HydroGen Fuel Cell Technology Could Provide Energy Savings at U.S. Industrial Plants

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Small is the new big. At least that’s what developers of the next wave of distributed energy generation are banking on. High energy prices along with the push to lower emissions are key factors driving development of unique cost saving technologies for industrial applications. One such technology is the air-cooled phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) being developed by HydroGen, LLC (OTC:HYDG) (OTCBB:HYDG)(Cleveland, Ohio). Distributed power generation is defined as any small-scale power generation technology such as turbine generators, internal combustion engine/generators, microturbines, photovoltaic/solar panels, wind turbines, and fuel cells, which produce electric power at the site of its consumption. A distributed power unit can be connected directly to the consumer or to a utility's transmission or distribution system.

HydroGen is focused on perfecting power generation for distributed energy applications at industrial plants, and has embarked on demonstrating its fuel cell technology at pilot facilities. The company manufactures multi-megawatt fuel cell systems utilizing proprietary 400-kilowatt (kW) phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) technology at a plant in Versailles, Pennsylvania. Capital costs for HydroGen’s fuel cells are in the range of $1 million per 300kW.

HydroGen is in the process of developing several projects to demonstrate this technology. The first 400 kW demonstration is scheduled to be installed during the first quarter of 2007 at Ashta Chemicals, Incorporated’s alkalies and chlorine manufacturing plant in Ashtabula, Ohio. This application will utilize Ashta Chemicals’ byproduct hydrogen as a fuel source for the PAFC fuel cells. HydroGen will utilize a $1.25 million grant from the state of Ohio to develop the project.

A larger scale application is being studied between HydroGen and U.S. Steel Corporation (NYSE:X)(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). This would involve a 2-megawatt (MW) fuel cell system to be installed at U.S. Steel’s metallurgical coke manufacturing plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania. The project would involve two phases including the first phase demonstration of pressure swing absorption technology to produce hydrogen utilizing U.S. Steel coke oven off-gases. The second phase will be the installation of the 2 MW fuel cell project. HydroGen recently received a $250,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority to support this project.

HydroGen recently moved its corporate offices into the Wright Fuel Cell Center building in Cleveland, Ohio. HydroGen’s fuel cell technology was originally developed by Westinghouse Corporation and targets market applications where hydrogen is currently available and other drivers favoring the adoption of fuel cells are present.

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