“A tremendous ramp up of natural gas prices” over the past five years has been a shot of adrenaline for the fledgling hydrogen industry and those high prices are not going away, boding well for the further development of steps toward a hydrogen-based economy, according to Jon Slangerup, CEO of Ontario, Canada-based Stuart Energy, a provider of electrolysis-based hydrogen systems worldwide.

Slangerup told an audience at the National Hydrogen Association’s annual conference in Los Angeles Wednesday that he thinks natural gas prices are going to stay high for a long time. “It is a key component to the United States’ future energy policy,” he said, and as such, gas will continue to be in high demand.

“The import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is not going to drive down the prices, either,” Slangerup said.

With demand staying high, prices will stay high, and this in turn will help hydrogen’s development as a longer term economic energy solution 15 to 20 years from now, he said.

“Our analysis is based on a lot of research and feedback we get from key people in the exploration/production [business],” Slangerup said. “They believe that natural gas prices are going to continue to escalate as we continue to convert natural gas to more and more industrial applications to improve air quality. So natural gas is a crucial component of our (hydrogen’s) future.

“Prices are going to continue to go up and up; they are going to double in the next couple of years, and they’re not going to come down. This, in turn, is going to affect positively the economics of various hydrogen options.”

©Copyright 2004 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.