Proton OnSite awarded $1.7M contract for hydrogen fueling infrastructure for US Army in Hawaii
06 May 2011
Proton OnSite, formerly Proton Energy Systems, has been awarded Phase II of a contract from the US Army’s Tank-Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) for $1.7 million to provide hydrogen fueling infrastructure on Hawaii, and to further increase the efficiency and output potential of future commercial hydrogen stations.
The company received a Phase I contract for $1.8 million in November 2008, which provided for the development and testing of a prototype electrolyzer system capable of producing 65 kg of hydrogen per day. This system eventually became the platform for the SunHydro fueling station in Wallingford, CT.
That project ultimately resulted in a five-fold increase in net hydrogen generation over Proton’s previous system, and a significant decrease in the cost of hydrogen fuel for hydrogen vehicle deployments.
Phase II of the TARDEC contract will allow Proton OnSite to develop and build a fully commercialized configuration of the FuelGen 65 Electrolyzer, improving on the efficiency and performance breakthroughs gained in Phase I.
The Department of Energy has set a target for national hydrogen prices of between $3.50 and $5/kg for the 2015 rollout of fuel cell vehicles recently set out by a body of international car manufacturers. The developments being made by Proton OnSite, thanks in part to its partnership with the US Army through TARDEC, means we are fully on track to meet that target.
—Rob Friedland, President and CEO of Proton OnSite
The electrolyzer is planned to be installed in a hydrogen fueling station on an Army base in Hawaii in early 2012 and will be used to provide fueling to the expanding fleet of hydrogen vehicles being deployed to Oahu.
In addition, the Phase II project will enable Proton to develop a larger cell stack design, which will result in significant decreases in hydrogen production cost and enable at least another two-fold increase in net hydrogen capacity of future hydrogen refueling stations.
In addition to the new $1.7-million TARDEC contract, Proton has also been awarded in excess of $1.3 million this year from other government agencies to support the development of its hydrogen production technology.
Proton OnSite is also providing the hydrogen for the Flint, Michigan hydrogen fueling station announced earlier this week. (Earlier post.)
40 kWh worth of electricity to make one kilogram of hydrogen and you put it in an engine? An EV could go over 100 miles on that energy and the Hummer can go maybe 10.
Posted by: SJC | 06 May 2011 at 12:21 PM
Remember the miltary has to transport its fuel all over the world.. in many cases a gallon of fuel costs 100 or more bucks due to this.. so being able to run trucks on both normal fuel AND h2 saves massive amounts of money.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 06 May 2011 at 02:28 PM
I would rather see Hawaii use sugarcane stalks and make biofuels. They could make ethanol, gasoline, diesel or jet fuel easily with just what they grow there.
Posted by: SJC | 06 May 2011 at 03:26 PM
They can do both you know... Its not as if there is one person manicaly doing all this stuff...
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 06 May 2011 at 08:27 PM
The question is where does Hawaii get its electricity. Mostly from power plants that burn heating oil brought from the mainland. If that was not bad enough, now they are going to use that electricity to make hydrogen to burn in a Hummer? Ask yourself, what is wrong with this picture, when they can run the Hummer on refined heating oil.
Posted by: SJC | 07 May 2011 at 02:14 PM
Actualy the question is where does the base get its power from....
And it doesnt matter as in the end this is about the military experimenting with various alt fuels. They realy like h2 for various reasons so um ya they are gona stick with it.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 07 May 2011 at 07:42 PM
I guess they can experiment with hydrogen fuels at the tax payer expense as long as we can borrow enough money from the Chinese.
Power the electrolyzer using solar panels and wind turbines and I am for it. But to use electricity made from fuel oil and burn the hydrogen in an engine makes no sense.
Posted by: SJC | 09 May 2011 at 08:58 AM
Well its easy to understand why the miltary is so interested in fuel cells. They allow for silent high power operation over long periods of time. They are more compact then other options and the fuel can be made anywhere they have power.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 09 May 2011 at 11:30 AM
I can understand the silent power idea, so make the Hummers PHEV and run on electric. That way they can be a portable power source as well.
Many fuel cells are not exactly zero signature. The blowers have to pressurize the stack, there is huge air intake and the exhaust is well above ambient.
Posted by: SJC | 09 May 2011 at 08:00 PM
There is no reason to use electrolysis in Hawaii for hydrogen because the fuels for electricity are mostly imported and can be made into hydrogen cheaper by a more direct process and purified with a palladium sieve.
The ZEBRA battery is available and has high energy density and will soon be available from GE with the durathon name. Such batteries will allow very good energy density and very long life.
The only maker of sodium sulphur batteries is in japan and they need all the batteries that can be made right now.
A little bit of constantly recycled mercury allows one to convert aluminium cans or other shapes into hydrogen and reusable aluminum ore.
Ammonia is one of the cheapest ways to transport hydrogen and to store it if you must use it. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 09 May 2011 at 11:11 PM
Again its just a research base they are preping this tech for use everywhere. And no they cant just use batteries. Whjere batteries are enough they already use 1 use super lithium cells and just swap em out after every use. This is for things that need even more power.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 10 May 2011 at 04:22 AM