First Wind-to-Hydrogen Plant Opens - 7/20/07

BISMARCK, N.D. - Sen. Byron Dorgan has wielded golden shovels at groundbreakings and oversized scissors at ribbon-cuttings, but he says a planned dedication near Minot on Saturday will be a first.

The project is a collaboration of Bismarck-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative, the University of North Dakota's Energy and Environmental Research Center, North Dakota State University's North Central Research Center and other partners. Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said the project is a first for North Dakota.

Kevin Harrison, a senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., said there are fewer than 10 similar demonstration projects in the United States

At the wind-to-hydrogen plant, energy from wind turbines is passed through a Belgian-made electrolyzer that runs electricity though water and separates it into oxygen and hydrogen, Hill said. The hydrogen is then compressed and stored as fuel.

Hill said the hydrogen produced at the plant will be used be used to refuel three pickups and a tractor, which runs on a blend of hydrogen and diesel fuel.

Natural gas is typically used to produce hydrogen, but the process creates harmful emissions. Hill said the goal is to demonstrate that hydrogen can be produced and stored using pollution-free wind power.

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