Ohio is in good position to be a fuel-cell leader
by Cynthia Bent Findlay
Originally published by The Columbus Dispatch, available online at: https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2021/02/18/columbus-fuel-cell-company-hoping-advances-take-off/6787048002/
Paul Matter’s business is the stuff of science fiction — fuel cells, which have the potential to create carbon emissions-free power.
Fuel cells run oxygen from the atmosphere and hydrogen through a catalyst and create electricity, with the only waste product being water. The technology has been around for more than a century, but its development for the auto industry has taken a back seat to battery-powered electric vehicles.
Matter is co-founder of not one but two companies serving the industry, pH Matter and Power To Hydrogen.
pH Matter’s advanced catalysts are going into cheaper and more durable fuel cells powering engines like those in forklifts and now, potentially heavy-duty trucks. Power To Hydrogen is researching systems that make hydrogen from water and renewable power like wind or solar — and back again into power and water.
Matter recently told Columbus CEO, a sister publication to The Dispatch, that fuel cell technologies have advanced to the point that carbon-free emissions vehicles of all sizes are truly right around the corner. He says Ohio is in a great position to play an outsized manufacturing role in this industry.
Question: Are fuel cells a viable industry right now?
Matter: Yes. Where mobile fuel cells have really taken off is in forklifts. Plug Power, for instance, is the industry leader right now, and they’re expanding in Ohio, which is big in distribution centers where these forklifts are used. Plug Power just raised something like $1 billion with new stock offerings to invest in hydrogen infrastructure for forklifts. They have something like over 30,000 to 40,000 forklifts and 140 sites for the filling stations, and they’re expected to add another 50 this year.
Q: Where does Ohio fit into this big picture?
Matter: Well, a couple of things — one, a lot of development has been done in Ohio historically and that comes from NASA for the space missions, they were really the ones to develop the modern fuel cell up in Cleveland. Even the Apollo and Gemini missions used them. Ohio invested a decent amount in fuel cells from the Third Frontier program; Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research and Case Western Reserve seeded a lot of what we have now, and made Ohio one of the top states.
A lot of the suppliers are already here. Worthington Industries makes tanks for the hydrogen. We make catalysts go into the electrode. Companies like GrafTech in Cleveland make all sorts of system components. Plug Power is going to install a refurbishment center in Dayton to take used cells.
Delivery and long haul trucks are the biggest opportunity. Customers could easily add filling stations for the trucks at the same distribution centers. Companies like GM, Cummins — they’re all working on heavy duty fuel cell trucks.
In something like a 2030 time frame, the goal is potentially half of new trucks will be powered by fuel cells. That market potential is in the high billions of dollars.
CEO: Does Ohio other advantages?
Matter: Definitely. If you look at where hydrogen is really big, Northern Europe along the North Sea, there’s a lot of wind power there. When you get a higher percentage of renewables on the grid, you’re going to have more periods where too much electricity is being generated. Hydrogen is a great fit for wind because you can take the excess energy wind often produced and store it indefinitely by making hydrogen with it, and solve two problems. Wind off Lake Erie can be potentially be big for hydrogen.
We’ve already got a lot of the infrastructure and made the investment, it would be a shame to not keep it going.
CEO: Does anything have to happen on the federal level to spark the industry?
Matter: I think the federal level can definitely help; it was a little discouraging when the federal government hesitated on the Paris agreement, what’s really driving this is other parts of the world are committing to get to zero emissions, operating a sustainable economy. If you want zero emissions that’s where fuel cells can do it but there has to be commitment, desire – and the federal government has not been as big in that area the last few years. But the fact that even large corporations are making that commitment is driving the industry too.
pH Matter
pHMatter.com
Business: Materials R&D, manufacturing and solutions for emerging applications related to alternative energy and catalysis
Co-founders: Paul Matter and Chris Holt
