The Acceptance of Hydrogen Technologies

September 1998

Executive Summary

Starting point and goal of the study

The spread of a new technology is not least dependent on being accepted by possible users. It has already been investigated for various technologies whether the general public considers them dangerous, rejects them, or greets them. There is, as of yet, little information of this kind on the subject of hydrogen-powered transportation. For example, there is the question of whether transportation of this kind arouses any fears – for example of a possible danger of explosion – or whether the positive aspects are more prominant in people‘s thoughts – e.g. the environmental friendliness.

The study persues three overall questions:

• What level of acceptance is there for hydrogen technologies?
• What knowledge is there about hydrogen technologies or what is associated with the term "hydrogen"?
• Is there a demand for information about hydrogen technologies?

The study was carried out by Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH (LBST) in co-operation with the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. The LBST has developed in HyWeb a comprehensive information system about hydrogen technologies which has been available in the Internet under www.HyWeb.de since April 1997. The goal of HyWeb is to increase both the knowledge and acceptance of hydrogen technologies. Thus, a goal of the study was to draw conclusions from the results of the study, which are of consequence to the design of HyWeb.

The three "part-studies"

Study 1

Since secondary school students represent a specific target group of the information system HyWeb, Study 1 investigated this population segment. A total of 410 students were questioned about their acceptance of, their knowledge of, and need for information about hydrogen technologies.

Study 2

The use of the worldwide first hydrogen-powered regular bus in summer of 1997 in Munich offered the chance to complement the data from the students with a passenger poll in the hydrogen bus.

Study 3

What effect does it have on the acceptance of hydrogen technologies when a person comes into direct contact with hydrogen-powered transportation? This question was in the foreground in Study 3. The evaluations of acceptance by the students who were questioned in the bus were compared with those of the students asked in the classroom.

Study I – Questioning of the students

Acceptance of hydrogen technologies

The first question of the study was to what degree hydrogen technologies are accepted by the students. The acceptance was elicited through 8 items (Table 1), which were each to rated on a 5-point scale (1 = disagree completely, 2 = disagree for the most part, 3 = agree partially, 4 = agree for the most part, 5 = agree completely). The average score "acceptance of hydrogen technologies", which was made up of all eight items, was 4.04 (standard deviation: .56).

Table 1: Items of acceptance

I am against a further development of hydrogen technologies as they are too dangerous

I would be prepared to pay more for hydrogen as a fuel for my car than for gasoline.

Since oil, natural gas, and coal will still last for a long time, money should not be spent for other kinds of energy like, for example, hydrogen.

Hydrogen is dangerous since explosions are possible

I support the further development of hydrogen technologies in order to introduce them to the market on a large scale

I think it is a good idea to have the first hydrogen bus in Munich

Hydrogen does not produce harmful emissions.

I regard it as desirable to operate more hydrogen driven public transport in the future

Figure 1 shows the means and standard deviations for the acceptance values for each question. Items which determined a disapproval of hydrogen, and thus have a different orientation regarding level of acceptance, were inverted in order to enhance clarity. That means that a high value on the scale represents a high level of acceptance. Thus, the high numbers associated with the statement " I am against a further development of hydrogen technologies as they are too dangerous" means that the majority of the subjects did not agree with this item.

Figure 1 Mean values with standard deviations of the acceptance values by the students. A high value always represents a high level of acceptance – the inverted items are marked.

It is clear that the acceptance of hydrogen technologies is all in all very high. Two items show a deviation from this positive assessment: The statement regarding spending more money for a hydrogen-powered car got an average response of only partial agreement. This duplicates many findings in environmental awareness research which show that, though environmental questions are accorded a large degree of importance, higher costs for a change in behaviour are only of limited acceptability – this applies to both material costs as well as curtailments in comfort or well-being. Students also see a certain danger of explosions in hydrogen technologies.

Obstacles to the broad introduction of hydrogen technologies

The students were asked to state which impediments, in their opinion, stand in the way of a large-scale introduction of hydrogen technologies. The 549 answers to this question were subsequently categorised (figure 2).

In the view of the students, danger – e.g. danger of explosion – does not play an important role in preventing a large-scale introduction of hydrogen technologies.

The costs associated with this technology were mentioned more than twice as often as the danger. This included both individual costs (i.e. for hydrogen as a vehicle fuel) as well as the costs to society (i.e. for further research).

Surprisingly frequent was the view by the students that a central obstacle is the lobbying of certain groups. Many mentioned concrete interest groups which, in their view, want to hinder the introduction of this technology: The automobile industry, the oil companies and those politically responsible. In the view of the students, lobbying was considered every bit as important as the high technical cost for the use of hydrogen. The lacking public acceptance and low level of knowledge was named as an obstacle in about 10% of the answers. Of somewhat less importance in the view of the students is the fact that these technologies are not yet fully developed, namely that they are still in developmental stage.

Figure 2 Obstacles which stand in the way of a broader introduction of hydrogen technologies in the view of the students. Frequencies of answers in percent.

Dependence of acceptance on other factors

The analysis of factors influencing the acceptance of hydrogen technologies has not revealed strong dependencies.

The acceptance depends weakly on the sex and the age of the students: girls tend to accept hydrogen technologies a bit less than boys, while elder students show a slightly higher acceptance than younger.

Moreover, students giving environmental issues a high priority show slightly higher values of acceptance. Finally, the knowledge on hydrogen and environmental knowledge both have a positive influence on the level of acceptance. None of these factors, though, has a strong influence.

Knowledge about hydrogen technologies

On the knowledge questions about hydrogen as a fuel there was a maximum of 4 points possible. Figure 3 shows that none of those questioned could reach this total, and only 14 of the students (from a total of 410) were able to get 3 points.

Figure 3 Results of the knowledge tests about hydrogen as a fuel. Frequency graph of the points achieved in the knowledge test.

One group of the students had worked on hydrogen technologies in class before being interviewed. Though not showing a significantly higher level of knowledge, which might be due to various reasons such as the time elapsed between the work and the test or different priorities in the school work and in the test, these students showed significantly higher levels of acceptance.

Associations with hydrogen

At the start of the questions the students were asked to note their associations with the term "hydrogen". In order to analyze the associations they were classified into different categories (see figure 4).

Figure 4 Frequency in percent with which specific content was named on the average by the students in their associations.

The large majority of the expressed associations applied to chemical knowledge directly related to hydrogen and its combustion reaction (e.g. „Knallgasreaktion" – oxyhydrogen gas reaction).

Approximately 7% of the associations mentioned were also of a chemical nature, but were not related to hydrogen as a fuel (e.g. hydrogen peroxide). Nearly 11% of the associations had to do with hydrogen technologies (e.g. "rocket fuel"). Only 0.3% of the associations explicitly mentioned "zeppelin", "Hindenburg" etc.

The judgemental associations confirmed the results of the acceptance questions: Both threatening associations (e.g. explosive or dangerous) and associations with the hydrogen bomb were relatively seldom. However positive, environment-related associations where the environmental friendliness of hydrogen was emphasized barely arose.

It is also interesting to note that those students mentioning a lot of concepts directly related to hydrogen technologies (e.g. „car fuel") show a slightly higher level of acceptance of hydrogen (cf. Figure 1).

Demand for knowledge about hydrogen technologies

Due to the extremely meagre results of the knowledge tests it could already be expected that the students would notice in themselves a great need for knowledge on this subject. The data confirm this: Approximately 70% of the students agreed to the item "I would like to have more information about hydrogen technologies" either partly or fully (M = 3.93; SD = 1.15; see figure 5).

Figure 5 Answers to the item "I would like to have more information about hydrogen technologies." Frequency.

About half of the interviewed students had had information about hydrogen before. Firgure 6 lists the sources of information, the by far most important sources being mass media (51%) and school (32%).

Figure 6 Past sources of information on hydrogen technologies for the students. Relative frequencies in percent of the named information sources.

We also asked the students what information source they would use if they wanted to become more informed about hydrogen technologies (figure 7). School, university, environmental protection organisations, the Internet and books were the most frequent answers.

Figure 7 Potential sources of information about hydrogen technologies if researching them specifically, as named by the students. Relative frequencies in percent of the named information sources.

Study II – Polling of the passengers on a hydrogen-powered bus

The polling of the bus passengers was similar to the questioning of the student, but had fewer questions. The average age of the interviewed passengers was 40 years.

The majority of the persons was aware of the special nature of the bus. This was due to the different than usual design of the bus and to some information posters on the inner walls.

Acceptance of the hydrogen bus

A high level of acceptance for the hydrogen-powered bus could be found among the passengers of the bus: The average value on the scale for acceptance was 4.28 (SD .53) (theoretical minimum: 1; theoretical maximum: 5).

There was almost unanimous agreement that the hydrogen-powered bus should be implemented more in the future (figure 9). The use of the first hydrogen bus in Munich was also overwhelmingly greeted. However, as already seen in the questionnaires of the students, the "dangerousness" of hydrogen technologies was assessed most critically. Nevertheless, this is to be looked at relative to the other answers; on average those polled agreed only "partly" to the statement "Hydrogen is connected with a danger of explosion". Altogether, based on these data, a positive assessment of hydrogen-powered transportation can be assumed.

Figure 9 Mean values of the evaluation of acceptance by the passengers. A large value always represents a high level of acceptance – the inverted items are marked.

Relationship between acceptance of hydrogen technologies and environmental awareness

There is a weak positive relationship between environmental attitudes and the acceptance of hydrogen technologies

Associations with hydrogen

At the beginning of the interview the passengers were asked for their spontaneous associations with „hydrogen". 40% of the items mentioned related to the environmental benefits of hydrogen (figure 10). Associations to danger were very few (5%), "Hindenburg", "Zeppelin", and the like were hardly mentioned at all.

Figure 10 Frequencies in percent, with which the specific categories of associations were mentioned on average by the passengers

Demand for information and sources of information about hydrogen

About two thirds of the passengers had not heard or read any information about hydrogen technologies before.

Of the remaining third, more than half had heard or read about it in the mass media, a fifth at school and a sixth had seen information provided by the bus operator (see figure 11). A majority of the passengers was interested in more information about hydrogen.

Figure 11 Sources of information for the passengers on the subject "Hydrogen technologies". Frequencies of answers in percent.

Study III – Comparison of the answers from students in the hydrogen bus with those in the classroom

For the comparative investigation all students between 15 and 18 years of age attending a 'Gymnasium' were considered (N = 24). This group was compared with 188 students from Munich of the same age, who were questioned in more detail in Study 1 on their acceptance of and knowledge about hydrogen.

The comparison was made possible because the questionnaire for the passengers represented a short version of the instrument distributed to students in the classroom.

Acceptance of hydrogen buses

The interview situation did indeed have an influence on the acceptance of hydrogen technologies: The level of acceptance is significantly higher when the students answered in the bus (table 2).

Table 2 Mean values (standard deviations in parentheses) of the acceptance of hydrogen-powered transportation in the two comparison groups (students as passengers of a hydrogen-powered bus and students in the classroom). Results of the t-tests.

Associations with hydrogen

The conclusion that the immediate encounter with the hydrogen-powered bus had a positive effect on the assessment is supported by the comparison of the associations in the two situations (figure 13).

Figure 13 Comparison of the content of associations by students in the bus and in the classroom.

Most striking is the significant difference in the percentage of positive assessments of hydrogen technologies: In the bus nearly a third of the associations referred to the environmentally friendly aspects; in the classroom this figure is much lower. In contrast to this, "hydrogen bomb" was mentioned much more frequently in the classroom; regarding the other threatening associations as well as statements with "zeppelin" there was no significant difference between the groups. In the school context concepts were much more frequently named which contain chemical knowledge directly related to hydrogen. The differences in the remaining content of the associations were not significant.

Discussion of results

Several general conclusions can be drawn from the results of the present hydrogen acceptance study.

First of all and most importantly, hydrogen technologies enjoy a high level of acceptance among hydrogen bus passengers and among secondary level school students in Germany. People are in favor of the further development of hydrogen technologies, they support their deployment and they see their environmental benefits. Even though people see a certain danger of explosions in hydrogen technologies, the study does not reveal potentially severe acceptance problems. It is noteworthy that hydrogen is very rarely associated to danger spontaneously; only when people are asked to assess the risk of explosions they tend to see a certain risk.

It can be stated clearly that in contrast to most hydrogen experts’ opinion people do not associate hydrogen to past accidents or catastrophes such as the Hindenburg disaster. At least in Germany, hydrogen is almost free of this negative burden.

The study shows a general tendency towards higher acceptance of hydrogen technologies when people are in direct contact to them. School students interviewed in the bus made significantly more positive evaluations than students in the classroom.

Other items do not have such a clear influence on the level of acceptance of hydrogen technologies: A high priority given to environmental issues and a high level of knowledge on hydrogen only have a weak positive influence on the acceptance.

The test of hydrogen knowledge of school students showed that the general level of knowledge is rather poor. This result is confirmed by the bus passengers, half of which had not had information about hydrogen before. At the same time, people are interested in knowing more on the subject.

Conclusions and recommendations

Both the direct contact to hydrogen technologies such as taking a hydrogen bus, and learning about hydrogen technologies at school have a significant positive effect on people’s acceptance of hydrogen technologies.

At the same time, knowledge on hydrogen technologies and its environmental advantages is not very wide-spread. And hydrogen is neither spontaneously associated to danger nor to past accidents.

From the acquired results the following recommendations for the introduction of hydrogen technologies can be distilled:

• Hydrogen technologies enjoy an "advance" trust and are better accepted when a direct contact to the technology is made. Public field tests, demonstration and pilot projects, should thus be increasedly implemented and be accompanied in particular by comprehensive measures to introduce information.
• Questions of safety should represent a priority in the development of technologies, not, however, in the public relations. It is probable that an intensified treatment of the existing safety risks induces assessments of danger, even when making the point that the danger is very slight. The focus should be much more on the environmental advantages of hydrogen, which increases the acceptance.
• There exists a large deficit of information. Therefore offerings of information like HyWeb should be built on and advertised. That the Internet represents an appropriate place of information of this kind follows from the results of the studies with the students: The Internet is considered as a potential source of information.
• An intensified education of teachers and other multiplicators in the field of hydrogen technologies is neccessary for reducing the large knowledge deficit among students.

Disclaimer

Please feel free to use any of the results and graphics of the study stating the source www.HyWeb.de/accepth2.

Acknowledgement

The study was funded by the European Commission.