Originally published in Lockheed Martin Today, the employee newsletter of Lockheed Martin Corporation

May 3, 2003

Jay Keller of Sandia National Laboratories is one of the country's leading authorities on hydrogen and its potential as a clean energy source. So when President Bush mentioned hydrogen fuel in his State of the Union address in January, Keller immediately became a person whose knowledge was in public demand.

But before he'll talk about hydrogen's potential as an energy carrier, he wants everyone to know that he's "widget neutral."

Widget neutral?

His focus, he explains, is on the element, not on technology. There's a lot of talk these days about hydrogen fuel cells, but those fuel cells are just one of the many technologies - the widgets - that will be needed for hydrogen to become our energy source of choice, he says.

Keller prefers to talk about the big picture, and he's doing his best to ensure that people understand what he has to say.

In late February, in his capacity as manager of Sandia's hydrogen program, Keller appeared on the CBS Sunday Morning program. The show highlighted hydrogen fuel cells, the widgets, but it did give Keller an opportunity to present the broader view as well.

In singing hydrogen's praises, he said the potential energy source is "environmentally benign - no emissions, no urban air-quality problems, no CO2, no climate change."

In a nutshell, hydrogen is appealing because it generates energy but not harmful exhaust, says Keller, manager of the Energy Combustion and Hydrogen Energy Department at Sandia's Livermore, Calif., location. Sandia is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and managed by Lockheed Martin.

Sandia's hydrogen program is working closely with other national laboratories to advance the country's understanding of hydrogen and to develop a framework for its use as an energy source. That process involves identifying the problem (why we need hydrogen), defining its scope and seeking solutions, Keller says.

From Keller's perspective, the problem is carbon dioxide. Carbon emissions from our current combustion devices, such as car engines, are too high, and the carbon is negatively impacting air quality and the global climate.

The scope of the problem is enormous, he says, and needs to be resolved by reducing carbon emissions significantly. The solution revolves around creating combustion devices such as car engines that do not emit carbon. Hydrogen could play a dominant role in those devices and the complex infrastructure needed to convert to a major new energy source, he says.

Sandia and its national laboratory partners bring to the table world-class research experience in the areas of solid-state hydrogen storage, materials science, chemically reacting fuels, systems integration and analysis, and nuclear energy.

The teammates are working to better understand hydrogen's capabilities and to develop "bridging strategies" that transition from the current hydrocarbon-based infrastructure to a hydrogen infrastructure that will enable the country to move from its dependence on oil to reliance on hydrogen.

"In the long term, hydrogen really does promise to be an environmentally benign energy carrier, like electricity," Keller says. "And with it, we paint a picture of an improved standard of living. Air quality is better. We have energy security, because we've created energy diversity. And we've solved the climate-change issues."

"This is a legacy I'm proud to leave for the next generation," he says. "It really is motherhood and apple pie."

Although Keller is "widget neutral," he admits that he is grateful for hydrogen fuel cells - because they're a technology people have grabbed on to, and that excitement has helped shine the spotlight on the need for pursuing hydrogen as a clean-energy source.

During his State of the Union address, President Bush proposed $1.2 billion in research funding "so America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles."

"With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free," the President said.

Advancing to that point means developing an entirely new infrastructure to support hydrogen. Can it be done? Yes, says Keller, noting that the bridging strategies being developed by Sandia and its national-laboratory partners provide the road map.

"It will be a long haul," Keller says, noting that today's energy infrastructure took more than 50 years to develop. "It will be costly, too, but it will be worth our effort, because it will move us toward a carbon-free society and a healthier world."