坐吃山空 能源燃料也是如此

Hydrogen should be a fuel for the car of the future, according to a June 2010 report by the U.S. National Research Council or NRC. We spoke with Vernon Roan, who chairs the committee for the NRC on hydrogen cars and fuel.

全国研究理事会在今年6月的一份报告中称，氢燃料应成为未来汽车的主要燃料之一。本站记者采访了理事会委员长弗农·罗安，他主管相关领域的研究。

Vernon Roan: Eventually, we are going to be forced into some kind of synthesized fuel economy. And hydrogen is by far the most likely, because it’s a super fuel. We’re gonna wind up there, because we’re going to run out of fossil fuels. It’s not gonna happen in the next decade. But eventually it’s going to happen.

弗农·罗安：人们最终会进入合成燃料时代。目前为止氢燃料前景最好，因为它是一种超级燃料。我们最终会依赖它，因为化石燃料总有用尽的一天。虽然未来10年不太可能，但这一天迟早会到来。

Hydrogen fuel cells work by combining hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. The technological problems of doing that efficiently and economically are yet to be solved.

氢燃料电池通过氢氧结合产生电能。如何使这一过程高效、经济依然是个有待解决的技术问题。

Vernon Roan: We do recognize that this is a long term technology, so it’s going to take years of continued R&D, and a lot of effort on the part of industry as well as government.

弗农·罗安：我们意识到这项技术走向成熟还需要很长的时间，在接下来几年里我们会一直投入研发工作，同时企业和政府也需要花费很大的努力。

Roan said there’s still not a good way to carry significant amounts of hydrogen for long distances. And there is the problem of where to get the hydrogen. Today, nearly all hydrogen for cars comes from fossil fuels. But the research is on to get it from wind and solar. And while the costs of making fuel cells remain high, Roan said they've dropped by 30 percent in the last two years.

罗安表示，目前没有什么好方法能远距离运输大量的氢。此外，氢的来源也是个问题。现在几乎所有氢燃料汽车使用的氢都来源于化石燃料。尽管制造燃料电池的成本居高不下，罗安表示这一成本近两年来已经下降了30%。