refining.

By converting ethanol to hydrogen, however, water can be added to the ethanol and the conversion process extracts some of the hydrogen atoms from the water, further increasing the fuel supply.

This decreases the cost of producing hydrogen from ethanol. A 2004 article, "Ethanol yields hydrogen," in the Technology Research News states that:

"Ethanol is currently more expensive than gasoline, but the two fuels are in the same realm — wholesale prices are about $1.10 a gallon versus 70 cents for gasoline."

In 2005, gasoline was no longer at 70 cents a gallon wholesale; thus, the current cost of ethanol may be significantly cheaper than gasoline. This same article states, "an ethanol-to-hydrogen converter designed for home use would be not much larger than a coffee mug."

Home heating might suddenly become a lot less expensive for those now relying on natural gas or fuel oil for winter heat.

Conversion to hydrogen, however, would require backing by the federal government — something sorely lacking in the present administration that wants to drill its way out of the problem.

It also would require foresight by governors of each state and mayors of our major cities, as well as any congressional leaders who would like to protect the Arctic wilderness. It also would require us to put enormous pressure on any and all of our trading partners.

Perhaps we should import only from those countries that use hydrogen instead of burning fossil fuels and that are signatories to a system that is better environmentally.

Regardless of one's political persuasion, waiting two decades to start the hydrogen economy is absurd. It is time to get this job under way, and Hawai'i could lead this effort and start it in 2006.

FUNDRAISER FOR EAST-WEST CENTER

The East-West Center will hold its annual fundraiser, "An International Affair," Thursday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort & Spa.

No-host cocktails and silent auction at 5 p.m. will be followed by dinner at 7. The Asia Pacific Community Building Award recipients are Houghton "Buck" Freeman and Doreen Freeman of the Freeman Foundation. Tickets are $150. Money raised supports student scholarships. For reservations and information, call 944-7105.