The lawnmower engine starts with unleaded gasoline and then can run on one of the other fuels with the flip of a switch. The project started in auto shop at Santana High School where students were involved in discovering how to produce hydrogen and burn it in an engine cleanly.

Wesolowski has been interested in hydrogen energy and combustion since the 6th grade when he learned magnesium could be used to split water. He has also experimented with electrolysis of salt water to create hydrogen as well.

Critics say that hydrogen cars won’t be on our highways and byways for another 50 years. But, with the help of early education and young inventors such as Josh Wesolowski, the hydrogen highway is just a stone’s throw away. Dr. Billings would be proud, I’m sure.

But, like the quality corporate citizen that they are Toyota is looking beyond the tailpipe to help reduce emissions and dependence upon oil. This will be the third year in a row that Toyota is participating in a Japanese government project to provide fuel cell cogeneration units for homes.

Toyota will send 24 fuel cells to Toho Gas Company, Limited, who will install them in residences in three different Japanese prefectures. The fuel cells are coupled with a hot water storage tank and because of recent improvements a 20-percent gain in heat recovery has been made.

So, what does the future hold? With a forward-thinking company like Toyota leading the charge, it is conceivable in the near future that well will be driving our Toyota fuel cell vehicles to work and back, then relax in the comfort of our Toyota fuel cell powered homes. Oh, what a feeling that would be.

The Hydrogen Sprint is designed to expose students to the potential of hydrogen as an alternative fuel source in the future. The high school students were also required to give a 10-minute speech on what they had learned about hydrogen by engaging in this competition.

Meanwhile, middle school students competed in the Hands-On-Hydrogen challenge. This challenge was part of the Department of Energy’s regional National Science Bowl competition, where students were also required to design, build and then race their hydrogen cars for top honors.

One of the winning teams, Miami’s Archimedean Middle Conservatory, will go onto compete in the National Middle School Science Bowl’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Challenge in Golden Colorado on June 19 – 22, 2008. The Archimedean team is made up entirely of sixth graders, the first time this has happened in the competition.

Competitions such as these give students exposure to hydrogen technology. By the time many of these students enter the workforce, they will be able to dive right into the field of alternative fuel vehicles and in particular hydrogen cars. Early education is the key to the clean, green jobs of tomorrow.

AC Transit, who currently operates three hydrogen hybrid buses in the Northern California area has agree to buy eight 120 kW PureMotion® Model 120 fuel cells to power the company’s next generation buses. From past testing, AC Transit has found that the UTC Power fuel cells run at 70 to 100-percent higher efficiency than their diesel bus counterparts.

The fuel cells also are responsible for zero emissions out the tailpipe and a quieter ride for passengers, since the UTC Power design runs at near-ambient pressure. Besides the hydrogen buses running in Oakland, AC Transit also runs similar buses in Palm Desert, CA, Hartford, CT and in Belgium as well.

UTC Power has also passed another milestone with NASA by topping 100,000 operating hours in space. UTC Power fuel cells have been aboard all Space Shuttles providing onboard electrical power for the systems and drinking water for the astronauts.

In fact, according to Aerospace Online, “Every U.S. manned space mission during the past four decades has used fuel cell power plants built by UTC Power.” Cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen are used to feed the fuel cells and there are three UTC Power fuel cells per spacecraft.

From bus drivers to astronauts, UTC Power is providing clean electricity for vehicles and a glimpse into the future for emission-free transportation.

ECTOS out of Reykjavík, Iceland stands for Ecological City Transport System. Hydrogen is being produced primarily by geothermal and hydropower and dispensed at the one public station that opened earlier this year serving the buses and several Toyota Priuses including a couple owned by Hertz Rental.

STEP (Sustainable Transport Energy for Perth) is an Australian enterprise based in Perth. The Perth hydrogen fuel cell buses have set the standard within the Fuel Cell Bus Club in regard to fuel economy and reliability. BP captures “waste hydrogen” from a local oil refinery, then ships this to Perth for the buses.

CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) has supplied the hydrogen fuel cell buses for the EU, including the cities of London, Madrid, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Stockholm, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Perth and Luxembourg. Most of the buses in the Fuel Cell Bus Club were manufactured by DaimlerChrysler and carry XCELLSIS Fuel Cell Engines.

The point of the Fuel Cell Bus Club is to combine forces among these different agencies and demonstrate the 33 buses across different countries (including the Hydrogen Link Network) and share information on technology, such as design, construction and operation. The Fuel Cell Bus Club also wants to exchange experiences among its members and collect findings.

According to JewishJournal.com, “C.En’s tank uses hydrogen gas collected from the environment (i.e., not produced from fossil fuels) and enclosed in a thin but leak-proof glass container. The best part: Drivers will be able to buy ‘gas’ at automotive or discount stores, fueling up approximately every 370 miles.”

Think about this for a moment. With this new model of storing hydrogen gas, fueling will no longer be tied to hydrogen fueling stations that model the current gasoline station infrastructure. The key is that the new C.En hydrogen tanks are swappable and that one extra tank can be carried aboard the vehicle as a backup.

This means that similar to buying and swapping out propane tanks for a barbeque at local discount stores, gasoline stations or convenience stores, the same could be true for hydrogen canisters as well. Under this model, hydrogen can be produced in either a centralized or decentralized manner, packaged in reusable canisters and shipping to a wide variety of locations where consumers can return their empties and swap them out for full canisters.

Consumers may also wish to stockpile up on these tanks and store a few extra in their garages for future use. It’s this kind of outside-the-box thinking that will mean that future hydrogen fueling infrastructure does not have to look anything like the current gasoline fueling infrastructure. In the end, the consumer will win with scenario as they will have more choices on where to buy hydrogen, store it and swap it out as needed.

According to Wylie, Ronn Motors is producing an exotic sports car called Scorpion, which is “like a Ferrari on steroids” that will include the Hydrorunner, for the purpose of increasing gas mileage and reducing emissions. The Scorpion will have a V6 bi-turbo gas engine.

What makes the Hydrorunner G3 unique among similar hydrogen fuel injection (HFI) units is that the Hydrorunner runs on tap water, uses no catalyst and is optimized with the help of a separate, secondary onboard computer. When I asked Mr. Wylie about the quality of the water needed, he said, “You can use any kind of water, tap water, water out of a creek or out of a garden hose.”

When I mentioned the mineral deposits left by tap water and possible degradation to the electrolysis unit, Wylie replied that the minerals left were negligible and that his company recommended that the hydrogen generator be flushed at the same time as every oil change.

I asked Mr. Wylie why his company doesn’t use a catalyst like other manufacturers of hydrogen boosters and he replied that “When you use a catalyst it affects the internal components of the engine.” He went onto say that the technical wizard behind the invention, John Swangler had found a proprietary method to avoid using a catalyst and this is one reason so many fleet managers were interested in this device right now.

Perhaps the most important part of the Hydrorunner G3 is not the electrolysis unit itself, but rather the secondary onboard computer that optimizes the flow of hydrogen on a per vehicle basis. Without the computer a vehicle can expect to generate 20 – 30 percent better fuel mileage.

With the help of the secondary computer that works in sync with the vehicle’s original computer, a car or truck can attain 84-percent or even higher mileage as I had mentioned in the last blog posting. Check Engine specializes in computer diagnostics and electronics, so coming up with a secondary computer for Hydrorunner was aligned with their technical expertise.

Wylie and Swangler started developing the Hydrorunner a little over a year ago when they opened Check Engine in 2007. Customers kept coming in and asking if there was anything Check Engine could do to help them save on gas. So, Wylie and Swangler started brainstorming a point-of-purchase product to sell to customers to help do just that.

In about a month they had a working prototype of the Hydrorunner and have been perfecting it ever since. The current price of the Hydrorunner G3 is $3,500 for gasoline-powered vehicles, $7,000 for diesel and $10,000 for Class A Tractors.

According to Wylie, “Affordability will come after provability, after we show real world results. Not everybody has $3,500 to $7,000 for the Hydrorunner, but prices will come down with economies of scale.” Mr. Wylie also stated that the Hydrorunner is transferrable between vehicles, so if you get a new car, they will port over the hydrogen generator for a service fee of a couple of hundred dollars.

I asked Mr. Wylie if he had contacted the military about his device since the U. S. government is a huge source for fleet vehicles and the military is constantly testing new alternative fuel vehicles. Mr. Wylie said that Battelle, who works with both the military and Department of Energy is interested in the Hydrorunner primarily because it doesn’t use a catalyst to achieve its results.

On a closing note, at a time when gasoline prices are at a record highs and energy independence is at the top of people’s minds, inventions such as this offer hope to many high-consumption fuel users. And in this regard, Bill Wylie quotes his partner John and says, “We’re not trying to invent the wheel, just make it go a little farther.”

On April 1 (and this is no joke), Prince Albert II (not in a can), the supreme head of Monaco, received the keys to the luxury zero emissions vehicle (ZEV). Handing over the keys to the BMW Hydrogen 7 was part of Monaco’s first ever environmental exhibition.

In the middle of April, J. D. Power, the founder and CEO of the huge corporation by the same name was also given the keys to test the vehicle for three weeks as part of the BMW Hydrogen 7 Pioneer Program. Handing the keys to J. D. “Dave” Power is a natural pairing since his global company is one of the largest customer satisfaction survey enterprises around, who specialize in researching consumer attitudes towards new car quality and long-term durability.

Last week, BMW CEO Dr. Norbert Reithofer presented the keys of the BMW Hydrogen 7 to President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering. The President can partake of Germany’s eight hydrogen fueling stations during his test of the vehicle.

And, actor Jason Bateman, the star of Arrested Development has also gotten his hands on a BMW Hydrogen 7. Like Jay Leno, Will Ferrell and Ed Norton before him, Bateman is the latest candidate in the entertainment industry to be cruising red carpets in this ZEV.

But, now that the month of April is coming to a close, we’ll just have to see if May will continue the BMW “Stars in Cars” program. Most likely, the answer is two thumbs up.

Well, now those days are over as the Hydrogen Highway song by Elmers Youngest has been released. Hydrogen Highway is an engaging country rock song aimed at rallying people around the cause of energy independence and cleaner air.

Hydrogen Highway is the ninth track on the album, “Elmers Youngest: A Kid With A Cause,” a CD featuring other important social topics such as homelessness, AIDS and drug addiction plus love of God and country.

According to Elmers, “Due to the oil crisis in our country and the need for alternative fueling, I felt that hydrogen was the way to go. Maybe if people’s hearts are touched by this song, it might motivate many, to a new approach regarding our oil dependence.”

Youngest got his musical and lyric-writing start in life as a child in Washington DC and Garrett Park, carrying protest signs and helping out at soup kitchens. Playing the piano by 8-years-old and original songs on his guitar by age 17, Youngest has since followed up his dreams with action.

A portion of the proceeds from Hydrogen Highway and the entire CD, (a smooth Southern blend of country, rock and jazz), will go to charity. So, don’t be afraid to jump on that hydrogen highway, my friends. And, when you do so, pop the Elmers Youngest disc into your CD player for that drive to work or a long road trip.

The electricity created by the HydroGen PAFC is used to help power the chemical facility. The HydroGen fuel cell prototype serves as a demonstration for several multi-megawatt fuel cell power plants to follow.

In the future, the 400 kw fuel cell will serve as the first of five such modules in a standard 2 MW “Power Island”. This HydroGen Power Island can then be scaled up to larger fuel cell power plants in the 6 MW – 30 MW range.

The chlor-alkali hydrogen fuel cell demonstration project in Ohio is not the first one of its kind, however. In March, I had talked about a chlor-alkali fuel cell power plant in The Netherlands, which had achieved over 4,000 operating hours.

In addition, the IWHUP (Integrated Waste Hydrogen Utilization Project) project in Canada is helping chemical companies that produce sodium chlorate use the waste hydrogen to power vehicles. IWHUP has estimated that chemical companies all over Canada waste enough hydrogen to power 200,000 fuel cell cars.