T is the dawning of the Age of
Hydrogen.

By Michael Becker
News Editor

The implications are positively Utopian for
many of us who have ever cursed the infernal
combustion engine.

A hydrogen cconomy comes with grand

a implications. The big picture as outlined by

Ballard Power Systems Inc. co-founders Dr.
mGcoffrey Ballard of West Vancouver, and West
Maevancouver mechanical engincer Paul Howard,
promises eventual vanquishment of the bleak
enario drawn by an increasingly soiled global
nvironment and depleted fossil fuel resources.
_ Howard and Ballard’s version of how the
ext century will unfold on the energy front
calls for cleaner air and a world-leading role
wor Canadian sompanics.

» Tt all makes the head spin a bit, but the seeds

ve already been planted.
* The latest twist to the Ballard Power hydro-
gen: fuel cell story came recently with the

Memeroundbreaking announcement by German car

manufacturer Daimler-Benz that the company

as come up with the world’s first methanol-

uelled car to use Ballard’s cell. The cell runs on
enydrogen and oxygen and generates electrical
mepnerey corcctly.

‘ though Ballard is now located in Burnaby,
mehe company began with Ballard, Howard and
Mlectrochemist Keith Prater in North

ancouver. Ballard founded his company in
:Recails Ballard, who began the company as
manufacturer of lithium Eateries, “We were
ig for what we believe is going to replace
¢ internal combustion engine. Most of the
World was looking at batteries. The three of us
But our heads together and essentially decided
hat batteries are never going to cut it.”
"It seems that batteries just don’t cut it in
of ‘mecting the “mission profile” of the
orth American driver.
‘We depend greatly on our cars.
Said ‘Ballard’ “There's an uncertainty that
“with the battery. It’s got a short life
cy for the day and then it has to be
‘back in.
cople wiil practically live in hovels but
ave a°Trans Am in’ the driveway —
w we define ourselves in North

‘The three Ballard founders came to the con-
lusion’ that_a battery-powered automobile
ld ‘not satisfy the North American driver,
allard said the success of the internal com-
tistion ‘engine relates to the fact that it man-
$ tO scale power and energy separately. You can meet any dri-
if you scale the two separately.
‘or example, take a young diver who is really interested in
ing, away like « jack rabbit from the stop light. He doesn't
y.care if he has to go to the gas station every 20 kilometres.
driver a big engine for the power,
another driver, who would as soon drive very sedately
"Calgary to visit his children and his grandchildren and
i. firid her with a smaller engine that doesn’t get away like a
tabbit: Ie’s got a huge gas tank. That’s the energy side of the
lots of energy and low power.

: d»“You ‘can’t scale power and energy separately
ith. a’ battery. You've fixed the power and the energy. There is
specific ratio associated with it. You put a D size battery into

flashlight:and you've got a certain amount of weight and
ere is no ability to scale.
"re young and you want to impress your girl-
mi going to give you a lithium XK-5,” he said.
years for Ba to understand that.

‘Howard was on hand a few years
transit bus. The technology

to unveil a hydrogen fuel cell pow-
the interest on ear manufacturers.

BALLARD’'S Firoz Ragul at the former North Vancouver headquarters of Ballard
Power Systems. The company has since moved to Burnaby.

The researchers at Ballard decided that what they wanted to
do was step in and pull out the internal combustion engine from
an automobile and stick back in something that didn’t pollute,
but also didn’t impact on a driver's desires, prestige and needs.

Fuel cells were the answer.

Batteries are a great way of carrying energy around, but the
fuel cell allows for the electrolytic conversion of fuel to energy
and straight to the rubber on the road without pollution.

By 1987, three years after Ballard embarked on the path to
build a proto fuel cell, the company had reduced the cell to
20-times smaller than what anyone had ever seen. They let it be
known that this advance had been made. Eventually there were
people who were willing to come and visit to see what the
Canadians had accomplished.

Remembers Howard, “The significant part that moved it
along was that a fuel cell makes electricity and what we had done
is make a light bulb go on — quite frankly not very exciting to
anyone.”

But Geoffrey Ballard pushed to put the cell into a trans-
portation vehicle. In 1993, the
first fuel cell bus was unveiled.
“In re ct, that was really
the point that focused car com-
panies to begin to have a look
at it,” said Howard.

It was at. that time that
Daimler-Benz, independently
looking at fuel cells for cars,
began to work with Ballard.

People who would never set
foot on a bus came to Canada
to see what the pollution-free
bus was all about.

Said Ballard, “We thought
the automobile would be the
last frontier of the fuel cell. We
didn’t think that it would be
the first. It’s sociologically the
most complex, infrastructurally
the most difficult and it’s con-

‘trolled by a very small group of

_ very powerful companies. We

essentially went after stationary
fuel cells first.”

But now nine of the major
auto companies have associa-

wo tions with Ballard -- Ford,
feumaeee’ «GM = Chrysler, — Honda,
NEWS photo = Volkswagen and Volvo inclu-
sive.
The fuct cell developed at

Sunday, September 28, 1997 — North Shore News — 3

Fuel cell
pioneers
hope to
power future

Ballard has its roots in technology flown in the
Gemini space program. It was made by G.E.,
but it ccst millions of dollars a watt in space.

Ballard had to have something that was
about $25 a thousand watts for a car on the
road.

With the internal combustion engine, the
company faced the daunting task of taking ona
mature technology that has had about 100
years to perfect itself.

You have to step in with the right cost to
challenge successfully

Said Ballard, “If there was even a 10 or 20
or 30% premium, people wouldn’t pay it. The
big issue we had was could we take the fuel cell
that flew. in space and could you make it of
everyday materials?”

They’ve done it. . _

The fuel for the cell simply has to be a.
hydrogen carzier.

The car manufacturers interested in the
technology are saying they’d like to start off
with a liquid fuel, a liquid hydrogen carrier,
which will likely be wood alcohol or methanol or natural gas
with oxygen. ot

For further down the road, research is ongoing to solve the
problem of storing, gascous hydrogen, which is a bulky sort of :

" NEWS pnoto

obing. : oy
It can be stored on the top of a bus and a locomotive,:-bu
with a family car the proposition remains awkward....- 0’ ©

Said Ballard, “There are... ce
some very _ interesting --
answers coming out of
research pro; s. That's
only lagging behind us by .§
about 10 years behind the. j
fuel cell.” a

Ballard’s 40-year spec-
trum looks something like
this: all major fleet vehicles; -
such as buses, will be.
hydrogen-powered first; as - &
is the case with some buses
in Chicago now.

We'll probably. sce 18-
wheeler trucks go with lig-
uid pydrogen as well. he

iquid hydrogen tech-
nology is aden because.
hydrogen has been used
commercially for 50 years
now, ever since we began to
hydrogenate oils to make
margarine.

The first cars that go
into the commercial world
will go in as liquid fuel, such
as the Daimler-Benz cars.

As hydrogen storage ae :
technology advances, hydrogen gas will become the dominant
fuel for privately owned vehicles.

That will bring in a host of other developments.

“In B.C., where we have a lot of electricity you’ll end up with
electrolysers which will manufacture hydrogen out of water,
because water is nothing but hydrogen and oxygen. You could
have one of those in your own garage eventually and fill up your
own tank,” said Howard.

Electrolyser Corporation Ltd. in Toronto is one of the fore-
most companies in the world in this field. ‘The technology is
used for oil refining and the making of margarine. -.

“In Canada, with a fot of hydroelectricity and the technolo- _
gy we have, we really have a big role to play in this hydrogen
economy. We can take a lead role for the next century. We've got:
all of the ingredients here,” he said. WIS Sts

DR. Geoffrey Ballard has _-

’ played a key role in mak- _
ing possible a new
portable fuel cell.