The eP-Ice Bear ice resurfacer was rolled out for the Hydrogen Energy Action Summit at UND’s Energy & Environmental Research Center. Its hydrogen fuel system enables it to be operated within closed environments, such as hockey arenas, without producing emissions that would require expensive venting. In the background is the hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle built by UND’s Society for Energy Alternatives. It was run as a demonstration vehicle in last year’s 2,600-mile North American Solar Challenge race.

"Ice Bear" will showcase hydrogen fuel technology

By Juan Pedraza

With a barely audible hiss from the hydrogen fuel pump and the whine of its hydraulic pump and four electric motors (one per wheel), the eP-Ice Bear ice resurfacer was driven into the Energy & Environmental Research Center’s (EERC’s) technology demonstration facility for the night.

At the helm was EERC Research Engineer Jay Almlie, part of a team that tested the forward-looking hydrogen fuel cell technology and prepared the eP-Ice Bear for its official world debut at Sen. Byron Dorgan’s Hydrogen Energy Action Summit at the EERC last November.

Bruce Wood, CEO of ePower Synergies, Inc., and a key player in the eP-Ice Bear’s pace-setting hydrogen propulsion system, was right there with the engineers and builders as they took the Ice Bear through a late-night test of all of its systems, including the critical hookup of the hydrogen fueling station and the tanks of 5,000-psi hydrogen delivered earlier that day.

“It’s a go!” proclaimed Wood, a former John Deere executive who headed up the agricultural equipment giant’s ePower Technologies division before spinning it off into a stand-alone company.

Wood said his company was thrilled by the eP-Ice Bear’s performance.

“It does the same job as any other ice resurfacing machine, but with zero pollution,” said Wood, whose Cordova, Ill.-based ePower Synergies is betting big on a hydrogen-fuel future. “We’ve got a machine that can deal cleanly with the closed environment” of ice hockey arenas. Many such venues — including all indoor arenas in Sweden — have banned fossil fuel-powered machines, which produce emissions that must be vented at great cost during winter.

Technical challenges remain, but some of the biggest have already been surmounted, Wood said.

“Even a year ago, this machine would not have been possible because the batteries charged by the hydrogen-powered electric motors were too big and bulky to fit into the compact ice resurfacing package,” Wood said. Other problems, such as hydrogen embrittlement, which can cause failure even in such strengthened materials as stainless steel, are likewise being addressed with new materials, including carbon fiber, he said.

Wood explained that the body of the $150,000 hydrogen-powered eP-Ice Bear was designed by the Resurfice Corporation of Elmira, Ontario. The company also makes and markets the Olympia-brand, conventionally fueled ice resurfacing machine that competes with the widely known Zamboni-brand machine at hockey and other skating arenas.

The EERC’s National Center for Hydrogen Technology is supporting the development of the eP-Ice Bear and leading the initial demonstration of the technology. The EERC has $8 million in contracts funded through federal agencies and numerous private sector partners to support the development of technologies for hydrogen production and fuel cells. An additional $3 million has been awarded to the EERC to build the National Center for Hydrogen Technology facility.

In addition to ePower Synergies and the EERC, other project partners include Ontario-based HyMotion; Alberta-based Dynetek Corp.; Nuvera Fuel Cells, Cambridge, Mass.; and the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory.
“This isn’t science fiction anymore,” Wood told engineers, scientists, and members of the media gathered at the EERC during the
Hydrogen Summit to witness hydrogen history in the making. “This is science fact.”

Hydrogen power enthusiasts tout its applications in passenger cars — currently the world’s largest consumers of fossil fuels — and eagerly anticipate widespread popularity of hydrogen cars. But Wood anticipates that small, carefully selected fleets of work vehicles, such as ice resurfacing machines and forklifts, will provide the early “beta” testing for the technology before it is deployed widely in cars and trucks.

“The folks who operate these fleets of work vehicles understand more clearly that this is a new technology,” and will be more willing to work through the inevitable bugs with the technology’s developers, he said. But there’s no doubt, he adds, that sooner rather than later, we’ll see this technology on America’s roads.

Wood says ePower Synergies plans to make the vision of clean driving and living a reality by organizing and operating the transportation systems?]for so-called “clean living” eCommunities; he is working with original equipment manufacturers to deliver the advanced technology vehicles and infrastructure, such as hydrogen fueling stations, to facilitate the emergence of sustainable, clean living systems.