Progress by Avista in fuel cells

Affiliate closer to refining hydrogen from natural gas

An Avista Labs affiliate has moved closer to refining hydrogen from pipeline-grade natural gas, progress that will help make fuel cells a cheaper source of electricity.

Bert Caldwell
Staff writer Spokesman-Review

A hydrogen generator developed by H2fuel LLC has operated for more than 1,500 hours despite sulfur that can foul the chemical processes required to extract hydrogen from methane, the primary component of natural gas.

H2fuel president J. Michael Davis said sulfur-tolerant processing eliminates expensive pretreatment of natural gas straight from the pipeline.

Spokeswoman Sandra Saatkoof said researchers are still working on the third and last step of the reaction process: extraction of the sulfur, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Hydrogen from the generators can be fed directly into fuel cells, which use a separate electro-chemical process to produce electricity, with water and some heat the only byproducts.

Avista Labs makes a modular cell that, like most other systems, relies on bottled hydrogen for fuel.

The Independence 500 model recently won CSA certification for safety and compliance with performance specifications.

Davis is also president of Avista Labs, which owns 70 percent of H2fuels.

Avista Labs is based in Spokane, H2fuels in Mt. Prospect, Ill.

•Business writer Bert Caldwell can be reached at (509) 459-5450 or by e-mail at [email protected]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=100402&ID=s1229047&cat=section.business