-----------

It's a curious sort of alchemy, really. Regular tap water goes in. Pure hydrogen gas comes out.

A new company called Synthetic Energy is staking a claim on what it hopes is a growing market for hydrogen. Its first customer is a Boise-based gas distributor that used to truck its hydrogen all the way from Vancouver, Washington.

Hydrogen is still far from being a mass market fuel. For one thing, it takes lots of expensive electricity to produce. So the Ketchum, Idaho-based startup uses wind to get about 25% of the electricity it needs to power the process -- a key innovation in renewable energy.

The company says the future for this lighter-than-air gas is sky high. Demand is likely to grow among semiconductor producers and fuel cell users.