NHA Membership Surges in 1998
Eleven companies have recently become new members
of the NHA. In addition, two members upgraded their status from honorary
to University/Research. We welcome our newest members.
BMW of North America, Inc.
BMW is a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles
with its headquarters in Munich, Germany. Its annual production is more
than 650,000 units with annual sales of nearly DM 40 billion worldwide.
BMW has been involved in the research of hydrogen
as an alternative propulsion fuel for automobiles since the 1980s. In particular,
BMW has focused its research efforts in the areas of hydrogen production
from solar energy, distribution, storage, dispensing, engines, fuel cells
systems, and safety. As part of this effort, BMW operates a dedicated bench
test facility for hydrogen-driven internal combustion engines and a filling
station for cryogenic fuel, and now is evaluating its fourth-generation
vehicle with an internal combustion engine propelled by liquefied hydrogen
stored in a cryogenic container.
Contact: Karl-Heinz Ziwica, BMW of North America,
BMW Plaza, Montvale, NJ 07645, U.S.A. Phone: +1.201.573.2068. Fax: +1.201.782.0764.
California Hydrogen Business Council
CHBC is a nonprofit corporation which offers
a meeting forum for the discussion of opportunities serving the interest
of the hydrogen industries. It was organized in 1997 to provide a formal
link between various organizations committed to business development related
to hydrogen. Membership meetings approximately at quarterly intervals are
held regionally within California. These meetings include technical presentations,
updates on regional hydrogen affairs, as well as member company activities
in the hydrogen field.
The CHBC by-laws provide for promoting the common
interest in the development and use of hydrogen. The organizations is engaged
in activities to broaden the knowledge of and applications of hydrogen.
The Council will pursue the commercialization opportunities for hydrogen
production, utization and service/supply industries.
Activities include providing information, reports
and standards recommendations to the hydrogen industry. Communication with
regional governmental entities, developing an understanding of the regulatory
needs and the promotion of appropriate guidlines for legislation. The CHBC,
through communicaiton with various media outlets and governmental agencies,
including the NHA, keeps its membership informed of opportunities for hydrogen
business.
Contact: Peter LeFort, 3121 Brimhall Dr., Los
Alamitos, CA 90720, U.S.A. Phone: +1.562.596.5080. Fax: +1.562.596.3022.
GL&V-Hydrogen Technologies, Inc.
GL&V-Hydrogen Technologies, Inc., a firm
based in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada, brings to the North
American market a new and innovative hydrogen generator based on the use
of an inorganic membrane.
This company was created through the combined
efforts of Hydrogen System N.V. (Belgium), GL&V, Inc. (Trois-Rivières,
Québec, Canada), SOFINOV (technology-based venture of La Caisse de
Depot et de Placement du Québec) and OPTEC ENERGY SERVICES (Montréal,
Québec, Canada).
The company offers the North American version
of the IMET-10 water electrolysis technology from Belgium. This proven technology
offers many characteristics such as: significantly lower H2 production cost,
competitive sales price, lowest ratio of kilowatt hour per cubic meter (3.9
kWh/H2m3), delivered at utilization pressure (15 to 105 psig), no moving
parts, no compressors, installed at the point-of-use, and ease of operation.
GL&V-Hydrogen Technologies Inc, will oversee production of IMET units
for worldwide distribution.
Contact: René J. Mandeville, Vice President
for Sales and Marketing, GL&V-Hydrogen Technologies, Inc., 455 Blvd.
Fénelon, Suite 210, Dorval, Québec City, H9S 5T8, Canada.
Phone: +1.514.420.0994. Fax: +1.514.828.9124. eMail: rene.mandeville@h2glv.com.
Global Photonic Energy Corporation
GPEC, an emerging growth company, is developing
a practical method for producing hydrogen fuel and electrical power from
solar photonic energy. Advances made in recent years in the field of materials
science enable researchers to design and assemble molecules atom-by-atom
in order to optimize their physical properties for specific applications.
GPEC’s research partners at the University of Southern California and
Princeton University are utilizing this approach to develop high performance
molecules in proprietary architectures optimized to convert solar photonic
energy to chemical potential energy. This energy may then be harnessed to
directly split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases, two extremely valuable
products. Alternatively, the energy may be channeled to an external electrical
load to provide a power for a wide range of high-value applications.
Contact: John Hurley, Global Photonic Energy
Corporation, Three Bala Plaza East, Suite 104, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004, U.S.A.
Phone: +1.610.617.4010. Fax: +1.610.617.4017.
H2T, Inc.
For more information, contact: Dominique Kluyskens,
H2T, Inc., 75 Rene Levesque West, 17th floor, Montréal, Québec,
H2Z 1A4 Canada. Phone: +1.514.289.3769. Fax: +1.514.289.4081.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
NREL had been an honorary member of the NHA
for several years. Recently, NREL became a dues-paying member with full
membership benefits. NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s premier
laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research, development,
and deployment. NREL’s vision is to be the focal point and the recognized
center of excellence for producing high-quality, objective, timely, relevant
information on renewable energy resources. They serve the resource information,
characterization, and measurement needs of all renewable energy technologies,
including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal, to facilitate the development
and deployment of these technologies.
NREL plays an important part in the DOE’s
hydrogen program by addressing infrastructure issues, process efficiency,
environmental impacts and advantages, safety issues, reliability, and cost
competitiveness.
Contact: Catherine Gregoire-Padro, NREL, 1617
Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393, U.S.A. Phone: +1.303.275.2919. Fax: +1.303.275.3885.
Norsk Hydro Electrolysers, AS
Norsk is a supplier of hydrogen generators based
on water electrolysis. The present product range varies from small to large
size plants (Max. 485 Nm3/h per unit). The company is represented in more
than 35 countries world wide through agents and subsidiaries. Norsk has
more than 70 years experience in hydrogen generation.
Contact: Christopher Kloed, Norsk Hydro Electrolysers
AS, P.O. Box 44, N-3671, Notodden, Norway. Phone: +47.3.501.7477. Fax: +47.3.501.4404.
Norwegian Hydrogen Forum
The Forum is a member organization of Norwegian
industries, R&D; institutions and universities with an interest in the promotion
of hydrogen or hydrogen related technologies. The organization was formed
at the beginning of 1997 and today has 20 members. Among the main objectives
of the Forum are influencing government and advocating demonstration projects.
Contact: Christopher Kloed, Norwegian Hydrogen
Forum, P.O. Box 44, N-3671, Notodden, Norway. Phone: +47.3.501.7477. Fax:
+47.3.725.3001.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
As stated in their keynote addresses at the
recent 9th Annual U.S. Hydrogen Meeting, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and
Assistant Secretary Dan Reicher, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy,
noted that renewable hydrogen production is one of the main focus issues
in implementing a global hydrogen energy solution. Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL) is a key player in the production of renewable hydrogen, where it
was first demonstrated that microalgae can simultaneously produce hydrogen
and oxygen from water in a sustained light-driven process. This form of
renewable hydrogen production produces no greenhouse gas emissions.
The major focus of current ORNL hydrogen production
work is aimed at maximizing direct solar to hydrogen conversion efficiencies
and using these optimized systems with advanced photobiological reactors
in a practical process. ORNL is a member of DOE’s BioHydrogen research
team, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the University
of Hawaii, and the University of California-Berkeley, which are coordinating
a systematic solution to producing inexpensive renewable hydrogen by photosynthetic
water splitting.
ORNL also is developing a low-cost, solidstate
hydrogen sensor to support the long-term goal of the DOE’s Hydrogen
Program to encourage acceptance and commercialization of renewable energy-based
technologies. The development of efficient production, storage, and utilization
technologies brings with it the need to detect and pinpoint hydrogen leaks
to protect people and equipment. The resistive hydrogen sensor, developed
at ORNL, is potentially well-suited to meet cost and performance objectives
for many of these applications.
Contact: Thomas Schmidt, ORNL, P.O. Box 2008,
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6194, U.S.A. Phone: +1.423.574.4977. Fax: +1.423.574.7229.
Solar Energy Industries Association
SEIA is the national trade organization for
U.S. commercial enterprises involved in solar energy. At the national level,
SEIA represents about 150 companies who manufacture, market, maintain or
research a wide range of solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies. SEIA
also has 16 state and regional chapters with over 450 members that deal
in solar energy commercialization and marketing.
Contact: Scott Sklar, SEIA, 122 C Street, N.W.,
4th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001-2109, U.S.A. Phone: +1.202.383.2600. Fax:
+1.202.383.2670. eMail: info@seia.org.
Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation
SHEC Labs of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada,
has developed tested and proven the key components for a process that will
generate hydrogen from water utilizing solar energy. No pollution is generated
in the process. Twenty years of research have gone into this development.
What has been needed is a way to completely
eliminate the carbon pollution. SHEC has done this by using water as the
source of hydrogen instead of fossil fuels. Water is broken down into its
basic elements of hydrogen and oxygen. When hydrogen fuel is later used
in a fuel cell, or other hydrogen powered appliances of the future, the
exhaust is water.
SHEC’s technology could be able to commercially
produce hydrogen from water at a competitive cost to fossil fuels when used
in a fuel cell engine. These technologies make the SHEC process of renewable
energy much more economically competitive to fossil fuels, than any other
renewable energy today and into the 21st Century.
SHEC plans to license solar hydrogen stations
to energy companies interested in producing hydrogen fuel cleanly. There
is no environmental concerns and no expensive cleanup costs.
Contact: Lyle Pittman, SHEC, 2214 Hanselman
Avenue, Saskatoon, SK, S7L 6A4, Canada. Phone: +1.306.956.1133. Fax: +1.306.956.1144.
Web: www.solar-h.com.
Stirling Energy Systems
Stirling Energy Systems is a energy systems
integration company that is commercializing Dish Stirling solar technology
to participate in the US$330 billion deregulated utility industry in the
U.S. SES technologies can meet the “solar-only power” requirements
in several sunshine states. The company has cost-share contracts with the
U.S. Department of Energy and Sandia National Laboratories to continue solar
optimization of the technology. SES has Boeing/MDA under contract for purposes
of commercialization of the solar concentrator and have an exclusive licensing
agreement from Kockums of Sweden for the world’s most efficient engine,
the 4-95 Stirling engine. SES targets U.S. utilities, remote communities,
agricultural applications, and grid end-point application markets worldwide.
Our experienced management team is dedicated to helping us successfully
meet our business goals and our company and industrial partners are poised
to respond to current marketing pricing, time frames, and large scale solar
plants now in demand.
Today the Dish Stirling system holds the world’s
efficiency record for converting solar energy into grid-quality electricity.
The technology uses mirror facets which direct solar radiation into a focal
point. The solar radiation then heats hydrogen gas in heater tubes creating
a pressure high enough to spin the motor. This is done without any fossil
fuels or fuel costs. Our clean renewable pollution abatement technologies
provide solutions to enhanced global warming, ozone depletion and acid rain
as well as meet the growing demand for clean energy.
Contact: Harry Braun, Stirling Energy Systems,
6245 N. 24th Pkwy, Suite 209, Phoenix, AZ 85016, U.S.A. Phone: +1.602.957.1818.
Fax: +1.602.957.1919.
Westinghouse Savannah River Company
WSRC had been an honorary NHA member for several
years. Recently, it became a dues-paying member with full benefits of membership.
WSRC is the management and operating contractor at the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina. Savannah River
Site is a world leader in hydrogen technologies for defense applications.
The development of hydrogen technologies—especially for producing and
processing tritium—has been a principal and integral part of work at
the Savannah River Site for about 45 years.
Today, as the work continues, much of this institutional
and technological expertise is available to academia and industry through
various agreements and business relationships. This expertise represents
a valuable resource in a world moving toward a hydrogen fuel economy.
Savannah River Technology Center is the applied
research and development laboratory at the Savannah River Site. Within the
Savannah River Technology Center is the Hydrogen Technology Laboratory,
or HyTech. Scientists and engineers in HyTech have extensive expertise in
hydrogen technology. Many of the technologies invented within HyTech involve
the properties of metal hydrides.
Over the past 10 years, the staff of HyTech
have developed and implemented the world’s largest tritium-handling
process based on metal hydrides. The new Replacement Tritium Facility features
the latest in metal hydride technology, including H2 storage, pumping, separation,
and purification. The cumulative knowledge of H2technology within HyTech
greatly enhances the ability of the laboratory to develop new technologies
for industrial and commercial H2applications.
One of HyTech’s hydrogen storage technologies
currently is being used in a proof-of-principle, hydrogen-fueled, public
transit bus. The H2Fuel Bus was realized through a successful partnership
of government, academia, and industry. The bus now is operated by the public
transit division of the local government of Augusta/Richmond County, Georgia,
U.S.A.
Following are the areas of hydrogen expertise
within HyTech: molecular modeling and computer simulation, process modeling,
metal hydride compositions, metal hydride characterization, H2
handling and safety, H2 containment, H2
compression, H2 storage and transportation, H2 separation and purification, H2/metal
interaction, H2 distribution, cryogenic technology,
and fusion energy.
The resources of HyTech Laboratory are available
through cooperative research and development agreements, work agreements,
technology licenses, or other appropriate partnerships.
Contact: Bill Summers, WSRC, Bldg 742-A, Rm.
151, Aiken, SC 29808, U.S.A. Phone: +1.803.725.7766. Fax: +1.803.725.1036.
©1998. All Rights Reserved. A Publication of
the National Hydrogen Association.
This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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