This month, NGV Global has an article from Ford on hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles.  This article was provided by John Lapetz, a former vice president of IANGV, formerly in charge of the Ford NGV program.  This illustrates how Ford is leveraging its NGV experience in order to make progress with hydrogen.  Honda is another company using its NGV experience.

It is appropriate to ask why would an NGV magazine give exposure to what might be a competitor.  Firstly, IANGV took hydrogen into its terms of reference a few years ago.  It is thus appropriate for us to be aware of the activities related to hydrogen and fuel cells.  Secondly, it is useful to know what progress the ‘competition’ is making.  Even though the Ford program is not using fuel cells, the Ford article provides some useful insights

Several years ago, I attended a presentation related to fuel cells by a senior manager from Methanex, the methanol producing company.  He put the situation in stark perspective by pointing out that roughly speaking, the capital cost of a petrol engine is US$50 per kilowatt, a natural gas turbine driven electricity generator running on natural gas costs US$500 per kilowatt and a fuel cell at that time cost US$5000 per kilowatt.  It will take many years for the capital cost of a fuel cell to be reduced by two orders of magnitude to be competitive with existing technology.

There is no doubt that in some areas even now, there is competition between hydrogen and NGVs.  For instance in relation to PR, we are always reading about hydrogen in relation to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.  How often do you see articles about how NGVs can today reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% or more?  How often do you hear politicians advocating NGVs?  How often do hear oil companies with large natural gas reserves advocating NGVs?  Another example is the competition for the R&D dollar.  NGVs are on a starvation or nonexistent research budget when compared with what is being expended on hydrogen and fuel cells.

Much of the commercially available technology developed to service natural gas vehicles today is now being adapted to hydrogen vehicles, especially in relation to, storage and transport. Supporting continued natural gas vehicle development and commercialization can therefore ultimately accelerate hydrogen vehicle developments when fuel cell costs and hydrogen production costs become more competitive.

NGVs are here and now with over 5 million around the world.  We have a comparatively mature and reliable technology with a great deal of commercial experience.  NGVs provide air quality benefits, improve energy security and are economically viable.  Biomethane is a renewable option.  NGVs are part of the pathway to a hydrogen economy.