Fuel cell expert takes the long view

DETROIT - General Motors is spending about $100 million a year to get a fuel cell vehicle into mass production by the end of the decade. Other automakers also have multimillion-dollar programs to create the vehicles.

But Craig Marks doesn't expect to see fuel cell autos in mass production by 2010.

Marks' opinion carries some weight. Nearly 40 years ago, he was the chief engineer on GM's Electrovan - the world's first fuel cell-powered automobile - at a time when fuel cell technology truly was rocket science. NASA used fuel cells to generate electricity and oxygen for astronauts.

Many of the obstacles facing GM and other automakers working to bring hydrogen-powered fuel cells to market haven't changed since the mid-1960s. Among them:

In the mid-1960s, if you were an engineer working with leading technology, and you weren't working on putting a man on the moon, perhaps the next best place to be was GM's Technical Center in Warren, Mich.

Because of the space program, fuel cells were in the news. In 1964, GM Executive Vice President Ed Cole told Marks, GM's assistant engineer of power development, he wanted to investigate fuel cells and learn what their potential might be as a future automotive drivetrain. Cole ordered a fuel cell vehicle built - the sooner the better.

There were problems: Since no automaker had tried to develop a fuel cell-powered auto, no one knew how to package it in a vehicle or develop a controlling system. And GM had none of the complex equipment to build and test fuel cells.

Marks assembled GM's first fuel cell team by selecting about 250 mechanical engineers - GM had no electrical engineers at the time - from the automaker's various divisions. Building on technology developed for the electric Corvair, the team began work on what would become the Electrovan. The vehicle was based on a 1965 GMC Handi-Van.

GM hired battery maker Union Carbide Corp. to build the electricity-producing hydrogen-oxygen alkaline fuel cell for the van. GM engineers, without computers, developed the electronic control system that ran the fuel cell and regulated the flow of electricity to the electric motor.

The Electrovan developed 125 hp, had a top speed of 70 mph and could go about 150 miles before refueling.

"The purpose was not to say this is something we are going to go into production with," Marks said. "We are going to learn enough to help direct the research that was necessary. You learn a whole host of things by putting systems together."

Except for some warning lights and different electrical gauges, the Electrovan looks normal from the front. The batteries and much of the plumbing for the fuel cell's hydrogen and oxygen fuel supply are under the floor.

But the van's rear has gauges and electrical components neatly integrated into a control panel behind the front seats. From the rear, the vehicle looks like a rolling science laboratory.

"What we were after were a few reasonable basic performance measurements on the thing so that we could document what it did," Marks said. "The big learning process was in the systems engineering of what it took to put that whole thing together."

Although the budget for the Electrovan was millions of dollars, Marks never paid attention to how much he spent, and neither did Cole, Marks recalled. Some of the money went to set up special labs at the Technical Center that could handle toxic, combustible chemicals such as hydrogen and pure oxygen, and to purchase test and safety equipment. It was dangerous work.

Marks said it took hours to fuel the vehicle and test it to ensure everything was working properly. Because there always was the danger of an explosion, either from a short circuit or a hydrogen leak, the Electrovan was fueled outside and away from people.

"With regards to safety, I am very happy to say that we got through that whole thing, and we never hurt anyone," Marks recalled. "We had one accident that was memorable. I was sitting at my desk when I heard this loud ka-bum! Turns out we had hydrogen and oxygen storage tanks, 5,000 pounds per square inch gas. This spherical tank blew up. Shrapnel went all over."

In 1967, Marks couldn't know that the Electrovan would influence and inspire a group of GM fuel cell engineers nearly four decades later.

Byron McCormick, head of GM's current fuel cell development program, says the Electrovan set a standard for GM's modern fuel cell vehicles in terms of packaging, systems integration and engineering creativity.

"It was pretty clear when we started showing up with the (Opel) Zafira (fuel cell test vehicle) that it could be nothing less than the Electrovan," McCormick said. "It's beautifully engineered and packaged. It was off the scale innovative."

Some of the same things were said this year about GM's latest fuel cell vehicle, the AUTOnomy concept car. The AUTOnomy combines a fuel cell with drive-by-wire technology on a vehicle with a detachable body. GM wants to begin tests of a version of the concept this year.

"We were just learning how to use fuel cells in the Gemini and Apollo programs," McCormick said. "Fuel cells were just coming out of the lab. Craig and his team had the foresight to see where they were and if we could we use them. It was so far ahead of its time, it had escaped notice."

McCormick believes the Electrovan belongs on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. But that's not where it is going. "It is absolutely hugely historic. But we plan to keep it and show it."