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Brazil Experiments with Hydrogen Transportation |
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By Mario Osava*
The
first public buses running on this alternative energy source will
begin circulating in Brazil in 2007. But they won't be competitive
cost-wise for at least 15 years, say experts.
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil has joined the industrialized
countries in the race for hydrogen power, announcing the development
of public buses run on this source of clean energy. But experts
say the new vehicles will only be commercially viable at the end
of the next decade, or even later.
Five buses with hydrogen fuel cells will be put to the test in 2007
in Sao Paulo and neighboring cities. The four-year experiment calls
for total travel of one million kilometers. If they pass the test,
the hydrogen bus fleet will be expanded to 100 or 200.
A similar project will get under way next year in Rio de Janeiro.
Hydrogen allows the manufacture of quieter-running and more long-lasting
vehicles, and is an attractive alternative when faced with the skyrocketing
prices of oil and the need to protect the environment.
Hydrogen represents "a jump in efficiency of 20 to 30 percent with
respect to the existing combustion engines, which are inefficient
and only use one third of the energy generated by liquid fuels,"
Jayme Buarque de Hollanda, director general of the National Institute
of Energy Efficiency (INEE), explained to Tierramérica.
One source of hydrogen is production through the electrolysis of
water, of natural gas, or of alcohol.
The hydrogen bus project in Sao Paulo, which has the backing of
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), opted for electrolysis,
the most simple and readily available technology.
The problem is the initial investment. "The prototype of these vehicles
costs 10 times the price of a diesel bus," says Marcio Schettino,
coordinator of the project, developed by a partnership between the
Sao Paulo Metropolitan Urban Transportation Agency and the Ministry
of Mines and Energy.
"Another 15 years will be needed before this technology is competitive
with other vehicles," he admitted in a Tierraméric interview.
Making hydrogen economically viable requires time. "Its production
(whether from water, gas or alcohol) is still very costly. Furthermore,
there are problems with transport and storage, because hydrogen
is flammable and volatile," says Antonio Nunes Junior, president
of the Brazilian Association of Electric Vehicles, ABVE.
At the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, a project in consortium
with several companies -- the state-owned oil company Petrobras,
several bus manufacturers, and scientific institutions -- will produce
hydrogen from natural gas to supply a bus that is also slated to
begin circulation next year, near the university.
The objective of that project is "to develop the technology and
research," distinguishing it from the otherwise similar effort in
Sao Paulo, focused on testing the buses in practice, said Nunes.
According to Hollanda, in Brazil there would not be any great difficulty
to supply electricity for electrolysis, but also promising is obtaining
hydrogen from ethanol, which is already produced in massive quantities
in this country, has high energy efficiency and important environmental
advantages.
"Clean energy doesn't exist," given that all sources produce some
sort of waste, although in different quantities in of different
types, says Hollando, qualifying the arguments that praise hydrogen
as a "zero pollution" energy source.
"What we have to do is seek one that least affects the environment
and the most appropriate solution for each place," he adds.
For now, faced with the uncertainty surrounding hydrogen energy,
Brazil is staking its bets on hybrid electric vehicles.
This technology, used in 43 buses already serving the Sao Paulo
metropolitan area, combines electrical generation from fuel, and
batteries that accumulate the energy not consumed at certain moments
of travel, and making use of it in others, when a boost is needed,
such as driving uphill.
The hybrids are a good transition option, "because the outlook for
hydrogen isn't clear," said Nunes. They can use diesel, gasoline,
natural gas or ethanol, maintaining its environmental advantages
and saving fuel, as well as having a longer life on the road. An
electric motor can travel 1.5 million km, while conventional ones
begin to present problems at a distance 10 times less, he added.
But hybrid buses cost 30 to 40 percent more than those that run
on diesel, Nunes acknowledged. That cost for acquisition could be
compensated in the long run, saving fuel, brakes and other components,
especially with government incentives.
Stricter environmental regulations, as are being implemented in
some parts of the United States, as well as government policies
for public transportation, could stimulate change in the transport
technology base, he said. Once a certain scale is achieved, which
would drive down the costs of hybrids, that option could become
competitive, overcoming the limitations of the market.
* Mario Osava is an IPS correspondent.
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