TO: Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson
FROM: Joe Spease
RE: Hydrogen business development in Kansas
DATE: 2/13/07
Dear Mark,
Your administrative aide suggested I write up some information for you on
why it makes sense to support H2 development in Kansas. I have a lot of digital
info that I hope to show you, but here is the analog summary that should peak
your interest.
Kansas has the best combination of natural and man-made assets in the
country to become the Capital of H2 for the USA. We could make enough H2
from wind and waste water in western Kansas to power all of the vehicles in the
country. All the technology to do this exists right now and we can make the H2 at
a cost roughly 1/3 the price (at today’s rate which will certainly go up) of a gallon
of gasoline, with zero pollution.
The assets in Kansas to make this work:
 Great wind resource
 Adequate waste water from municipalities in western Kansas
 Naturally existing storage in depleted natural gas wells
 Existing natural gas lines to provide distribution of H2
With our method of making H2, we use large wind farms to provide the
cheap electricity needed (at night, during the day when demand for electricity is
high the electricity could go into the grid) to run a current through large
electrolyzer arrays where the electricity, in cleaned waste water, separates the
hydrogen from the oxygen. The H2 and the O2 are then stored or distributed via
the NG lines to the end user.
The demand for H2 is going to increase dramatically very soon. There are
already several industrial customers for H2 in the country. The DOE has been
conducting tests with H2 that have determined the feasibility of injecting H2
directly into NG. NG is about 70% H2 anyway, and the DOE studies concluded
that at blends up to 12% or so the BTU value of NG is unchanged. This would
help to clean up emissions, lower costs, and extend the lifetime of NG supplies
domestically ( our country is now importing gaseous NG and the very dangerous
liquid NG). The point is that there are many industrial needs for H2 right now.
There are exciting advances in hydrogen fuel cell technology that will hit
the market soon that will greatly expedite the use of H2 fuel cell vehicles. A team
of scientists from MIT and the university of North Carolina announced in April
2006 that they had developed a fuel cell, using new materials for the proton
exchange membrane (PEM), that made the fuel cell 20 (that’s TWENTY) times
more efficient than any existing fuel cells. The even better news from their
announcement is that their PEM can be mass-manufactured which would
significantly lower the cost of the fuel cells.
When the fuel cells they described hit the market there will be a complete
energy revolution in this country. All that will be needed is clean, cheap H2 to
provide the power. This represents the biggest economic opportunity for Kansas
since wheat and NG. It could be bigger than both of those combined.
There are details that I would be happy to provide in a meeting if any of
this interests you. I hope you find the potential as exciting as we do. I look
forward to meeting with you to explore the tremendous potential of H2 in Kansas.
Sincerely,
Joe Spease