FuelCellsWorks

Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group on Wednesday announced plans to invest W9.3 trillion this year, some W4.1 trillion of which will go to green growth projects (US$1=W1,248).

Korea’s leading automaker on Tuesday postponed a prior plan to announce investment of W3.6 trillion into green growth. Within a day it revised its plans, increasing planned green investment by W500 billion, while the total investment remained at W9.3 trillion. “Procedures within the company delayed the announcement,” a company official said.

The carmaker said it will expand investment into R&D and facilities to establish a mass production system for green cars in 2012, with an aim to become one of the top-four green car companies in the world. It will spend W2.2 trillion to develop eco-friendly cars including hybrid and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and W1.4 trillion to develop fuel-efficient engines, transmissions, and light materials.

Another W500 billion will be used to reduce carbon emissions from its own factories. The group expects these efforts will create 1,600 jobs in 2010 and 12,000 in 2012.

In addition, the company decided to increase spending on construction of Hyundai Steel’s integrated mill in Dangjin to W2.23 trillion this year from the planned W2 trillion in order to speed up the project.

Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) has developed new technologies to produce low-cost carbon separators that will increase output density of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs).  Specifically, SDK has established technologies to produce carbon separators with lower cost and lighter weight by making substantial changes in the process and raw materials.  At the same time, SDK has achieved an increase of around 30% in output density compared with PEFCs made earlier by SDK on a trial basis.  These technical developments have been supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

PEFCs generate power through chemical reactions of hydrogen and oxygen, contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions and enabling the production of compact and lightweight cells.  Thus, PEFCs are expected to be widely used as power sources for vehicles, mobile devices and homes.  While PEFCs consist of unit cells connected in a series, separators are used to divide each cell, completely separate and control the flows of hydrogen and oxygen gases, and efficiently conduct electricity generated by the cells.  To increase the use of PEFCs, we need to develop separators with high mechanical strength, corrosion resistance and productivity in addition to high gas-barrier and high conductivity characteristics.

To achieve high mechanical strength and conductivity of separators, SDK has established a technology to bond two boron-added carbon sheets with high precision by heating a specialty adhesive resin.   Based on this technology, SDK has developed a new “bipolar-type” carbon separator that integrates the anode side (along which the hydrogen gas flows), the cathode side (along which the oxygen gas flows), and cooling-water channels (for removal of heat resulting from chemical reactions).  Compared with our conventional carbon separators that are bonded with auxiliary parts, the new “bipolar-type” carbon separators have the following advantages:

Due to the above advantages, the output of PEFCs can be increased by around 30% compared with conventional types.  Furthermore, SDK has developed a new collector (an electrode for taking out electric current from both ends of the cells laminated in a series), based on press molding of proprietary graphite with high conductivity and packing property.  The new collector has conductivity equal to that of a sintered-carbon-based collector, and is lower in cost than collectors based on precious-metal-plated metallic sheets or sintered carbon sheets.  Thus, the new collector has partially been adopted in PEFCs for home use.

Under the Passion Extension business plan for 2009 and 2010, SDK is stepping up its R&D efforts pertaining to environmental-protection and energy-conservation technologies to meet increasing social demand.

SDK will continue developing and commercializing components for PEFCs, fully utilizing its rich stock of inorganic/metal and organic chemical technologies.

[Reference]

1. Conceptual drawing of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell

(The above drawing is based on NEDO’s material and partially revised by SDK.)

2. Comparison of conventional and bipolar-type carbon separators

3.  Appearance of a bipolar-type carbon separator (A4 size)

Clean Energy Will Power Tata Teleservices Cell Towers Throughout India

HYDERABAD, India and LATHAM, N.Y.– Wireless TT Info Services Limited (WTTIL), the tower arm of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), a major Telecom Operator with a pan-India network, and Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq:PLUG), an established leader in fuel cell power solutions, based in Latham, NY, USA, announced that they have entered into a purchase and maintenance agreement for fuel cell based power systems.

The agreement is for the purchase, installation and maintenance of 200 GenSys(r) prime power fuel cell systems to be installed at cell towers owned and operated by WTTIL in India. Plug Power will be establishing manufacturing and support operations in India and currently expects initial deliveries to begin in the fourth quarter of 2009. The Company expects to have all 200 GenSys units shipped by the end of March, 2010.

GenSys(r), a continuous run power source, is presently targeted for cell tower sites with no or extremely unreliable electric grid service. Approximately ten percent of WTTIL’s towers currently operate completely off grid where the primary power is provided by diesel gensets.

“WTTIL is pleased to partner with Plug Power for the installation of fuel cells in our network,” said Col. Ramanand.B, Chief Operating Officer of WTTIL. “Not only is this a ‘green’ solution for telecom sites in India, but also addresses the need for continuous power, particularly at locations in the country where power supply is not available. Ramanand continued, “In addition to this, the cheaper cost of power enables us to differentiate our offerings to the customers. I am excited at the prospects of installing these fuel cells in our network and look forward to increasing the numbers in the near future.”

“We are very privileged to be associated with the reputed Tata Group and look forward to a long lasting partnership,” said Mark Sperry, Vice President and General Manager of Plug Power’s Continuous Power Division. “The Indian telecom market opportunity is tremendous with the addition of over 50,000 towers expected annually over the next three to five years,” continued Sperry. “We view this anchor order as the first step in capturing a substantial portion of this large and growing opportunity in India.”

This agreement follows a successful field trial at a TTSL tower site in Uttar Pradesh during the summer of 2008. Indian petroleum major, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), will be supplying the fuel for the systems.

Strata-gems management consultants served as the strategic advisors for this project, helping to negotiate the successful agreement between all three companies involved, and bring this clean energy technology to India.

With the House and Senate both voting to reinstate funding for hydrogen fuel cell technology R&D, the Obama Administration has come under fire for initially proposing to cut the funding. During today’s OnPoint, Robert Rose, executive director of the US Fuel Cell Council, discusses the hurdles facing hydrogen vehicle technology as a result of the Department of Energy’s lack of support. He explains how the issue has become politicized and talks about his industry’s plans for working with DOE. Rose also discusses the timeline for wide scale deployment of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

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