Inside, two scientists explained to an audience of more than

400 how the hydrogen-powered car worked.

Using helium balloons, blocks of aluminum, toy rockets and

gallons of liquid nitrogen, the two researchers demonstrated three ways a tank

of such highly pressurized, extremely cold liquid gas could work. It needs to

be vacuum-insulated, reflective and separated from anything too conductive.

Or else it could explode.

The three requisites make condensed hydrogen gas safe enough

for everyday drivers, said Gene Berry, a researcher from Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratories.

Berry played video clips of lab tests in which tanks like

the one outside were heated over a 1,000-degree fire and dropped from 30 feet

onto concrete — without breaking.

“If the car is intact, the tank will be intact. It should be

pretty safe,” Berry said, adding that manufacturers are still working out where

to place the tank on the car.

The Prius outside the theater carried its tank in the trunk,

but for mainstream use, it would more likely be built under the car, Berry

said.

Clad in a lab coat and rubber gloves, Tracy High School

science teacher Dean Reese intermittently demonstrated Berry’s points with

little experiments, at one point shooting off a mini rocket fueled by bubbling

hydrogen and nitrogen inside the theater.

The visual aids sparked avid cheers, claps and whistles from

the crowd.

Up on the screen, Berry showed the mostly student audience

how one would fill up the tank of a hydrogen-powered car using a lock-tight

nozzle at the hydrogen gas station of the future.

He switched the slide to a map of Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger’s proposed “Hydrogen Highway,” a string of alternative-fuel gas

stations along California’s major roadways.

The U.S. could transition from fossil to hydrogen fuel in

about four or five decades, predicted Berry.

Hydrogen “is clean, sustainable and you can manufacture it

wherever you have water and electricity,” he said.

Already, Berry explained, companies like BMW and Honda are

putting hydrogen cars on the market. Within a few years, he predicted, they

should be a common sight.

“Hopefully, when you guys get out of college, you can ask

for a hydrogen car as a present,” he suggested.

“I would definitely buy one,” said Victoria Cardoza, 15, a

Tracy High School sophomore who attended the lecture. “The lecture was really

fun in showing how it’s a practical switch from regular cars.”

Students from Manteca, Livermore and Tracy schools hovered

around the model car after the science session, getting an up-close look at the

tank in its intended context.

“I thought they did a good job, between the physical

demonstrations and the video and lecture,” said Manteca resident Greg Nix, who went

with his son to the event. “But I would like to see how they adapt the hydrogen

fuel to power the engine.”

We want to hear

what you have to say. Comment on this story at www.tracypress.com,

or to reach Tracy Press reporter Jennifer Wadsworth, call 830-42251 or e-mail jwadsworth@tracypress.com.