New this year was the Hydrogen Ambassadors competition. This competition, which ran through the year, has given the winners the opportunity to have a full service package booth here at the Fair to promote their ideas. I had the chance today to speak with three of the winners. A number of teams have focused on hydrogen and its potential in automotive applications. One team has produced the first hydrogen fuelled, internal combustion engine powered model car. The car looks very impressive and is currently being sold to universities and the like for 9,900 euros. Kazimierz Holubowicz, an independent inventor, is certainly a chap who likes a debate! Mr Holubowicz won his place here on the strength of his plans for a fuel-flexible variant of the internal combustion engine. The engine, which he designed, built and tested himself, could work not just on hydrogen but also a range of carbon based fuels, and due to the design, he claims, it could be as high as 90% efficient and very clean. Keith LeBlanc and Lazlo Zsidai have taken a totally different idea base and have a very eye catching stand. They have built a mock-up of their idea to produce hydrogen in an urban environment using a 200 metre tall wind tower. This is not 1 turbine 200 metres tall (!) but a series of circular platforms, stacked on top of each other, each with a small number of turbines. At maximum production rate they have calculated that it could produce up to 30 kg hydrogen per hour, either for use as hydrogen, or, selling the electricity into the grid when the hydrogen is not required. The benefits of this idea are obvious in areas where land space is at a premium price but energy requirements high. In cities such as New York where there are already a number of architecturally innovative skyscrapers I could easily see this wind to hydrogen tower fitting in!

One worry that I have from the Fair is a personal one. When I come to write the Fuel Cell Today Niche Market Survey this year I am not sure how I will fit in all the new information and companies activities! Companies such as Masterflex and Besel are here with their cargo bikes, scooters, wheelchair and enhanced push bikes. Masterflex is working to put 15 of its CargoBikes (think of a standard push bike at the front with a large storage compartment at the back) into German cities for the football worldcup. The bike has been carefully engineered to be still legally classed as a pushbike, and therefore needing no license to use it, and can also still use the cycle lanes. Besel is working on a fuel cell scooter and wheelchair (Carlos from Besel even offered me a test drive of the wheelchair which I gently declined. Somehow I don’t think I would invited back next year if I crashed into someones stand!). The wheelchair is a beta prototype with a PEM stack and hydrogen storage under the seat. The plans to further develop it are well underway with the market launch in just a couple of years. Both the scooter and the wheelchair are being developed for use in the HyChain project.

Hydrogenics, as always, have an interesting stand and story to tell. I was able to have a very chat earlier on with one of the team on the UPS market and their rack mountable HyPM units. The PEM fuel cells are teamed up with APC architecture to form a system that is being sold now into the datacentre, etc, markets. With 25 units in the field being run and tested the feedback is reported to be very positive. This is another application for fuel cells that is building consumer confidence by having an open pricing structure (currently around US$2,500 / kW), support infrastructure and backing of well established solution providers. Unlike some market applications the UPS market is one where the need for the product exists and the barriers to adoption are not that high.

Finally today I had a chat with a company that I basically like. There is no company working in this space which is not approachable, but some are simply nice with it. NedStack is a company that no matter whom you talk to seems to have a really positive attitude and are open about their problems, as well as their successes. Here they are showcasing their units for city buses and stationary fuel cells. The units, compact and looking fairly user friendly (the signage on one was superb “cathode here”, “anode here”, “if you unscrew you invalidate the warranty” etc) and are being targeted in four main sectors. Apart from the city buses and larger stationary markets they are also putting their PEM Units into micro-generation (5 kW) projects and forklifts. And, something that so far they are the only company that I have heard really focus on this: their units are designed to be 98% recyclable. Once you start to hit levels such as this not only is it good for the environment but also the economics of the unit shifts. Currently the price of the units sits at around 1500 – 2000 euros per kW but with only small economies of scale they report that will shift substantially downwards.

Tomorrow I plan to rest my feet a bit more and see what the forum has to offer, as well of course of chatting to exhibitors.