By Josee Valcourt
Staff Writer

FRANKLIN: A high-tech company that manfactures alternative energy sources was one of three companies that received a $13.2 million grant from the Department of Energy.

De Nora North America Inc. on Veronica Avenue will use its share of the grant, which is divided among the three companies to develop advanced and low-cost methods to manfacture fuel cells and electrodes, siad Patrick McGee of De Nora.

"The opportunities of this grant should allow our company to remain competitive in an emerging technologt market." said gregory Morris, president of De Nora, a subsidiary of the global-based De Nora Group.

"Businesses such as De Nora that research and develop alternative-energy sources help to generate sustainable economic growth in the township and state," said Mayor John Clyde.

"The grant comes at a pivotal time when fuel-cell research is a national trend spurred by the California energy crisis," said Frank Hasner, Director of Economic Development for the Downship.

"This type of company is instrumental to Franklin," Hasner said. "They do research and development of alternative-fuel sources, and that's all you hear about these days."

Fuel cells generate power by turning oxygen and hydrogen into electricity.

You have to think of of as a big battery," McGee said. "Instead of running out of juice (alkaline), this is a battery that you continually add fuel to that continues to create electricity.

One of the big hopes for fuel cells is that it could be used as the power source for cars. If a fuel cell is powered by hydrogen, carbon-dioxide, or carbon monoxide are no longer problems, McGee said.

"So it has the ability to reduce the number of greenhouse gases that are being produced," he said.

Fuel-cell production dates back more that 30 years when International Fuel Cells, a division of United Technologies, started developing cells for the U.S. space program in the late 1960s.

Research of the energy source dates further back to 1839 when William Grove, a British jurist and amateur physicist, discovered the principle of the fuel cell, McGee said.

Funding for the technology could be at a record high this year with $600 million already approved for fuel-cell projects, said Energy Department officials.

General Motors is among companies hoping to use fuel cells as a power source for houses and small offices. The camping company, Coleman, is expected to announce this fall the first fuel-cell product available to consumers — a portable generator.