GM and Dow Build New Fuel Cell

General Motors Corp. will connect 400 automotive fuel cells to a supply of hydrogen to power a portion of Dow Chemical Co.'s 30-square-mile chemical complex in Freeport, Texas today.

The project will allow GM to study real-life application of fuel cell technology while reducing Dow's electricity costs. The Dow plant will supply the fuel cells with the hydrogen fuel needed for them to generate electricity. GM hopes to generate 35 megawatts of electricity through the project by 2006, enough to power 25,000 homes per year.

"We are taking the same units that you would find under the hood of a car, and we are putting them in a stationary environment," said Tim Vail, GM's director of business development for fuel cell activity.

"I think when we look back that this will be a turning point," he said. "It brings a supplier and fuel cell user together in a real-world environment".

Last week, the National Academy of Sciences said President Bush's plan to mass produce hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2020 is unrealistic. According to the report, under a best-case scenario, fuel cell vehicles will become commercially available beginning in 2015 and could account for 25 percent of new vehicle sales by 2027. But in the near term, other options -- such as hybrid gasoline-electric cars and further use of biofuels such as ethanol -- are good alternative options for reducing oil dependence and cutting carbon dioxide emissions, according to the NRC study (Greenwire, Feb. 5).

Dow and GM began discussing the arrangement in October 2002 and announced the deal last spring (Greenwire, May 8, 2003). It runs through 2010, and the fuel cells are expected to produce $50 million of electricity for the plant. The long-term goal is to reduce the cost of fuel cells so they can be widely adopted in automobile use. Other auto manufacturers are undertaking narrower projects by testing small numbers of fuel cell-powered cars.

"Fuel cells have been widely thought to be the ultimate solution for automobiles and now they are helping to power up one of the world's largest chemical plants," said GM spokesman Scott Fosgard