The Future?

I love this story. Green Car Congress:

The operational début of [the new hydrogen fuel cell NH2 tractor] is scheduled for summer 2012, on the La Bellotta farm in Venaria, near Turin, New Holland’s first Energy Independent Farm. This concept centers on the ability of farms to produce electrical energy from natural sources that have a low environmental impact, and to store it conveniently in the form of hydrogen for subsequent reuse.

Three methods are being evaluated for the production of hydrogen:

1. Electrolysis of water, using electrical energy produced by a photovoltaic system already installed on the farm.

2. Small-scale steam reforming of natural gas; should this prove practically feasible and economically viable, it would be possible to use the methane produced by the digesters of the one MegaWatt biogas generator that has been in operation at La Bellotta for over a year.

3. Exploiting the dark anaerobic fermentation of biomass: a biological process generating a blend of gases that contains a significant proportion of hydrogen. This method will also be evaluated in terms of feasibility, costs and benefits.