The inventor of the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) technology used for building batteries for countless portable electronic gadgets and now hybrid gas-electric cars believes the hydrogen economy is already upon us.

Efforts to create a “hydrogen economy” to reduce U.S. oil imports will get a boost from a new laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that will evaluate tests, materials, mechanical properties and standards for hydrogen pipelines.

After grabbing headlines for years as the ultimate solution to world energy problems, the “hydrogen economy” has an emerging but lesser-known competitor called the “methanol economy,” according to an article scheduled for the Dec. 3 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS’ weekly newsmagazine.

The hydrogen economy is not a futuristic concept. The U.S. Department of Energy's 2006 Advance Energy Initiative calls for competitive ethanol from plant sources by 2012 and a good selection of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles by 2020.