Chapter Meeting - 17 July, 2004

The meeting was attended by primary members, interested in the new cost effective. fuel cell material advancements and all the Government plans and programs that are driving the technology towards the HYDROGEN ECONOMY.

The primary technology breakthroughs reported were:

1. A new electrolyser that can deliver large volumes of hydrogen at 10,000 psi., without any auxiliary compression. This unit is heading towards production in a home sized unit by 2005.

2. A new PEM electrolyser that has a new membrane that can be built into a stack of meas and the whole unit polymerized by radiation. The projected cost of this approach and material is such that the membrane cost will be 1/100 that of Nafion.

3. A new PEM membrane material that can operate at high temperature (150 C) and produce twice as much power as Nafion. Its projected cost will also be a fraction of that of Nafion. Commercialization is projected for 2005.

NOTE: These core technology advances can all have a significant effect in contributing to the key to the implementation of the HYDROGEN ECONOMY which is COST REDUCTION.

Also reviewed were extensive plans.

1. A Balanced Energy Plan for the Interior West by Western Resource Advocates, et. Al. Which shows how the states between the Sierras and Rockies can save up to $5,000,000,000 per year by following a path towards renewable and sustainable energy instead of business as usual. (central plant coal and natural gas).

2. Mobility 2030- Meeting the challenges to sustainable mobility- by a consortium of European energy and automotive companies. This plan looks in great detail at the inevitable fuel evolution that will transition mobility from oil combustion to Hydrogen and electricity.

3. Several oil transition plans - all of which call for the transition within the next twenty to thirty years. The split between the plans and the oil depletion projections (find it-develop it- exploit it), which a minimum six year cycle, and the fact that zero large new oil fields were discovered in 2003 or so far in 2004, plus the acceleration of depletion in all known fields, shows that global demand will exceed global supply as soon as the end of THIS YEAR, 2004.

Chapter Events