In January this year President Bush promised that the children of America could look forward to driving cars powered by hydrogen gas. He pledged billions of dollars for research into what’s being touted as the miracle fuel- a limitless form of energy which causes no pollution.

In this week’s ‘Costing the Earth’ Tom Feilden finds out how close to reality the hydrogen dream really is. In Woking he takes a dip in a leisure centre pool heated by hydrogen. In Hackney he enjoys a ride in London’s first hydrogen bus and in Middlesborough he hears of ambitious plans to turn Teeside into a hot-bed of energy research with freshly piped hydrogen on tap in every home and office.

But do we really understand the effects of all this gas on the atmosphere? Could all these hydrogen-powered homes and cars actually cause even more damage to the environment than the coal and petrol burning devices they’re supposed to replace? Tom Feilden gazes into our hydrogen-fuelled future in  the last in the present series of 'Costing the Earth.

To Listen to the program please click here-Hydrogen Bubble 

FuelCon, a leading supplier of test technology for the fuel cell industry appointed Illies & Co. as their sales partner for the Asia region. Illies & Co. is a technology, engineering and service company with a traditional focus on Asia, i.e. Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and others. 

We are working active with a powerful and deeply regional rooted partner in one of the hot spots of the fuel cell development activities” said Mathias Bode, CEO and responsible for FuelCons marketing and sales activities, “Illies closed and broad contacts to leading car manufacturers and leading component suppliers will provide an effective impetus to market our Evaluator – C and Evaluator – S line, the leading standard test systems for MEA´s, stacks and stack systems, in Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea.

Our clients will benefit from the local competence and particularly in the after sales from the dense network of service stations operated by Illies & Co.”

www.fuelcon.com

PRNewswire- Mechanical Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTY) announced the successful completion of the first phase of its stock option exchange offer.  A total of 757,000 options with an average exercise price of approximately $19 were tendered by employees and then cancelled by the company in exchange for the future issuance of 378,500 options -- a two-for-one ratio.  New options will be issued in the final phase of the exchange offer on or after June 23, 2004 at the then
current market price.
 

U.S. Newswire/ -- An ambitious U.S. Department of Energy-implemented project supported by USAID to introduce three-wheel hydrogen-powered vehicles into India could have important consequences on air pollution and transportation in developing countries and the United States.

"Hydrogen engine technology can have a dramatic impact in the developing world by improving air quality and energy security, and promoting sustainable economic growth," Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said. "The positive impacts are far-reaching both in the United States and abroad."

DOE is interested in testing alternative fuel-efficient systems under congested traffic conditions where transportation pollution is severe. 

The project exemplifies a new approach to development: Strategic public-private alliances forged with help from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID's U.S.-Asia Environmental Partnership program and its Global Development Alliance program brought the American and Indian partners together and supported them with $500,000 to pursue the conversion of a three-wheeler internal combustion engine to run on hydrogen fuel..

"This project could ultimately hasten introduction of hydrogen-fueled transportation into the United States by building upon lessons learned in widescale deployment of small vehicles in India," Abraham said.

Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (ECD), on behalf of Texaco Ovonic Hydrogen Systems LLC, both of Rochester Hills., Mich., is undertaking conversion in the United States in a 50-50 joint venture with the unit of ChevronTexaco Corp. of San Ramon, Calif. ECD will carry out the project in cooperation with one of India's largest automobile manufacturers, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd.

The project has exciting possibilities.

-- It could encourage conversion of vast emerging economies to less-polluting hydrogen fuels, introduce key American technology to the immense Asian market, and hasten introduction of hydrogen- fueled transportation into the United States.

-- One attractive factor in this test is the amount of fuel that needs to be stored on an average Indian three-wheeler is one-tenth that needed for automobiles favored by U.S. consumers. The smaller storage capacity significantly reduces technological challenges in introducing the vehicles into the Asian market.

In this project, Mahindra and Mahindra selects two vehicles for conversation and ships them to ECD. ECD has extensive experience in solid-state hydrogen storage systems and has done cutting-edge work in converting gasoline-powered vehicles to hydrogen. 

ECD will convert the engine to run on hydrogen, design an appropriate metal hydride storage system, integrate the storage system into the vehicle, and perform vehicle testing. ECD will use its proprietary Ovonic metal hydrides, which are alloys that act like a sponge, to absorb hydrogen gas. Waste heat from the engine is delivered to the metal hydride bed to release the hydrogen fuel.

One converted vehicle will be returned to India, a country where three-wheelers powered by smaller two- and four-stroke engines are a common form of transportation in densely populated, low-income areas. These smaller engines are a major source of air pollution in developing nations.

The second vehicle will remain at ECD for tests and demonstrations in the United States. 

The project supports research, development and demonstration activities under the DOE's hydrogen program to develop improved metal hydride materials and for hydrogen-based transportation options. It will also complement a broader strategic initiative by USAID/India working with Indian government agencies and the private sector, with the support of NETL, to develop a vision and a road-map for India's hydrogen future.

Associated Press/ -- State officials pushed fuel cell research for New Mexico as Toyota showcased a full-size sports utility vehicle that runs entirely on hydrogen, sending only water vapor out its tailpipe.

Toyota vice presidents and senior engineers visited Los Alamos National Laboratory, and later the state Capitol, where Gov. Bill Richardson drove their prototype, as they stopped Monday in New Mexico while looking for potential hydrogen-power research sites around the country.

Bill Reinert, national manager for Toyota's Advanced Technologies Group in Torrance, Calif., said hydrogen power could revolutionize business.

"If hydrogen works — and there's no guarantee it will work — it's a fundamental shift," he said.

Fuel cells produce electricity through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, creating heat and water as byproducts. One significant hurdle: figuring out how to store the hydrogen.

Even with major advances in fuel-cell technology, it could be decades before a vehicle hits the market.

Reinert said developing hydrogen power will take private-public partnerships.

Los Alamos researchers helped design some of the key innovations that have made hydrogen fuel cells more efficient and economically feasible.

"There are certain breakthrough technologies that have to happen for hydrogen fuel cells to become safe and economic and accessible," Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans said. "And that kind of research is what's taking place at Los Alamos."

Researchers, environmentalists and politicians see fuel-cell vehicles as a way to obtain limitless energy, clean air and freedom from oil dependence in the Middle East.

The vehicle the Toyota delegation showed off looked just like the company's normal Highlander.

"This is amazing, really, to see this technology work, and to see it work in a vehicle of this size," said Piotr Zelenay, who has studied fuel-cell applications for years at Los Alamos. "It runs just like a regular car, with one difference: It's quiet."

The Toyota officials met with representatives of the Hydrogen Technology Partnership and heard about research efforts at Sandia National Laboratories, White Sands Missile Range and New Mexico universities. Homans met with Toyota officials during a recent trip to Asia.

"The only promise we got was a promise to continue talking. When you are recruiting somebody to your state, that's what you want to hear," Homans said.

Richardson sparked the New Mexico visit by contacting Toshikaki Taguchi, president and CEO of Toyota Motor, North America.

"We want to become the hydrogen fuel cell research center in America," the governor said.
 

The Global Climate and Energy Project, based at Stanford and working with private industry funds, recently announced the four research teams who will receive a total of $5.1 million to investigate all aspects of eventually replacing carbon-based fuels with hydrogen. Over the next ten years, GCEP's four sponsors have agreed to donate $225 million. ExxonMobil will supply most of the funding, as well as General Electric, Schlumberger (global technology), and Toyota. Several other research institutions will eventually join the project, and many departments at Stanford are participating: the Environmental Initiative, the Center for Environmental Science Policy, the Center for Conservation Biology, the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources.

Hydrogen's only byproduct when combusted is water, but on a large scale there would be indirect problems, around which most current debate is centered. The research projects chosen for funding are: "Nanoengineering of Hybrid Carbon Nanotube - Metal Nanocluster Composite Materials for Hydrogen Storage;" "Hydrogen Effects on Climate, Stratospheric Ozone and Air Pollution;" "Solid State NMR Studies of Oxide Ion Conducting Ceramics for Enhanced Fuel Cell Performance;" and "Nanostructured Photovoltaic Cells." 

SolarAccess.com/- Devinder Mahajan, a chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, was issued U.S. Patent 6,596,423 for his development of a low-temperature process of producing "pure" hydrogen for use in fuel cells. The process may help address one of the difficulties in developing efficient and affordable fuel cells -- how to extend the life of the catalysts that make them work. 

A problem facing fuel cell technologies is that the same hydrogen that feeds the reaction often contains high levels of carbon monoxide (CO) formed during the hydrogen production process. The CO "poisons," or "degrades," the platinum catalysts that convert hydrogen into electricity within the fuel cell, leading to deterioration in efficiency over time and eventual replacement. 

"The commercial viability of fuel cells for power generation depends upon solving a number of manufacturing, cost, and durability issues," said Mahajan. "Finding a simple, inexpensive method of producing hydrogen that is essentially free of carbon monoxide would help address many of those issues." 

Fuel cell researchers have tried to solve the CO-poisoning problem in several different ways. By adding metals like ruthenium or molybdenum to the platinum, scientists have been able to formulate more tolerant catalysts. But relatively low levels of CO (100 parts per million or higher) still poison this process. 

A second option is to send the hydrogen through a second process to remove most of the CO before feeding it into the fuel cell. This process typically employs a high-temperature catalytic reaction, known as water-gas-shift, which, due to thermodynamic constraints, leaves unacceptable levels of CO in the finished product. 

In Mahajanýs new process, a ruthenium trichloride or similar metal catalyst is mixed with a nitrogen complex to form a homogenous solution in a methanol and water mixture. The hydrogen feed containing CO is then introduced, and, at relatively low temperatures (between 80 and 150 degrees C), the catalyst reacts with the CO and water to convert nearly 100 percent of the CO into carbon dioxide and, as a side benefit, additional hydrogen. The resulting hydrogen feed contains only a few parts per million of CO and is at the correct temperature to be fed directly into a fuel cell. The process also minimizes the amount of waste produced during the reaction due to low temperature operation, high product selectivity, and high catalytic activity. 

"It's quite an economical reaction, and it happens very quickly, in just a few seconds," said Mahajan, "The process works with impure hydrogen produced by any method, including coal and biomass, and can be easily scaled up for more substantial production." 

Mahajan believes his new hydrogen production method will assist the commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, which are the most promising fuel cells for widespread transportation use because they operate at low temperatures, produce a fast transient response, and possess relatively high energy densities compared to other fuel cell technologies.

Mahajan holds a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton, New York, and Stony Brook University, in Stony Brook, New York. 

The DOE's Office of Fossil Energy funds Mahajan's research. 

"This is a very beautiful example for educating students about the benefits of clean fuel technologies," said Mahajan, "and that can help drive public acceptance of new technologies."

Amid growing global concerns about the gas economy and its high carbon emissions, two harbingers of cleaner, more efficient energy technologies came to the campus of Los Alamos National Laboratory Monday.

One of them, the Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle (FCHV), arrived in the form of a Toyota Highlander SUV. Other than being a brand new car with only 700 miles on its speedometer, it looked like a number of other cars in the parking lot at the Physics Building. 

The other was a simple mobile electrical generating engine, crated up in the back of a pick-up truck. Lab investigators hope to use it to prove that a new combustion technique can dramatically improve energy efficiency and lower emissions in gasoline and diesel-fueled vehicles in the near term.

"The key to the car is under the hood," said Thomas J. Meyer, the lab's associate director for strategic research. "Instead of burning hydrocarbons, what this does is convert hydrogen to electricity by means of a fuel cell. It's a brand new way of doing things." 
 

One of only eight such cars in the United States and only 18 in the world, the FCHV called little attention to itself as lab officials took turns driving it quietly around the administrative area and back to the parking lot at the Physics Building.

The car has an 80-kilowatt motor that produces about 106 horsepower. It goes about 180 miles on a load of fuel, which it carries in 4 interior hydrogen tanks, each pressurized to 5000 pounds per square inch. It's called a hybrid because it stores some of the converted electricity in batteries. 

"We're here trying to get the world involved in the infrastructure that will need to support the hydrogen economy," said Dale Gorden manager of alternative fuel vehicle technology, from Toyota's headquarters in Torrance, Calif. "It's part of an educational process to teach your grandchildren and my grandchildren, to bring them up on this kind of fuel."

Later in the day, the car and the Toyota team were headed to Santa Fe to take Gov. Bill Richardson on a spin. The visit to New Mexico grew out of a visit in October, when Richardson and Economic Development Department Secretary Rick Homans met with executives of Toyota. 

Afterward, Homans asked a delegation from Toyota to come to New Mexico to discuss possible partnerships for research in hydrogen fuel cells.

Highly efficient fuel cells were originally developed by General Electric as a part of the Gemini Space program. In the 1980s LANL researchers achieved high efficiency energy conversion reducing the amounts of expensive platinum catalyst used in the proton-exchange membrane that lies at the heart of the technique.

LANL holds early patents for fuel cell technology, and hopes to become a player in future developments.

Faced with the uncertainty of petroleum supplies, hydrogen has been heralded as a cleaner, quieter, more efficient alternative.

But there is still work to do to make it affordable and reliable.

Meyer spoke Monday of the progress that has been made in efficiency, quietness and lowering pollution but also talked of future demands for increasing stability and endurance, along with a lower cost.

How long must the public wait?

Toyota's Gorden said people still talk about a technology that is about 10 years away, although they have been saying 10 years for a number of years now.

"My philosophy about energy is that it is like crossing a big bridge with an arch in the middle, so you can't see the other side," he said. "Some day you'll see this car as viable."

Meanwhile, for those looking for nearer turn solutions, the other object on display at the Physics building, offers a more immediate reward, using the current hydrocarbon infrastructure of gas fuels, but producing cleaner and more efficient energy with a new plasma combustion technology.

The idea, which has been tested in theory using propane fuel, is to apply an electrical charge to break traditional fuels down into smaller particles that will burn better and more completely during the combustion phase.

Monday, Chris Tornillo, a business manager with lab contractor, Cummins, delivered a new fuel injected generator engine, donated by the company, on which members of the applied plasma technologies team can pursue their ideas. The engine produces seven horsepower, weighs 200 pounds, and would normally cost about $5,000.

"Improving fuel efficiency by even 10 or 20 percent would be very significant for the market" said team leader Louis A. Rosocha. In jet turbines used by the airlines and military, "One or two percent would be a revolution," he added.

According more than 2,000 scientists contributing to the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on climate change, the world must find a way to reduce it's carbon emissions by 70 percent in a very short time.

With a few more promising technologies like the hydrogen car, and a few more ways to buy extra time, like plasma combustion, that may not be as impossible as it seems.

TV Parasum/-The US Department of Energy will introduce three-wheeled, hydrogen-powered experimental vehicles in India through a joint project as a possible alternative to small vehicles commonly used in densely populated cities.

In a public-private partnership supported by the US Agency for International Development and DOE, US companies specialising in the conversion of engines to hydrogen power will modify three-wheeled vehicles provided by the Indian auto manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, said a DOE press release.

One vehicle will be returned to India for experimental use. Another will remain in the United States for demonstrations, said the release.

The project has the potential to encourage wider-scale conversions to hydrogen power with resulting positive impacts on reducing pollution and achieving greater energy sustainability.

The ambitious project supported by USAID (US Agency for International Development) to introduce three-wheel hydrogen-powered vehicles into India could have important consequences on air pollution and transportation in developing countries and the United States, the release said.

"Hydrogen engine technology can have a dramatic impact in the developing world by improving air quality and energy security, and promoting sustainable economic growth," Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said.

"The positive impacts are far-reaching both in the United States and abroad."

"This project could ultimately hasten introduction of hydrogen-fueled transportation into the United States by building upon lessons learned in wide-scale deployment of small vehicles in India," Abraham said.

Energy Conversion Devices Inc, on behalf of Texaco Ovonic Hydrogen Systems LLC, is undertaking conversion in the United States in a 50-50 joint venture with the unit of ChevronTexaco Corp.

ECD will carry out the project in cooperation with M&M, said the release.

In the project, M&M selects two vehicles for conversion and ships them to ECD. ECD has extensive experience in solid-state hydrogen storage systems and has done cutting-edge work in converting gasoline-powered vehicles to hydrogen.

One converted vehicle will be returned to India, where three-wheelers powered by smaller two- and four-stroke engines are a common form of transportation in densely populated, low-income areas, and are a major source of air pollution in developing nations.

The project supports research, development and demonstration activities under the DOE's hydrogen programme to develop improved metal hydride materials and for hydrogen-based transportation options.

It will also complement a broader strategic initiative by USAID/India working with Indian government agencies and the private sector, with the support of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, to develop a vision and a road-map for India's hydrogen future.

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