Projects being developed include:

* An illuminated sign which is operating on the approach to the Transporter Bridge, in Middlesbrough. Informing drivers about the status of the bridge, it is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. Middlesbrough company Varitext is working with the Hydrogen Project on similar signs.

* This month, the lighthouse at South Gare will be powered by a hydrogen cell rather than conventional electricity. MrJohn Autherson, Tees Valley Hydrogen Project director, said: "The Government, in its advice on this subject, asked for lighthouse projects so we found a lighthouse. The idea is to make a statement about what the Tees Valley is doing."

* Part of the planned retail, leisure and business development planned for Middlehaven, in Middlesbrough, is to design an advanced heat and power plant, including hydrogen-powered generation. Mr Autherson said: "Middlehaven can have an energy system which is very efficient. Hydrogen can generate some of the power for the site and this will be a big, world-class flagship project." A demonstration energy unit is already planned to provide the power for Acklam Crematorium, in Middlesbrough, and one will be installed at an east Cleveland school.

* The Hydrogen Project team is talking to councils and public transport operators about switching fleets of vehicles to low carbon fuels, including hydrogen. They would replenish their supplies at a hydrogen filling station and there are plans to create a green fuel station dispensing hydrogen, compressed natural gas and biodiesel, another environmentally friendly fuel. The project is also examining the idea of a hydrogen-powered refuse vehicle.

* In the longer term, the project is looking at plans for a green hydrogen power station which would use carbon to create the hydrogen but would not release it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide afterwards. Pure hydrogen would be produced for energy, and the remaining CO2 would be piped out to the North Sea, either to be stored in holes left by oil drilling or to be piped into deep water rocks which would store it safely, an idea already being tested by the Norwegians. Mr Autherson said: "This project is being developed at the moment but the Norwegian experience suggests it works. In the three years it has operated, there has not been a leak into the sea and even if there was, it would not be harmful. The project would return carbon to where it came from and we feel that Teesside would be the ideal place for such a power station, it already has the infrastructure and the pipes out to sea."

Published: 07/10/2003