FuelCellsWorks

- The plant will generate sufficient clean electricity to meet the annual needs of 20,000 households, avoiding more than 17,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year

Venice--Enel CEO and General Manager Fulvio Conti, the President of the Veneto Region Luca Zaia, the Mayor of Venice Giorgio Orsoni and the President of the Province of Venice Francesca Zaccariotto, today inaugurated the innovative hydrogen-fuelled combined cycle power plant at Fusina (Venice).

The plant, which is the first industrial-scale facility of its kind in the world, has an overall capacity of 16 MW. It comprises a hydrogen-fuelled combined cycle plant, which generates both electricity and heat, and has an output of 12 megawatts (MW). The efficiency of the process is increased by taking the heat from the emissions in order to generate high-temperature steam, which is sent to the nearby coal-fired plant to generate an additional 4 MW of power capacity.

The plant, which uses 1.3 metric tons of hydrogen per hour, has an overall efficiency of about 42%, is essentially free of emissions of any kind. The electricity generated, equal to about 60 million kWh a year, will be sufficient to meet the needs of 20,000 households, avoiding more than 17,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year.

The plant, which required an overall investment for construction of some 50 million euros, is located on the site of Enel’s “Andrea Palladio” plant at Fusina, next to the petrochemical facility of Porto Marghera (Venice), from which it will receive the hydrogen produced as a by-product in the manufacturing process. The very high efficiency experimental plant is one of the projects of Hydrogen Park, the consortium formed in 2003 at the initiative of the Venice Industrial Union with about 4 million euros in support from the Region of Veneto and the Ministry for the Environment. The consortium seeks to promote the development and application of hydrogen technologies in transportation and power generation in the Porto Marghera area.

The Fusina plant is the best suited to host this world-beating initiative. It has a long tradition of environmentally sensitive research and innovation, thanks to Enel’s technology skills and the support of local and regional institutions. The new facility  places Enel and Italy at the forefront of the development of advanced systems for the use of hydrogen.

In 1997 Fusina was the first generation plant in Italy to be equipped with desulphurisation and denitrification systems, while in 1999 it was fitted with sleeve filters to reduce particulate emissions. Since 2008, it has been upgraded with new environmental systems. In addition, Fusina is a leader in one of the most serious problems facing Italy: waste disposal.

After extensive testing, agreed with the Region of Veneto and the Province and City of Venice, the plant is now able to make safe use of 70,000 metric tons of RDF (refuse-derived fuel), a fuel derived from separated solid waste. That is the equivalent of the waste produced by 300,000 people. Using RDF in place of coal to fuel the plant’s boilers, the energy contained in the waste is recovered and it does not occupy space in waste disposal facilities, avoiding about 60,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year.

Hydrogen-electric hybrid bus to be used to ferry participants around the NTU campus

ATHLETES in town for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) next month will ride around the Olympic Village in Singapore’s latest green vehicle: a hydrogen- electric hybrid bus.

The bus, developed by engineers from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and China’s Tsinghua University, will be used to ferry participants along the steep slopes of the NTU campus, where the Youth Olympic Village is situated.

The 72-passenger, single-deck vehicle is likely to be Singapore’s first fuel-cell vehicle in practical use, though a Singapore team in last year’s Shell Eco-marathon car race in Germany drove a hydrogen fuel-cell car 484km on a single litre of fuel.

The bus has eight hydrogen tanks on its roof, which hold about 128kg of pressurised hydrogen; the fuel is channelled into fuel cells, which split the hydrogen into charged particles. Those charged particles then flow through a circuit to generate a current, which supplies power for the vehicle.

That current also charges a lithium-ion battery, like those used in electric or ordinary hybrid cars.

By using hydrogen, the bus emits no carbon dioxide, or sulphur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain. In comparison, a normal diesel bus produces 1.39kg of carbon dioxide per kilometre.

By using a battery as well as a fuel-cell stack, the bus needs fewer fuel cells, slashing running costs.

The project’s funding of about $225,000 comes from the Land Transport Authority’s Innovation Fund, a $50million kitty for transport development.

NTU electrical engineer Soh Yeng Chai said the project was first mooted about two years ago, when the university was designated the Olympic Village. It is part of NTU’s clean-energy research programmes, which include fuel-cell research, Professor Soh said.

During the YOG, the bus will run modest trips – a total of 80km a day, four days a week. After the Games, it will be used to shuttle between NTU and a transit interchange. Details have not been finalised.

But the main challenges to fuel-cell vehicles becoming mainstream here include the high cost of fuel cells, their short two-year lifespan, and their performance, Prof Soh said.

He did not give a cost estimate, but producing power from fuel cells costs $4,000 per kilowatt-hour, by some estimates. In comparison, electricity from natural gas typically costs a fraction of that, at a few cents per kWh.

Among other fuel-cell applications being planned here: developer JTC will install hydrogen power for a building at its upcoming CleanTech Park near NTU.

Internationally, other fuel-cell vehicles being developed include Toyota’s fuel-cell hybrid car and bus, and Honda’s FCX Clarity, a fuel-cell car already available for lease in the United States.

AN innovative project to build small hydrogen power units that aim to be more than 90 per cent energy efficient has been launched in Shetland.

The three year scheme to generate, store and supply renewable energy efficiently inside a home has just attracted funding under the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme.

The project is a collaboration between three islands – Pure Energy on Unst, Lews Castle College in Stornoway and young Sicilian electronic engineer Vincenzo Ortisi who has been employed to develop the fuel cell.

Pure Energy manager Daniel Aklil said: “What we are looking to do is to develop a new type of generator that is 93 per cent efficient.

“The project has three components: developing an engine generating electricity with hydrogen that will be 45 per cent efficient. We will then recover the heat produced in the process to make it 92 or 93 per cent efficient.

“The third tier of the project is that this heat can also be transformed into cooling, if need be.

“Therefore if it is summer in North Africa we can produce cooling, if it is cold in winter in Shetland we can produce heating while at the same time producing electricity.

“The fuel powering the system would be hydrogen produced from renewables.”

Lews Castle College senior lecturer in renewable energy, Alisdair MacLeod, said that the project was ground breaking both in terms of what it was trying to achieve and by involving organisations based on two remote Scottish islands.

Producing electricity with hydrogen is generally not very efficient, he said, but by producing it in a house where the waste heat could be used the inefficiency virtually disappeared.

KTP has a 30 year record of placing young graduates in companies that are seeking fresh academic input to overcome technical problems.

North of Scotland KTP advisor Neil Duncan explained that KTP matches knowledge providers, such as universities, with companies facing a challenge they need help to overcome.

“The company gets its strategic problem solved and therefore becomes more profitable. As a result of taking part in the project the university’s teaching and research is informed,” he said

“The associate has a development opportunity at the beginning of their career, working strategically in a company at high level and also has management training. We look at them as becoming the business leaders of tomorrow.”

On the Ecovenue/Theatres Trust’s stand at the ABTT Theatre Show, White Light and Arcola Energy, innovator in sustainable theatre production, launched HyLight, a unique new portable lighting and power supply that offers the ability to run lighting in locations away from the electrical grid silently and without the emissions of traditional noisy, polluting diesel generators.

Externally the first model, HyLight150, is a compact, wheeled flight-case, rugged for transportation and easy to deploy where required. Internally, it contains the brand new Hymera hydrogen fuel cell generator and two brand new lightweight hydrogen gas cylinders, both from global industrial gas supplier BOC. It provides a choice of low energy LED lighting systems suitable for architectural, live event or safety applications.

White Light’s HyLight150 packages will include either four Pulsar ChromaFlood fixtures, with wireless DMX remote control if required – perfect for creating stunning outdoor lighting – or alternatively single colour worklight floods, ideal for providing lighting to car parks or other work areas. HyLight will provide many hours of safe, low-voltage power in such setups, the package rated at 30 hours at 100W with a 150W maximum load, and with the run-time directly proportional to load, in marked contrast to diesel generators. Also unlike those generators, HyLight is silent in operation, and its only waste output is a tiny amount of water – making the system perfect for areas where noise or exhaust fumes are issues, particularly lighting projects in gardens, environmentally sensitive areas, or even indoors. As well as low-voltage power to the lighting fixtures, HyLight150 offers a 240V outlet to power ancillary equipment, if required.

“This is one of the most exciting projects we have ever been involved with,” comments White Light’s technical director, Dave Isherwood. “It’s a fantastic collaboration with Arcola Energy, BOC and fuel-cell manufacturer Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies to bring some very advanced fuel cell technology into ‘our’ world of entertainment lighting. We hope the result of our work is that users shouldn’t care about the technology – they should just turn on HyLight, plug in some lights and enjoy silent, clean, reliable power.”
“HyLight is a continuation of the fantastic collaboration the Arcola Theatre and Arcola Energy have enjoyed with White Light over the last few years,” comments Dr Ben Todd of Arcola Energy, “and of a recent research and development project we undertook with the support of the Technology Strategy Board and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Their support allowed us to innovate rapidly together, taking lessons we have learnt with running low-energy lighting from the 5kW fuel cell we have at the Arcola Theatre and combining that experience with the latest hydrogen and fuel cell technology from BOC and Horizon Fuel Cell to create a small, portable package that offers lower total cost of ownership than diesel generators – and many other practical benefits as well.”

“We don’t expect our customers to necessarily care about the history or technology of the hydrogen fuel cell,” comments Bryan Raven, White Light’s managing director. “What we do expect is that they will care greatly that they can have a lighting system that is clean, silent and portable, perfect for lighting events in gardens, parks or the remote, hostile but unspoilt locations featured in projects such as Northumberland Lights. HyLight perfectly complements the range of low-energy LED lighting equipment that we have introduced over the last few years, and the work we have been doing to encourage sustainability in lighting and event production. We think and hope that those who create lighting outdoors are going to be as excited about it as we are.”

Each year, the Peer Review Panel at the Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting reviews the hydrogen and fuel cell projects funded by DOE’s Hydrogen Program. After evaluating the merit of the 2010 hydrogen and fuel cell projects, the Peer Review Panel presented the following awards.

DOE Hydrogen Program Team Awards (with special recognition for outstanding technical contributions):

Production and Delivery

Jamie Holladay, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)

This award recognizes Jamie Holladay for his outstanding contributions to hydrogen production and delivery. He completed a two-year assignment in July, 2009, with the Department of Energy Fuel Cell Technologies (FCT) Hydrogen Production and Delivery Team at the headquarters office in Washington, D.C. Mr. Holladay provided invaluable technical support in many areas, and led the development of the Hydrogen Production Roadmap — Technology Pathways to the Future. He worked closely with the Hydrogen Production Technical Team to identify and document the key barriers and critical technology needs for each of the seven major hydrogen production pathways. Mr. Holladay also updated inputs and assumptions to develop the 2009 cost status of hydrogen production pathways and proposed scenarios to achieve the hydrogen cost goals for each. Additional accomplishments include leadership of the Electrolysis Working Group and participation in the Hydrogen Utility Group; technical oversight in identifying and developing a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR topic), “Hydrogen Home Refueler”; preparation and presentation of a “Fuel Cells for Grid Management” paper at the Energy Storage Association conference, and identification of potential use of hydrogen and fuel cells as energy storage for intermittent renewable energy. Mr. Holladay continues to enthusiastically and effectively support the FCT Production and Delivery team from his current position at PNNL.

Storage

David Dixon, University of Alabama

This award recognizes Dr. David Dixon and his team at the University of Alabama for their outstanding contribution to the overall efforts of the DOE Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence (the Center). Dr. Dixon and his team used validated first-principles computational chemistry approaches that included molecular orbital theory and density functional theory on advanced computer architectures to calculate and predict thermodynamics, kinetics, and properties of promising hydrogen storage materials under development by the Center. They predicted reliable thermodynamics for thousands of compounds for hydrogen release, spent fuel regeneration schemes, and dramatically reduced the time and effort required to design and develop new materials. This computational chemistry support allowed the rapid screening of more than thousands of chemical reactants and reaction pathways to identify the desired hydrogen storage parameters with potential to meet or exceed hydrogen storage targets. This rigorous and systematic methodology has resulted in an efficient and cost-effective approach to develop hydrogen storage materials by guiding and focusing experimental efforts on reaction chemistries with a greater chance of meeting targets.

Ragaiy Zidan, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL)

This award recognizes Dr. Ragaiy Zidan and his team at Savannah River National Laboratory for their outstanding contribution to the development of electrochemical methods to regenerate alane (AlH3). Alane is a promising hydrogen storage material that is thermodynamically unstable, but is kinetically stabilized at ambient temperature and pressure. Unfortunately, the low enthalpy of desorption for alane means that extremely high, unpractical levels of pressure would be needed to directly recharge Al with hydrogen to form alane. Dr. Zidan and his team have, for the first time, successfully demonstrated an electrochemical process that allows for the direct hydrogenation of Al metal with hydrogen to generate AlH3 under low-to-moderate hydrogen pressures and temperatures within an electrochemical cell. This past year’s efforts led to the discovery of an electro-catalytic additive that also significantly accelerates the reaction.

Fuel Cells

Piotr Zelenay, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

This award recognizes Dr. Piotr Zelenay and his team at Los Alamos National Laboratory for their outstanding contribution to the advancement of fuel cell catalyst development. Dr. Zelenay is the Principal Investigator on an advanced cathode catalyst project that recently produced several significant results. He and his team have dramatically improved the performance of non-platinum group metal (non-PGM) catalysts through optimization of synthesis conditions and addition of new precursors. The use of fuel cell catalysts containing non-PGMs could help reduce cost and accelerate commercialization of fuel cells. LANL has achieved a 100-fold improvement in non-PEM catalyst performance since 2008, exceeding the DOE 2010 target of 130 A/cm³ at 0.8 V. Dr. Zelenay and his team have also increased the durability of non-PGM catalysts under fuel cell operating conditions.

Douglas Wheeler, DJW TECHNOLOGY

This award recognizes Douglas Wheeler for his outstanding contribution to the Fuel Cell Team. Mr. Wheeler is an internationally recognized leader in the fuel cell community, providing consultation to the DOE, National Laboratories and the Office of Naval Research, while offering his expertise to multiple universities and industry partners on fuel cells and hydrogen technologies. Mr. Wheeler was a member of the Independent Review Panel commissioned by NREL for the DOE that evaluated the 2008 Fuel Cell System Cost Estimate for Transportation and verified the $60/kWnet – $80/kWnet cost estimate for an 80 kWnet fuel cell system. Mr. Wheeler is also on the independent panel for assessing micro-CHP status and targets. An expert on phosphoric acid fuel cells, he was a major contributor to the Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells (PAFC) workshop that was held in November of 2004. Currently, Mr. Wheeler provides analyses of industrial Plasma Enhanced Melter (PEM) manufacturing capabilities to NREL and DOE. Mr. Wheeler’s consulting company, DJW TECHNOLOGY, is working with NREL to develop a manufacturing readiness assessment process for evaluating PEM system and stack manufacturing status for North American companies.

System Analysis

Michael Penev and Darlene Steward, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

This award recognizes Michael Penev and Darlene Steward of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for their outstanding contribution to the System Analysis Team. Mr. Penev is a Sr. Analyst at the Hydrogen Technologies and Systems Center at NREL, where he provides techno-economic analysis for hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell technology deployment scenarios and advises on fuel cell market transformation activities. Ms. Steward is a Senior Engineer in the Hydrogen Technologies and Systems Center at NREL, primarily focusing on life cycle cost, energy, and systems analysis. Both have provided significant support to the DOE’s Fuel Cell Technologies Systems Analysis program element. One of their main accomplishments is the development of the Fuel Cell Power Model, now widely used by the national laboratories and industry to independently assess the cost and energy savings, as well as the benefits, of fuel cells. They have also provided training for various organizations including other DOE EERE programs on model operation, attributes, and application. Mr. Penev and Ms. Steward utilized the Fuel Cell Power Model to provide input for fuel cell evaluations of commercial and government applications and provided invaluable insight and assistance with critical financing mechanisms for fuel cells, including the analysis of tax credits for project financing. They’ve also developed numerous business cases to perform financial and economic evaluations of fuel cell applications including the integration of stationary fuel cells for combined heat, hydrogen, and power fuel cells to provide hydrogen fuel during the early phases of fuel cell vehicle penetration.

Safety, Codes & Standards

Glenn Scheffler

This award recognizes Glenn Scheffler for his outstanding contribution to hydrogen and fuel cell safety, codes and standards. Mr. Scheffler has been an indispensable technical resource and champion in the safety, codes, and standards community for many years. With exceptional technical experience in fuel cell technology engineering and development—including serving as Chief Engineer responsible for product reliability and safety and as Manager of ONSI Engineering for United Technologies—Mr. Scheffler has applied his expertise and devotion to product safety through service on numerous technical committees and working groups developing codes and standards for hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. Mr. Scheffler serves as Chair of the Safety Working Group and Vice-Chair of the Fuel Cell Vehicle Committee for the SAE. Under his guidance, SAE developed and recently published J2579, performance-based requirements for verification of design prototype and production of hydrogen storage and handling systems for hydrogen vehicles, which is helping to change and improve storage tank testing protocols in other countries and is now being incorporated under Global Technical Regulations for hydrogen vehicle systems. Mr. Scheffler also chairs the U.S. Technical Advisory Groups for both ISO TC197 (Hydrogen Technologies) and IEC TC22/SC21 (Electrically Propelled Road Vehicles) and serves as a technical resource for numerous other important standards and codes development and coordination activities. The outstanding progress that the hydrogen and fuel cell codes and standards community has made over the past decade owes much to the service and dedication of experts and champions like Glenn Scheffler.

Chris Sloane

This award recognizes Dr. Chris Sloane for her outstanding contribution to hydrogen and fuel cell safety, codes and standards. Dr. Sloane is widely recognized in the hydrogen and fuel cell technical community and a highly effective advocate for the incorporation of science and performance-based requirements in regulations, codes, and standards. Dr. Sloane has championed this approach in all critical domestic and international forums, and the codes and standards community owes much to her tireless efforts. Dr. Sloane served as Director of Environmental Policy and Programs for General Motors Corporation. While there, she was responsible for global climate issues and mobile emission issues involving advanced technology vehicles, including hybrid-electric, fuel cell, and advanced compression-ignition vehicles. Dr. Sloane also served as Chief Technologist for the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), where she was responsible for guiding and implementing the development of energy conversion and materials technologies for use in the Precept, GM’s 80 mile-per-gallon five-passenger concept car. More recently, she served as an invaluable technical resource for the DOE in the ongoing development of Global Technical Regulations (GTR) for hydrogen vehicle systems. Dr. Sloane exemplifies the rare combination of technical expertise and a common-sense approach to problem solving that characterizes her devotion and service to the safety of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

Education

Mary Spruill, National Energy Education Development Project (NEED)

This award recognizes Mary Spruill of the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED) for her outstanding contributions to hydrogen and fuel cell education for middle school students. NEED’s exceptional teacher and student curriculum materials are the result of a collaborative effort among teachers, students, advisors, technical specialists, federal employees, and professional educators. NEED’s H2 Educate! provides teachers the tools they need to educate students about the science, greater environmental, and societal impacts of hydrogen and fuel cells in a fun, interactive, and engaging way. Since 2004, NEED has trained over 8,000 teachers through workshops and conference sessions in 35 states, resourcefully leveraging DOE education funding through the years. NEED’s has made great strides educating future researchers, scientists, engineers, technicians, and technology users.

Market Transformation

Greg Moreland, Sentech

This award recognizes Greg Moreland for his outstanding contribution to the Market Transformation Team. For the past two years, Mr. Moreland has provided essential support to the Fuel Cell Technologies Program, continually demonstrating the expertise he gained in advanced technology deployment as an industry leader in portable fuel cell power at MTI and as a manager at Ford Motor Company. Mr. Moreland led the coordination of fuel cell emergency backup power at Fort Sumter and enabled the installation of four fuel cells at this National Historic Park in South Carolina. He was an integral member of the team that developed plans for the deployment of 10 hydrogen-fueled shuttle buses at DOE and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) installations while applying his experience in negotiating lease agreements with automotive companies. Mr. Moreland provided insight and assistance with critical financing mechanisms for fuel cells, including the creation of a fact sheet on how federal agencies can take advantage of tax credits, and assisted both the DOE and the U.S. Treasury Department in developing requirements for fuel cell installations to qualify for investment tax credit monetization. Mr. Moreland coordinated DOE Program market transformation work with state-led energy programs including the California Fuel Cell Partnership, NYSERDA, Ohio’s Third Frontier Program, the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technologies (CCAT), and the Hawaii Energy Program. He is currently working with industry leaders to further fuel cell auxiliary power in commercial aircrafts.

DOE Hydrogen Program Awards (with special recognition for outstanding contributions):

John Christensen

This award recognizes John Christensen for his outstanding contribution and dedication to the DOE Hydrogen Program and the Office of Fuel Cell Technologies. Mr. Christensen has supported the Department of Energy’s FCT Market Transformation Team at the headquarters office in Washington, D.C. for over two years. He has provided invaluable assistance in many areas and consistently demonstrates the expertise in advanced technology deployment he gained as the former chief of the logistics R&D division at DOD’s Defense Logistics Agency before he retired three years ago. Mr. Christensen was instrumental in the deployment of 60 forklifts at Defense Distribution Depot in Susquehanna, PA and Warner Robins Air Force Base; in addition to the installation of emergency backup power at over 15 DOD sites and 25 Federal Aviation Administration Sites. He has organized numerous panels and presentations for conferences, including the “Fuel Cell 101 Workshop” at the National Hydrogen Association Annual Conference in May, 2010; the Defense Energy Systems Conference, also in May, 2010, and the panels at last year’s Fuel Cell Seminar. Mr. Christensen has worked tirelessly to keep the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Federal Interagency Working Group a vibrant and active organization by arranging countless industry presentations and interagency discussions on fuel cell deployments. In addition, he has been a tremendous help in assisting the Program with weekly highlight reports, technical and cost analysis, and review of industry topical papers and unsolicited proposals.

The Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence (CHSCoE)
The Metal Hydride Center of Excellence (MTCoE)
The Hydrogen Sorption Center of Excellence (HSCoE)

These awards recognize the three Hydrogen Storage Material Centers of Excellence for their outstanding contribution to advancing the state-of-the-art in hydrogen storage materials. The three Materials Centers of Excellence made significant progress in advancing the understanding and development of hydrogen storage materials over the past five years. These centers significantly expanded the field of hydrogen storage materials by investigating more than 400 distinct new hydrogen storage material systems experimentally and millions computationally. These advances could not have been achieved without the collective creativity and synergy of the partners and management that enabled and encouraged coordination and teamwork among the center partners. All three Centers developed into efficient, high-performing partnerships. Accepting the awards on behalf of the three centers are: Kevin Ott of LANL, director of the CHSCoE; Lennie Klebanoff of Sandia, director of the MHCoE, and Lin Simpson of NREL, director of the HSCoE.

Finding a way to take clean technology from the research lab to a job-generating business is the goal of the San Diego partnership Clean Tech Innovation and Commercialization Program.

The partnership is made up of the city of San Diego, UC San Diego’s William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology, San Diego State University, Clean Tech San Diego and UCSD’s Sustainable Solutions Institute. The partnership recently awarded grants of $50,000 apiece to three projects selected from among 13 proposals.

Among the winners was a project led by SDSU chemistry professor Douglas Grotjahn and his team of four graduate students. Their research seeks to use chemical catalysts to create hydrogen from water to power fuel cells. Such a breakthrough would be a revolutionary, green path to generating electricity, the process of which has traditionally generated pollutants from the burning of fossil fuels.

Grotjahn’s research will be funded in the amount of $50,000 from the partnership program during the next year if it meets all project progress milestones. And if all goes well, a year from now, Grotjahn’s hydrogen production goals will be a step closer to commercialization.

“There are several parts to making hydrogen from water and sunlight,” said Grotjahn. “One of those parts is removing oxygen from water. That is hard, but we have some catalysts that do that.”

He’s been working on commercializing catalyst functions for the past 10 years, with this particular application focused on the problem of producing hydrogen as a clean energy fuel.

Hydrogen-Powered Homes

Producing hydrogen on a large-scale basis would require a manufacturing plant and a pipeline system to distribute it to users. That is an expensive infrastructure problem, says Grotjahn, because such a pipeline network does not now exist and would have to be built.

Grotjahn therefore thinks hydrogen fuel production might initially work better in a commercial application on a small scale, tailored for in-home use enabling homeowners to produce their own energy.

“A rooftop unit taking up 300 to 400 square feet could conceivably make enough hydrogen to make electricity in a home,” said Grotjahn. “I think that would be a great start.”

If he can reliably produce a hydrogen-from-water catalyst, Grotjahn says it could be licensed to generate revenue. But he’s quick to point out that there’s a long road ahead.

“I’m a realist,” said Grotjahn. “We’d like to be further along. But you have to start somewhere.”

He says metals are used to make chemical catalysts. But the challenge is to find a readily available and relatively inexpensive metal that will work. “Even if a super-duper catalyst is made out of platinum, there’s not a lot of platinum to do the job,” said Grotjahn.

Jacques Chirazi, the clean-tech manager for San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, says this program is an attempt to fund an area — innovative scientific research with no clearly defined path to the marketplace — that typically lacks funding.

“Venture capitalists refer to that space as the Valley of Death,” said Chirazi. “There’s no money going into it. We’re hoping to nurture ideas early on so investors feel (the projects) can stay in San Diego and commercialize.” Best-case scenario, he adds, would be the research converting into brisk enough revenue production to fuel a strong startup company that brings well-paid new jobs into the local economy.

Benefits of Technology Transfer

If Grotjahn’s project becomes a commercial success, says Chirazi, it can be a transformative boost to the clean energy industry. Grotjahn’s research, notes Chirazi, uses biology and nanotechnology. Those are two leading-edge areas of research that are seen with the potential to blast through current limits on microprocessing power in supercomputing and other areas.

Now, says Chirazi, there are around 360 companies in San Diego in the clean-tech space, supported by another 300 supplier companies. “Hopefully, if we fast forward 10 years it will be big, if not bigger than biotech.”

Rosibel Ochoa, director of the von Liebig Center at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, also notes the lack of funding for early stage technology development, and the efforts of the local program to plug the gap, while providing guidance for shaping strong research into a profitable company.

Over the years, the center has found such funding to be a risky proposition, says Ochoa.

“We’ve funded 70 projects,” she says, for a total of $4 million over the past eight years. “For every 10 projects we fund, three get transferred to (the sales stage of) licensing.”

Still, any successes derived from early stage nurturing have a chance to boost economic development.

“It’s very difficult to translate academic discoveries to the market for job creation,” she said. But the fight to do so is for a very good reason.

“The more tech we can transfer, the greater the potential for one of those to become the next Google, or the next Cisco in green-tech as a job generator for the country.”

Mark Larson is a freelance writer for the San Diego Business Journal.