Ethanol & fuel cell – converging paths of opportunity

The energy challenges facing our Nation offer tremendous opportunities for agriculture and technology. For example, by combining fuels such a ethanol with fuel cells, farmers can be energy producers as well a consumers. Meanwhile, the US is under increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Recent energy supply crunches and price spikes have once again focused attention on the need to improve energy security, increase and diversify domestic energy supplies, ensure environmental quality, and modernize the nation’s energy infrastructure. Ultimately, America’s economic prosperity and national security depend on the availability of reliable, affordable energy. This paper presents a vision of how ethanol and fuel cells can be combined to create significant synergy, reaching markets and bringing benefits that are not achievable with any other fuel or with any other power technology. In the pages ahead, we will describe these benefits and present a roadmap for how these synergies can be developed in an effective and stepwise fashion through contributions from the ethanol, fuel cell, automotive, and utility industries along with support from state and federal governments. The basis or platform for this vision is the existing, ongoing investment in ethanol and fuel cell markets, which has already been committed by government and industry.