Advancing Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies in the South: A Report from CTE and the Southern Fuel Cell Coalition

This oral presentation will provide a status report of the projects and initiatives of the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE), one of seven regional consortia organizations originally established under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) electric vehicle program beginning in 1993. Over the past 15 years, CTE has engaged local, national, and international partners in the research, development, demonstration, and commercialization of advanced transportation technologies and alternative fuels. Today CTE is also at the forefront of transportation demand management methodology development and enterprise-wide supply chain sustainability initiatives. All of these areas impact and influence the development of a hydrogen and fuel cell economy in the South. A particular focus of this presentation will be the program and progress of the Southern Fuel Cell Coalition, an expanding network of hydrogen and fuel cell industry leaders in the region. The projects and activities of the SFCC promote interstate cooperation and regional job growth to meet the needs of a hydrogen and fuel cell market that is expected to grow to $15 billion by 2015. The presentation will include a review of the seeded hydrogen and fuel cell project demonstrations and strategies that have been implemented since the SFCC's inception in 2005 through a CTE/FTA partnership. Seed funding is typically used to carry out the initial stages of a project, validate a concept, or deploy/enable an early market application. To those ends, a project may include, but is not limited to, data collection, surveying, market analysis, modeling, simulation, strategic planning, and/or equipment purchase. The projects may include medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel cell applications and the hydrogen infrastructure necessary to support these applications. Projects that promote transit applications are preferred. The SFCC provides team organization and project development support, including assistance with comprehensive proposal development, preliminary project validation, and project team commitments. CTE Executive Director, Daniel J. Raudebaugh, will make the presentation. Topics to be covered may include, but are not limited to: • Atlantic Station (Atlanta, GA) Fuel Cell Power Plan • University of Alabama at Birmingham Fuel Cell Bus Program Development • Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) Fuel Cell Bus Demonstration and Data Collection • Atlanta Anaerobic Digester Gas Reformation Project • Fuel Cell Lift Truck Demonstration • Savannah River National Laboratory Hybrid Hydrogen Storage Tank Research • University of Texas Flex-fuel HICE Hybrid Shuttle Bus Related CTE/SFCC Initiatives: • Texas DOT (TxDOT) Strategic Plan for Hydrogen Vehicles and Fueling Stations • Preliminary Flywheel Design Completed for Fuel Cell Transit Bus • Georgetown University Next Generation Bus • National Fuel Cell Bus Program Update