Getting power to the people: technological dramaturgy and the quest for the electrochemical engine
2009; Routledge; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07341510802618174
ISSN1477-2620
Autores Tópico(s)Global Energy and Sustainability Research
ResumoAbstract Despite over 50 years of concerted effort by government and industry since the end of the Second World War, expectations for a cheap, durable commercial fuel cell have been repeatedly dashed. I argue this is so mainly because researchers have historically conceived the fuel cell as a universal chemical energy converter, a kind of super battery that combined the best aspects of battery and heat engine. Dramatic demonstrations of notional and prototype hydrogen fuel cells in controlled conditions attracted short‐term investments in further research and inspired hopes that long‐lived and affordable commercial fuel cells using hydrocarbons could be developed. However, building such an electrochemical engine proved a complex and costly process, one that few sponsors were willing to support for long in the absence of rapid progress. I explore these dynamics in a comparative study of the fuel cell programs of General Electric and Ballard Power Systems. Keywords: battery electric vehiclefuel cellproton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cellzero emission vehicle Acknowledgements The author thanks the anonymous referee and Martin J. Collins for criticism of earlier drafts of this paper. Notes 1. This type of fuel cell is also known as a solid polymer fuel cell (SPFC). 2. Lécuyer and Brock, 'Materiality of Microelectronics,' 307. 3. For example, see Vincenti, What Engineers Know; Channell, History of Engineering; Dennis, 'Accounting for Research,' Reich, Making of American; and Hoddeson, 'Discovery of the Point‐Contact.' 4. For a definitive treatment of the origins and perpetuation of the dogma of 'applied science,' see Kline, 'Construing "Technology,"' 220–1. David Edgerton has argued that the linear model was wholly the creation of academics, who preferred setting it up as a straw man to a more incisive investigation of the nature of technological innovation. Edgerton rightly notes that a formal linear research and development policy has never been drafted; see Edgerton, '"Linear Model Did Not Exist,"' 31–4. Nevertheless, planners have long been influenced by linear ideology, with pervasive effects on technology development programs; see Brooks, 'Evolution of U.S. Science,' 21. 5. For notable work dealing with this subject, see Choi, 'Boundaries of Industrial'; Lécuyer and Brock, 'Materiality of Microelectronics'; Berlin, Man Behind the Microchip; Bassett, To the Digital Age; Leslie, 'Blue Collar Science'; and Leslie, 'Charles F. Kettering.' 6. Michel Callon noted these tendencies in fuel cell experiments in France in the 1960s and 1970s; see Callon, 'State and Technical Innovation,' 362–6; and Callon, 'Sociology of an Actor‐Network,' 28–31. 7. Shapin and Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air Pump; Hilgartner, Science on Stage. 8. Although federal agencies spent considerable sums on fuel cell development after 1945, this support was intermittent. Most funds went not to universities or polytechnical institutes but to industrial contractors, who consequently found themselves plagued by a critical shortage of labor. Often forced to improvise, they retrained physical chemists and chemical engineers and imported European electrochemists; see US Energy Study Group, Energy Research and Development, 302–8. 9. Cook, 'Introductory Remarks,' 1–2. 10. Barber and Associates, Advanced Research Projects Agency, III‐2, III‐70–III‐76. 11. Memorandum, 'Project Lorraine Summary,' undated, Box 4, Project Lorraine – Energy Conversion, 1958–1966 Official Correspondence Files – Materials Sciences Office, Advanced Research Projects Agency, Accession Number 68‐A‐2658, Record Group 330, National Archives and Records Administration II, College Park, MD (hereafter cited as 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330). The IDA had an intimate relationship with ARPA that had important consequences for the hydrocarbon fuel cell program. Formed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1954 at the request of the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the IDA was designed to give the Department of Defense access to civilian scientific expertise. It also played a key role in organizing ARPA and supplying it with systems analysis. Both ARPA and IDA officials were allowed to approach private companies that were under contract to the Department of Defense and recruit staff to work for them for one to two years, receiving compensation only from the IDA. In short, industry researchers were paid to advise ARPA on the disbursement of contracts to industry; see York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, 140–3. As a result of this close relationship, ARPA planners went to work for the IDA and vice‐versa while industry leaked progress reports to IDA that eventually filtered back to ARPA. 12. Grubb, 'Ion‐Exchange Batteries,' 5; Perry and Fuller, 'A Historical Perspective,' S60. 13. US Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory, 'Fuel Cell for Radar Set AN/TPS‐26 (XN‐1),' 1 January 1961, 2; Project Lorraine Summary, Box 4, Project Lorraine – Energy Conversion, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330, 8–9. 14. Charles F. Yost, 'General Electric Contract DA‐36 039 AMC‐00095 (E),' 22 April 1963, Box 1, AO 80‐General Electric; John H. Huth, 'Termination of Work Under ARPA Order 80,' 15 April 1964, Box 1, AO 80‐General Electric; 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330. 15. General Electric, 'Saturated Hydrocarbon Fuel Cell Program (ERDL), Quarterly Letter Report Number 1, December 1, 1961–March 31, 1962,' undated, Box 2, AO 247‐General Electric, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330, 2; Grubb, 'Hydrocarbon Fuel Cells,' 31–32. 16. Yost, 'Renewal of Program in Electrochemistry, August 13, 1962,' AO 247‐General Electric Company, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330. 17. A 'direct' system employs an unprocessed carbonaceous fuel while an 'indirect' fuel cell uses a hydrogen‐rich fuel gas produced from a carbonaceous substance. 18. J.W. Babcock to George Szego, 17 September 1962, Box 4, Project Lorraine – Energy Conversion, 1; G.C. Szego to S.S. Penner, 20 September 1962, Box 4, Project Lorraine – Energy Conversion, 5–6; 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330. 19. J.P Ruina, 25 September 1962, Box 2, AO 247‐General Electric, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330. 20. F.T. Bacon, 'Visit by Mr. F.T. Bacon and Mr. K.E.V. Willis of NRDC to Fuel Cell Activities in the USA,' July 1961, Section B, Research and Development, Energy Conversion Limited, Reports, B.672, Papers and Correspondence of Francis Thomas Bacon, Reference Code NCUACS 68.6.97, Churchill College Archives Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 5. 21. Yost, 'Increased Funding For Applied Fuel Cell Research at General Electric‐ARPA Order 247, Amendment 5,' 8 April 1963, Box 2, AO 247‐General Electric, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330. 22. Oscar P. Cleaver, 25 March 1963, Box 2, AO 247‐General Electric; Yost, 'Increased Funding for Applied Fuel Cell Research at General Electric‐AO 247, Amendment 5,' 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330. 23. General Electric, 'Quarterly Letter Report Number 3, January 1 1963–March 31 1963,' undated, Box 2, AO 247‐General Electric, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330, 8–9. 24. General Electric, 'Quarterly Letter Report Number 3, January 1 1963–March 31 1963,' Box 2, AO 247‐General Electric, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330, 3. 25. One ARPA scientist claimed that terrestrial systems were 'less exotic' than their aerospace counterparts, though they had to be built more ruggedly, implying that technologies able to withstand the harsh environment of space should be capable of meeting the requirements of terrestrial operations, a view then common in NASA, the fuel cell community and the business media; Huth, 'Program Plan No. 4: Program Plan for Electrochemistry,' 1 February 1963, Box 2, AO 247‐Monsanto Research Corporation, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330, 1. 26. 'GE Fuel Cell Advances,' Wall Street Journal, April 24, 1963. 27. M.J. Schlatter et al., 'Special Report No. 1: Appraisal of State of Development of Low Temperature Hydrocarbon–Oxygen (Or Air) Fuel Cells,' 6 September 1963, Box 2, AO 247‐California Research Corporation, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330, 1–2. 28. Raymond H. Comyn, 8 November 1963, Box 4, AO 566‐Harry Diamond Laboratories, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330, 3. The US Bureau of Mines indicated the entire US supply of palladium, the next most common platinoid metal after platinum itself, was sufficient to build 30,000 automotive fuel cells annually. The US imported most of its platinum group metals. In 1962, it consumed 866,459 ounces, the lion's share of global production of 1.314 million ounces, but produced only 28,742 ounces. 29. Liebhafsky, 'Fuel Cells and Fuel Batteries,' 53. 30. Of the US$14.6 million ARPA invested in power technology research through FY 1964, about US$8 million was spent on fuel cells, of which General Electric received the vast majority; Huth, 'Comments on IDA Report R‐103 by R. Hamilton and G. Szego,' 2 March 1964, Box 4, Project Lorraine‐Energy Conversion, 1958–1966 OCF‐MSO, ARPA, AN 68‐A‐2658, RG 330, 2. 31. Oster, 'Ion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells,' 23. 32. Ernst M. Cohn, 'The Growth of Fuel Cell Systems,' August 1965, NASA HQ RN 13761, Propulsion: Auxiliary Power, Fuel Cells, 1961–1999, 6–7; William Simon, interview by John Mauer, 'Oral History with Bill Simon about Early Space Shuttle Development,' 22 March 1984, RN 15557, Program: Shuttle, Location: SHU‐INT2, University of Houston – Clear Lake, Neumann Library, Houston, Texas, 7. 33. Grimwood and Hacker, Project Gemini Technology, 116–17. 34. Hacker and Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans, 178. 35. Direct Energy Conversion Operation, General Electric, 'Fuel Cells for Power in Space,' NAM/NASM 1673, Cat. No. 1966‐0646 and 0647, National Air and Space Museum Archive, Washington, DC. 36. Anon, 'Commercial Uses of Fuel Cell Seen,' 38. 37. Smithsonian Institution News, 10 January 1966, NAM/NASM 1673, Cat. No. 1966/646‐647, pp. 0028–0029. 38. Malik and Souris, NASA Contractor Report, 50–9. Of 13 Gemini missions, batteries were used as the sole power source for six flights. 39. Simon, interview by Mauer, 7. 40. In the 1960s, NASA spent US$170 million on fuel cells of which about US$100 million went to Pratt & Whitney and most of the remainder to General Electric; Gerald J. Mossinghoff, Deputy Assistant Administrator (Policy), Office of Legislative Affairs, to Carl Swartz, Minority Staff, Committee on Science and Astronautics, House of Representatives, 18 August 1971, NASA HQ RN 13761, Propulsion: Auxiliary Power, Fuel Cells, Memos, News Releases, 1974–, 1. 41. Cohn, 'Interdepartmental Energy Study: Chemical and Biochemical Fuel Cells,' 19 August 1963, 12–13; Cohn, 'Primary Hydrogen–Oxygen Fuel Cells For Space,' June 1967, 10; NASA HQ RN 13761: Propulsion: Auxiliary Power: Fuel Cells, 1961–1999. 42. Perry and Fuller, 'A Historical Perspective,' S64; Prater, 'Renaissance of the Solid,' 239. 43. Koppel, Powering the Future, 34–5. 44. Prater, 'Renaissance of the Solid,' 240; Koppel, Powering the Future, 58–90. 45. Stone and Morrison, 'From Curiosity,' 5; Koppel, Powering the Future, 91–6, 201. The journalist Tom Koppel noted the impression Ballard's tests of Dow membrane made on Byron McCormick, head of the Department of Energy's fuel cell division at Los Alamos National Laboratories. Koppel reported that at a conference in Arizona in 1986 during which Ballard officials announced that they had improved current density by a factor of four, McCormick remarked that Ballard had 'just made the electric vehicle possible.' Interestingly, Ballard's experiments with fuel cells helped save its moribund battery business. Impressed with one of its early stacks, the Vancouver venture capitalist Michael Brown raised US$1.3 million in 1987 to help put Ballard's disposable lithium battery into production to meet Canadian and US military orders largely by selling investors on the company's future growth potential as a leader in PEM fuel cell technology; Koppel, Powering the Future, 94, 114–16. 46. The law stipulated that in 1998, 2% of cars and light‐duty trucks sold in the state had to be zero emission vehicles; the quota increased to 5% in 2001 and 10% in 2003; California Environmental Protection Agency, Air Resources Board, 'Zero Emission Vehicle Program.' 47. Kirsch, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, 206; Mom, Electric Vehicle, 273–4. 48. Interestingly, as the car companies negotiated with the CARB in late 1995, they offered to produce a total of 5000 battery electric vehicles in late 1996 and early 1997, well before the 1998 deadline, and 14,000 in 1998. In exchange, they wanted to revise the 1998 quota of 22,000 zero emission vehicles; Cone, 'Firms Offer to Make Electric Cars,' A3; Cone, 'Board to Ease Mandate,' A3. This contradicted the auto industry's argument that premature introduction of battery electric automobiles would destroy consumer confidence in them. David Kirsch also notes this 'odd twist' in the negotiating stance of the automakers; see The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, 207. 49. Hoffmann, The Forever Fuel, 119–24. 50. Appleby, 'Issues in Fuel Cell,' 172. 51. In the early 1990s, Ballard, Daimler‐Benz and the US Department of Energy determined that a viable automotive fuel cell had to produce between 500 and 1000 watts per kilogram; Prater, 'Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells,' 139. 52. Stone and Morrison, 'From Curiosity,' 5–7. Geoffrey Ballard claimed that the company's first fuel cell electric bus demonstrator, unveiled in 1993, had been conceived by he and British Columbia energy minister Jack Davis. According to Ballard, Davis agreed to provide funds in exchange for a 'green photo‐op' to help boost the sagging political fortunes of then‐premier William Vander Zalm (Koppel, Powering the Future, 147–8). 53. Koppel claims Ballard Power Systems' decision to forgo niche markets was largely the initiative of Brown and Firoz Rasul, who replaced Geoffrey Ballard as chief executive officer in 1989. Brown reasoned that although such applications might raise more revenue in the short‐term, they would detract from Ballard's 'end target:' large stationary generators and, above all, automotive power; Koppel, Powering the Future, 126. 54. Ballard made the multi‐fuel claim at least as far back as 1997 and maintained it until 2002; Ballard Power Systems, Inc., 2001 Annual Report, 17. 55. Suris, 'Daimler‐Benz Unveils,' B2. 56. National Research Council, Review of the Research Program of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, 12–13. 57. Chalk et al., 'New Generation of Vehicles,' 10. 58. Anon, 'Ford, Chrysler Win,' B2. 59. Stone and Morrison, 'From Curiosity,' 8. 60. The Times' technology correspondent suggested that fuel cells operated equally well on any hydrogen‐rich fuel including liquid hydrogen, methanol, ethanol and gasoline; Nuttall, 'Breathtaking … the Vehicle Powered by Air.' 61. Mitchener and Carlisle, 'Daimler, Ballard Team,' B8. 62. Reitman, 'Ford is Investing,' 1; DePalma, 'Ford Joins in a Global Alliance,' D1. 63. Ball, 'DaimlerChrysler Unveils,' 1; Billed as the first street‐legal fuel cell car in the USA, the hydrogen‐fuelled NECAR IV was a retrograde move in the DaimlerChrysler's thrust towards methanol‐fuelled systems. 64. Lloyd, 'California Fuel Cell Partnership,' 57. Subsequently, most other major automakers joined the CAFCP. 65. Stone and Morrison, 'From Curiosity,' 8. 66. The auto and oil industries invested heavily lobbying the CARB to weaken the ZEV program, spending about US$66 million between 1991 and mid‐2000; Heavner, Pollution Politics 2000, 7–8. By 2001, there were about 3000 battery electric passenger vehicles operating in California. Beginning in 1996, General Motors offered the EV‐1 for lease in California and Arizona, building around 1000 before halting production in 2000. Ford produced a similar number of Th!nk City cars, offering them for lease starting in 2001 in California, New York, Michigan, Georgia and Europe. In 2003, the CARB postponed ZEV quotas until the end of the decade and in 2004, American automakers began recalling these vehicles and destroying them. After heavy lobbying by Greenpeace, 300 Ford Th!nk City automobiles were made available for sale through Ford dealerships in Norway. 67. In his 2006 documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car? Chris Paine touched briefly on the issue of battery vs fuel cell power for electric drive automobiles. He understood the involvement of the auto and oil industries in fuel cells as essentially a costly propaganda effort calculated to create the impression of progress in environmentally sustainable automotive technology while allowing them to dispense with simpler battery electric, a system they regarded as a threat to their profits. 68. In 1997, the proton exchange membrane alone cost between US$400 and 1000 per kilowatt, or US$50 and 70 per square foot. This had to be reduced to between US$5 and 15 per square foot for fuel cell electric automobiles to be considered commercially viable; Wilkinson and Steck, 'General Progress in the Research,' 32. 69. Borroni‐Bird, 'Fuel Cell Commercialization,' 42; Exxon researchers estimated the cost of replacing gasoline with methanol would cost between US$15 and 23 billion for each million barrels per day, amounting to hundreds of billions for complete duplication of production; Berlowitz and Darnell, 'Fuel Choices,' 50. 70. National Research Council, Review of the Research Program of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, Second Report, 53–4; National Research Council, Review of the Research Program of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, Third Report, 65; Chalk et al., 'Challenges for Fuel Cells,' 44. 71. Eudy, 'Field Operations Program,' 10. 72. By the late 2000s, Toyota had sold several hundred thousand copies of its Prius model, relatively few compared to gasoline automobiles but far more than the battery electric automobile programs. 73. Stone, First Annual Society of Chemical Industry–Chemical Heritage Foundation Innovation Day, Philadelphia, PA, 14 September 2004. 74. Stobart, 'Fuel Cell Power for Passenger Cars,' 14. 75. DeCicco, Fuel Cell Vehicles, 61. 76. Casten et al., 'Fuels for Fuel Cell‐Powered Vehicles,' 61–7. 77. National Research Council, Review of the Research Program of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, Sixth Report, 85–7. 78. National Research Council and National Academy of Engineering, Hydrogen Economy, 27. 79. Stone, 14 September 2004. In its annual reports, Ballard did not cite fuel as a factor under 'Risks and Uncertainties' until the 2002 edition, released in early 2003. The firm then cautioned that hydrogen was the only suitable fuel for fuel cell automobiles and that a mass market required third party investment in a hydrogen infrastructure; Ballard Power Systems, 2002 Annual Report, 44–5. 80. Ball, 'Fuel Cell Makers,' B2. 81. Bush, 'President Delivers;' Bush, 'Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.' 82. US House, Path to a Hydrogen Economy, 96, 125. 83. Kirsch, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, 206. 84. Kirsch, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, 204–5; Mom, Electric Vehicle, 273–4. 85. Fackler, 'Latest Honda Runs on Hydrogen.'
Referência(s)