Millennium Reign Energy's vision is a world in which individuals have the opportunity to own their own hydrogen energy generation and storage systems.
The Englewood-based company came one step closer in early October, when it set up a fully-functioning hydrogen fueling station on the
Dull Homestead, an alternative-energy-embracing farm near Brookville.
It's the first private station in Ohio that is designed in a way that would allow for public use anywhere, says Chris McWhinney, Millennium's senior manager and CEO.
While other individuals may choose to follow the Dull farm's lead, McWhinney recognizes that most of us don't have the resources needed to set up fueling stations in our back yards anytime soon. That's why McWhinney and partner Dave Erbaugh are currently focusing on large companies like automobile and lift truck manufacturers.
One large automaker has shown continued interest in Millennium's patent-pending technology, McWhinney says, as has a major lift truck manufacturer that makes hydrogen fuel cell lift trucks.
"We hope to have two different types (of lift truck)," McWinney says. "One fuel cell, the other internal combustion running on hydrogen and filling up with a fueling station."
In fact, the Dull farm will soon begin using its fueling station to power a hydrogen fuel cell forklift provided by one lift truck maker, McWhinney says. The farm is also using hydrogen as a gasoline blend in a pickup truck.
The company currently derives most of its revenue from a see-through educational unit which is sold to high schools and colleges, along with materials that educate young people about the advantages of clean-burning hydrogen power.
"We're ramping up that end of our business right now to where we'd like to get to the point where we're selling 200 to 500 of those a year," McWhinney says. "If we do that, it will provide us with enough revenue to stay alive until the world catches up to us."
Source: Chris McWhinney, Mellinnium Reign Energy
Writer: Gene Monteith