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South Carolina leading in hydrogen research
By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer
When you look at all the factors going on with hydrogen research within the state, a critical mass is beginning to form in the development of this alternative fuel source, said Jim Stritzinger, executive vice president and general manager of the South Carolina Research Alliance Public Interest Research division.
“We have the potential to be not only a model for the nation but also a self-contained ‘beta site’ for the rest of the world,” he said.
Stritzinger pointed to organizations like the Savannah River Site and the University of South Carolina as “some of the state’s most valuable assets.”
“First, look at the Savannah River lab,” Stritzinger said. “Because of its name, a lot of people think it’s on the Georgia border, but it’s 100 percent in South Carolina.”
Among its assets, Stritzinger said, is the nuclear reactor, which is “the most cost-effective way to generate hydrogen. It’s not environmentally sensitive to burn carbon fuel to create hydrogen. So in order to create hydrogen, from a cost and environment perspective, the way to do that is to use a nuclear reactor.”
The Savannah River Site is also developing ways to store and transport hydrogen.
“In Columbia, there’s USC, where they have the only National Science Foundation center for fuel cell excellence,” he said. “The NSF has given the university a large multi-year grant to study hydrogen, and USC was the only place in the country that received that award.”
Clemson, Stritzinger noted, is where hydrogen research can be put into practical use at the Clemson University—International Center for Automotive Research.
“ICAR is perfectly positioned to study the integration of hydrogen into autos,” he said. “When you take what’s going on at USC and the Savannah River lab and combine all that with the economic horsepower of BMW, Michelin and others in the state, we have huge potential there.”
Results today
“There are a handful of companies in the business of making hydrogen fuel cells and deploying them, and fuel cell applications are in place right now,” said Russ Keller, SCRA’s senior director of alternative energy programs. “The majority of these are providing backup power supplies in lieu of diesel generators, typically for a small business applications.”
Other applications in the field now include fuel cells for power to backup cell phone towers. Another specific example is one of the dormitories at USC being powered by a fuel cell, he said.
“There are a handful of projects much larger in scope, many with tens of kilowatts of uninterruptible power,” Keller said. “There are two companies in California and Connecticut that have much larger applications, both in the 200- to 250-kilowatt range.”
Most of the current uses for fuel cells are in stationary and backup power, but some companies are starting to investigate “micro fuel cells” that look and operate similar to batteries.
“These could be used, for instance, to powering laptops or surveillance cameras, except they wouldn’t have to be recharged,” he said. “As long as you have a hydrogen power source, it’ll never run out.”
In fact, some of that work is already underway. Published reports have noted recent developments of prototypes for fuel cells that will replace traditional lithium-ion batteries in laptops. Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Samsung and Sanyo are among the companies working on the technology. Toshiba, which began fuel cell development for personal computers about four years ago, is working toward commercialization of the product by next year.
Convergence of past, future
In terms of stationary power, Keller has a Lowcountry pilot project in mind.
“The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires that the Secretary of Energy conduct a demonstration program of this technology, and those who wrote the bill set aside money for it,” he said. “The thing that caught my eye was in suggestions for specific places for conducting the program, including remote islands and national parks. We have a national park here at Fort Sumter.”
Keller’s proposal is to have a demonstration project at Fort Sumter that would power the library, gift shop and other power using hydrogen fuel cells.
“John Deere makes a vehicle that runs on hydrogen,” he said. “That would be perfect for cutting the grass on the site.”
The project would have a relatively small power requirement, Keller said.
“It wouldn’t need a huge footprint out there, and I don’t think it would be too expensive,” he said. “And as a capstone, we could put an educational kiosk showing the use of clean renewable energy.”
Most of the challenges with the fuel cells involve cost competitiveness, particularly in production, Keller said.
“There has to be a catalyst to convert hydrogen and oxygen back into energy, and most applications use some kind of platinum-based model,” he said. “But there’s probably not enough platinum in the world to put these cells into every car. That’s the research challenge: finding different materials to get the cost of production down.”
The actual technology of using hydrogen as fuel is more than 100 years old, Keller said.
“The guy who invented the first cells lived in the 1800s,” he said. “We’re getting better with materials now and finding new uses for it. It’s just a matter of getting the cost down.”
Several auto manufacturers are beginning to work on hydrogen-powered vehicles or hybrid vehicles powered by gas and hydrogen, but not without challenges.
“The challenge there is being able to store enough hydrogen between fill-ups, in addition to getting the cost down.”
Despite the challenges, the current research is “a very exciting position to be in. This is the future, and South Carolina’s leading the way,” Keller said.
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