Georgetown University Awards Fuel Cell Development Contact to EPRI Team

Washington DC - Georgetown University has announced that a team led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has won the contract to design, develop, and fabricate a fuel cell power plant operating on methanol as a subsystem for a next generation, heavy-duty transit bus.  Other team members are the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW - Zentrum für Sonnenenergie und Wasserstoff-Forschung, Baden Württemberg) and NuCellSys GMbH.

The power plant to be developed under this program will be a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) system capable of approximately 60 kW (80 hp) net output.  The system will be fueled by methanol, and will utilize a low-temperature steam reformer to convert the methanol into a clean, hydrogen-rich gas on demand.  The reformer will be a third generation system designed with emphasis on simplicity and low manufacturing costs.  The resulting fuel cell system will be quick-responding, compact, and lightweight.

This program takes advantage of the team's knowledge and experience in hybrid electric vehicles, methanol fuel cell sustems, and fuel cell design and testing.  EPRI, a nonprofit organization at the forefront of energy and environmental research, is leading a collaborative program to research, develop, and demonstrate plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.  ZSW, a nonprofit institute located in in Ulm, Germany has extensive eperiece in research and development of fuel cells and other alternative energy technologies.  NUCellSys GmbH (formerly XCELLSiS) is a joint venture owned by DamilerChrysler and Ford and is a world leader in developing automotive fuel cell systems, including several previous generations of methanol fuel cell systems and vehicles.  NuCellSys previosuly developed the PEMFC system for the second generation GU bus and the methanol fuel cell system for the DaimlerChrysler NeCar 5 passenger car, which set a record for fuel cell vehicles when it was driven across the United States from San Fransisco to Washington in 2002.

The Georgetown University Fuel Cell Transit Bus Program is funded under a grant from the Federal Transit Administration.  To date, this program has developed five fuel vell powered transit buses: three 30-foot Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC) buses and two 40-foot buses.  On e 40-foot bus is powered by a PAFC power plant and the other by a PEMFC power plant.  All of these vehicles are fueled by methanol and are series hybrid electric buses with traction batteries for energy storage.

For more information on the Georgetown University Fuel Cell Bus Program, visit http://fuelcellbus.georgetown.edu/. For background information on the partner companies, visit http://www.epri.com/, http://www,zsw-bw.de/en/, and http://www.nucellsys.com/. 

About Georgetown University

Georgetown University is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs on its three campuses in Washington, DC. For more information about Georgetown University, visit www.georgetown.edu.