Dow
and GM Launch Phase II of World's
Largest Industrial Fuel Cell Program
LMIDLAND,
MI - The Dow Chemical Company and
General Motors Corp. have launched
the second phase of their joint
project to prove the viability of
hydrogen fuel cells for motor vehicles
and possibly for distributed power
generation. The project has now
expanded from a single GM test cell,
installed in February 2004, to a
multi-cell pilot plant at Dow's
Texas Operations in Freeport, TX.
"In the first phase of this
project, we collectively learned
a lot about generating power from
byproduct hydrogen via fuel cell
technology, and now we're ready
to build on what we've learned,"
said Gordon Slack, Dow's Global
Business Director for Energy and
Climate Change. "Dow is excited
to contribute to this important
project. It represents another step
in the search for cost-effective
fuel alternatives, with the potential
to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
From a Test Cell to a Pilot
Plant
During the second phase,
the fuel cell pilot plant will be
integrated into Dow's chemical and
plastics production facility via
the power distribution grid and
Dow's hydrogen clean-up and pipeline
system. While generating real- world
data to enable further development
of the technology, these fuel cells
will also supply up to 1 megawatt
of energy for use in Dow's Texas
Operations.
Phase II objectives include: building
on key learnings from Phase I and
demonstrating fuel cell reliability
for Distributed Generation; improving
and optimizing the reliability of
power from the fuel cells; investigating
fuel cell waste heat recovery opportunities;
and understanding hydrogen purity
requirements.
"The biggest benefit for GM
is learning to work with real world
hydrogen that has some impurities
in it, and not the pure hydrogen
you get in a lab setting,"
explained Timothy Vail, GM's director
of business development for fuel
cell activities. "Not only
can we test the effects of hydrogen
purity, we can also test different
generations of fuel cells, all in
a controlled setting. We learn about
durability and reliability. GM is
excited about the progress of the
Dow installation. Moving from the
test stage to the pilot stage represents
a big leap forward in system design."
A Step Toward Cost-Effective
and Sustainable Energy
If Phase II proves successful,
the project will transition to Phase
III, large-scale commercialization
by 2007. Ultimately, Dow and GM
could install up to 400 fuel cells
at Dow facilities, to generate 35
megawatts of electricity, equivalent
to the amount of power needed for
25,000 average sized American homes.
"This project is yet another
demonstration of our commitment
to exploring cost-effective alternatives
to fossil fuels for power generation,"
said George Kehler, Dow's Commercial
Manager for Renewable and Alternative
Energy. "We strongly support
efforts to increase fuel diversity
in the U.S. and to reduce our nation's
dependence on extremely high-priced
domestic natural gas. Inflated and
volatile domestic energy and feedstock
costs continue to undermine the
global competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers.
For the sake of our nation's economy,
we need to find better solutions.
Fuel cell technology can be a part
of that solution in the future."
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