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INTRO: In many Alaska communities, electricity and heat are produced with diesel-fired generators that are expensive to run and produce a lot of pollution. Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are researching a new fuel that may reduce pollution and lower energy costs. But as Doug Schneider reports in this week's Arctic Science Journeys, they have a few bugs to work out.

STORY: Until a bicycle accident left him with limited use of his legs, Ron Johnson either ran, biked or skied to work, depending on the weather. Only rarely—in all of his 24 years as a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks—did he drive to his office. Now that might seem odd when you consider Johnson teaches mechanical engineering.

JOHNSON: "It was both because I was trying to be healthy but also I was trying to save energy. Driving a car will use something like 100 times more energy to get to work than say riding a bicycle, which is very energy efficient."

Developing more efficient, cleaner fuels has long been Johnson's goal, especially since electricity costs in Alaska can be as much as ten times the national average. He and his colleagues at UAF's Energy Research Center say hydrogen fuel cells may hold the answer.

JOHNSON: "In particular, one type of energy source we've looked at is called a fuel cell. It's a way to produce electricity that also produces waste heat that could be used for space heating to take care of the needs of communities not only in rural Alaska but around the world."

In theory, how a fuel cell works is simple--even elegant. Hydrogen gas is exposed to ordinary oxygen, triggering a chemical reaction that produces electricity. Heat and some water are released as byproducts that can be harnessed and used. And there is little pollution. But as good as all this sounds, co-researcher Dennis Witmer says there's plenty of bugs to work out.

WITMER: "We know this technology works in the laboratory. The physics are real, and the first prototypes are being built. However, when you're in the prototype stage there's a lot of questions that need to be answered, especially things like reliability and cost."

In a nondescript warehouse near the campus power plant, Johnson and Witmer set about overcoming these obstacles. The first was finding a hydrogen source. By itself, hydrogen is an expensive, highly explosive gas that's not readily available. But Witmer had a solution.

WITMER: "The long-term goal of this project is to develop energy sources for rural villages in Alaska. The fuel infrastructure for rural Alaska is essentially diesel fuel. And so we're taking a fuel for which there is already an existing infrastructure and using that to run the fuel cell."

Researchers next had to figure out how to extract the hydrogen from the diesel fuel. Their prototype three-kilowatt fuel cell uses a catalyst to separate the hydrogen in a process called reforming. Besides emitting some pollution, Witmer says reforming has one serious drawback.

WITMER: "There's a little bit of a question on the physics of this, in that it appears that in order to crack the hydrogen away from the diesel fuel, the catalysts have to be operated at a fairly high temperature. In order to keep that high temperature, you need to add energy to the system. And right now one of the things we're doing in the laboratory is trying to calculate the balance of energy that needs to be added to the system to keep the temperature high enough in order for this reaction to go forward. And what we're finding is that it takes a fairly significant bit of energy to do that."

Still, when you consider that electricity and heat are both produced, Witmer says hydrogen might be better than conventional fuels.

Of course more research is needed, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks isn't alone pursuing the idea. Mercedes-Benz, Sandia National Laboratory and others are all studying fuel cells. With a little luck, Johnson will one day be able to drive—guilt free—to work as often as he likes.

OUTRO: This is Arctic Science Journeys, a production of the Alaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'm Doug Schneider.

Our thanks to the following individuals for their help in the preparation of this script:

Dr. Ron Johnson, Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
University of Alaska Fairbanks
907-474-6096
ffraj@uaf.edu

Dr. Dennis Witmer, Assistant Professor
Institute of Northern Engineering
University of Alaska Fairbanks
907-474-7082
ffdew@uaf.edu

If you'd like more information about fuel cells, check out these websites:

http://www.clean-air.org/faq.htm
http://www.hfcletter.com/
http://www.dodfuelcell.com/
http://www.plugpower.com/