SPECIAL REPORT: Secrets Of SRS

SC-- Half a century ago, the Savannah River Site was a top spot for our government to meet nuclear needs during the Cold War.

There were secret projects…and buzz words that surrounded the site: 'hydrogen bomb' and 'nuclear reactor.'

But half a century later, SRS’s mission has shifted. They now clean up harmful materials. And SRS researchers are looking to make this a sound of the past.

Dr. Theodore Motyka, Hydrogen Program Manager: "Eventually we'll all run on hydrogen in my opinion. It's a matter of when."

At the Savannah River National Lab, teams of scientists and researchers work at turning every day materials into fuel.

One of the most promising alternatives they're looking at is hydrogen: Why? Because there are so many ways to capture hydrogen gas, and when it comes out your exhaust pipe…it's 100% pure.

Dr. Ragaiy Zidan, Advisory Scientist: “It's just water, it's clean water, actually cleaner than the water you drink from your faucet.”

Dr. Chris Yeager, Senior Scientist: "These are different strains of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, that we are growing, to run experiments on.”

Your average pond scum, trapped inside closed spaces, produces hydrogen. That gas is captured, compressed, and eventually becomes fuel.

Dr. Hector Colon-Mercado, Fellow Scientist: "And this is just a small version of what would be used in your car."

A hydrogen engine would run on a fuel cell.

Dr. Colon-Mercado: “Through this, you'd be flowing the hydrogen, which is your fuel.”

So if we have ways to get hydrogen, and we know how to make a car run on it, why aren't we all driving around in hydrogen cars?

Dr. Zidan: "We're missing hydrogen storage. We're missing having the material that can store enough hydrogen on board that you can drive your car without giving up the privilege of driving the 300 miles."

Dr. Motyka: "That is what they call the grand challenge, is how to store enough hydrogen in the vehicle to give you about a 300 mile range."

So while scientists work daily to get tanks small enough….other projects are underway to fix our current addiction to oil.

Joy Howe, Reporting : You've heard politicians chant 'drill baby drill' well researchers at SRS say 'grow baby grow.'"

They’re looking at a common roadside weed as fuel for your car.

Those cells are turned into ethanol. You might already be putting it in your gas tank. Many stations use a 10% ethanol, 90% gasoline mix. The goal is to one day have an 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline mix.

Dr. Charles Turick, Principal Scientist: "It's part of the present, and it will continue to be part of the future, and a bigger part of the future."

They’re even working on getting ethanol from pine trees.

Elizabeth Easter, Jackson, SC: "That's really, really cool."

Earnest Simmons, New Ellenton, SC: "If we can solve the problem without having to go over there, let's do it."

So when will this future fuel be an everyday thing?

Dr. Zidan: "I think that depends on our commitment as a country, I mean, if we really commit enough and understand that the hydrogen problem, the energy problem, then people would commit enough resources to solve this problem."

Researchers say it's going to take *our* support to make hydrogen and ethanol the better bet for our fuel. And maybe that's the biggest secret of all.

Right now, there are two big problems with hydrogen--one, you heard, is getting it compact enough to put in a tank on a car. The second is price--right now hydrogen is pretty expensive. But the government's goal is to have fuel cell vehicles ready for all of us within the next eleven years.