Earlier this week the Mississauga campus at the University of Toronto demonstrated a prototype of a hydrogen-powered shuttle bus from Ford that operates with an internal combustion engine, also known as a HICE vehicle. This particular bus — I believe it’s the E-450 — seats 8 to 12 people and has been designed for use at universities, airports, hospitals and as hotel shuttles. Calgary-based Dynetek Industries Ltd. is providing the high-compression storage tanks for the vehicles.

“With high gas prices and ongoing concerns over the health and sustainability of our environment, the hydrogen bus provides a great alternative to using gasoline as fuel,” said one administrator at the university who, I’m sure he would admit, doesn’t know squat about the technology. But his comment, as politicians everyday experience, is sure to receive ignorant applause.

Ford, for at least a couple years now, has talked about hydrogen-powered ICE vehicles as a way of tapping the advantages of clean-burning hydrogen without waiting for fuel-cell cars to become economical. It would be a bridging strategy, giving a chance for a hydrogen infastructure to get slowly built out — beginning with fleet applications — until fuel cells become economically viable. By then, the chick-and-egg problem of infrastructure may be partly overcome, so the theory goes. Not surprisingly, the folks at Stuart Energy, before they were purchased by fuel-cell leader Hydrogenics, were big on hydrogen ICEs. In fact, they used two massive Ford truck engines powered by hydrogen as their back-up power system in the event of blackouts.

Apparently Ford, as well as BMW, believes the idea can fly. The U.S. automaker is currently marketing the HICE shuttle to potential fleet customers and is hoping to make its first deliveries early next year. The volumes will be in the hundreds, not thousands, I suspect.

For a decent overview of Ford’s plan, check out this post at the Green Car Congress. Personally, I’ve got mixed views with regards to hydrogen-powered ICEs. They’re not as efficient as fuel cells, but from an emissions perspective I believe they’re nearly as clean. Also, they can be built today without adding too much to the cost of a vehicle, in contrast to fuel cell cars, and you can imagine they’re easier to service from a mechanics’ point of view.

That said, driving range is still an issue — which is why Ford is focusing on short-trip shuttle buses and fleets that can have on-site hydrogen filling stations. And, with regards to both fuel cells and hydrogen ICEs, the hydrogen being used is only as clean as the source of energy that produced it.

In other words, if you’re getting the hydrogen from increasingly expensive natural gas or through an electrolysis process using dirty power from the grid, the environmental benefits are dampened.

The arguments are nothing new. It’s why I tend to agree with the comment at the end of the Green Car Congress post: Why fiddle around with hydrogen when there are so many other promising — and more attainable — technologies that can benefit us today?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a believer in a future hydrogen economy, but I’ll also be the first to admit is has been overhyped. Kudos to Ford and others for trying new approaches, but I’ve seen my share of demos over the years and it’s easy to grow jaded.

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