Three years after President Bush announced a $1.2 billion hydrogen fuel initiative in his 2003 State of the Union address, US Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has unveiled a “road map” intended to guide research and get hydrogen fuel cell vehicles into show rooms by 2020. Along with the 80-page “Roadmap to Advance Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles,” Bodman announced grants totaling $119 million aimed at “identifying and overcoming the technical and manufacturing challenges” that face the development of a practical transportation system based on hydrogen.
While the administration has been touting the prospect of hydrogen cars for the past few years, researchers have regularly cautioned that the scientific problems associated with such vehicles are considerable. A 2003 DOE hydrogen workshop report concluded that the transition from a fossil-fuel-based economy to one based on hydrogen would require “revolutionary, not evolutionary” scientific advances (see Physics Today, October 2003, page 35...
