METHANOL FOUNDATION AWARDS SCHOLARSHIP GRANTS

Release: IMMEDIATE
Contact: Gregory Dolan
1-888-275-0768

(Washington, DC, Jan. 20) The Methanol Foundation (MF) has awarded its first scholarship grants to Jose Fernando Contadini of the Institute for Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis and Suresh Sriramulu of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington. The scholarship awards will assist the graduate students in their studies of emerging fuel cell technologies.

Mr. Contadini is conducting a comparison of the life-cycle air emissions of methanol fuel cell vehicles with those of gasoline powered internal combustion engines. He is currently a research assistant for the Fuel Cell Vehicle Modeling Program at UC-Davis and has substantial work experience with alternative fuels, including methanol.

Mr. Sriramulu is working to obtain a better understanding of the catalytic reaction that takes place at the electrode in a fuel cell. He has published a number of technical papers regarding chemical engineering research. Mr. Sriramulu was also awarded an Electrochemical Society Summer Research Fellowship for 1998 by the U.S. Department of Energy.

"We are proud to support these two outstanding students and researchers," said Foundation President & CEO John Lynn. "Their work may well help accelerate the introduction of methanol fuel cell technologies."

At the conclusion of the grant period, MF will receive an abstract describing the completed study and derived conclusions from both grant recipients. Upon review and acceptance of the study, MF intends to post the abstract on the web site of the Methanol Institute at www.methanol.org.

The Methanol Foundation is a non-profit educational and scientific organization dedicated to supporting the greater use of methanol as a clean energy source, particularly in fuel cell technologies. The Foundation focuses the scientific and educational resources of public, private, non-profit and academic organizations to advance technologies for methanol production and use. Additionally, MF promotes efforts to educate the public and academia on the environmental benefits of using methanol and its derivatives as a fuel source.