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Despite state
funding, fuel cell technology running on fumes
Publication Date:15-May-2006 |
| Hoping
to nudge Ohio's slow-moving fuel cell industry to life, the state began the
Ohio Fuel Cell Initiative in 2002.
It has since provided about $50 million for various fuel cell projects and to companies, mainly through the Third Frontier program, Wright Centers of Innovation and Wright Project programs. Over the past three years, progress among those programs and companies receiving funds has been steady, but incremental. Industry watchers say it is possible for Ohio to become a major force in fuel cell manufacturing, but the return on the state's investment probably will take decades. Many types of fuel cells and applications exist - some may be only a couple of years from full-scale production, but others, such as automobile engine components, will take a decade or longer, they say. "We're providing funding to companies to do R&D to help them get over technological hurdles that still exist in the industry," says Mike McKay, team leader of the state's fuel cell initiative. The state has supported efforts to help develop a fuel cell supply chain in Ohio, to educate companies which served traditional industries such as the automotive market, and which have the capability to produce a balance of plant materials to fuel cell manufacturers. One success story is Ohio State University's Center for Automotive Research, a force in research on fuel cell powered vehicles. The center officially opened May 5 as the first hydrogen refueling station in Ohio, one of only 15 in the nation. "It is a move and investment that allows not just pure research activities but creates opportunities for fleet tests, demos being used in on the road kinds of uses. It's a great step forward," says to Ken Alfred, executive director of the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition. However, fuel cell development for automobiles may be the farthest away from commercialization, but experts say they don't know how long it will take. While Ohio is making efforts to be in the forefront of fuel cell production, its taking a long time because the technology has not developed enough to be marketable.The types of fuel cells that can be turned on and off quickly and would be useful to power vehicles that stop and go, as automobiles do, currently run on hydrogen. One of the main stumbling blocks to those units is the lack of a low-cost hydrogen infrastructure capable of refueling on a wide level. Another issue is still cost of production, Alfred says. Meanwhile, a $1.3 million fuel cell that began powering a Westerville generator in 2004 as a demonstration project was recently shut down. The project was venture of the Westerville Division of Electricity and AMP-Ohio, an organization of municipal power companies. The project was funded through an $839,000 grant from the Third Frontier program. The fuel cell used in Westerville was powered by natural gas, and though it used the gas more efficiently than a combustion generator, its cost to produce power was almost four times more than the going rate for power from the AMP-Ohio grid. "One thing you learn through demonstration projects is what works and what doesn't work. Until fuel cells become part of the mainstream, like any new technology, there's a learning curve," says McKay. Local firms are continuing to play with new strategies to gain an edge in the evolving market. Some provide materials, components and expertise to research teams and industrial partners working to create market-rate solid oxide fuel cells, but no products are close to market. "A couple of people we are working with have systems in various demonstrations, but in terms of being available for general use, they're not quite there yet," says Jon Foreman, sales manager for NexTech Materials in Columbus. The company, formed in 1994, has grown to 40 employees. Foreman says NexTech's goal is to be a manufacturer of fuel cell components. The company already sells some components, but is deriving more revenue from custom materials, component fabrication services and research contracts. Foreman is also director of FuelCellMaterials.com, a division of NexTech that sells the company's own and other's fuel cell materials and components online. "It's still very much a marketplace in development. For the most part everyone is still in the product-development stage," he says. "The nice thing about it is, people are really starting to show progress." Cindy Bent Findlay is a Columbus-based
freelance writer. |