The company, which was founded in 1996 and moved to its present location in 2002, designs and manufactures hydrogen-generating devices to industrial customers worldwide. Company officials foresee a major spike in hydrogen-powered vehicles in the coming years.
Robert Friedland, Proton's president and chief executive officer, said hydrogen vehicles are safer and better for the environment than their gasoline powered counterparts, and the energy necessary to produce a kilogram of hydrogen — equal to roughly 2.5 gallons of gasoline — is practically comparable to the amount of needed to produce a gallon of gasoline.
There are currently only several hundred hydrogen powered vehicles on U.S. roads, but that number is expected to increase dramatically over the next several years as more and more auto manufactures develop prototype vehicles.
"The automotive companies feel they will be able to launch these vehicles in the [year] 2015 range at a similar price range for what you'll soon see in the electric car market," Friedland told the Meriden Record-Journal, "which is several thousand more than a gasoline powered vehicle."
Proton already has a version of this hydrogen fuel generation technology in place at 16 different facilities throughout the United States, including two in New York, but the Wallingford station would feature a new generation device with a larger yield capacity.
The Proton Energy application was on the Planning & Zoning Commission's agenda for January 11.
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