FuelCellsWorks

Sacramento. Calif. – The California Fuel Cell Partnership has released its vision of the rollout of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen stations over the next few years, starting the transition from today’s demonstration programs to the early commercial market.

The “Vision for Rollout of Fuel Cell Vehicles and Hydrogen Fuel Stations” is available on the CaFCP website as an overview and as the complete 12-page document. Using current data and projections, the document outlines CaFCP members’ consensus projections for the number of vehicles on the road, the number and types of stations needed to provide fuel to the early drivers, costs for building a hydrogen station and government support necessary for the transition.

“Most reports agree that fuel cell vehicles will reach the commercial market with hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the 2017-2025 timeframe,” explained Catherine Dunwoody, CaFCP’s Executive Director. “It can be difficult to see how we move from today’s 200 FCVs and 25 limited-access stations to a commercial market. This document provides a clear vision of how that transition can occur.”

The report considers three next-step phases:

• Technology Introduction which is marked by hundreds of fuel cell passenger vehicles, approximately 10 fuel cell buses and the first retail-like hydrogen stations. This is the current phase and is projected to end in 2010.
• Pre-commercial with thousands of vehicles, tens of buses and tens of stations from 2010 through 2013
• Early Commercial with tens of thousands of vehicles, hundreds of buses, and hundreds of stations, from 2013 through the end of 2016

“These should not be considered hard numbers,” Dunwoody said. “Some companies will enter each phase a little sooner or later.” The vision acknowledges that during this transition, hydrogen stations will not be profitable and will, therefore, require government support. The document provides several scenarios for government funding, as well as other forms of support, such as establishing a state-sponsored risk pool for insurance and streamlining the process for permitting stations.

“Moving towards a hydrogen future has clear benefits for the environment and the economy,” Dunwoody stated. “To achieve commercialization, California needs to establish a network of early hydrogen fuel stations focused in key early markets. Although the benefits may not be fully realized for years to come, it is time to take the next step toward this transition now.”

Report highlights:

• By the end of 2012-2014 fuel cell passenger vehicles in California are projected to require approximately 5,250 kg hydrogen per day. This supply could be provided by twenty 400 kg/day stations or forty 200 kg/day stations, or some combination of stations with these or other supply capacities.
• Stations that make hydrogen on site and stations that have hydrogen delivered are both feasible options for near-term deployment. A rough estimate for capital costs for early stations is approximately $2-4 million, excluding land and operating costs.
• In the early years, hydrogen could cost approximately $8-13/gasoline gallon equivalent, or gge (untaxed). When considering the increased efficiency of a fuel cell vehicle, that compares to gasoline at $4.00-6.50/gallon (untaxed) on a mileage basis. Prices will come down with experience and economies of scale.
• As a rough estimate, the State of California should plan to spend $80-$90 million over four years (2010 through 2014) for hydrogen fuel stations to support the pre-commercial vehicle phase. This support could be provided in a variety of methods, and should not be limited to matching money for building stations.
• Recognizing the significant well-to-wheels benefits of hydrogen made from natural gas and the expense of renewable hydrogen in the early years, government should incentivize, but not require, renewable hydrogen for early stations.

Please visit www.cafcp.org for the overview or full version of “Vision for Rollout of Fuel Cell Vehicles and Hydrogen Fuel Stations.”

BOTHELL, Wash., — Neah Power Systems, Inc. (’Neah’) (OTCBB:NPWZ), the Company developing fuel cells for the military and portable electronic devices, announced today that Drs. Wilbert van den Hoek has been appointed to the Company’s Strategic Advisory Board.

Drs. van den Hoek retired from Novellus Systems, Inc. in February 2008. He is currently a part-time advisor to Novellus Systems, Inc. From July 1999 through October 2005, he served as Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President, Integration and Advanced Development. From March 2003 – Jan 2005, he was also in charge of the Human Resources organization, and acting General Counsel till Dec 2006. From the end of 2005 through February 2008, he was President and CEO of Novellus Development Company, LLC.

Drs. van den Hoek represents Novellus Systems, Inc. as a member of the board of directors of the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and as a member of the Governing Council of the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation (MARCO). He is a member of the Technical Advisory Boards of various public and private companies. Drs. Van den Hoek has written over thirty technical publications and holds more than fifteen patents. Drs. van den Hoek received a Doctorandus degree in Chemistry from the Rijks Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands.

“Drs. van den Hoek is a world renowned expert in semiconductor and thin film processing, has extensive general management skills, and is responsible for various very successful new product introductions in his career. His skill set will complement our strong strategic advisory board,” said Dr. Chris D’Couto, President & CEO of Neah Power.

Drs. van den Hoek said, “I have been associated with Neah Power and its unique technology for awhile. The company has made significant progress under the leadership of Dr. D’Couto, and I look forward to advising the company in the technology development and commercialization of its product portfolio.”

About Neah Power

Neah Power Systems, Inc. (NPWZ) is developing long-lasting, efficient and safe power solutions for the military and for portable electronic devices. Neah uses a unique, patented, silicon-based design for its micro fuel cells that enable higher power densities, lower cost and compact form-factors. The company’s micro fuel cell system can run in aerobic and anaerobic modes.

SAN ANTONIO–The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) broke ground August 17 on a new 30,000-square-foot facility for testing military ground vehicles in support of the warfighter. Called the Ground Systems Power and Energy Laboratory (GSPEL), the facility will evaluate an array of military vehicles, from light transports such as HMMWVs to heavy combat vehicles such as military tanks with hybrid-electric and fuel-cell configurations.

Military vehicles provide special testing challenges because they operate at extremely high power levels under extreme environmental conditions, often requiring new and experimental technologies. Currently no such facility exists to meet these challenges; therefore, the Army determined it needed a one-of-a-kind, fully integrated test facility.

The Army contracted Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), which has operated the government-owned TARDEC Fuels and Lubricants Research Laboratory in San Antonio for more than 50 years, to provide engineering support services for GSPEL. The task included developing the demanding equipment and facility specifications needed for the state-of-the-art laboratory.

The TARDEC Ground Vehicle Power and Mobility (GVPM) Directorate operates its primary testing facility at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Mich., where engines and vehicles are evaluated on dynamometers and in environmental chambers under extreme environmental conditions. GSPEL, expected to be operational in two years, will be built at this facility and will work alongside these existing structures.

The facility will contain eight engineering laboratories for evaluating hybrid electric components, advanced energy storage devices, fuel cells, heat exchangers and air filtration systems. In addition to assessing entire vehicles, the laboratory will be equipped to test vehicle systems and components such as engines, transmissions, axles, electric motors, batteries, ultracapacitors, engine auxiliary systems, air filters and radiators.

To prepare this specification, SwRI assembled a team of more than 30 engineers with a broad array of engineering expertise. The project initially involved quantifying the Army’s future vehicle and component testing needs. Thereafter, the team sized and specified equipment that could properly meet these requirements based on duty cycles and, in many cases, the limits of current technology. SwRI then created floor plans and 3-D facility models, and evaluated them based on work flow patterns, lab-to-lab interrelationships and physical plant considerations. The most significant challenge was the design of a 75-foot-long wind simulator capable of flowing air across a military tank at 43 mph with simultaneous environmental temperature control from -65 to 160 degrees F and humidity from 5–95 percent RH along with soar loading. Working in conjunction with the wind simulator will be 10 electrically regenerative dynamometers.

Another challenge was the design of a calorimeter or test facility capable of evaluating large radiators used in military vehicles. The team designed a system capable of flowing 50,000 CFM of air to enable this testing.

As part of the facility considerations, the team also was involved in quantifying the overall requirements for electricity, cooling water and steam.

SwRI helped design the facility to meet an Army mandate that all new construction be certified under the “Silver” category of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™. LEED is a third-party certification program that encourages sustainable “green” building and development practices through universally accepted tools and performance criteria.

“GSPEL’s primary mission is to reduce the development time while simultaneously improving reliability associated with advanced technologies so they can be used immediately with high confidence in demanding Army conditions. In this way GSPEL will help to expedite the integration of hybrid-electric and fuel-cell technologies into advanced military vehicles,” says Mike Kluger, a senior program manager in the SwRI Fuels and Lubricants Research Division. “In doing so, it will help reduce vehicle fuel consumption and improve overall vehicle performance.”

“The Ground Systems Power and Energy Laboratory will have the test equipment and engineering know-how to work at unprecedented levels,” says Dr. Thomas Killion, the Army’s Chief Scientist. “Upon completion, this facility will not only dramatically reduce component and vehicle testing time in demanding military conditions, but also give the Army the capability to exploit integration of new power and energy technologies for a wide variety of new military vehicles.”

Equipment features include 11 AC electrically regenerative dynamometers rated up to 26,500 foot-pounds of torque and 1,000 rpm; a full-size vehicle chamber with environmental controls for temperature, humidity and solar simulation; three power supplies of extremely high voltage; and one of the world’s largest calorimeters for testing radiators, engine coolers and transmission coolers. An extensive suite of instrumentation for measuring torques, speeds, pressures, flows and temperatures also is included.

Editors: An image to support this article is available at: http://www.swri.org/press/2009/ArmLab.htm

SwRI is an independent, nonprofit, applied research and development organization based in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 3,300 employees and an annual research volume of more than $563 million. Southwest Research Institute and SwRI are registered marks in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For more information about Southwest Research Institute, please visit newsroom.swri.org or www.swri.org.

At the forthcoming Grove Symposium, the prestigious Grove Medal will be awarded to the Honda Motor Company in recognition of their achievements in producing the FCX Clarity hydrogen powered passenger vehicle. This is a fully practical and road-worthy car with room for four passengers and their luggage. Significantly, the FCX Clarity more than double the fuel economy than its petrol equivalent and one-and-a-half times that of a petrol-electric hybrid, whilst emissions consist only of water. Huge interest has resulted from it being made available commercially to the public in the U.S.A., and it is hoped that fuel cell vehicles will rapidly become more widely adopted throughout Europe.

The Grove Fuel Cell Symposium is a major international conference, and provides a European forum to encourage the commercialization of all types of fuel cells and promote collaboration in their development and application. It will again be held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London from 22 – 24th September, and is the eleventh symposium in the series. The first, held in 1989, commemorated the 150th anniversary of the invention of the fuel cell in 1839 by Sir William Grove.

The first Grove Medal was awarded to an Englishman, Francis (Tom) Bacon for his pioneering development of the fuel cells which were developed into the Apollo spacecraft power sources, enabling Man to land on the moon forty years ago this year. A US President congratulated him, saying “Without you, Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the Moon”. Subsequently, Grove Medals have been awarded to many other world leading figures and organizations developing fuel cells including United Technologies Corporation, (suppliers of the Apollo and Space Shuttle Orbiter fuel cells), Fuji Electric Company, Fuel Cell Energy, the California Environmental Protection Agency, Haldor Topsøe A/S, Ballard Power Systems and DaimlerChrysler AG. The recipients are chosen by an international body, the Grove Symposium Steering Committee and the medals are sponsored by Elsevier, organizer of the event and world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services.

Hydrogen is seen as a sustainable and secure energy vector which can be easily generated, transported and stored, and is capable of being generated from renewable energy or converting waste materials. As such, it will form the basis of environmentally friendly stationary generators, as well as vehicle propulsion. The sustainable generation and storage of hydrogen will be addressed at the Symposium by speakers including Professor Tim Mays of Bristol University and Rupert Gammon of Bryte Energy, while the development of a hydrogen infrastructure and vehicle developments will be reported by Catherine Dunwoody of the California Fuel Cell Partnership. Progress will be reported on stationary systems, including those operating on renewable energy sources. These will become increasingly important as waste streams from industries such a brewing and water treatment are used to generate electric power.

While the United States, Japan and Germany are presently leading the way in demonstrating fuel cells, a series of developments could lead to Britain becoming a major player in fuel cell powered electric vehicles. A coordinating body, UK HyNet will be launched at the Grove Symposium. This is intended to promote a hydrogen vehicle refueling network and to make the United Kingdom the preferred location for development and demonstration of passenger cars and service vehicles such as buses, taxis and delivery vans and includes Nissan as a partner. Organisations such as HyNet, SUPERGEN (Sustainable Power Generation and Supply) and the Regional Development Agencies are making the UK a major player in developing fuel cell systems and infrastructure. Many British companies and organisations already participate in European research and development programmes, as well as producing fuel cells and components which are sold world wide.

Other topics of major current interest will also be covered in the Eleventh Grove Fuel Cell Symposium including combined heat and power systems in buildings, electricity generation and transmission, electronic and portable fuel cell systems, including the latest technical developments in these fields. These also emphasize the importance of fuel cells as a clean energy technology.

The Symposium provides a forum for customers as well as fuel cell manufacturers to meet and discuss their joint aims in this important and rapidly moving field, while the accompanying Exhibition provides a showcase of some of the latest technology. For more information or to register for the Eleventh Grove Fuel Cell Symposium, visit www.grovefuelcell.com

May 16-21, Messe Essen

The 18th World Hydrogen Energy Conference 2010 (WHEC 2010) will take place from 16 to 21 May 2010 in Essen under the auspices of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE), and will be organized by EnergyAgency.NRW with the support of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The objective of the WHEC 2010 is to position hydrogen clearly as an energy source on the path towards a sustainable climate-friendly energy economy, and to develop clear strategies for the introduction of hydrogen technology into the participating countries.

WHEC 2010 is an international conference with accompanying trade fair and complementary program of side events with around 1,500 participants from Germany and abroad.

In autumn 2009, the preliminary conference programme will be published. In the scope of a worldwide Call for Papers, 750 registrations of conference contributions have been submitted to the chairmen for examination, amongst them 150 posters and 600 lectures. The registrations came from industry, research, associations as well as organisations from about 50 countries.

For more information:

WHEC 2010 trade fair office
c/o Peter Sauber Agentur
Messen und Kongresse GmbH
Wankelstraße 1
70563 Stuttgart, Germany
Ph: +49 (0)711/656960-50
Fax: +49 (0)711/656960-99