National Academies Press / Committee on Review of the FreedomCAR and Fuel Research Program, Phase 3
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12939 (free with registration)
Since the creation of the FreedomCAR program in January 2002, it has undergone significant changes in Partnership members, with five energy companies added in September 2003 and two electrical power companies in 2008. Even though the technologies involved are not all under the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership umbrella, the potential pathways to the long-term objectives of reduced petroleum consumption as well as reduced criteria emissions and reduced greenhouse gases (GHGs) seem also to have broadened. In the collective opinion of the committee, there are essentially three primary alternative pathways:
· Improved ICE vehicles coupled with greater use of biofuels,
· A shifting of significant portions of transportation energy from petroleum to the grid through the expanded use of PHEVs and BEVs, and
· The transition to hydrogen as a major transportation fuel utilized in fuel cell vehicles.
In general, the committee believes that the Partnership is effective in progressing toward its goals. There is evidence of solid progress in essentially all areas, even though substantial barriers remain (see Chapter 5).
Most of the remaining barriers relate to cost (e.g., fuel cells, batteries, etc.), although there are also substantial performance barriers (e.g., onboard hydrogen storage, demonstrated fuel cell durability, adequate battery energy storage capability, etc.) and production and infrastructure barriers (e.g., the need for widespread affordable hydrogen if mass-produced fuel cell vehicles are to become a reality, a feedstock/production combination for biofuels that does not compete with food crops, etc.).
The fuel cell/hydrogen R&D is viewed by the committee as long-term, high-risk, high payoff R&D that the committee considers not only to be appropriate, but also to be of the type that much of it probably would not get done without government support. Especially under the present economic conditions, the committee considers R&D for other precompetitive technologies, which could help reduce industry development times, also to be appropriate.
