An American firm is close to securing a deal to design and manufacture the worlds' first fuel cell-powered commuter ferry.

Following successful trials of its 30-foot, 18-passenger, hydrogen-powered water taxi, Anuvu Inc. is in final talks with the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority (WTA) to develop a larger ferry.

The WTA has $2.6 million of federal funding to commission a 149-passenger ferry to run between San Francisco and Treasure Island by 2005.

Manager of marine engineering at the WTA, Mary Culnane, told Advanced Battery Technology: "The ferry will be a double-decker beauty and roughly 79-feet long."

The ferry's fuel cell will utilise a metal hydride battery to absorb and store hydrogen and then produce electricity by combining this hydrogen with oxygen over a platinum catalyst.

Anuvu president and CEO Rex Hodge explained the firm's plans to combine small fuel cell modules to power the boat.

"Just like putting multiple batteries in a flashlight, we can build the 240kW power plant with 20 individual 12kW fuel cell stacks wired together," he stated