Local company promotes alternative fuel packages

Entrepreneurs working on solar, wind, hydrogen combination.

Dave Erbaugh (left) and Chris McWhinney check the dew point and flow rate of hydrogen as it's produced by the AutoARK generator in McWhinney's Englewood home. The two think hydrogen power will be the next big thing in the future. Staff photos by Jan Underwood

Jan Underwood Dave Erbaugh (left) and Chris McWhinney check the dew point and flow rate of hydrogen as it's produced by the AutoARK generator in McWhinney's Englewood home. The two think hydrogen power will be the next big thing in the future. Staff photos by Jan Underwood

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JAN UNDERWOOD Dave Erbaugh (left) and Chris McWhinney check the dew point and flow rate of hydrogen as it's produced by the AutoARK generator in McWhinney's Englewood home. The two think hydrogen power will be the next big thing in the future. Staff photos by Jan Underwood

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JAN UNDERWOOD Above: Chris McWhinney demonstrates a residential hydrogen power plant at the Future Energy Center near Brookville.

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By Marc Katz, Staff Writer 6:40 PM Saturday, September 4, 2010

ENGLEWOOD — Chris McWhinney grew up on a farm in Eaton, learning how to fix equipment by trial and error. He didn’t know a thing about electricity.

Dave Erbaugh was about four years behind him in school, but they knew each other’s siblings. Eventually, McWhinney, 48, went into the financial services business, and Erbaugh, 43, went to Sinclair Community College to learn how to repair television sets.

Shortly after high school in the late 1980s, they met by chance, and Erbaugh showed McWhinney an electrolyzer he built.

“It makes hydrogen out of water and electricity,” Erbaugh told McWhinney. “The space shuttle runs on it.”

Gas at the pump was about 75 cents at the time, electrolyzer equipment was expensive, there seemed to be plenty of fossil fuels and few were thinking the earth was in ecological peril.

The two didn’t see each other for another 13 years, McWhinney said, and the talks began anew.

“We discussed the possibilities of wind, solar and hydrogen working in concert until the day I submitted my first provisional patent,” McWhinney said.

That was in 2003, when he started Millennium Reign Energy (MRE), trying to develop an alternative fuel source. A year later, he convinced Erbaugh to join him.

McWhinney said he began thinking about how he could use wind and solar energy to make free electricity.

“If you could build an electrolyzer for less money,” McWhinney said, “you could have a home that could be individually energy independent. Everyone else is talking about energy independence. We’re talking about Individual Energy Independence, which is a phrase we’ve trademarked.”

As an offshoot of MRE, McWhinney has a company called Residential Hydrogen Power LLC, which developed the AutoARK generator for home use, again, leading to energy independence.

McWhinney said several companies make solar panels and wind turbines, and only seven other companies in the world make hydrogen generators. But he is not aware of any company similar to his trying to put the three technologies together to sell as a package.

He expects individuals will sign up first, fueling vehicles at home and at businesses with car conversion kits. Customers will be even happier if current gas prices eventually rise to $6-$8 per gallon as some forecast.

Farmers — in the forefront of innovation — could be major users. They have been using propane to dry corn and heat hog buildings. Those fuels, blended with hydrogen, can reduce costs and could be used to make fertilizer. With government mandating 20 percent of energy must come from renewal resources by 2025, utility companies are also interested.

Then there’s the lift-truck industry, where warehouses use battery-run lift trucks because of emissions from internal-combustion engines. Lift trucks typically use three batteries — one in use, one charging and one ready to replace the one being used. The extra batteries take up space.

McWhinney is advocating fuel cells, which can pull up to a fuel station and recharge in minutes.

Fuel cells could be used for cars as well, but with a 200-mile range, would not work on long trips.

In 2003, President George W. Bush called hydrogen fuel cell cars the future. At the time, Bush noted “the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.”

But last year, the Obama administration announced it would stop funding vehicle development, citing high costs and the major challenge to develop ways to transport the hydrogen.

The federal government continues to look into alternative fuels as entrepreneurs such as McWhinney continue to work on their products.

“Everyone’s talking about these other fuels,” McWhinney said. “But at some point, we’ll run out. What are the people 200 or 500 years from now going to do? Hydrogen is clean, renewable energy.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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