Congressman Zach Wamp said a fuel cell project at UTC's SimCenter has huge potential for releasing the U.S. from dependence on Middle East oil.
"This is real-life stuff that could change the world," he said at a press conference on Friday morning.
He said it is hoped to develop a power source that will provide renewable energy and also produce hydrogen to power automobiles.
The fuel cell at the SimCenter runs on natural gas and produces electricity and hydrogen. Officials said similar units "have proven to be nearly twice as efficient in the production of electricity as a conventional coal or gas powered electric power plant."
Rep. Wamp said the aim is to improve the fuel cell so that it can be mass marketed.
He said UT students and staff will be involved in the marketing plan.
In the federally funded research project, the SimCenter will independently test the fuel cell for compliance with Department of Energy standards.
Rep. Wamp said, "This morning we launched the demonstration of a solid oxide hydrogen fuel cell system under a partnership between the Silicon Valley, a company called Ion America and the Tennessee Valley Technology Corridor. It is housed at the SimCenter on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is actually a program of the engineering school at UTC.
"This is the beta unit, the second one in existence. The first one is housed in the Silicon Valley at the Ion America headquarters. This one will be permanently housed here. It is demonstrating that a solid oxide fuel cell system can not only make electricity with only one feedstock coming into the machine - preferably ethanol - but it can also use that electricity to heat and cool a home and make hydrogen without the need for a transmission system. So, if it were in your garage you could heat and cool your home without transmission lines coming into your house and it could make hydrogen for your car, literally refueling it while you sleep.
"UTC's campus could be powered with the energy from these systems and today was the demonstration of the first unit that could do this through a Department of Energy congressionally-directed partnership funded at $2.5 million. And while it now fits right in with the President's agenda for energy independence which he outlined in his State of the Union Address, we here in Chattanooga have been working on this partnership between the Silicon Valley and the Tennessee Technology Corridor for three years.
"There is also potential for a growth in Chattanooga-area manufacturing jobs with this fuel cell because the engineering school at UTC will write the plan for the private sector to come in and produce these units. The questions of how can you take this from research to applied technology and into the market place, and how is the supply chain going to be set up are what the engineering school will work out.
"This is our manufacturing past transitioning into an environmentally-friendly, zero-emissions, alternative-energy future with the most impact of anything we could be involved in. Because the greatest threat our country faces, from a national security standpoint, is energy. And oil, as the President has now identified, is a problem for our country.
"We must move in the next 10 years to energy independence. That doesn't mean we'll be completely removed from oil in 10 years, but it means if we can take our dependence on petroleum and cut it in half through alternative sources by using hydrogen it will be a huge step forward.
"But that will be a challenge on several levels. Because you can't distribute hydrogen as easily as you can distribute petroleum, in order to do this you have to change the entire energy distribution infrastructure. All the automobile filling stations we have now wouldn't be converted to hydrogen under this solid oxide fuel cell proposal. In fact, you would actually be able to fuel your car at home. You'd have some hydrogen filling stations, but nothing like the petroleum infrastructure. This is a win-win. It is a huge development for technology. This isn't just Oak Ridge and Huntsville doing great in technology, this is Chattanooga. This is the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. This is our private sector coming in behind it. This is the success of the Enterprise Center. And, frankly, Mayor Corker deserves a lot of credit, because he is the one who brought Ion America to me and Senator Frist and said 'we need to build this partnership.'
"We are making it happen now in the Tennessee Valley."