President Bush Demonstrates Fuel-Cell Technology

As part of the Administration’s support of alternative fuels, President Bush and DaimlerChrysler refuel a F-Cell at a DC hydrogen station.

DaimlerChrysler has been developing hydrogen fuel-cell technology for ten years. It has committed 30 vehicles powered by fuel-cells to the Department of Energy.

President Bush will visit the public refueling station on Wednesday. The event will show how zero emission technology works, and describe the hydrogen infrastructure that is being created in the United States.

Fuel cells release energy from the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen with a catalyst. This clean technology operates to a high level of efficiency and is true zero emission. Hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles emit only pure water vapor as exhaust.

President Bush said at a Shell service station this morning: “I’m excited to be part of a technological revolution that’s going to change the country. It won’t happen overnight. It’s going to take a fair amount of research and development to make sure hydrogen is attractive and reasonable — is able to be manufactured at reasonable price, distributed in a wide way for consumer satisfaction.

“But it’s coming. We’re spending about $1.2 billion on hydrogen research. America leads the world in hydrogen research. It’s a part of our efforts to help diversify away from hydrocarbons.

“And the problem we face today at the gas pump is we’re too dependent on foreign sources of energy.”

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.