Jan 16 - Business Wire

Safe Hydrogen, LLC. of Lexington, Mass has been awarded $308,000 from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust SEED Program (Sustainable Energy Economic Development), a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC). That funding represents the remaining costs of completing a three-year, $2.4 million technology demonstration project awarded to Safe Hydrogen by the U.S. Department of Energy. Safe Hydrogen began work on the project in April of 2004. Its objective is to confirm the functionality of, as well as to validate the cost and efficiency of, Safe Hydrogen's proprietary compound to store, transport and generate hydrogen.

Safe Hydrogen has developed a safe, pumpable hydrogen rich fuel that releases hydrogen as needed. The company is in the process of demonstrating this groundbreaking storage and distribution technology which eliminates several key road blocks to a hydrogen economy - storage safety, storage and distribution efficiency and need for a new infrastructure. The core ingredients of the pumpable chemical hydride slurry are environmentally friendly and completely recyclable. The slurry, both before and after yielding the hydrogen, is not flammable, safe to handle, easy to store and can use current pumps and tanks used for diesel fuel, gasoline or water.

At the end of 2005, Safe Hydrogen had completed half of the DOE demonstration project.. The first prototype of the company's hydrogen generation device has been tested and several functional slurry versions have been produced. The second half of the project targets further improvements in the prototypes and aims to complete detailed costs and efficiency measures specified in DOE cost and efficiency targets.

Safe Hydrogen's technology of safe and efficient hydrogen storage enables broad based use of renewable energy sources and the pollution free conversion of hydrogen to electricity by fuel cells for off-grid, back-up and portable power. The technology also enables the use of hydrogen for vehicle power. The company's progress has been closely monitored by the DOE's Freedom Car Group, representing Ford Motor Co., General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and many major oil companies.

According to Sig Tullmann, President of Safe Hydrogen, the SEED funding insures the company will be able to complete the tasks of the DOE project. According to Tullmann, DOE funds only cover 80 percent of the cost of the project, the MTC SEED funds will cover most of the rest. "This is an absolutely perfect and welcome application of the Renewable Energy Trust Industry SEED program," according to Tullmann. The SEED funding program is designed to support Massachusetts companies developing critical energy technologies that may still be too far from commercialization to attract normal venture funding. Safe Hydrogen expects to seek further funding and strategic partnerships in 2006 to build commercial scale test and evaluation prototypes.