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Last year T. Boone Pickens brought the concept of natural gas as a vehicle  fuel into the national stream of consciousness when he launched his “Pickens Plan”. Since then the concept has  evolved to the point where there are several pieces of legislation making their  way through Congress (Natural Gas Act of 2009)and the Senate which will  encourage the more widespread implementation of this “green” fossil fuel. Recent  estimates of the natural gas reserves in the United States indicate that we have  a 100 year supply which is equal to all of the oil in Saudi Arabia. Pickens and  his supporters are calling natural gas a bridge fuel to a greener tomorrow but  some critics seem unsure of how this could work.

In this story I will attempt to answer those doubts by building that bridge  in realistic terms from readily available information. In simplest terms Pickens  CNG “bridge” can extend the time we have to transition to another vehicle fuel  no matter what type. In a previous story (Why  The Future of Transportation Fuel Is Hydrogen)I pointed out that hydrogen  fuel is the logical choice as our eventual primary fuel because, when produced  from water using solar or wind energy, it is 100% non polluting and 100%  renewable. In addition, in the near term, it is the one fuel which can be  produced from anything domestically available that we are currently using as a  fuel including fossil sources and renewables. From my perspective Pickens has  created the best, most viable option for a transition to 100% clean hydrogen  fuel.

Hydrogen energy has, to this point, faced a lot of obstacles because it  requires a specialized storage and distribution infrastructure and, even though  it can be used with our familiar, internal combustion engine powered vehicles  (with the proper storage and fuel system), the cost of the infrastructure  necessary combined with the fact that it is much better to use hydrogen with  fuel cell vehicles in order to take advantage of its full potential and the cost  of producing hydrogen have all served to keep hydrogen energy stalled at the  verge of being implemented. In financial terms it is something of a chicken or  egg scenario; do we build the infrastructure with no cars available or build the  cars with no infrastructure or invest hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars  into building both simultaneously?

Pickens idea of using natural gas as the vehicle to transport us into an  independent, green energy transportation future provides the only viable option  from the perspectives of both economic viability and seamlessness of transition.  In fact India has been quietly pursuing this same concept for at least the past  5 years or more and doing it from an angle that is not even mentioned as an  option in the US.

It started when the Indian government mandated that all public  vehicles in Delhi be converted to run on CNG fuel in order to cut pollution  in the city. CNG fuel produces 25% less CO2 pollution than gasoline vehicles and  90% fewer other pollutants. From there the concept evolved into one where the  vehicles are running on a  mix of CNG and hydrogen fuel. This mixture further reduces CO2 pollution by  a percentage roughly equal to the percentage of hydrogen mixed into the CNG  stream. In a press release from this past January it was revealed that all of  the Indian car manufacturers are now working together to develop cars for retail  sale which will be optimized to run on this fuel mix.

There are the first two steps of the transition. First bringing natural gas  fueled vehicles to market. There are many CNG vehicles available worldwide made  by companies like General Motors and Honda but only one currently available in  the US but the point is that it wouldn’t take much to bring CNG fueled vehicles  to the American market.

The second step is to create a retail market for hydrogen fuel where none  currently exists by inserting hydrogen into the natural gas stream. By doing so  we will foster growth and innovation in the hydrogen production industry by  providing opportunity not tax dollars.

This concept has been explored  and tested by the US Department of Energy. The DOE says that; “Natural  gas can be blended with hydrogen to make  HCNG. Vehicles fueled with hydrogen/natural gas blends (HCNG) are an initial  step toward the hydrogen-based transportation of the future. HCNG vehicles offer  the potential for immediate emissions benefits, such as a reduction in nitrogen  oxides (NOx) emissions. At the same time, they can pave the way for a transition  to fuel cell  vehicles by building early demand for hydrogen infrastructure.”

A recent study on the viability of this concept says that CNG/hydrogen  mix, unlike straight hydrogen fuel ,can be distributed through the existing  natural gas system in the US. This system reaches all of the heavily  populated areas of our country and can be extended in some form to the rest of  the country at a much lower cost than building out a whole new pure hydrogen  infrastructure.

The natural gas industry could partner with the auto manufacturers who  produce CNG vehicles to install CNG pumps at all of their dealerships  nationally. In this way we could have a national CNG refueling network in a  short amount of time which would be financed by the gas and auto industries and  their dealers as they would be the ones making a profit from the system in an  ongoing manner. This transition could probably be at least 80% in place within  the next 5 years and the greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced roughly 40%  at that time (25% from switching to CNG fuel and an additional 15% from mixing  that amount of H2 into the CNG fuel stream).

From that point the next step would be the introduction of fuel cell  vehicles. Most of us think of fuel cells as running on pure hydrogen fuel and  while those are the types of vehicles that have been built and tested most often  as prototypes there are other types of fuel cells which may be better suited to  this transition. Solid  Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) operate on the same principle as pure hydrogen fuel  cells but can run on a variety of fuels such as natural gas or the CNG/H2 mix  being discussed here. The advantage is high operating efficiency (60%) as  compared to internal combustion vehicles (30%). Introducing SOFC powered  vehicles would then be expected to reduce CO2 pollution by an additional 50%  since they double the efficiency of the vehicle and thus require essentially  half the amount of fuel to do the same amount of work. The total CO2 reduction  at this point of the transition would be 40% from steps 1 and 2 plus an  additional 60% of that from step 3 for a total reduction in greenhouse gas  emissions from the US transportation sector by roughly 75% or very nearly the  80% asked for by the Kyoto Protocols and we can do it with the technology that  is available today.

The venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins of which former Vice President Al  Gore is a partner is heavily invested in Bloom Energy, a startup who is said to  be making a cheap, nickel based SOFC fuel cell which is capable of running on a  variety of fuels including natural gas. A recent  story says that;” In a successful test at the University of Tennessee in  Chattanooga over the past two years, engineers ran a Bloom box on natural gas  for 6,000 hours and found it to be twice as efficient as a boiler burning  natural gas, with 60 percent lower carbon emissions. Kleiner partner Aileen Lee  told Gertner that the Bloom box can produce electricity using natural gas or a  variety of liquid fuels, including ethanol.” So the SOFC fuel cell  technology seems ready for market now and all that remains is for them to be  adapted to light and heavy vehicle applications.

The final step, when we are ready to take it, is to move to a totally clean,  pure hydrogen from water economy. Until we can make that transition the Pickens  Plan offers us a way to become both energy independent (thereby enhancing  national security) and to reduce GHG emissions by the amounts that scientists  say that we need to in order to avoid the worst effects of Climate Change. All  of this being accomplished by using currently available technology and building  off an existing infrastructure which will require minimal amounts of public  investment in comparison to creating an entire new infrastructure to support  technology which has been “not quite ready” for the last 20 years or so. All  that is needed is a commitment by the American public and their leaders to take  this logical, available route to a clean economy.