Students to pitch portable hydrogen project to EPA

When it is Bethanny Lane's turn to describe the hydrogen fuel cell, she stands straight and confident before the assembled group and does not fidget or pull at her long blond hair. She speaks clearly.

"First we will start with our sun," Lane says. "It is not technically a sun; it's a lamp. . . . " At about this point, one of her fellow students interrupts her.

Shouting out corrections is what the students are here to do today. They are helping each other hone their presentations. They've got a big performance coming up.

In May they will be in Washington, D.C., talking to scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. They'll have to explain the gizmo that Lane is explaining now.

Officially, the thing she is pointing to is "a working prototype of photoelectrochemical cell that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen."

A more exciting explanation is this: In the future, you may use such a contraption to make your car run on water.

Lane is one of a dozen students from a charter high school — the Academy for Math, Engineering and Science, in the Granite District —who helped develop this hydrogen fuel cell. She got the opportunity when the Environmental Protection Agency sent out a call for proposals on any topic that would help the environment. University of Utah professors proposed their chemical engineering students to work on a solar-powered hydrogen fuel maker.

As part of its proposal, the University professors said their students would partner with a local high school to do the research. So on this April afternoon, the college and high school students are together in the university's Union Building, showing off their fuel cell at an undergraduate research symposium.

In May, when the Utah students go to Washington, D.C. to present the fuel cell to the EPA, they'll meet college students from all over the United States. The EPA funded 66 college research projects on topics such as scrap tire recycling, sustainable communities and biodeisel fuel.

Since the AMES students are the only high schoolers in the nation who were allowed to work on one of these projects, they feel a special obligation to do well in Washington. That's why Lane's fellow student interrupts. He's urging her to use a scientific term: photovoltaic.

"I'm using my English," Lane tells him, calmly. "The non-complicated words."

Twelve juniors from the U. and 12 juniors from AMES started on this fuel-cell project last fall. They met together every week for two hours, e-mailing each other between classes.