Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham Tours Hydrogen Storage and Dispensing Equipment at Air Products, Inc.
ALLENTOWN, Pa., June 7 /U.S. Newswire/ --
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham visited Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. today to highlight the company's role in President Bush's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.
"President Bush recognizes that a hydrogen economy has the long-term potential to deliver greater energy independence by reducing America's dependence on foreign sources of energy," Energy Secretary Abraham said. "It offers immense environmental benefits that current energy technologies cannot meet. This multi-million dollar commitment to research is a down payment on a more energy and environmentally secure future."
Last month, President Bush and Secretary Abraham announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) had selected more than $350 million in hydrogen research projects to address the major technical and economic hurdles that must be overcome to make the his vision a reality. With private sector cost share, these projects will contribute $575 million to hydrogen research over the next 5 years.
Air Products and Chemicals will play an important part in two of those projects. They will lead one of five teams in the National Vehicle and Infrastructure Demonstration activity. These "learning demonstrations" will provide important fuel cell vehicle and hydrogen refueling infrastructure performance, cost and durability data to focus research efforts. Eight automakers and six energy companies (under 5 major awards) will work together with their teams to demonstrate integrated and complete system solutions operating in real world environments. Teams also include utilities, universities and small businesses.
The Air Products team includes several major auto companies and Southern California Edison. This team will demonstrate fuel cell vehicles and build hydrogen fueling stations in California and Nevada. The amount of funding will be determined during negotiation of the cooperative agreement.
Air Products will also conduct research on novel materials for hydrogen storage. They are a key partner in the Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) located in Golden, Colorado.
As announced by Secretary Abraham at NREL on April 27, NREL was selected along with 2 other national laboratories to lead Centers of Excellence for research in hydrogen storage materials. These centers, which include over 25 universities and several industry partners, will address the major technical barrier to on-board hydrogen storage -- storing enough hydrogen to enable greater than 300-mile driving range without reducing cargo or passenger space.
"The financial commitment of the private sector dramatically increases the probability of success that we will overcome the technology challenges in this important endeavor and achieve the President's vision," Secretary Abraham said.
One of the key recommendations of the recent National Research Council (NRC) Report "The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities, Costs, Barriers and R&D Needs," is that DOE should partner with a broader range of academic and industrial organizations to greatly increase the probability of success in bringing the United States to a hydrogen economy. These projects, chosen through a merit- reviewed, competitive process, are fully consistent with the NRC recommendation.
Later this year, additional selections for research in hydrogen production and delivery will be announced. The development of cost-competitive, environmentally benign technologies to produce hydrogen from abundant, diverse domestic resources with low carbon emissions is critical to the development of a hydrogen energy future.
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