Oil-Rich Dubai, Starting Point of BMW LH2 10-Car World Tour, Considers Hydrogen

ARCHIVED 2002–2016: Originally distributed via the eWire press wire service. Preserved as historical record.

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE |

Conservation & Wildlife

Corporate Responsibility

Science & Technology

Syndication Partners

**************************************************************************

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

**************************************************************************

TO ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT EDITORS:

Oil-Rich Dubai, Starting Point of BMW LH2 10-Car World Tour, Considers Hydrogen

NEW YORK, RHINECLIFF, Mar. 7 -/E-Wire/-- Oil-producing Dubai, a key commercial and technological crossroad in the Persian Gulf region, is taking its first cautious steps towards the eventual production of renewable hydrogen in close cooperation with car maker BMW. If the strategy takes hold and succeeds, it could mark a revolutionary shift in the world's system of energy distribution. It could signal the beginning of a shift away from carbon-based fuels to solar-derived renewable energy among the world's principal producers of petroleum. The emirate, part of the United Arab Emirates, was the departure point in early February for a six-month tour of a fleet of ten BMW 750hL liquid hydrogen powered sedans halfway around the globe designed to stir interest and drum up support for this zero-emission transportation technology (H&FCL; Jan. 01). Subsequent stops of BMW's hydrogen caravan will be in Brussels, Milan, Tokyo and Los Angeles where the tour is expected to arrive in mid-July. Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE's defense minister, drove one of the top-of-the-line, fifth-generation liquid hydrogen BMWs after an evening seaside reception at the super-opulent Burj Al Arab hotel. He was the first ever person not on BMW's staff to be permitted do so. Middle East journalists said the fact that the sheikh came to the reception at all and drove the car was a pretty clear, positive indication of his and his government's interest and support of the technology.

Dubai has been cooperating with BMW during the last year in a feasibility study on hydrogen production here, one of several that the Institute for Energy Technology at Munich's Technical University, chaired by Prof. Ulrich Wagner, has been working on for a number of years. "Our goal is to determine the potentials for solar energy in several studies, including studies for the BMW Group," Wagner told H&FCL; by e-mail. "One of the geographical focal points is Dubai, but other localities in the world's sun belt are of interest as well."

Dubai is of special interest because "Dubai will be one of the first nations in the Gulf where oil reserves will be declining," according to Wagner. "This, plus the large financial strength of the country are certainly important motives for the special interest in that location." A Dubai source has told H&FCL; that the prevailing expert and media opinion in the country is that oil will last another 10 to 13 years "at a maximum, that's why all of Dubai's master plans are targeted for completion towards 2011 or 2013 so that they don't have to rely on oil." However, crude oil reserves in the other parts of the 7-member United Arab Emirates are expected to last much longer than that.

Study to be Completed This Month

The Dubai study is expected to be completed by the end of this month, after which it will be discussed and analyzed by both Dubai's and BMW's experts. The early indications are that the study will recommend further action along the path to producing hydrogen from solar energy and water. "We know that the study is giving a positive sign," Dr. Mohamed A. Bin Fahad, chairman of the country's recently established Zayed International Prize for the Environment and a spokesman for Dubai on the project, told H&FCL.; He added he expected production plans to get underway in 2 or 3 years. (See separate Q&A; interview p. 3). "It may seem paradoxical that it is here, of all places, that we choose to promote our BMW hydrogen-powered vehicles" BMW's director of development and purchasing Burkhard Goeschel told a press conference with some 40 journalists mostly from Europe and the Middle East. After all, he quipped, one would assume "that our hydrogen cars would be difficult to sell here at the world's sources of mineral oil. "But what we are doing here is anything but paradoxical. In the new century, the cry for sustainability is becoming increasingly urgent," he added. "The central concern here is the reduction of CO2, carbon dioxide, which is regarded as being responsible for the detrimental changes in the global climate - the 'greenhouse effect.'"

Bin Fahad: Clean Energy Sources are Needed

Dr. Bin Fahad added, "we are now becoming more and more aware of the climatic change and its consequent droughts, floods, temperature fluctuations and general instability. Millions of people in rural areas of the world are suffering starvation and mass migration due to crop failure or direct destruction of their basic life support system. Other millions in the urban areas are suffering the serious health consequences of air pollution which are mainly due to exhaust emissions of motor vehicles. "The key to getting out of all these serious troubles is 'no poisonous emissions', i.e., the use of clean energy sources." Said Bin Fahad, "Our country is one of the best places worldwide for the production of such clean energy. . . There is plenty of sunshine and plenty of seawater here all year round to produce hydrogen fuel. Moreover, Dubai has proved to be one of the best places in the world for investment and free trade. We hope that the BMW Group will work hard and invest more to render this technology cheaper, safer and plentiful for a better environment in the near future."

Underscoring BMW's efforts to find allies in its liquid hydrogen strategy, executives from German industrial gas producer Linde and from BP participated in the Dubai event. Linde regional manager Uwe Rathmann said his company was providing the fuel for the world tour vehicles and had designed the LH2 tankage system. "We are convinced that when fossil fuels will be running out, they can be replaced only by ecologically friendly hydrogen," Rathmann said. "Most probably, both energy carriers will run parallel for years or decades."

BP hydrogen technology manager Michael Jones said hydrogen is the "logical conclusion" of moves towards environmentally friendlier and sustainable road transport and a sustainable energy future: "We at BP are working with BMW and others to learn how to make this fuel both available and affordable," he said. Dubai's foray into hydrogen energy technology is not the first time that an Arab country has taken an interest in this technology. Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi Arabia's oil minister from 1962 to 1986 and one of the key players in the events that led up to the oil shocks of 30 years ago, told this writer in 1975 in an interview for the French magazine "L'Expansion" that his country was interested in hydrogen and other alternative energy technology. At the time Yamani was supporting, in a modest way, the work of an American company working in the field, KMS Fusion, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI. Also, Saudi Arabia entered a decade-long hydrogen research and cooperation agreement with Germany in the late 1980s -- HYSOLAR, which included the construction of experimental solar hydrogen production facilities both in Germany and in Saudi Arabia near Riyadh (THL Feb., Sept. 89, March 94).

The biennial Zayed Prize for the Environment, totaling $1 million spread over several categories, was established last year by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The first winner in the main category, announced in late February, is former president Jimmy Carter. He will receive $500,000. Carter was cited for "his futuristic vision and subsequent work on poverty, human health, human settlements and peace that helped improve the environment." Contact: BMW (media): Andreas Klugescheid, phone 049/89/382-25506, fax 049/89/382 27563, e-mail [REDACTED-EMAIL].

Hydrogyn & Fuel Cell Letter

Peter Hoffmann, [REDACTED-PHONE], Fax: [REDACTED-PHONE], email: [REDACTED-EMAIL]

http://www.hfcletter.com/letter/march01

**************************************************************************

To Transmit Your News Over E-Wire, visit http://www.ewire.com or

call 1-[REDACTED-PHONE]. E-Wire Is Broadcast To Millions Of Readers Worldwide

**************************************************************************