GM RESEARCHING HYDROGEN FUEL STORAGE TECHNOLOGY AUTOMAKER TEAMS WITH GOVERNMENT SCIENTISTS AT LAB.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

General Motors officials gave a progress report Monday on the company's efforts to create the automobiles of tomorrow by developing hydrogen fuel cell technology.

The Detroit automaker is working with government scientists at Sandia National Laboratory in Livermore to design new methods for storing hydrogen fuel - one of the biggest challenges to bringing hydrogen-powered vehicles to market.

``We're looking to literally reinvent the automobile,'' said Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research, development and planning.

Burns spoke with journalists during a tour of Sandia's research facility in Livermore, about 50 miles east of San Francisco. The national lab, which develops nuclear weapons and military technology for the federal government, has several decades of experience working on hydrogen storage. The automaker will continue its showcase today, with a tour of the HRL Laboratories LLC in Malibu, where scientists are working on using solid stored hydrogen to power vehicles.

``We're trying to make it as transparent to the driver as possible,'' said Matthew Ganz, HRL's president and chief executive officer. ``You'd just go to the hydrogen filling station or maybe even one day do it at home. While the car's parked in your garage, you could use the fuel cell to power your house.''

Widespread use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions, backers say. But the technology faces many challenges, including high costs and the lack of infrastructure such as a network of hydrogen fueling stations.

In recent years, GM has been one of the auto industry's most vocal champions of hydrogen fuel cells, which generate electricity from a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen and release only water as waste.

But environmentalists have criticized the automaker for putting so much emphasis on fuel cell vehicles, which are still years away from the marketplace. They say GM should instead focus more on increasing the fuel efficiency of their cars and trucks to cut petroleum consumption and reduce air pollution.

By sharing its latest research efforts, GM officials hope to demonstrate that the company is making progress on the key technological challenge of storing hydrogen, a low-density gas that must be converted into a denser form to be stored on board a vehicle.

``Hydrogen storage is one of the key hurdles in creating hydrogen-based transportation system,'' said James Spearot, director of GM's chemical and environmental sciences laboratory.

GM, Sandia and HRL scientists are developing a method to store hydrogen in a fuel tank by using compounds known as complex metal hydrides that can absorb and release hydrogen. The automaker aims to create a practical vehicle that can drive 300 miles between fuel stops within five years.

``We really think we've made great progress,'' Burns said. ``But there are still a lot of great challenges, technological and engineering-wise, ahead of us.''