Speaking to the Chattanooga Engineers Club on Monday, Mark Hairr said, because of the availability of affordable off-peak power generation from TVA, that Chattanooga has a competitive advantage for bringing hydrogen fuel cell development to the area.

The current focus of hydrogen fuel cell technology is turning to mass transit, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will be an important component in the research and development that will ultimately bring a hydrogen fuel cell bus to the campus, he said.

Mr. Hairr is the research program director for UTC’s Advanced Technologies for Transportation Research Program. He said the mission of the program is to advance tomorrow’s transportation technology today.

Another positive for UTC and the Chattanooga area is the availability of a test track that UTC is on the verge of receiving from TVA. The test track is off Amnicola Highway near the Chickamauga Dam. Mr. Hairr said that it is better for a test vehicle to fail on a test track rather than on a city street. If the public sees that the test vehicle is often broken down on the city streets, it begins to build a negative reputation - when, in actuality, much good can be gained from analyzing the breakdown. Other cities envy Chattanooga’s test track, Mr. Hairr said.

Hydrogen fuel cell buses are energy efficient, operate with reduced or eliminated emissions, and get higher average miles per gallon than diesel buses, Mr. Hairr said. The downside is that they are costly because none are being mass produced because the technology is in its infancy. The cost of getting a hydrogen fuel cell bus for the UTC campus is about $1 million.

Other negative issues with hydrogen fuel cell buses, said Mr. Hairr, are the higher operating costs, the training and acceptance issues, and the fact that the majority of fuel cell research to this point has been for automobiles. Also, there are technical barriers such as the cost of hydrogen production, storage facilities for hydrogen, and development of a distribution system.

The ATTRP has studied the UTC campus and downtown Chattanooga transportation routes and the particular needs for making logical connections between the two, he said. Already, ATTRP has partnered with CARTA to do several research projects for them; and, in return, UTC students have free access to all CARTA buses as well as a CARTA shuttle bus on the campus.

Mr. Hairr said that the ATTRP is doing studies for various other cities and municipalities to address their transportation needs. One study involves Cades Cove in the Smokey Mountains and Townsend, Tn. He said those areas need an alternative fuel vehicle for shuttle service that will eliminate some of the traffic and reduce the emissions from automobiles.

Intelligent transportation systems have also been looked at by the ATTRP. Mr. Hairr said that Sevierville already has real-time monitoring of the city’s trolleys at the trolley stops and is an excellent example of ITS. Riders can check the real-time map and see where the next trolley is located before deciding to wait. At Auburn University, in Alabama, students can monitor the location of campus buses in real-time and dart out of their rooms just in time to catch a bus to class.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are definitely in our future, Mr. Hairr said. Estimates are that the internal combustion engine vehicle will be obsolete around the year 2050. Fuel cell vehicle efficiency is three times better than internal combustion engines according to in-house testing at Toyota.

Dana Wilbourn
dbwilbourn@yahoo