Inventor's fuel system generating interest
CSC student says GM, potential investors calling
Friday, April 27, 2007
GALESBURG - A Galesburg inventor who believes he has found a practical way to extract hydrogen from water, then use his hydrogen fuel generation system to power internal combustion engines, said there has been great interest in the fuel system, including a phone call Wednesday from General Motors.James Hunt, a student at Carl Sandburg College and the founder and president of the CSC Inventors Club, said since a story about his invention was published in the April 15 edition of The Register-Mail "three Fortune 500 companies have contacted us. A lot of private investors have called us."
Hunt was more excited than ever Wednesday afternoon.
"We just received a phone call this morning that has just blown us away," Hunt said. "It was from General Motors. Basically, they're requesting more information from us."
Hunt said some of the information GM asked for can't be released because it is proprietary, as he has a patent pending.
"They're definitely interested in it," Hunt said. "The program manager (of the Fuel Cell Technology Development Division) is the one who contacted us."
Along with seven other members of the CSC Inventors Club, many of them military veterans, Hunt hopes to retrofit the fuel cell into the club's 1991 Chevrolet Cheyenne 4x4 pickup this summer. He said they will only be able to drive it around campus until they get clearances to drive off campus using a non-mainstream fuel.
The truck was bought for $1,800 at an auction and was set up to run on compressed natural gas.
Hunt estimated they have received 400 to 500 e-mails about the alternative fuel. The Register-Mail story has been posted on a number of alternative fuel and other Web sites.
"One of them that really startled us was Peak Oil's (Web site)," Hunt said. "They had it posted an hour after the article came out."
According to the time stamp, the article was posted on the oil company's Web site before the printed version of that Sunday's Register-Mail was delivered. It was within an hour after the story was posted on the newspaper's Web site.
Among the e-mails received at The Register-Mail and forwarded on the inventors club was one from Abingdon native Toby Brady, who is now teaching English in Korea.
"It was a dream of my late uncle to invent an alternative to fuel and my uncle's dream inspired me," Brady wrote. "I hope that someday the world is free of its dependence on fossil fuels and the environmental and monetary strains and the other burdens that this type of energy places on us."
D. Tate of Montgomery, Texas, sent an e-mail suggesting Hunt contact Ralph Nader or Al Gore, while a private investor stationed in Kuwait wrote of his interest.
"The college president, he couldn't be happier at all the attention we received," Hunt said.
That includes a table at the first Green Solutions Expo for the Monmouth/Galesburg area April 20 at Monmouth College's Stockdale Center.
"Our table was kind of flooded with people," Hunt said. "We had all seven members of the group and we were all talking to two or three people at a time. It was a good show. There were companies there that even expressed interest in investing in us."
Big things could soon be coming down the road - powered by hydrogen.
"If all goes well with the GM interest, we'll be looking to make contact with our senators and congressmen to bring more public attention," Hunt said.
Hunt was interviewed recently on "The Lindberg Report," hosted by Max Lindberg. Lindberg, who once lived in Galesburg and worked at WGIL-AM 1400 and WOC-AM 1420, Davenport, Iowa, is now retired and living in Arizona.
During the podcast, Hunt told Lindberg, "We're on the edge of becoming a business, probably within the next year."
"We're all just stunned at the attention we've received," Hunt said.
- - -
On the Net:
Podcast: www.thelindbergreport.org
