Hydrogen future not just hot air

The scene at lunch was a little different. On one side of the table were Donald Moore and Robert Chapman, two 75-year-old engineers trained in Alberta who have been living and working in central Canada for many years. On the other side was an Australian, whose effect was to lower the average age of the luncheon guests and whose engineering brain is limited to the workings of a can opener.

And the lunch became a little more different when Moore, president of Phoenix Canada Oil, which has a float of five million shares and a market cap of $32-million, said we are “onto something that has the potential to change the world,” a comment endorsed by Chapman.
The something is a U.S patent — number 7,122,171 — granted one year ago today. That patent was for a hydrogen gas-generation technology owned by Phoenix’s U.S. unit. Phoenix holds that patent under a long-term, worldwide technology licence agreement with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Moore explains the patent — which comes with rights that run for 37 years — establishes a so-called foundation technology designed to generate low-cost hydrogen from common water feedstock. The idea, said Moore, is to harness and catalytically convert solar light energy to produce hydrogen gas as the ultimate sustainable clean energy source. “It is the same principle as photosynthesis where the plants take water out of the air and convert it into hydrogen and oxygen,” explains Moore, whose company generates almost six times as much investment income as it does from oil and gas.

Chapman said the hydrogen-generation system is intended to produce a major replacement — as opposed to an alternative-energy resource. “The planet’s virtually inexhaustible hydrogen resources can guarantee the survival of an energy-dependent civilization,” he said.

And the process is catalytic, meaning the catalysts employed, including a range of platinum-group metals and other metallic elements, are not materially consumed or degraded for hydrogen-gas production.

Since the patent was awarded, Moore has had discussions with the Tata group, which defines itself as India’s leading private sector group, with Petro-China and with energy officials in Alberta.

Financial Post (Canada)