Last Updated: May 30, 2002 11:55 AM ET
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By Ben Hirschler
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland, with its steaming
geothermal power stations, already knows plenty about alternative
energy.
Now this island of
lava on the edge of the Arctic plans to become the world's first
society to ditch fossil fuels entirely, relying instead on hydrogen
made using the power of its roaring rivers and volcanoes.
Enthusiasts even talk about it one
day becoming the "Kuwait of the North" as an exporter of the new,
green fuel to markets in Europe.
For Bragi Arnason, professor of chemistry at the
University of Iceland in Reykjavik, better known as "Professor
Hydrogen," converting his country to a fuel that produces no
greenhouse gases will be a science fiction dream come true.
In the relatively near future,
Iceland's cars, buses and ships will be driven by electric motors
powered by hydrogen-fuel cells that produce nothing but water in
their exhausts.
Unlike other
countries contemplating hydrogen power, Iceland has a chance to
develop a genuinely carbon dioxide-free system, since the
electricity to make hydrogen from the electrolysis of water will
come from hydro or geothermal power, not fossil fuel.
WAITING FOR THE BUS
Icelanders will get their first
taste of the new era next year when three hydrogen-powered buses hit
the road.
That is a year
later than originally planned, because nine other European cities
want to join in the bus experiment, requiring a bigger production
run. Arnason, looking on the bright side, sees this as an
endorsement of Iceland's approach.
In cities like Madrid, Amsterdam and Hamburg,
hydrogen buses will represent only tinkering at the edges. For
Iceland, it is the start of something much bigger.
Converting all the country's 180,000
vehicles and 2,500 fishing trawlers to hydrogen won't happen
overnight -- Iceland is giving itself 30-40 years to kick the oil
habit completely -- but the launch of the energy plan a year ago was
a watershed.
The scheme is
backed by DaimlerChrysler, which will build the first buses,
together with energy giant Royal Dutch Shell and Norwegian
industrial group Norsk Hydro
All three firms have invested in a new company
called Icelandic New Energy and plan to use Iceland as a test-bed
for a technology that some scientists think holds the key to
mankind's energy needs after the oil runs out.
"Thirty years ago people said it was nonsense,"
Arnason told Reuters. "But slowly people have come round to the idea
-- especially with the involvement of big companies. Now, all around
the world, people are starting to look at hydrogen."
While technical problems remain, the
technology of fuel cells has advanced by leaps and bounds in the
last 10 years.
Arnason
reckons hydrogen fuel cells are now approaching competitiveness with
oil.
With oil selling at $20
a barrel, Icelandic hydrogen is competitive on price. The fuel costs
more to buy, but hydrogen-burning engines make more efficient use of
fuel than traditional internal combustion engines.
ENERGY PARADOX
At first sight, it might seem odd that Iceland
should be bothering with hydrogen and worrying about greenhouse
emissions. After all, 93 percent of all houses are already heated by
eco-friendly geothermal energy.
But Iceland's tiny population of 280,000 faces a
paradox -- its large fishing fleet and energy-intensive metal
smelting industry make it one of the world's largest per-head
producers of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
That is a major frustration for a
country which takes its environmental commitments seriously, yet has
few options for expanding its economy.
Switching Iceland's vehicles and ships -- which
today account for two-thirds of carbon dioxide emissions -- from
fossil fuels would give a lot more flexibility to build up industry
while still meeting Kyoto Protocol guidelines.
Jon Bjorn Skulason, general manager of Icelandic
New Energy, says the potential is considerable, since Iceland has so
far tapped only 15 percent of its hydro and geothermal
reserves.
The government is
champing at the bit to expand the industrial base. Only last week,
it announced the start of formal talks with Alcoa on construction of
a new 320,000 metric ton smelter that would double aluminum
production.
STORAGE
HEADACHE
With its cheap
energy resources, Iceland has a chance to lead the world in the
coming hydrogen economy, Skulason believes.
Running tankers full of liquid hydrogen from
Iceland to markets in Europe is one option, although any surplus
from the tiny domestic economy means Iceland would probably never
supply more than a small European market, such as Denmark.
Meanwhile, there are some major
technical issues to resolve.
Safety is one. The image of the 1937 Hindenburg
airship disaster is hardly reassuring, although experts argue that
hydrogen is no more explosive than gasoline and the Hindenburg's
flammable casing, rather than hydrogen, was largely to blame.
But storing the lightest element in
the universe in a convenient form remains a big problem.
BMW is planning to develop cars that
would carry it as liquid, but most other car makers think gas under
pressure makes more sense. Either way, the storage tank will be
bulky.
That may be
surmountable for buses but it is major headache for cars and
Iceland's fishing trawlers, which need to carry enough fuel for
several weeks.
One
intermediate-stage option being examined in Iceland is to store
hydrogen in methanol, which could be synthesized using carbon
dioxide emitted by the metals industry.
It is not a perfect solution since burning the
methanol would still release some greenhouse gases. But Arnason
thinks it could be a useful halfway house while the country waits
for long-term storage solutions, such as carbon nanotubes.
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