Construction Under Way on Hydrogen Power Project ; The Wiscasset Site May Help Maine Gain Expertise in the Emerging Technology
Nov 17 - Portland Press Herald
The Chewonki Foundation has started construction on a $240,000 demonstration pro- ject designed to use renewable energy to generate hydrogen and power fuel cells for electricity production.
The project is one of many research efforts under way in the United States to
develop what supporters call a hydrogen economy. A transition to hydrogen and
away from oil, gas and coal is seen as a way to reduce the nation's dependence
on imported energy, cut air pollution and limit emissions that contribute to
global warming.
Maine, which is highly dependent on petroleum for space heat and
transportation, could benefit by developing some early expertise in this
evolving energy technology, supporters say.
Government and industry are spending millions of dollars to develop hydrogen
technology, which can be used to power vehicles, run turbines or produce heat
and electricity. Chewonki's demonstration project will be the only one in New
England using power from renewable resources to produce hydrogen, according to
Peter Arnold, Chewonki's project coordinator. The power will come from
hydroelectric and biomass plants that make up the so-called green electricity
supply from Maine Renewable Energy. A rooftop solar-electric unit at Chewonki
also will contribute some power.
The idea of powering the economy with clean energy has great appeal, but
several obstacles exist. Hydrogen is relatively expensive to produce and it's
difficult to store large quantities in small tanks. Commercial distribution
systems don't exist, and the design of fuel cells, which change the chemical
energy of hydrogen and oxygen directly to electricity and heat, is still
evolving.
Chewonki's project is funded in part with a $120,000 grant from the Maine
Technology Institute. Several Maine businesses have contributed time or
technical expertise to design the project, including OEST Associates in South
Portland, Fire Risk Management in Bath, Result Engineering in Saco and Maine Oxy
in Auburn.
Chewonki's system will use a device called an electrolyzer to produce
hydrogen from water. The hydrogen will be stored in pressurized tanks until it's
needed. Then it will flow into the fuel cells and produce electricity.
Although the system will only be used at first for demonstrations and for
backup power in the event of an outage, the concept has wider applications,
according to Arnold. Renewable energy from wind farms, hydro stations or biomass
plants in Maine could be tapped to generate hydrogen. That hydrogen could be
stored in tanks and moved to where it's needed for heat or transportation, just
like gasoline or propane.
This concept is becoming a reality in some places.
Last week, Shell and General Motors opened a hydrogen refueling station in
Washington, D.C., the first integrated gasoline/hydrogen station in North
America. The demonstration project will be used to refuel General Motors' fuel
cell vehicles participating in a federal Department of Energy project. It will
be the first station in a potential Washington, D.C.-to-New York "hydrogen
corridor," where a string of stations can refuel hydrogen-powered vehicles.
Gary Higginbottom, executive director of the Hydrogen Energy Center in
Portland, said his volunteer group has started talking to companies about a
hydrogen production facility to fuel fleet transportation in Maine's largest
city.
The idea is still in an early stage, he said, but projects like the one at
Chewonki will help Maine develop some expertise in this emerging field. That
could position the state to develop businesses that engineer and assemble
hydrogen energy systems, Higginbottom said.
Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at:
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