State Sen. Jake Corman announced Tuesday that Penn State's Pennsylvania Transportation Institute (PTI) will receive two state grants of about $650,000 for the partial fuel conversion of seven CATA buses to hydrogen, and aid for a student competition.

PTI's hydrogen and hybrid research center in Centre County will receive $550,556 to continue research on hydrogen as fuel -- research on this topic began one year ago.

PTI has developed a Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) bus and a van that run on natural gas and 30 percent hydrogen. They will convert seven more vans with the grant money received this year, said Joel Anstrom, PTI research associate.

"It's still cheaper to convert a gasoline engine to run partially on hydrogen," Anstrom said. "It still costs about a half a million to build a fuel cell big enough to drive a car. They're still handmade but they'll be cheaper in the long run as they get mass-produced."

The grant money will cover the costs of fueling and operating the vehicles and other costs associated with the project, Anstrom said.

"We'll be running demonstrations for the next two or three years to validate that it works," Anstrom said. "The CATA bus is actually going to run on the campus loop."

PTI will also receive $119,277 to participate in Challenge X, a competition in which teams of students design and build a hybrid electric vehicle. Teams from 17 universities, including Penn State, will compete this June at a General Motors facility in Arizona.

The basic idea is to design and build a hybrid electric vehicle starting from a stock vehicle, said Dan Haworth, Penn State's team adviser. This year's vehicle is a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox.

Team leader Matt Shirk (graduate-mechanical engineering) said the team's goal is to lower emissions using hydrogen as a supplement and to promote a cleaner burning engine.

"I hope to demonstrate that these technologies are viable," Haworth said. "It's about exploring alternatives to petroleum-based fuels and training the next generation of engineers to use these new technologies."

Students gain skills for their future careers through competing in Challenge X, Shirk said.

"Students come away from the competition with a valuable set of skills," Shirk said.

Don Houser, spokesman for Sen. Corman, R-Centre, said alternative fuel research is an important area of study.

"It's clear that we must try to get away from oil-derived fuels," Houser said. "Hopefully, all vehicles will eventually run on hydrogen."

The Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant (AFIG) program awarded both grants. AFIG provides financial assistance and information for research on alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technology research and development.

"These are competitive grants and Penn State has always been a leader," Houser said.