Denver innovator pushes hydrogen-powered train.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: High Tech ColoradoBiz - Vehicle Projects LLC

"You've seen a revolution in communications in the last 25 years," said Arnold Miller, president of Denver-based Vehicle Projects LLC, a research and development company, "but transportation hasn't improved too much."

But fuel cells, Miller says, are about to do "for transportation what a computer chip did to communications."

Miller believes hydrogen fuel cells will make an impact on the railroad and mining industries long before a corresponding revolution hits the automotive industry, a stated goal of President George W. Bush. Miller said hydrogen could replace petroleum-based fuel in the rail and mining markets as soon as 2010.

The railroad industry's 20,000 locomotives are almost exclusively powered with diesel fuel; Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. alone spends $1 billion a year on diesel.

It follows that Vehicle Projects' latest undertaking is a fuel-cell powered railroad locomotive. In May 2003, the company brought together a consortium that includes federal agencies, railroad companies, and other entities to build a prototype.

Funded by the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to the tune of $4 million, the prototype will cost another $10 million to build in a few years. The DOD's involvement falls under the same dual-use strategy that yielded the Internet and GPS.

But other Vehicle Projects have already graduated from the drawing board.

The company's first initiative was building a fuel-cell powered mine-locomotive, which it successfully tested in Nevada in 2002. And in 2001, work began on a $4.5 million mine loader--both projects funded by the DOE. The loader prototype was recently completed at a Caterpillar facility in Peoria, Ill, and will likely be demonstrated by year's end.

Because the only emission from hydrogen-powered vehicles is water that's pure enough to drink, fuel-cell vehicles are ideal for mines. The mine-transportation technology currently in place is split among relatively dirty diesel power, the limited energy drawn from batteries, or the limited range of a tethered vehicle.

"The fuel-cell vehicle has the potential of being the best...