Newsroom

 

Senators Relaunch the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Caucus: Host Briefing on Industry Technologies

On Wednesday, July 18th, the bipartisan Senate Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Caucus was officially relaunched with an industry briefing in the Russell Senate Office Building. Co-Chaired by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), and John Hoeven (R-ND) the Caucus aims to promote the commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in the U.S.  In addition, at the briefing four inaugural members of the Caucus were announced, Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Senators Blumenthal, Hoeven, and Coons attended and spoke at the briefing to a packed room of over 80 representatives from both government and industry. This included representation from 22 Senate offices and 10 House offices.

In addition to the Co-Chairs, Dr. David Danielson, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy within the Department of Energy (DOE) also spoke at the event. Dr. Danielson used his speech to reaffirm the administration's support for hydrogen and fuel cell energy, and also announced $2.4 million in DOE funding for advancements in hydrogen infrastructure and fueling technology (details on the announcement are available here).

Other industry speakers included: 

• Dr. Shannon Baxter-Clemmons, Executive Director, South Carolina Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Alliance
• Andy Marsh, President and CEO, Plug Power
• Joe Guzzo, Director of Advanced Technology, Federal Affairs General Motors
• Catherine Dunwoody, Executive Director, California Fuel Cell Partnership
• Michael E. Zolandz, Bloom Energy (SNR Denton)
• Katrina Fritz Intwala, Manager, Business Development & Public Relations, UTC Power
• Mike McGowan, Head of Government Affairs, Linde North America  
• Dr. Scott Samuelsen, Director, National Fuel Cell Research Center

The Senate Caucus members published a press release on Wednesday with statements from the four Co-Chairs and four inaugural members. Click here for the full release.

Senator Coons also published a separate press release on Wednesday which is available here.

Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu Expresses Change in Opinion on Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy in Autoline Interview

On June 22nd, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu appeared on the web program Autoline, to discuss hydrogen as a transportation fuel. In the interview, Sec. Chu said he had "changed [his] mind," on fuel cells and hydrogen, due largely to the abundance and low cost of natural gas, as well as some technological developments. He also praised the faster fueling time of fuel cell electric vehicles, compared to battery electrics.

Transcript of Remarks

"I think that when I first came in you were right. I was not as high on hydrogen fuel cells. But several things changed my mind. The most important thing that changed my mind was the fact that we have now natural gas in abundance. Hydrogen is reformed from natural gas. That's point number one. So you have an off load of that."

"Point number two is that you can take natural gas and when you reform it, you are actually making a lot of carbon dioxide. You are losing a lot of the heat content. You make it up it the efficiency of the electric motor. But now we also have an emerging technology where you can take natural gas, you can burn it in a partial oxygen atmosphere-a little starved,-generate the electricity, capture a lot of the heat energy. You also get hydrogen and carbon monoxide. You take the carbon monoxide, pass it over in a steam process-its call a shift process-you get a stream of hydrogen. You get a pure stream of carbon dioxide, and you get electricity. That will change things. The pure stream most."

"The major source of hydrogen is used in oil refineries. You want to tip the balance and shift from the heavy oils fuels-bunker fuels-to use gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. They use hydrogen to do that. You have natural gas to supply then. You have carbon dioxide, which is making money in enhanced oil recovery. So now the economics are looking good. The carbon footprint looks much better."

The interview can be found here.  Secretary Chu's segment begins at about 1:18 into the program.

***********************************************************************************************

For more information, please see the sidebar located to the left.