Agencies want to find out how hydrogen powered fuel cell would work in high elevations, cold

The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy want to test an experimental "solid oxide fuel cell" in Rimini, just a few hundred feet away from homes.

The proposed test was announced at a regularly scheduled meeting between the EPA and Rimini residents last week, and came as a complete surprise to most people there. The EPA is heading up a project to clean up dozens of abandoned mines in and around Rimini.

Cathy Eakin said she went to the meeting to learn about potential impacts from using dynamite as part of the reclamation work on the nearby Susie Mine.

Instead, she heard how someone had decided Rimini was a "remote" area where the DOE and EPA could find out how well a hydrogen powered fuel cell would work at high elevations and cold temperatures.

Eakin said she feels like the two federal agencies are using Rimini residents as guinea pigs and she wants to put the brakes on the experiment until they learn more about it. The fuel cell, which is about the size of a refrigerator, and about 2,000 gallons of methanol would be in a building about 500 yards from her house.

"I have a lot of concerns," Eakin said. "They haven't tested it anywhere before, and I wonder whether they would test it in Helena, in East Helena or in their own back yard. ... They seem to think that most people up here are ignorant and will go for anything. But I'm not into being a guinea pig.

"They said they want to test this in a remote area, and I don't consider Rimini to be remote," Eakin added. "If they want to test it, they can go up a hill where it is remote, not where people live beside it."

A fuel cell works like a battery, but doesn't run down or need recharging, and produces electricity as long as fuel is supplied. The technology is touted as highly efficient with low emissions, and can be used for everything from powering cars to wastewater treatment facilities to manned space flights. Various types of fuel cells have been around since the mid 1800s.

But those fuel cells usually run off of natural gas. What's new about these solid oxide fuel cells is that they use methanol as a fuel, which will "reform" into hydrogen to power the fuel cell.

The reformation also produces carbon dioxide and water, along with some carbon monoxide, according to Brian Park, a senior process engineer with MSE Technology Applications, Inc., in Butte. The company is working with the two federal agencies on the fuel cell project.

Park said they're striving for a fuel cell that's more efficient in converting the energy content in the fuel to electricity than previous models, and has lower emissions.

"This project in Rimini really is just kind of a test to see how well one of these will work in the real world, as opposed to a lab," Park said. "We want to find out how reliable and efficient they are."

He said the fuel cell would generate about 3.5 kilowatts, or 4-5 horsepower.

Rimini resident Bob Liddiard isn't necessarily opposed to the fuel cell, but the retired aeronautical engineer has some questions about safety that he wants answered before the cell is installed near his home.

"This system may be perfectly fine, it may be harmless," Liddiard said. "But I want them to send some serious technical people here, not marketing or field people, but someone who really knows this crap. I would like to have some peace of mind."

He notes that hydrogen not only is highly explosive, it also burns in a manner that is impossible to see.

"It burns perfectly clear, so you could walk into it and not even know what killed you," said Liddiard, whose career included safety analysis work. "I've been around hydrogen enough that I have a damn healthy respect for it.

"If you had a fuel cell up here running, and over time they get a leak -- say in a connection -- then what happens? What if you get a spark? You'd get a violent explosion. It might not necessarily hurt or kill someone, but it sure would scare them. And what about the software? Did they look at critical, non-critical and essential functions? What if this gets hit by lightning?"

He also wants to know if engineers have gone so far as to purposely "break" the fuel cell to see what happens.

"We had a saying that if you ain't breaking it, you ain't testing it," Liddiard said. "I want to know how they have broken it, whether parts can rupture -- a whole system safety analysis."

Both Eakin and Liddiard note that while the plan calls for using electricity from the cell to power a pumping and filtration process that will treat acidic water draining from the Susie Mine, the EPA could just as easily tap into a nearby electrical line.

All of those questions and concerns have gotten the attention of Mike Bishop, the local EPA Superfund project official in charge of the mine cleanup work in the Rimini area.

"The EPA's contractor says he can explain these things and hopefully we'll get people together and get them comfortable with it," Bishop said. "The thought is that in some of these discharging adits, if it does come down to the level of active water treatment process, this would be the most effective way to do it."

Park agrees, noting that MSE doesn't expect people to just blindly accept this demonstration project.

"We know we have to provide information and get people comfortable with this, and if they don't want it we don't need to do it there," Park said. "Originally it was going to be in a more remote location, which has pros and cons, like the difficulties to get to it in the future. On the other hand, you don't want to have it right next door where someone could have legitimate concerns about their safety.

"But I think we can provide the background to get people on board for doing this."

And not everyone in Rimini has questions about the fuel cell tests.

"I trust the scientists to know what they're doing, and this seems like an interesting project," said Jock Bovington. "It really doesn't concern me."

Reporter Eve Byron can be reached at 447-4076 or by

e-mail at eve.byron@helenair.com.