FuelCellsWorks

Global Hydrogen Leader to Fuel the Next Generation of Scientific Innovators among High School Seniors

WALLINGFORD, Conn. — Global hydrogen energy leader Proton Energy Systems announced today it is launching a $1 million scholarship program aimed at high school seniors across the nation. The Proton Energy Scholarship will recognize and award high school seniors who demonstrate outstanding achievement, excellence and promise in the field of science or technology, and who plan to pursue higher education in this field.

The scholarship program is supported and funded by Tom Sullivan, owner of Proton Energy and founder of the national chain Lumber Liquidators. The scholarship will award four-year undergraduate scholarship prizes with a total value of up to $100,000 each. Honorable Mentions, Proton Energy Achievers, will be awarded $500 prizes. Sullivan has committed $1 million to the Hydrogen Education Foundation (HEF), who is administering the scholarship program.

“Proton Energy is committed to innovation and creativity, and it is our hope that through this scholarship, we can help inspire young people with an interest in science and technology,” said Sullivan. “The cost of college can sometimes be overwhelming — especially in this economy — and we are proud to help alleviate this burden, while also encouraging new ideas among some of America’s most promising high school students in a field that holds tremendous importance for the future.”

Proton Energy is the world’s leading supplier of onsite hydrogen generators utilizing PEM (proton exchange membrane) technology, which creates high purity hydrogen from de-mineralized water and electricity. The company has been developing and manufacturing world-class electrolysis systems since 1996, with more than 1200 units deployed world-wide, on every continent. Proton Energy has also been involved in more than a dozen hydrogen fueling stations currently in operation around the nation, and its commitment to innovation has been recognized with contracts from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy.

“We are thrilled that Proton chose the Hydrogen Education Foundation to administer this exciting new program,” said Jeffrey Serfass, President of the HEF. “We look forward to identifying and awarding star students who will help us address the global energy and environmental challenges ahead.”

The Proton Energy Scholarship, aimed at high school seniors, will play an important complementary role to two other HEF programs, the Hydrogen Student Design Contest and the H-Prize, which respectively hold competitions for university-level students and innovators seeking excellence beyond higher education.

Proton Energy Scholarship applicants will be evaluated on academic performance, strength of application, commitment to further education in a science or technology related field, financial need and demonstrated leadership, work ethic and community involvement. Deadline for applications is February 10, 2010. Winners will be announced on April 15, 2010.

For more information on the Proton Energy Scholarship, application guidelines, and to apply, visit www.ProtonEnergyScholarship.org .

About Proton Energy Systems

Proton Energy Systems designs and manufactures proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrochemical systems to make hydrogen from water in a zero pollution process producing safe, pure, reliable onsite hydrogen to meet today’s global hydrogen requirements. Proton Energy Systems has been developing and manufacturing world-class electrolysis systems since 1996, with more than 1200 units deployed world-wide, on every continent. With a reputation for building robust, reliable, and safe systems, federal, state, and commercial partners repeatedly seek the creative solutions that Proton Energy Systems has proven it is capable of delivering. For more information, visit www.ProtonEnergy.com .

About the Hydrogen Education Foundation

HEF is the charitable, education-focused arm of the National Hydrogen Association, the largest hydrogen trade association in the world. The HEF currently administers four hallmark programs: the H2 & You outreach program, the Hydrogen Student Design contest, the H-Prize Competition and now the Proton Energy Scholarship Program. www.HydrogenEducationFoundation.org

By Charles Freese

Executive Director, Fuel Cell Activities General Motors

One of the most difficult things about working with a new technology is helping people understand the “dollars and sense” associated with it. This is especially true when the technology is one that can be demonstrated, but is still a few years from commercial introduction. Take hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for example.

In 2007 GM deployed Project Driveway, a fleet of more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell electric vehicles. Project Driveway is still the largest and most experienced fleet of its kind anywhere in the world with more than one million miles of accumulated driving by real consumers. The vehicles were hand-built, making them very expensive, but the builds helped establish a new supplier community and resolved many technical challenges.

While the Project Driveway vehicles still amaze almost everyone who drives one, they use technology that is now four years old and was essentially a proof of concept. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t put early vehicles in the hands of real customers until a program reaches pilot production. Project Driveway’s purpose is to gain customer feedback, better understand the technology and evaluate the fuel infrastructure. More importantly, these vehicles were intended to prove to the world that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can become practical solutions for future transportation needs. It is a testament to the skill of the development team and the capability of the technology that these vehicles are refined enough to be used daily and meet or exceed customer expectations.

We are often asked how much these vehicles cost and we are consistently careful to avoid putting a price tag on a vehicle that people can experience but not own. Putting it bluntly, the cost of a demonstration vehicle is neither the right measure nor the right question. Even prototype vehicles with conventional propulsion systems are prohibitively expensive at this point in their development cycle. The important cost question should focus on what the technology will cost when it enters production and what value the technology provides the customer, including energy efficiency, zero emissions, improved performance, reliability, fuel range, short refueling times, and consumer acceptance.

With quantifiable learnings from the Equinox fuel cell fleet and a strong technology development effort, the fuel cell program left R&D about a year ago and became part of Powertrain, where it is treated like any pre-production program when it comes to seeking efficiency, cost reduction, design for manufacturability, and other elements of a production program. It is still expensive, but the costs are coming down dramatically. Our next-generation fuel cell architecture is 220 pounds lighter, uses about half the parts and roughly a third of the precious metals, compared to the still-impressive Equinox demonstration vehicles.

Gen1 and Gen 2 Comparisons

In some ways, we are a victim our own success. The Chevy Equinox fuel cell is a great car, but it is a demonstration vehicle with aging technology and high cost. The next-generation fuel cell system is much less expensive but is not yet to the point where we have vehicles on the road. The graphic below shows the significant physical differences and the tale of the tape between the Project Driveway propulsion system and the next-generation system. The things we are learning will continue to lower fuel cell system costs and we expect the fuel cell system will become cost competitive with other comparably capable advanced powertrain solutions. All these technologies have a common goal: to quickly complete a couple production learning cycles that will help bring costs down. Then the technology must be used in enough cars to achieve necessary economies of scale.

For today, we must help people understand that the fuel cell vehicles they can drive now would still be out of reach for most buyers. Fuel cells must cross the same “valley of death,” that every new technology must endure. GM is developing advanced hydrogen fuel cell designs that are clearly on a path toward affordable hydrogen-powered vehicles. As we move from petroleum to other energy sources we must consider the true technology costs and stay the course to achieve our long-term objectives

The US Special Operations Command may be operationally deploying a fuel cell augmented version of the Navmar / L3-BAI Mako unmanned air system according to a report from the US National Research Council evaluating the Pentagon’s Quick Reaction Special Projects Program.

The report, ‘Experimentation and Rapid Prototyping in Support of Counterterrorism’, is currently being made available by the National Research council in draft form pending release of final version later this year.

It says that a Reaction Special Projects Program predicated on the use of a Jadoo Power fuel cell has seen an unspecified USN UAS type modified and fielded by SOCOM.

“Navy UAS with Jadoo power supplies are currently deployed in support of SOCOM units” it says but provides no further elaboration

Last month Jadoo Power announced that its UAV-100 fuel cell system had been used to power the payload and avionics suite aboard a Mako UAS during a 13 August flight test conducted by the Office of Navy Research (ONR) at the US Army’s Yuma proving ground in Arizona.

“The Mako flew for more than an hour and consumed 8 grams of compressed hydrogen gas” according to a Jadoo Power media release issued 13 October. “The UAV-100 fuel cell system provided 63 watts of power to the avionics and to the nose camera and video transmitter payload during the entire flight.”

Integration of the cell into the Mako was carried out by Kuchera Engineering. Pennsylvania State University’s Applied Research Laboratory was also involved in the tests.

Mako has 7hr endurance with its propulsion system based on a 3W piston engine.

Jadoo advised that “the flight test successfully demonstrated the airworthiness of the UAV-100 to withstand launch, trajectory accelerations, landing, and the effects of the operational environment. The fuel cell is forward compatible with advanced hydrogen storage technologies that have the potential to increase payload endurance time by up to 300%. The potential of this payload duration improvement has profound implications for increasing the payload capability of Class 2 UAVs. In addition, this fuel cell technology is scalable to any UAV platform.”

The NRC report describes the cell as “reusable and provides cost savings over traditional batteries, and its handling does not require hazardous materials procedures”.

Mako is one of a number of purpose-developed UAS commissioned by the US Navy to support SOCOM requirements and has seen service in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

COLONIE — It’s make-or-break time for MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc.

The Colonie company, which is developing methane-powered fuel cells for handheld gadgets like cell phones and digital cameras, must raise additional capital by the end of the year or face the prospect of having to shut down.

The revelation was included in a regulatory filing made Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Mechanical Technology Inc., MTI Micro’s parent company.

As of Sept. 30, MTI Micro had only $569,000 in cash and in cash equivalents that can be quickly liquidated into cash.

“If MTI Micro is unable to raise additional financing in the fourth quarter of 2009, it may be required to discontinue its business operations,” Mechanical Technology wrote in the filing.

Such a prospect would be a huge blow to the Capital Region’s growing technology and clean energy sectors. Mechanical Technology has been one of the promising publicly traded tech companies in the area, and its fuel cell, if adopted by the electronics industry, was expected to offer a clean energy alternative to traditional batteries.

It would be especially disappointing because the company recently said it had improved the power density of its Mobion fuel cell by 30 percent. Power density measures the amount of power that can be packed into the fuel cells in a certain amount of space.

And back in April, MTI Micro was awarded $2.4 million in federal stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. The company has already received $1.6 million of the grant, with roughly $800,000 still available. It also has $90,000 available from a bridge loan.

The SEC filing included Mechanical Technology’s third quarter financial statement, which showed it posted a quarterly loss of $884,000, a vast improvement over the same period last year when the company lost $4 million. The savings came from a dramatic reduction in research and administrative expenses.

In the filing, the company said it may try to sell MTI Micro or another subsidiary called MTI Instruments in Albany that makes sophisticated test and measurement equipment used by the semiconductor and aviation industries.

Larry Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.

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