By Aaron Baca Journal Staff Writer
MesoFuel, the Albuquerque startup company that wants to build a hydrogen generator to power fuel cells, says it is a step closer to making just such a product.
A working prototype of the MesoFuel hydrogen generator is making 99.9 percent pure hydrogen at the company's laboratory on Menaul, said Ned Godshall, MesoFuel's president.
MesoFuel has wanted to prove its generator can consistently make pure hydrogen, Godshall said, because fuel cells consuming the gas in its purest form operate more efficiently than ones using mixtures and generate more power.
That means a generator making pure hydrogen would be, in theory, more commercially viable than competing technologies producing impure hydrogen.
With its newest announcement, MesoFuel is proceeding with a business plan that calls for bringing a hydrogen generator to the marketplace within the next 10 months, Godshall said.
"It would be limited production," Godshall said. "But we're planning on hitting the markets within 10 months. Full production wouldn't be until sometime in 2004."
Filtering complete
The newest part of MesoFuel's drive toward a hydrogen generator was completed in recent weeks when company engineers finished designing a filtering system for the generator.
The filter further separates impurities from the hydrogen at the end of the process by which the machine converts methane into hydrogen.
Other recent tests at MesoFuel have shown the company's hydrogen converter also works using a fuel similar to the Air Force's JP-8 jet fuel, which is mostly kerosene, Godshall said.
MesoFuel's business plan is based on the notion that fuel cells being developed now by several companies will need an infrastructure to provide hydrogen fuel.
MesoFuel doesn't plan to make the fuel cells. Instead, it plans to build the generators that would supply the fuel cells with hydrogen.
Fuel cell technology itself is not new. Fuel cells work much the same way a common battery does; they both make electricity by way of a simple chemical reaction. Fuel cells make electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen. Electrons freed by the reaction are captured and used as electricity.
Variety of uses
The fuel cells, depending on their size, could be used to power cell phones, computers, automobiles and even houses.
MesoFuel's plan to make hydrogen generators comes at a time when manufacturers are beginning to experiment more with fuel cell technology.
Ultimately, the company hopes to build a fuel cell generator that could be coupled with a cell for use in the residential market. The combined device would be small enough to be built in a space near a home's water heater.
The device could be hooked up to existing natural gas lines. Using MesoFuel's design, a fuel cell could generate continuous power because the generator would have a constant supply of natural gas.
MesoFuel also hopes to attract government contracts with the military, which is why the company has conducted tests using military jet fuel.
Godshall said MesoFuel hopes to be able to provide the military with small hydrogen converters if the military begins using fuel cells for the electronics that soldiers carry in the field.
Hydrogen fuel cells, Godshall said, show promise for portable equipment such as global positioning systems, night goggles and two-way radios.
Military field packs can weigh as much as 80 pounds because of batteries, Godshall said. Fuel cells, he said, could reduce the weight of those field packs and provide longer-lasting power.
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