The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, which is part of the College of Engineering, has received a grant of $487,656 to develop a hydrogen fuel project.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection gave $243,828, as did the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
The amount will allow for the conversion of a Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) bus and an Office of Physical Plant (OPP) van to run on 70 percent natural gas and 30 percent hydrogen fuel. It will also pay for CATA and OPP training, so maintenance personnel can use hydrogen fuel safely and build a hydrogen fuel pump station and an electric commercial vehicle to run only on hydrogen fuel, Joel Anstrom, research associate of mechanical engineering, said.
While natural gas is clean, it is not the final answer because it is still a fossil fuel, said Eric Bernier, CATA director of service development. "Hydrogen fuel is a much bigger step toward a permanent solution because it's cleaner and renewable," Bernier said.
OPP will provide a venue to install new equipment to transform natural gas to hydrogen fuel, OPP spokesman Paul Ruskin said.
"We're right in line with federal government initiatives aiming at a new hydrogen economy," Ruskin said.
The station will be one of the first hydrogen fueling stations in the northeast and the only one that makes it on site, Anstrom said. "The station will be on site, so the hydrogen fuel won't have to be piped around," Anstrom said.
The hydrogen station will be located across from Beaver Stadium, where the natural gas station is currently situated. The project is due to start within the next month.
"We hope to increase public awareness of hydrogen fuel as safer and attract hydrogen-related research," Anstrom said.
CATA has decided to participate in the project because it is consistent with its environmentally friendly approach.
The hydrogen fuel project is an experimental operation to test new technology, Ruskin said.
"Before we have further vehicles, a small skill test is needed to find out what it's able to do," he said.
CATA will test the project to see if it works. If it does, it will determine what issues are associated with it.
"It's too early to see if it's cost effective," Bernier said.
