Our boat's $48-a-gallon fuel interacts with a catalyst that separates it into sodium borate and hydrogen. The fuel cell breaks down the hydrogen to generate electricity to power the engine. The nontoxic sodium borate byproduct will be decanted off the boat when it's back dockside.

However, as yet "there is no distribution or infrastructure" for this expensive fuel, stresses Craig Newhouse, sales director for Anuvu, noting the price per gallon would have to come way down for effective commercial use. But he's confident that will happen eventually.

The boat we've ventured out on today is a demonstration recreational vehicle, not commercially available, which seats 18 for lazy cruising at a maximum rate of 8.5 miles per hour. The project is funded by the Center for the Commercial Deployment of Transportation Technologies at California State University at Long Beach. The center, in turn, gets most of its funding from the Department of Defense, says Hodge.

"Every one of the boats out here pollutes like crazy, and in a few years they won't have to," says Newhouse at the South Beach Yacht Club, where more than a hundred sailboats and yachts float in their berths.

Until recently, notes Terri Shore of the Bluewater Network, a nonprofit that advocates for cleaner boats and ships, marine vessels have been exempt from the kinds of regulations that have made some headway at cleaning up cars and trucks.

"On a per passenger basis," says Shore, "ferries are far more polluting than other landside transit. They're way dirtier per passenger. That's because cars and buses have become 97 percent cleaner in the past three decades. And marine engines are uncontrolled."

That's about to change. Between 2004 and 2007, federal emissions regulations for marine vessels will gradually go into effect. In San Francisco, the Water Transit Authority has pledged to operate its new ferries at a standard 85 percent cleaner than the regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency for 2007. "By setting that stringent emissions standard, they'll be more comparable to cars and buses, so you won't have a huge increase in air emissions if someone switches from their car or a bus or BART to a ferry," says Shore.

Today, shipping accounts for about 2 to 3 percent of CO2 emissions worldwide, according to James J. Corbett of the Graduate College of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware. But the feds won't be imposing any of their new requirements on most container ships -- some of the biggest polluters in any large port -- since most of them fly under foreign flags. And even the new standards that have been set won't clean up many of the diesel-powered ships already at sea.

"Diesel engines last for decades," explains Diane Bailey, a scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. "The new standard only deals with new purchases, and the emissions [on older boats] are only getting worse as the engines degrade over time. So, the new standards do nothing to mitigate the pollution coming from emissions."

While it will likely take more government regulation to really have a significant impact on marine vessel emissions, environmentally conscious boaters are asking: Why wait for hydrogen fuel cells to arrive, when you can use biodiesel right now on your existing diesel engine?

"We view biodiesel, natural gas, and air pollution controls as important interim steps to hydrogen fuel cells," says Bluewater's Shore.

Biodiesel, in its purest form -- B100 -- has been implemented with existing diesel engines at harbors in Ventura, Calif.; Elliott Bay in Seattle; West Bay Marina in Olympia, Wash.; and Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Southern California.

San Francisco plans to implement a ferry fueled with biodiesel, along with its hydrogen fuel cell boat. But it's not a perfect solution.

"We ran a test with biodiesel, but it was not as good as we expected," says Heidi Machen, a spokesperson for the Water Transit Authority. "The nitrogen oxide emissions slightly increased, while other emissions decreased." The biodiesel ferry and the fuel cell ferry will be just two of 31 new ferries on seven new routes that San Francisco will put on the water over the next few years.

Seaworthy Systems' Sweeney thinks that wealthy boaters looking for a novel, tech-savvy way to impress their friends may also help nudge fuel cells along. "The wealthy people are probably going to push this technology, just like they did the horseless carriage at the turn of the century," he says.

He points out that Duffy Electric Boats in Newport Beach, which makes the water taxi that the fuel cell party boat was adapted from, has sold hundreds of the purely electric models of the boat, designed to plug in at the dock after an afternoon's pleasure cruise. The buyers treat the boat as a "second boat" to show off in addition to their yacht or sailboat.

Duffy, Seaworthy Systems and Anuvu aren't the only companies trying to turn wealthy boaters on to futuristic possibilities for cleaner travels. Solar Sailor, an Australian company, has created several hybrid models of boats combining solar, wind and electric power to create a variety of zero-emissions marine vessels.

Designing alternative fuel technologies into boats has two advantages over cars: the space constrictions on a boat aren't as tight, which is handy when you're designing a new power source. And unlike cars, boats usually return to the harbor that they launched from, making the fuel-infrastructure issue somewhat easier to solve.

But the real battle over controlling greenhouse gas emissions, improving air quality, and decreasing the United States' dependence on foreign oil will ultimately still take place on the road, not on water, since cars and trucks make up a much greater percentage of overall emissions.

The market for electric cars foundered when Detroit concluded that consumers would not spring for a technology with a limited range, despite the protests of passionate early adopters who loved the technology. But a variation on the electric car, which doesn't have to be plugged in -- the hybrid electric-gas model -- has achieved some commercial traction. Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda are leading the way. Since 2000, Toyota has sold some 50,000 of its Toyota Prius hybrid, and recently announced that it will offer a hybrid internal-combustion/electric engine as an routine option on most of its models by 2010, thus providing consumers that need a bigger vehicle, such as a minivan or an SUV, with a more fuel-efficient alternative to the gas guzzlers of today.

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