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Early studies of one of the most promising hydrogen-creating technologies - electrolysis - indicate it would require dramatic increases in U.S. water withdrawals, according to an article published by Reuters today.


Large, concentrated supplies of fresh water - such as the Great Lakes system, which contains almost one-fifth of the world's available surface fresh water - could be attractive or necessary to creating the power needed to create hydrogen using electrolysis. Hydrogen is the fuel needed to power fuel-cell electric vehicles.


NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is developing a prototype of a commercial hydrogen fueling station that uses wind and solar power to produce hydrogen from Lake Erie water.


A 2007 study estimated "that up to 143 billion gallons of water would be directly consumed as a [hydrogen generating] feedstock, with a total consumption including evaporation of cooling water at power plants of 0.5-1.7 trillion gallons annually," the article said.


But the Hydrogen Association says that conversion of the current U.S. light-duty fleet (some 230 million vehicles) to fuel-cell vehicles would require about 110 billion gallons of water per year and that the U.S. uses about 300 billion gallons of water per year for the production of gasoline.


Michigan, the traditional automaking capital of North America, is one of many jurisdictions scrambling to capture leadership in hydrogen-powered vehicles and other alternative-fuel vehicles.


Definitive studies on the sources and volumes of water needed to power hydrogen vehicles and a hydrogen economy are urgently needed.

Tags: Emissions, Fuel Cell, Fuel Economy, Hydrogen, Electrolysis, FCEVs, Fuel-Cell Electric Vehicles, Great Lakes, Hydrogen, Hydrogen Cars

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Hydrogen Needed for U.S. Fuel Cell EVs and Power Plants Could Suck Lakes Dry was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.