HYDROGEN TO FUEL VEHICLES IN PENN STATE DEMO

University Park—A Penn State van and a Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) bus will run on a blend of hydrogen and compressed natural gas (CNG) by late fall 2004 as part of a broad research initiative to be managed by Penn State’s Pennsylvania Transportation Institute (PTI).

PTI will also fuel one of its own electric vehicles with pure hydrogen after installing a fuel cell to convert the hydrogen to electricity.

PTI and its partners received $243,828 for the vehicle modifications from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Feb. 10, complementing a similar amount awarded in January by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

In the project, Collier Technologies of Nevada will modify the engines of the bus and van to run on a blend of 30 to 50 percent hydrogen and CNG. CATA will then operate the bus in the campus loop service, and Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant (OPP) will use the van. PTI Research Associate Joel Anstrom and Penn State students will install the hydrogen fuel cell into one of the electric vehicles already used for research and education in the PTI shops. They will operate the vehicle on campus.

PTI will also coordinate the training of CATA and OPP drivers and maintenance people to operate and work on the bus and van, Dr. Anstrom noted. A team headed by PTI Research Associate Zoltan Rado will collect extensive data on the operational and environmental performance of the vehicles.

PTI hopes to secure more money to modify and monitor other vehicles in a second and third year of the project, Dr. Rado added.

Already secured is the approximately $3 million needed for a hydrogen-CNG and pure hydrogen fueling station at OPP on campus. In an agreement among Penn State, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Air Products will develop and build and Penn State will operate the station. Plans call for a hydrogen-CNG dispenser and a pure hydrogen dispenser to be in operation by late fall 2004.

A final part of the research initiative will be to secure participation of vehicle manufacturers in the fueling station demonstration, Dr. Rado said.

Equipment already is available for fueling vehicles with CNG. Hydrogen can be produced from CNG and supplement it as a fuel for current engines modified to run on the blend.

The Penn State station and the hydrogen-CNG blend for modified internal combustion engines may serve as a step toward a fueling station infrastructure for the vehicles of the future designed to run on pure hydrogen.

Research continues on hydrogen fuel cells that will power cars containing electric motors. In such vehicles, a fuel cell takes pure hydrogen stored on board, mixes it with air, and converts it to electricity for the motor and water as a by-product.