FuelCellsWorks

A demonstration study of a “hydrogen bicycle” began at Kansai International Airport in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture on October 13.

The motorized bicycle equipped with a simple hydrogen fuel cell announced by Iwatani Corporation (based in Minato Ward, Tokyo and Chuo Ward, Osaka) on October 8 is being used and tested for getting around the airport.The company developed the hydrogen fuel cell motorized bicycle starting in 2006 as part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s (METI) Japan Hydrogen & Fuel Cell (JHFC) Demonstration Project.

The hydrogen bicycle being used in the study is equipped with a simple hydrogen 60-watt fuel cell. To supply the hydrogen gas used for energy, the bicycle is also equipped with a demountable hydrogen cartridge independently developed by Iwatani. When battery power runs low, hydrogen is automatically supplied from the hydrogen cartridge to the fuel cell, generating electricity and recharging the battery, thus negating the need for a battery charger. Since it is possible to recharge while running the motor, the bicycle is reportedly able to continuously travel a distance of about 45 kilometers, 1.5 times farther than on the battery alone.

The demonstration study is being conducted in the area around the Hydrogen Station set up in the airport by the JHFC in 2007, and personnel have been using the bicycle to get around.

This is the first such experiment in an airport that is working towards the goal of practical implementation of a hydrogen bicycle.

LIER, Belgium, and SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn.– Belgian bus manufacturer Van Hool and fuel cell company UTC Power announced that their new-generation 40-foot (12 m) fuel cell hybrid electric bus won the Grand Environment Award at its debut at Busworld Europe Kortrijk 2009. The event opened Oct. 16 and ends Oct. 21. UTC Power is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.

The new vehicle is based on the Van Hool A300L chassis that has been increasingly successful in the North American market. Lighter than previous fuel cell bus models, the bus will have higher operating efficiency than earlier models and will use advanced lithium-ion battery systems. Hydrogen tanks on the roof of the bus will provide a range of up to approximately 300 miles. The fuel cell bus marks the top end in Van Hool’s full line of vehicles.

The bus will be powered by a UTC Power PureMotion® Model 120 fuel cell power system. Van Hool has orders for 16 of the new buses for use in California and Connecticut urban transit fleets. The buses will be delivered from late 2009 through 2010.

Leopold Van Hool, Managing Director of Van Hool NV, said, “This new generation fuel cell bus has been the result of a true partnership. It shows Van Hool’s continued commitment to the technology based on the many benefits it offers to the environment.”

Ken Stewart, UTC Power Vice President, Transportation Business, said, “We’re seeing growing momentum worldwide for transit solutions that have zero emissions and quieter operation. Compared to a diesel bus, every bus equipped with a UTC Power PureMotion® system reduces enough nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emissions to deliver the same environmental benefit as planting more than a 30-acre forest.”

UTC Power has provided fuel cell power plants for fleet transportation since 1998 and its fuel cells have powered buses in the United States, Spain, Italy and Belgium. The company’s latest-generation proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system has delivered more than 350,000 miles of commercial service for city transit bus fleets.

UTC Power is part of United Technologies Corp. (UTC), which provides energy-efficient products and services to the aerospace and building industries. Based in South Windsor, Conn., UTC Power is a world leader in developing and producing fuel cells for on-site power at buildings and for transportation applications.

Van Hool is a Belgian bus manufacturer specializing in leading-edge bus designs and green technology.

Noiseless artificial muscles

IF ROBOTS are ever going to be welcome in the home they will need to become a lot quieter. Building them with artificial muscles that run on hydrogen, instead of noisy compressed-air pumps or electric motors, could be the answer.

Kwang Kim, a materials engineer at the University of Nevada in Reno, came up with the idea after realising that hydrogen can be supplied silently by metal hydride compounds.

Metal hydrides can undergo a process called reversible chemisorption, allowing them to store and release extra hydrogen held by weak chemical bonds. It’s this property that has led to the motor industry investigating metal hydrides as hydrogen “tanks” for fuel cells.

To make a silent artificial muscle, Kim and his colleague Alexandra Vanderhoff first compressed a copper and nickel-based metal hydride powder into peanut-sized pellets. They then secured them in a reactor vessel and pumped in hydrogen to “charge” the pellets with the gas. A heater coil surrounded the vessel, as heat breaks the weak chemical bonds and releases the stored hydrogen.

The next step was to connect the vessel to an off-the-shelf artificial muscle, which comprises an inflatable rubber tube surrounded by Kevlar fibre braiding. Two of these placed either side of a robotic joint can mimic the push/pull action of muscles by being alternately inflated and deflated .

Turning the heater on and off controls the flow of hydrogen into the rubber tube, causing the muscle to move silently. Even better, the pair say, the muscle performs as well as those that run on compressed air systems (Smart Materials and Structures , DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/18/12/125014). Importantly, the gas didn’t leak.

“The system has biological muscle-like properties for humanoid robots that need high power, large limb strokes – and no noise,” says Kim.

Yoseph Bar-Cohen, an engineer specialising in artificial muscle technology at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, says this is “a novel approach” for controlling artificial muscles. “It is an important contribution and increases the arsenal of potential actuators that may become available in the future,” he says.

Car maker is testing everyday practicality of the energy of hydrogen

The Volkswagen Group supports the initiative of Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) with six fuel cell vehicles, the latest generation. From the end of October, two Volkswagen Tiguan HyMotion, two Caddy Maxi HyMotion and two Audi Q5 HFC under real conditions in Berlin’s city traffic will be tested. The aim is to demonstrate the suitability of hydrogen as a fuel in vehicles and to gain valuable insights into the evolution of this technology.

Prof. Juergen Leohold, head of research at Volkswagen: “The fuel cell is an important component of the fuel and powertrain strategy, Volkswagen. We are pleased to put our fuel cell vehicles available to the CEP project. The first Volkswagen models with a sufficiently durable and affordable fuel-cell drive could there be, in our view, at 2020th parallel, but also the development of a complete hydrogen infrastructure. ”

The Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) is an international association of companies BMW, Berlin Transportation Company (BVG), DaimlerChrysler, Ford, GM / Opel, Hydro AG, Linde and Shell Hydrogen, StatoillHydro, TOTAL, Vattenfall Europe and Volkswagen AG. The aim of a three-phased project is the technological development of the energy source of hydrogen for transport. The second phase, lasting until the end of 2010 provides a technical update of the vehicles and the infrastructure and testing the technology before under everyday conditions. In the third phase by the end of 2016, the market in preparation for the hydrogen technologies for the transport sector at the center. The CEP program is part of the National Innovation Program Hydrogen and fuel cells instead of technology (NIP).