ydrogen becomes more viable alternative fuel
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By Timothy J. Hammons
Staff Writer
Imagine a world where Australia is
inly a two-hour flight away from here,
here the “greenhouse effect” is no
nger a concern and where there is an
undant amount of fuel for auto-
obiles.
With the use of hydrogen as a fuel,
ese ideas may not be so far in the fu-
re, said William B. Craven, manager
i>f Texas A&M’s Center for Electroche-
ical Systems and Hydrogen Research.
The center, a department of the Texas
Ingineering Experiment Station, is rec-
nized as the leading institute in the
United States in hydrogen research.
I “We can take hydrogen and use it any
where that hydrocarbons, gasoline and
diesel fuels are used,” Craven said.
He said hydrogen could be used by ev
eryone because it comes from water.
“If you run out of water, you’don’t
worry about fuel,” he said.
A problem with hydrogen, however,
is that it usually stays in the form of wa
ter, he said.
The center seeks to break hydrogen
away from the oxygen in water with sun
light, through a process called water
electrolysis.
Electrolysis uses solar cells to gener
ate electricity, through which the water
is passed.
Electricity breaks up molecules and
gives off oxygen that can be contained or
allowed to dissipate. The hydrogen is
contained and used to create electricity
or used in an internal combustion engine.
Craven said that hydrogen makes a
better fuel than hydrocarbons.
When hydrogen is burned in an en
gine, the hydrogen recombines with oxy
gen from the air and creates heat, which
provides energy, he said.
With gasoline, the output of the ex
haust is carbon monoxide and carbon di
oxide, which pollutes the atmosphere.
With hydrogen, the problem of pollut
ion does not exist, he said.
If the world were to stop using fossil
fuels today, he said, it would take 20
years to stop the warming effects that
pollution already has caused.
Because the hydrogen for fuel comes
from water, it is available to every coun
try that has the technology to collect it.
“The beauty of hydrogen is no one can
monopolize it,” he said. “There are prob
ably 30 countries in the world that are
working on hydrogen research.
“They realize the value, that no one
country will be able to dominate the
process.
“The only reason we’re not using it to
day is crude oil is cheap,” Craven said.
“It is a lot cheaper to drill a hole in the
ground and get an enormous amount of
energy out of it.”
The cost for the hydrogen conversion
is equated to about $3.50 per gallon of
gasoline, he said.
Craven said that West Germany has
legislated that the country will use hy
drogen as its major source of energy by
the turn of the century.
Both BMW and Mercedes Benz have
developed hydrogen test cars, and Mer
cedes will have a hydrogen car in pro
duction next year.
Soviet Union recently flew an aircraft
using hydrogen, he said.
United States did the same 20 years
ago.
Aerospace plane proposed by the U.S.
military is fueled with hydrogen.
The plane takes off and lands as a nor
mal plane, he said, but it will be capable
of going into the upper atmosphere.
Hydrogen burns so quickly and fast
that it is the only fuel that can be used to
fly faster than Mach 7, he said.
Aerospace plane will fly at Mach 17 to
Mach 22, which is about 11,000 mph to
14,000 mph.
Flying at such speeds, a flight from
California to Japan would take 30 min
utes, Craven said. It now takes about 10
hours.
Another application of hydrogen is in
the use of a fuel cell, which converts hy
drogen into electricity, he said.
Fuel cell would allow on-the-spot gen
eration of electricity, he said.
The center would like to place nuclear
power plants in remote areas, where the
electricity needed to produce hydrogen
would be produced.
Hydrogen then would be piped into a
city, where it could be used with the fuel
cell to produce electricity.
Craven said a problem with using long
power cables is the loss of power over
long distances.
However, very little hydrogen is lost
in pipelines.
Conservationists
denounce Bush
for nature policy
Cal
AUSTIN (AP) — Republican pres-
I idential candidate George Bush per
sonally led an effort that has resulted
in poisonous chemicals making their
way into Texas waterways, according
:o a report released Tuesday by two
onservationist groups.
Brigid Shea, elections and pro
ram coordinator for Texas Clean
Water Action, said, “It is inconceiv-
tble to anyone in the environmental
ommunity that George Bush consid-
rs himself an environmentalist.
“I know of no environmental orga-
lization that has endorsed George
ush or praises his record. ”
Ken Kramer, legislative director of
’Tr" he Texas Sierra Club, said his orga-
^ nzation nationally — with almost
>00,000 members — had not made
in endorsement in the presidential
flection, but it has left no doubt as to
ho has a superior environmental re-
ord.
Because of that, Kramer said, he
as strongly endorsing the Demo-
ratic ticket of Michael Dukakis and
loyd Bentsen.
Texas Land Commissioner Garry
auro, a Democrat, said Bush is
othing more than a campaign con-
ervationist. Calling Bush an envi-
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ronmentalist is like calling (GOP vice
presidential candidate) Dan Quayle a
Phi Beta Kappa, Mauro said.
Rep. Lena Guerrero, D-Austin,
joined in support of the national Dem
ocratic candidates at a news confer
ence to release the report criticizing
Bush’s environmental record. It was
prepared by Clean Water Action and
the Sierra Club.
A summary said Bush, as chair
man of the Task Force on Regulatory
Relief, had led the effort to block or
weaken federal laws protecting air,
land and water, and suspended water
pollution control laws designed to
prevent thousands of tons of such
toxic metals as cadmium, zinc and
chromium from entering waterways.
The national task force was a vehi
cle which allowed some of the na
tion’s largest polluters to rescind, de
lay or obstruct environmental laws
designed to protect the population.
Mark Sanders of the Bush cam
paign in Texas said in response if
there is any doubt that Dukakis — not
Bush — is an “anti-environmental
ist, they ought to go look at Boston
Harbor,” in Dukakis’ home state of
Massachusetts.
Presidential ballots impounded
because of misleading printing
AUSTIN (AP) — The secretary of state ordered pa
per ballots in Hidalgo County impounded Tuesday,
charging they were printed in such a way as to make
voters think they could cast a separate vote for Demo
crat Lloyd Bentsen as vice president.
“It is incredible for me to believe that this was an
oversight or a typographical error,” Assistant Secretary
of State Randy Erben said. “If it is deliberate, there’s
no place in the process for election officials to act in
such an illegally partisan manner.”
Hidalgo County Clerk William “Billy” Leo was in
a meeting and not immediately available to comment,
his secretary said.
According to Erben, paper ballots printed for the up
coming general election correctly placed one check-off
box next to the presidential tickets of the Republican,
Libertarian and New Alliance parties.
But for the Democratic ticket of Michael Dukakis
and Bentsen, a box was printed next to each name.
Erben said he believes the ballot was printed that
way to make voters think they could vote for Bush as
president and Bentsen, a three-term Texas senator, as
vice president.
Marking both would invalidate the presidential por
tion of the ballot, he said.
State election law calls for a single vote to be cast
for a party’s president-vice president ticket.
“It appears we have a deliberate conspiracy to de
prive voters of their civil rights,” Erben charged at a
news conference.
Bentsen also is listed on the ballot as a candidate for
re-election to the Senate. That is allowed under the
state’s “Lyndon law” that permits dual candidacies.
Erben said Secretary of State Jack Rains’ office or
dered Leo to impound the Hidalgo County paper bal
lots. Both those ballots already voted absentee and
those still blank.
Leo was ordered to print new paper ballots and to
send corrected ballots to those who requested absentee
mail-in ballots.
The Texas Department of Public Safety and FBI
were asked to investigate, Erben said, and ballots in all
253 other counties would be checked to make certain
the same thing hadn’t happened there.
Slum area tries to obtain clean water
EL PASO (AP) — People working to
bring water to rural slums east of El Paso
hope they bypassed a federal bu
reaucratic roadblock by sending an envi
ronmental assessment directly to the in
terior secretary.
Assessment was delivered Monday to
Interior Secretary Donald Hodel, Dale
Jones, president of the El Paso County
Lower Valley Water District Authority,
said.
Water authority is trying to bring clean
running water and sewerage service to
“colonias” — poverty-stricken housing
subdivisions in east El Paso County’s
Lower Valley where about 28,000 peo
ple live without treated running water.
Authority plans to convert Rio Grande
irrigation water for household use. But
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — an
agency of the interior department — said
this summer that the authority would
have to submit a detailed environmental
impact statement because of the plan to
change the use of the river water.
An impact statement could take up to
two years to complete, delaying the de
livery of water to colonias. So the au
thority sent a less-detailed environmental
assessment over the Bureau of Reclama
tion’s head to Hodel.
El Paso Mayor Jonathan Rogers, U.S.
Rep. Ronald Coleman and both U.S.
senators from Texas have asked Hodel to
meet with Lower Valley residents.
Jones said he hopes Hodel will ap
prove the water authority’s plan to bring
water to about 9,000 colonia residents in
the next three years.
The assessment, completed a week
ago by the Rio Grande Council of Gov
ernments, shows that bringing water to
the colonias would improve human
health and welfare without adversely af
fecting the environment in the short
term.
Some colonia residents drink water
from wells they sink in their yards, but
most of those wells have been shown to
be contaminated with sewage from out
houses and septic tanks.
Many colonia residents have to go to
churches and houses in communities
with water, fill plastic jugs with water
and tote them back.
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