New Member Profile
PROTON Energy Systems Focuses on Commercializing PEM
Technologies
PROTON Energy Systems, located in Rocky Hill,
Connecticut, U.S.A., was founded last year to commercialize the proton exchange
membrane (PEM) technology. The company will produce low cost electrolysis
units to produce hydrogen. These units will efficiently convert electricity
and water into pure hydrogen and oxygen using a safe, reliable, solid (Teflon-based)
electrolyte.
PROTON’s design and cost structure is aimed
at giving industrial gas marketers a lower-cost way to serve portions of
their hydrogen markets. Because the process is most advantageous in smaller-scale
distributed applications, PROTON will be positioned to be a significant
player in the emerging transportation and energy markets for hydrogen.
Emerging from a Space/Military Heritage
The PEM technology was invented at General Electric
35 years ago and first developed to meet NASA program life-support needs.
The Hamilton Standard division of United Technologies, Inc., acquired and
has advanced the technology over the past decade. What makes PROTON unique
is that four of its five founders have worked with this technology for the
bulk of their careers, and know every step in the complex process of designing
and building PEM systems.
Making hydrogen through electrolysis is not
a new idea in and of itself. But historically, the price of electricity
has limited the commercial viability of the process. It takes between 14
and 15 kilowatt-hours (kWh) to make 100 standard cubic feet (scf) of hydrogen.
If delivered electricity costs 8¢/kWh, the variable cost of electrolytic
hydrogen is well above US$1 per 100 scf—above its value in many markets.
But deregulation of the electric utility industry is already lowering the
cost of delivered power, and the downward trend is certain to continue.
Marginal prices for delivered electricity in some U.S. markets is now 3-4
¢/kWh, even to small (residential) customers. The result: an historically
marginal commercial process has just become much more viable.
PROTON was formed in part to ride this favorable
electricity price wave. One of PROTON’s lead investors is the AES Corporation,
the world’s largest independent power company. AES sees PROTON as a
way to give different (and higher) form value to surplus generating capacity.
PROTON’s president and CEO, Chip Schroeder, left AES to, in his words:
“move to the other side of the table. I’d rather be an electric
customer than supplier over the next decade.”
The company has a two-tiered strategy for future
product development. Beyond a near-term focus on supplying low-cost, PEM-based
electrolyzers, PROTON in the future will look to develop fuel cells. PROTON
has plans to develop unitized regenerative fuel cells, in which a single
cell stack can either make hydrogen or, when reversed, use the hydrogen
to make electricity. The size and weight advantages of a unitized system
offers promise for many applications, including automotive.
For additional information, contact PROTON Energy
Systems, Inc., 50 Inwood Rd., Rocky Hill, CT 06067, U.S.A. Phone: +1.860.571.6533.
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the National Hydrogen Association.
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