| Idaho's First Hydrogen Plant Opens For Business |
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Publication Date:19-July-2006 04:00 PM US Eastern Timezone Source: Elizabeth Wynne Johnson-Oregon Public Broadcasting
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| COEUR
D'ALENE, ID --Idaho's first hydrogen plant began making deliveries this
week. As correspondent Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports, the Gem State is
making notable strides in renewable energy.
----------- It's a curious sort of alchemy, really. Regular tap water goes in. Pure hydrogen gas comes out. A new company called Synthetic Energy is staking a claim on what it hopes is a growing market for hydrogen. Its first customer is a Boise-based gas distributor that used to truck its hydrogen all the way from Vancouver, Washington. Hydrogen is still far from being a mass market fuel. For one thing, it takes lots of expensive electricity to produce. So the Ketchum, Idaho-based startup uses wind to get about 25% of the electricity it needs to power the process -- a key innovation in renewable energy. The company says the future for this
lighter-than-air gas is sky high. Demand is likely to grow among
semiconductor producers and fuel cell users. |