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Fuel cell-powered vehicles from Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. leave the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Tokyo on Nov. 11, 2009, for a 1,100-kilometer run to Fukuoka to demonstrate that they can go as far as gasoline-powered cars on a single fueling. Toyota’s FCHV-adv, Nissan’s X-Trail FCV and Honda’s FCX Clarity will be used in the event.
Development agency One North East is backing ECO2Trans, a high-tech engineering solution that is spearheading advances in hydrogen propulsion systems.
Sunderland University’s Institute of Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice (AMAP), Shanghai’s Shen Li High Technology and VID Vehicles are collaborating on the project.
It has involved converting two electric Gulliver U500EUK buses into hydrogen vehicles using a fuel cell, battery and capacitor combination.
Hydrogen cells produce water as the only waste product, and are one of a range of ultra-low-carbon and zero-emission vehicles being developed in the North East.
Says AMAP researcher Dirk Kok: “Visitors from Shen Li have helped us to understand the fuel-cell operation, train us in its use and help mount it in the buses.
“These vehicles will act as a test bed to evaluate novel hydrogen technologies in vehicles, and will enhance the region’s status as an important automotive research-and-development centre.”
AVID Managing Director Ryan Maughan said: “This is cutting-edge technology that is helping develop the workforce of the future with the required skill set in low carbon vehicle technology.”
The project is intended to educate people, act as a catalyst for the development of the hydrogen infrastructure in the region and help to stimulate growth in the sector.
Said One North East’s Helen Armstrong: “This is another catalyst for the development of the power distribution and charging infrastructure for low-carbon vehicles in the region.”
Pure hydrogen produced in INL's high-temperature electrolysis laboratory could provide a more efficient means for upgrading low-quality crude oils into petroleum.
Big things often come in small packages. That’s certainly the case with the potential created by recent successes in hydrogen research at Idaho National Laboratory.
Steve Herring, technical director of the High Temperature Electrolysis Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative, holds in his hand a solid-oxide electrolysis cell no larger than a standard CD. However, the two electrodes and electrolyte that make up the cell are almost eight times thinner than a CD at a mere 150 microns.
“That’s where we get into the physics and chemistry of what’s going on here,” said Herring. In that tiny arena, he and his team have been laboring for six years to create options for the U.S. and world to defend against looming problems in world energy supplies.
During the 1973 oil crisis, cars lined up for miles waiting to fill up with gasoline on even or odd days while prices skyrocketed and the broader economy suffered.
Now, an increasing number of scientists are predicting that similar conditions could exist with the peaking of world oil production. That peak, they project, could come within a generation or so. A 2007 report by the Government Accountability Office compiled studies to produce a conservative estimate that oil production would peak by 2040.
A world after oil production peaks will be inherently different from what happened in the 1973 crisis, though. Instead of slowly rebounding, oil production would instead slowly taper off, according to the study, and require global restructuring on a phenomenal scale.
HTE researcher-INL's Keith Condie (left), Lisa Moore-McAteer, Steve Herring, Carl Stoots, Greg Housley and Jim O'Brien and Joe Hartvigsen from Salt Lake City's Ceramatec Inc.
But the researchers at INL think they may have at least part of the solution. The first thing that comes to the minds of many when they hear “hydrogen” is fuel-cell-powered vehicles. However, INL’s team is focused on a more strategic priority.
Currently, “gasoline and diesel fuel actually have a lot of hydrogen that has been added to them, and that’s one thing that a lot of people don’t recognize,” said Herring. “Next to a refinery, there’s often a plant making hydrogen that is used for upgrading the petroleum.”
In the near future, those refineries will likely begin to require more and more hydrogen as oil producers are forced to turn to lower quality sources for petroleum. “Particularly,” said Herring, “what are called heavy crude oils, that have a lot of sulfur or that are tar-like.”
Hydrogen, when added to petroleum, breaks apart the long chains of hydrocarbon molecules, creating a more flammable substance. Experts say that upgrading these reserves of lower-grade petroleum could prove to be one of the best defenses against cataclysmic economic implications brought on by peaking oil production.
But producing hydrogen requires large amounts of electricity to power the electrolysis process that splits water into its hydrogen and oxygen components, which is precisely why the work of Herring and his team is so promising.
By improving the efficiency and increasing the life span of the electrolytic cells, Herring and team aim to make the use of oil sands, biomass and other sources a viable option for transportation fuel.
And with recent successes, they have reason to be hopeful. The latest batch of electrolytic cells tested included modified electrodes that were designed to resist internal separation caused by oxygen bubble formation that had degraded performance in previous tests.
It worked. The new cells more than doubled the lifetime of their predecessors by lasting 2,583 hours with an average degredation rate of 8.2 percent for 1,000 hours, more than twice the previous best performance of 21 percent degredation per 1,000 hours.
“It means that they’re closer to commercial viability,” said Herring. But even before the test had cooled down from its 800-degree Celsius operating temperature, the team was already planning on making the cells even better.
“I’m very much encouraged that it will be able to operate for longer periods of time,” said Herring. “We’ll have to take these cells apart and investigate what has happened inside them, and then change the way that they’re fabricated so they can last longer.”
The 10-cell stack just prior to the start of the test.
That analysis will involve splitting up the work with partners like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers who will examine the edges of the cell using “Auger spectroscopy.” They’ll also use scanning tunneling and transmission electron microscopes that allow them to identify the electric fields surrounding individual atoms in the cell. In this way, they can identify what elements are building up in certain areas of the cell and begin to engineer electrolytic cell adjustments to further increase efficiency and longevity.
“It’s been a lot of work by a number of people here, particularly Carl Stoots, Jim O’Brien, Keith Condie and Lisa Moore-McTeer,” Herring said. “They’ve really worked hard in putting this all together over the last five or six years. And then keeping it running, that’s always a real challenge.”
Speaking of the progress that’s been made since research began in 2003, Herring said, “It’s the same sort of physics that occurs in electronics. That, too, was a process that took many years and a lot of trial and error to get devices that would last for a long time.”
The lab is also taking other steps to advance hydrogen research, including building an experiment that will allow them to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide for the synthesis of hydrocarbons. The idea, with electrolytic cells creating hydrogen on one end of the lab and a fuel synthesizer on the other, is to model the embryo of a future fuel synthesizing plant.
In cooperation with several manufacturers of ceramic cells, including Ceramatec and Materials and Systems Research Inc. of Salt Lake City, the NASA Glenn Research Center and the French firm St. Gobain, INL is also investigating new, thinner cell designs. Some of the new designs have electrolytes only 10 microns thick, or a quarter the thickness of a common human hair.
All these efforts, Herring hopes, can help the U.S. avoid the precarious cliff of peaking world oil production. “That’s why we’re doing this research,” he said.
Credited by Aquafairy Corporation
Aquafairy Corporation, which has been known as a developer of a unique micro fuel cell not using methanol, has completed the development of battery chargers based on the unique micro fuel cells, and entered the stage of production and sales of the chargers.
Aquafairy Corporation reached an agreement with GS Yuasa Power Supply Ltd. on the production and sales of the developed charges, which will be used for charging external batteries and built-in batteries of portable devices.
Upon the agreement, the companies have a plan to develop technologies for charging various types of GS Uasa’s batteries, including lithium ion batteries, and integrally incorporate the battery mass production technologies into the charging technologies, with the intention of increasing the number of applied products.
The responsibility assignment of the companies will be determined in consideration with future product demand trend.
Incidentally, Aquafairy said that the development of the battery chargers satisfying the specifications of intended portable devices had been completed.
The company said that the chargers will be put into market as early in 2010 as possible, and samples of the chargers have been shipped.
Development of the built-in type micro fuel cell is under progress.
As known, the Aquafairy’s micro fuel cell generates electricity while generating hydrogen as fuel. The fuel cell is PEFC (polymer electrolyte fuel cell).
Hydrogen generating agent and water are contained in a cassette. To use, the user merely sets the cassette to the fuel cell body. Then, water is added to the hydrogen generating agent to generate hydrogen.
Major noteworthy features of the Aquafairy’s micro fuel cell are:
1) The fuel of the fuel cell is not toxic methanol, leading to being highly safe.
2) Hydrogen is directly supplied from the cassette, eliminating the need of the reformer. This leads to size, weight and cost reduction.
The size, charging ability and price of the Aquafairy’s micro fuel cell, which is currently utilized as the charger, are as below and are all acceptable, I guess.
1. Size
Fuel cell body = 1.9 cm wide and deep, and 5 cm high
Cassette = 1 cm wide and deep, and 3.5 cm high
2. Charging ability
a) Capable of fully charging the mobile phone battery for 2 hours
b) Capable of the net-book battery for about 3 hours by
using four micro fuel cells
3. Price
a) Fuel cell body = about 2,000 yen (1 USD = about 90 yen)
b) Cassette = about 100 yen
(1 to 3 above are cited from Mainichi Shimbun)
Aquafairy lists the advantageous technical features of the charger as follows:
1. FC cell is thin and power generation efficiency is high
2. Supply of hydrogen is stably controllable, ensuring safety and reliability (hydrogen generation system)
3. Includes a sophisticated electronics circuit for causing the fuel cell to efficiently output electricity
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input from prospective fuel cell system users, fuel cell component and system suppliers, and other stakeholders on performance and cost requirements for fuel storage subsystems for near-term, early market fuel cell applications (e.g., for mobile applications such as forklifts, stationary back-up power, and portable power).
This RFI is intended to be “fuel neutral” with a focus on defining the fuel storage needs and requirements for early market fuel cell applications to facilitate successful market transformation in a competitive environment. This information will be used by DOE in a preliminary assessment and ultimate determination of the storage system performance requirements.
To respond to this RFI, read the Request for Information (PDF 133 KB), respond to the four questions/issues on page four, and send an e-mail to StorageTargets2009@ee.doe.gov with the responses attached using Microsoft Word (.doc) format by December 15, 2009.
Ceres Power (’Ceres’, the ‘Company’, the ‘Group’) today announces that it has signed an agreement (the ‘Agreement’) with Bord Gáis Éireann (’BGE’) for residential combined heat and power (’CHP’) products operating on natural gas for the Irish market (including the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). This marks the first international contract for Ceres Power outside mainland UK and forms part of the Group’s expansion plans into Europe, initially targeting highly adjacent growth markets.
The Agreement with BGE builds upon Ceres Power’s existing natural gas CHP programme with British Gas, and will use the same core technology platform, allowing the Company to exploit economies of scale. Under the Agreement, Ceres and BGE aim to establish CHP as the low carbon residential energy system of choice for Ireland. There are more than 2.5 million homes in the island of Ireland and Bord Gáis Energy, the retail arm of Bord Gáis, is Ireland’s leading dual fuel energy supplier selling natural gas and electricity to all market segments. Bord Gáis also provides appliance servicing of products to customers focusing on boiler service and repair and has recently announced a major energy efficiency Home Services Initiative in 2010 offering homeowners a full-scale energy efficiency service.
Under the terms of the Agreement, BGE will pay Ceres £1.6 million in milestone payments during the development and trialling of the CHP Product (the ‘Initial Phase’), including an up-front payment of £1 million. In addition, BGE has agreed to place a call-off order for 16,000 CHP products in aggregate over a four-year period for the Irish market, conditional upon successful completion of the Initial Phase and agreement of standard commercial terms, including the price, for the supply of CHP products. Subject to BGE meeting minimum order volumes, Ceres has agreed to sell the CHP product to BGE for the Irish market on an exclusive basis for a four year period anticipated to begin in early 2012.
Ceres and BGE intend to maximise sales of the residential CHP Product by addressing both the installed base of existing homes that would benefit from an upgrade as well as the annual boiler replacement market. Both of these customer groups will be able to enjoy convenient, low carbon, cost-competitive energy with this environmentally friendly product.
Peter Bance, CEO of Ceres Power, said:
“We are delighted to have formed this relationship with Bord Gáis Éireann which builds on Ceres Power’s leadership position in the residential CHP market and marks the beginning of our expansion plans internationally. Our technology has the potential to address exciting markets across Europe as well as North America and Asia. This new contract helps further underpin our investment in the Horsham factory that will create new skilled ‘green collar’ jobs in the UK and in our extended supply chain.”
John Mullins, Chief Executive of Bord Gáis Éireann, said:
“Working with Ceres Power on this revolutionary technology further highlights Bord Gáis’ position as a market leader and green energy innovator in Ireland. The Ceres Power residential CHP product will help accelerate a transition to a low carbon economy and make much more efficient use of precious energy resources. The CHP product has the potential to deliver significant energy savings, carbon emissions reductions and improved overall energy efficiency for the retrofit residential market in the Island of Ireland. We look forward to bringing this product to our customers as part of our strategy to be Ireland’s sustainable provider of customer-led energy solutions. “
Bord Gáis Éireann is Ireland’s leading dual fuel energy supplier, providing customers with natural gas and electricity in Ireland and providing residential customers with gas appliance service and repair products. The company built and owns over 12,000km of gas pipeline, including two sub-sea interconnectors with Scotland from where Ireland gets over 92% of its gas supplies. Bord Gais has both a transmission pipeline business and a gas supply/distribution business in Northern Ireland.
The company is majority owned by the Irish government. The company is currently investing €400 million in the construction of a 445MW gas fired power plant in Co. Cork which will achieve commercial production in 2010. Bord Gais is also committing an investment of up to €250 million in the development of four 100MW gas cycle turbines and has committed over €250 million to renewable energy developments. These investments underpin the company’s developments as a full service dual fuel provider in Ireland.
University of Sunderland’s Dirk Kok, Mark Armstrong, Maggie Ren and Adrian Morris with the green bus
Experts from China are helping prepare the North East for a low-carbon future with the creation of the region’s first petrol-free passenger bus.
The University of Sunderland has joined forces with Shanghai’s Shen Li High Technology and local experts ComeSys Europe and AVID vehicles from Cramlington to create ECO2Trans, a ground breaking project to convert two buses to a fuel cell, battery and capacitor combination.
One North East have sponsored the £314k project to convert the two Gulliver U500EUK buses bought from Mersey Travel, using expertise from leading edge companies in China, Germany and the UK.
Sunderland’s team is led by Dirk Kok and Adrian Morris from the Institute of Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice (AMAP), who last year successfully adapted a Nissan Almera to run on hydrogen so that it only emits water from its exhaust.
The aim of ECO2Trans, says researcher Dirk Kok, is to educate people about the possibilities of hydrogen as a fuel, by demonstrate the efficiency of fuel cells. The University of Sunderland is also looking to develop the next generation of engineers and technicians who are ready for a low carbon future, and puts Sunderland right at the forefront of current developments in green vehicles.
Dirk Kok says: “The visitors from Shen Li were here to help us understand the fuel cell operation, train us in its use and to help mount the fuel cell in the buses. Now, we want to get one fully driving, and one will be completely revamped with a new motor and new electrics.
“These vehicles will act as a test bed to evaluate novel hydrogen technologies in vehicles and will enhance the region’s status as an important automotive research and development centre.
Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has signed a cooperative agreement with Hydrogen Energy California LLC (HECA) to build and demonstrate a hydrogen-powered electric generating facility, complete with carbon capture and storage, in Kern County, Calif. The new plant is a step toward commercialization of a clean technology that enables use of our country’s vast fossil energy resources while addressing the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
HECA, which is owned by Hydrogen Energy International, BP Alternative Energy, and Rio Tinto, plans to construct an advanced integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant that will produce power by converting fuel—a blend of 75 percent coal and 25 percent petroleum coke—into hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2). The hydrogen will be used to fuel a combustion turbine, enabling net generation of 250 megawatts of electricity, enough power for more than 150,000 homes.
Approximately 90 percent of the CO2 produced from the gasification process, or about 2 million tons per year, will be transported via pipeline to the Elk Hills oilfield, less than four miles away. There it will be sequestered in the same underground formations that have trapped oil and gas for eons. By choosing oilfields as the CO2 injection site, oil production will be increased in a process known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and the CO2 will be safely sequestered from the atmosphere. According to the California Governor’s Office, “This project . . . will not only create green collar construction jobs, but it will avoid greenhouse gas emissions and further propel us toward a clean energy future.”
Still other benefits will be realized from the new-concept plant:
The project is part of the Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI), a cost-shared collaboration between the federal government and private industry to increase investment in low-emission coal technology by demonstrating advanced coal-based power generation technologies prior to commercial deployment. The project will be cost-shared and administered by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
The estimated capital cost for the project is approximately $2.3 billion. The federal cost-share is limited to $308 million, or just under 11 percent of the total project costs. The project consists of three phases: project definition (phase I), design and construction (phase II), and demonstration (phase III). Sequestration of 2 million tons per year of CO2 is slated to begin by 2016.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA-- Three leading Canadian organizations that advance the development and commercialization of cutting edge clean energy technology will join forces tomorrow to coordinate their service offerings for British Columbia clean energy technology companies.
The National Research Council Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (NRC-IFCI), Powertech Labs (a clean energy subsidiary of BC Hydro) and The University of British Columbia (UBC) are signing a Letter of Intent to work together in a BC Clean Energy Technology Cooperative. The Cooperative plans to act as a unified source of talent, knowledge and expertise for the clean energy sector.
“This partnership of leading organizations will focus resources and build a critical mass of expertise and infrastructure in the province of British Columbia,” said Eamonn Percy, President and Chief Operating Officer of Powertech Labs. “This Cooperative will accelerate the commercialization of clean energy technology, bringing BC solutions to world markets faster, resulting in an expanded clean energy sector.”
“Global success relies on coordinated knowledge-support that nurtures the innovation process from development, through validation, to deployment and commercialization,” explained John Hepburn, Vice President Research & International at UBC. “The Cooperative will address current gaps to ensure our public and private investment leads to stronger commercial success.”
Each founding member brings unique value to the Cooperative, including research capability, market access or leveraged funding.
“This Cooperative builds on the established strength of the Vancouver-based fuel cell technology cluster, which is part of BC’s growing network of clean energy companies, investors and cutting-edge research facilities,” said NRC-IFCI Director General Maja Veljkovic. “By working together we can tap into national capabilities and international networks to help small companies grow, creating more jobs, exports and GDP from the development of integrated clean energy solutions,” she added.
Over the coming months the Cooperative’s founding members will be consulting closely with industry and other research partners to identify and develop joint service offerings and project plans, which may include a shared inventory of technology evaluation facilities and equipment, joint training and expertise development and commercial-scale demonstration programs. New members will be invited to join the Cooperative on a value-added basis.
University of Utah chemistry Prof. Scott Anderson and doctoral student Bill Kaden work on the elaborate apparatus they use to produce and study catalysts, which are substances that speed chemical reactions without being consumed. The world economy depends on catalysts, and the Utah research is aimed at making cheaper, more efficient catalysts, which could improve energy production and reduce emissions of Earth-warming gases. Photo Credit: William Kunkel
University of Utah chemists demonstrated the first conclusive link between the size of catalyst particles on a solid surface, their electronic properties and their ability to speed chemical reactions. The study is a step toward the goal of designing cheaper, more efficient catalysts to increase energy production, reduce Earth-warming gases and manufacture a wide variety of goods from medicines to gasoline.
Catalysts are substances that speed chemical reactions without being consumed by the reaction. They are used to manufacture most chemicals and many industrial products. The world’s economy depends on them.
“One of the big uncertainties in catalysis is that no one really understands what size particles of the catalyst actually make a chemical reaction happen,” says Scott Anderson, a University of Utah chemistry professor and senior author of the study in the Friday, Nov. 6 issue of the journal Science. “If we could understand what factors control activity in catalysts, then we could make better and less expensive catalysts.”
“Most catalysts are expensive noble metals like gold or palladium or platinum,” he adds. “Say in a gold catalyst, most of the metal is in the form of large particles, but those large particles are inactive and only nanoparticles with about 10 atoms are active. That means more than 90 percent of gold in the catalyst isn’t doing anything. If you could make a catalyst with only the right size particles, you could save 90 percent of the cost or more.”
In addition, “there’s a huge amount of interest in learning how to make catalysts out of much less expensive base metals like copper, nickel and zinc,” Anderson says. “And the way you are going to do that is by ‘tuning’ their chemical properties, which means tuning the electronic properties because the electrons control the chemistry.”
The idea is to “take a metal that is not catalytically active and, when you reduce it to the appropriate size [particles], it can become catalytic,” Anderson says. “That’s the focus of our work – to try to identify and understand what sizes of metal particles are active as catalysts and why they are active as catalysts.”
In the new study, Anderson and his students took a step toward “tuning” catalysts to have desired properties by demonstrating, for the first time, that the size of metal catalyst “nanoparticles” deposited on a surface affects not only the catalyst’s level of activity, but the particles’ electronic properties.
Anderson conducted the study with chemistry doctoral students Bill Kaden and William Kunkel, and with former doctoral student Tianpin Wu. Kaden was first author.
The Economy Depends on Catalysts
“Catalysts are a huge part of the economy,” Anderson says. “Catalysts are used for practically every industrial process, from making gasoline and polymers to pollution remediation and rocket thrusters.”
Catalysts are used in 90 percent of U.S. chemical manufacturing processes and to make more than 20 percent of all industrial products, and those processes consume large amounts of energy, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
In addition, industry produces 21 percent of U.S. Earth-warming carbon dioxide emissions – including 3 percent by the chemical industry, DOE says.
Thus, improving the efficiency of catalysts is “the key to both energy savings and carbon dioxide emissions reductions,” the agency says.
Catalysts also are used in drug manufacturing; food processing; fuel cells; fertilizer production; conversion of natural gas, coal or biomass into liquid fuels; and systems to reduce pollutants and improve the efficiency of combustion in energy production.
The North American Catalysis Society says catalysts contribute 35 percent or more of global Gross Domestic Product. “The biggest part of this contribution comes from generation of high energy fuels (gasoline, diesel, hydrogen), which depend critically on the use of small amounts of catalysts in … petroleum refineries,” the group says.
“The development of inexpensive catalysts … is pivotal to energy capture, conversion and storage,” says Henry White, professor and chair of chemistry at the University of Utah. “This research is vital to the energy security of the nation.”
Catalyst Research: What Previous Studies and the New Study Showed
Many important catalysts – such as those in catalytic converters that reduce motor vehicle emissions – are made of metal particles that range in size from microns (millionths of a meter) down to nanometers (billionths of a meter).
As the size of a catalyst metal particle is reduced into the nanoscale, its properties initially remain the same as a larger particle, Anderson says. But when the size is smaller than about 10 nanometers – containing about 10,000 atoms of catalyst – the movements of electrons in the metal are confined, so their inherent energies are increased.
When there are fewer than about 100 atoms in catalyst particles, the size variations also result in fluctuations in the electronic structure of the catalyst atoms. Those fluctuations strongly affect the particles’ ability to act as a catalyst, Anderson says.
Previous experiments documented that electronic and chemical properties of a catalyst are affected by the size of catalyst particles floating in a gas. But those isolated catalyst particles are quite different than catalysts that are mounted on a metal oxide surface – the way the catalyst metal is supported in real industrial catalysts.
Past experiments with catalysts mounted on a surface often included a wide variety of particle sizes. So those experiments failed to detect how the catalyst’s chemical activity and electronic properties vary depending with the size of individual particles.
Anderson was the first American chemist to sort metal catalyst particles by size and demonstrate how their reactivity changes with size. In previous work, he studied gold catalyst particles deposited on titanium dioxide.
The new study used palladium particles of specific sizes that were deposited on titanium dioxide and used to convert carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide.
The study not only showed how catalytic activity varies with catalyst particle size, “but we have been able to correlate that size dependence with observed electronic differences in the catalyst particles,” Kaden says. “People had speculated this should be happening, but no one has ever seen it.”
Anderson says it is the first demonstration of a strong correlation between the size and activity of a catalyst on a metal surface and electronic properties of the catalyst.
How the Study was Conducted
Using an elaborate apparatus in Anderson’s laboratory, the chemists aimed a laser beam to vaporize palladium, creating electrically charged, palladium nanoparticles in a vapor carried by a stream of helium gas.
Electromagnetic fields are used to capture the particles and send them through a mass spectrometer, which selects only the sizes of palladium particles Anderson and colleagues want to study. The desired particles then are deposited on a single crystal of titanium oxide that measures less than a half-inch on a side.
Next, the chemists use various methods to characterize the sample of palladium catalyst particles: specifically the palladium catalyst’s electronic properties, physical shape and chemical activity.
ALGIERS– The meeting of Arab experts on hydrogen and the future of energy and climate in the Arab world wrapped up on Thursday in Algiers by the adoption of recommendations emphasizing the need to intensify hydrogen production techniques and encourage scientific research in the field.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Industry and Investment Promotion, the participants in the scientific meeting, the first of its kind devoted to this theme in Algeria, advocated “the drawing up of a joint programme in hydrogen research and development with a view to achieve an inter-Arab complementarity, the resort to Arab skilled experts who will work together through a network, for a better mastery of hydrogen technologies and applications.”
KUALA LUMPUR-- The government is carrying out research to study the use hydrogen for the production of electricity and to be used as a fuel source for the automotive industry, the Dewan Rakyat was told on Monday.
Deputy minister of Science, Technology and Innovations Fadillah Yusof said a study known as Hydrogen powered engine, hydrogen generation and diesel engine efficiency enhancement was being carried out to determine its use for static engines like generators to produce electricity and for engines used by fishermen for their boats.
“The first test had shown that the use of Hydrogen can help reduce the dependence on diesel by 25 percent. The project, being carried out through a RM1.489 million allocation that was approved in 2008, is expected to be completed by next year,” said Fadillah when answering a question by Dr Mohd Hayati Othman (PAS-Pendang) who wanted to know the development in efforts to use water as an alternative energy source.
Fadillah also said that the new technology being studied was to separate the Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms from the air Hydrogen gas to reduce the use of diesel energy.
He added that however, a prototype car using energy from water, cannot be developed into a commercial scale due to certain constraints that need to be addressed and studied carefully.
“Among the constraints are the storage system for the hydrogen, plus the production and distribution of Hydrogen for vehicles using hydro-fuel.
“It also involves the setting up of standards and infrastructure for vehicles using hydro-fuel and the electric system that can be used for hybrid vehicles,” said Fadillah.
Fadillah added that similar obstacles were also faced by countries like the United States and Europe.
“We must first overcome the obstacles before hydro-fuel can be widely used.
Hydrogen is the most versatile of renewable energy resources — a universal fuel that can be burned in an engine or used in a fuel cell to power vehicles, utility power plants and anything else that uses electrical energy. It will eliminate our dependence on other energy source,” he said.
When burned in an engine, hydrogen is about 30 percent more efficient than gasoline and when a fuel cell is used to power a vehicle, the fuel cell is 100 percent to 200 percent more efficient than gasoline.
Hydrogen engines do not emit carbon dioxide, and the only byproduct of fuel cells is clean water.
The first hydrogen pumping station in the Czech Republic was launched into operation in Neratovice, central Bohemia, on Thursday after three years of preparations by the Nuclear Research Institute (ÚJV) in co-operation with Linde Gas.
It has taken almost three years and three million Euro dollars to complete the station. Three quarters of the costs have been by state and EU subsidies.
The station will use gaseous hydrogen pressures of 300 bars and a typical filling of a bus will takes about ten minutes.
The project has an annual capacity of 72 thousand meters cubic (about six tons) of hydrogen.
“It’s not just one hydrogen station in the Czech Republic but throughout Central and Eastern Europe,” said Chief Marketing Officer of Linde Pavel Jirsa.
At this time there are several dozen hydrogen station operating in Europe, a large part in neighboring Germany.
The prototype hydrogen bus in the Czech Republic is called the TriHyBus which was developed by Škoda Plzeň Electric.
The bus will be a hybrid and have three complementary power sources – fuel cells, capacitors and batteries.
Ceres Power (‘Ceres’, the ‘Company’, the ‘Group’) today announces that it has signed an agreement (the ‘Agreement’) with Bord Gáis Éireann (‘BGE’) for residential combined heat and power (‘CHP’) products operating on natural gas for the Irish market (including the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland ). This marks the first international contract for Ceres Power outside mainland UK and forms part of the Group’s expansion plans into Europe , initially targeting highly adjacent growth markets.
The Agreement with BGE builds upon Ceres Power’s existing natural gas CHP programme with British Gas, and will use the same core technology platform, allowing the Company to exploit economies of scale. Under the Agreement, Ceres and BGE aim to establish CHP as the low carbon residential energy system of choice for Ireland . There are more than 2.5 million homes in the island of Ireland and Bord Gáis Energy, the retail arm of Bord Gáis, is Ireland ’s leading dual fuel energy supplier selling natural gas and electricity to all market segments. Bord Gáis also provides appliance servicing of products to customers focusing on boiler service and repair and has recently announced a major energy efficiency Home Services Initiative in 2010 offering homeowners a full-scale energy efficiency service.
Under the terms of the Agreement, BGE will pay Ceres £1.6 million in milestone payments during the development and trialling of the CHP Product (the ‘Initial Phase’), including an up-front payment of £1 million. In addition, BGE has agreed to place a call-off order for 16,000 CHP products in aggregate over a four-year period for the Irish market, conditional upon successful completion of the Initial Phase and agreement of standard commercial terms, including the price, for the supply of CHP products. Subject to BGE meeting minimum order volumes, Ceres has agreed to sell the CHP product to BGE for the Irish market on an exclusive basis for a four year period anticipated to begin in early 2012.
Ceres and BGE intend to maximise sales of the residential CHP Product by addressing both the installed base of existing homes that would benefit from an upgrade as well as the annual boiler replacement market. Both of these customer groups will be able to enjoy convenient, low carbon, cost-competitive energy with this environmentally friendly product.
Peter Bance, CEO of Ceres Power, said:
“We are delighted to have formed this relationship with Bord Gáis Éireann which builds on Ceres Power’s leadership position in the residential CHP market and marks the beginning of our expansion plans internationally. Our technology has the potential to address exciting markets across Europe as well as North America and Asia . This new contract helps further underpin our investment in the Horsham factory that will create new skilled ‘green collar’ jobs in the UK and in our extended supply chain.”
John Mullins, Chief Executive of Bord Gáis Éireann, said:
“Working with Ceres Power on this revolutionary technology further highlights Bord Gáis’ position as a market leader and green energy innovator in Ireland . The Ceres Power residential CHP product will help accelerate a transition to a low carbon economy and make much more efficient use of precious energy resources. The CHP product has the potential to deliver significant energy savings, carbon emissions reductions and improved overall energy efficiency for the retrofit residential market in the Island of Ireland . We look forward to bringing this product to our customers as part of our strategy to be Ireland ’s sustainable provider of customer-led energy solutions. ”
By Claire Piech
Commuters will be able to ride Whistler’s first hydrogen fuel-cell bus by Nov. 17.
B.C. Transit announced this week that the first of 20 hydrogen buses will arrive in Whistler Monday, Nov. 9, with the state-of-the-art bus officially in service the following week.
People who ride the new bus should notice that it is smoother and quieter than the traditional diesel buses in Whistler, said Joanna Morton, spokesperson for B.C. Transit.
The other 19 hydrogen buses that are part of the $89 million federal and provincial pilot project should all arrive sometime before the end of December.
Each time a new hydrogen bus arrives in Whistler, it will have to undergo commissioning and servicing. B.C. Transit couldn’t say this week exactly when all 20 buses will be in service within Whistler, but another spokesperson with the Crown agency confirmed all buses will be running during the 2010 Winter Games.
Once the buses arrive in Whistler, they will be kept at the brand-new transit facility currently under construction near Nesters Road.
Morton said B.C. Transit is also planning to celebrate the arrival of the first hydrogen bus this month, although a date for the event hasn’t been nailed down yet.
She added that B.C. Transit will also release the budget for the multi-million-dollar bus hub at the celebration.
The hydrogen-fuelled vehicles are assembled in Winnipeg and transported to Vancouver by trailer. They are then driven to Victoria where technicians do preparation work before the buses are sent to Whistler. Every single bus also goes through a 15-day test before B.C. Transit accepts it from the manufacturer.
B.C. Transit also did extensive testing with a pre-production version of the hydrogen buses in Whistler, Victoria, and Ottawa. The model passed the tests, said Morton, with no issues climbing hills or functioning in minus 20 degrees Celsius weather.
“These buses are going to be in operation for potentially up to 22 hours in Whistler during the Games, so we needed to have the confidence that the buses would be operational in a cold climate,” said Morton.
UltraCell is seeking $1 million from the Ohio Third Frontier program to make a new fuel cell system in Dayton.
The company seeks the money to move production of its XX55 fuel cell from California to UltraCell’s plant near Dayton International Airport.
If the company wins the grant and wins fuel cell orders from the Air Force, it could mean demand for 7,00 to 1,500 fuel cells systems in the next 24 months — and 50 jobs in Dayton, said Keith Scott, chief executive for the Livermore, Calif.-based company.
The move is in response to what Scott believes is new demand from the Air Force, in two projects managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“We spend a lot of time at Wright-Patterson, and it’s not hard for us to do it, because we’re right here,” he said Thursday, Nov. 5.
A base spokesman could not be immediately reached.
In May 2009, UltraCell announced a round of funding by investors toward making the company’s Dayton facility “the first and only volume-production micro fuel cell facility in North America.”
“We’re building 100 percent of the XX25 (fuel cell systems) here in Dayton,” Scott said. “We also have transferred almost the entire supply chain from California and other places to Ohio.”
The company has 12 employees in Dayton and 40 suppliers in Ohio, he said. He declined to say how many XX25s per week are built here.
Fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen into water, producing electricity to power laptops or communication equipment for days, well past a battery’s normal lifespan.
In the past two years, UltraCell has tested fuel cells in field trials with the military. In particular, in Afghanistan, soldiers can be isolated for as many as two to four days — time spent without a power source to recharge batteries, Scott said.
Said Scott, “A fuel cell is the perfect battery charger. It’s essentially a mini-generator.”
A fuel cell that recharges batteries can mean longer missions. Scott believes the XX55 can be used to run equipment directly and to recharge batteries.
The goal with a Third Frontier grant is to take the XX55 — today built in small volumes in California — and to shift manufacturing to Ohio, he said.
Fuel cell equipment manufacturers will be able to more efficiently test the performance of fuel cell electrodes through new technology developed by a Purdue Research Park-based company.
The Powerstat test station, launched Wednesday (Nov. 4) by NuVant Systems Inc., can evaluate key components of proton exchange fuel cell electrodes. NuVant is based in the Purdue Research Park of Northwest Indiana’s Purdue Technology Center.
The Powerstat evaluates membrane electrode assembly (MEA) components, including the polymer membrane that is located between the fuel cell positive and negative electrodes. The Powerstat increases fuel cell testing efficiency by providing current up to 18 amps along with options to control temperature and reactant flow rates.
Eugene Smotkin, founder and CEO of NuVant Systems, explained the function of the MEA in a fuel cell.
“The MEA, a polymer electrolyte sandwiched between electrocatalytic layers, is the heart of the fuel cell,” Smotkin said. “The MEA separates the hydrogen on one side from the oxygen on the other. When a hydrogen molecule is split into two protons and two electrons, the protons pass through the MEA and the electrons provide useful electricity. The protons and electrons then combine with the oxygen on the other side of the membrane to produce water. If an MEA is not functioning properly, the fuel cell voltage and current will decrease.”
Smotkin said Powerstat was created by NuVant Systems to address a performance drawback in products that evaluate MEAs. In contrast to traditional load units, the Powerstat can provide power required for testing one electrode layer separately from the other.
“Proper evaluation of a fuel cell’s MEA requires single-cell fuel cells properly paired with electronic instrumentation,” he said. “For every square centimeter of active fuel cell electrode area, the instrumentation must deliver at least one amp at voltages up to 0.8 volts. The Powerstat pairs with larger 5- to 10-square centimeter single-cell fuel cells and packs a higher maximum current of 18 amps.”
Smotkin says the Powerstat may accelerate research required for consumer acceptance of fuel cells.
“Acceptance of fuel cells can be bolstered by significant improvements in MEA performance and pricing,” he said. “Additionally, entirely new MEA structures are now in demand as developers pursue non-platinum based fuel cell catalysts.”
Powerstat and other NuVant Systems fuel cell products can be purchased on the products page of the company’s Web site at http://www.nuvant.com/
About NuVant Systems Inc.
NuVant Systems develops and integrates catalysts and electrolytes for stationary and portable fuel cell electrode assemblies. NuVant has pending patents for inorganic fuel cell electrolytes operating between 250-400 degrees Celsius. NuVant’s patented high-throughput characterization instrument, the Arraystat System, provides a competitive edge by enabling precise, accurate parallel evaluation of electrode assembly components and fabrication methods under fuel cell conditions. The Arraystat also will benefit the electrochemical energy storage, electro-synthesis and the electrochemical sensor industries through direct sales or R&D partnering.
About Purdue Research Park of Northwest Indiana
The Purdue Research Park of Northwest Indiana sits on 386 acres west of I-65 in Merrillville. This laboratory and office facility serves as the anchor for the state-certified technology park – Ameriplex at the Crossroads – under development by Purdue Research Foundation and Holladay Properties. The 48,000-square-foot Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana is slated to expand to 60,000 square feet in 2010. It opened as Purdue’s first satellite technology center in January 2005 and currently serves 24 technology-based tenants. Employment within the center currently numbers approximately 100, including researchers with advanced degrees, recent college graduates and interns.
Ludwigshafen , Germany – November 5, 2009 – BASF is realigning its business for the fuel cell market. In the future, competencies for the production of high-temperature membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) will be concentrated in Somerset, New Jersey. Operational activities at the BASF Fuel Cell GmbH site in Frankfurt, Germany, will be discontinued effective December 31, 2009. BASF plans to close the Frankfurt site in the course of 2010.
At the Somerset site, BASF Fuel Cell produces both high-temperature MEAs and important pre-products such as electrodes. Thus, Somerset is the only site that covers the entire production process for MEAs.
“In addition to integrated production, the Somerset site offers us the advantage of being closer to our customers and to key future markets, such as fuel cells for residential combined heat and power systems”, said Stefano Pigozzi, head of BASF’s Inorganics division to which BASF Fuel Cell belongs. “We are strengthening our overall competitiveness by concentrating the competencies of the two sites.”
The restructuring will result in the loss of 43 positions in Frankfurt. “We will work closely with the employee representatives to find socially responsible solutions for the employees,” said Dr. Horst-Tore Land, CEO of BASF Fuel Cell GmbH in Frankfurt.
In addition to the activities in Frankfurt and Somerset, BASF has operated a laboratory in Yokkaichi, Japan, since May 2008. This laboratory is responsible for the application-specific support of local customers.
BASF is one of the leading suppliers for conventional fuel cell components. In an MEA – the heart of the fuel cell – hydrogen and air react to form water, simultaneously generating electrical power and heat. BASF markets MEAs under the brand name Celtec® and enables the fuel cell industry to meet the current and growing challenges of future energy supply.
ERRILLVILLE, Ind. – Fuel cell equipment manufacturers will be able to more efficiently test the performance of fuel cell electrodes through new technology developed by a Purdue Research Park-based company.
The Powerstat test station, launched Wednesday (Nov. 4) by NuVant Systems Inc., can evaluate key components of proton exchange fuel cell electrodes. NuVant is based in the Purdue Research Park of Northwest Indiana’s Purdue Technology Center.
The Powerstat evaluates membrane electrode assembly (MEA) components, including the polymer membrane that is located between the fuel cell positive and negative electrodes. The Powerstat increases fuel cell testing efficiency by providing current up to 18 amps along with options to control temperature and reactant flow rates.
Eugene Smotkin, founder and CEO of NuVant Systems, explained the function of the MEA in a fuel cell.
“The MEA, a polymer electrolyte sandwiched between electrocatalytic layers, is the heart of the fuel cell,” Smotkin said. “The MEA separates the hydrogen on one side from the oxygen on the other. When a hydrogen molecule is split into two protons and two electrons, the protons pass through the MEA and the electrons provide useful electricity. The protons and electrons then combine with the oxygen on the other side of the membrane to produce water. If an MEA is not functioning properly, the fuel cell voltage and current will decrease.”
Smotkin said Powerstat was created by NuVant Systems to address a performance drawback in products that evaluate MEAs. In contrast to traditional load units, the Powerstat can provide power required for testing one electrode layer separately from the other.
“Proper evaluation of a fuel cell’s MEA requires single-cell fuel cells properly paired with electronic instrumentation,” he said. “For every square centimeter of active fuel cell electrode area, the instrumentation must deliver at least one amp at voltages up to 0.8 volts. The Powerstat pairs with larger 5- to 10-square centimeter single-cell fuel cells and packs a higher maximum current of 18 amps.”
Smotkin says the Powerstat may accelerate research required for consumer acceptance of fuel cells.
“Acceptance of fuel cells can be bolstered by significant improvements in MEA performance and pricing,” he said. “Additionally, entirely new MEA structures are now in demand as developers pursue non-platinum based fuel cell catalysts.”
About NuVant Systems Inc.
NuVant Systems develops and integrates catalysts and electrolytes for stationary and portable fuel cell electrode assemblies. NuVant has pending patents for inorganic fuel cell electrolytes operating between 250-400 degrees Celsius. NuVant’s patented high-throughput characterization instrument, the Arraystat System, provides a competitive edge by enabling precise, accurate parallel evaluation of electrode assembly components and fabrication methods under fuel cell conditions. The Arraystat also will benefit the electrochemical energy storage, electro-synthesis and the electrochemical sensor industries through direct sales or R&D partnering.
About Purdue Research Park of Northwest Indiana
The Purdue Research Park of Northwest Indiana sits on 386 acres west of I-65 in Merrillville. This laboratory and office facility serves as the anchor for the state-certified technology park – Ameriplex at the Crossroads – under development by Purdue Research Foundation and Holladay Properties. The 48,000-square-foot Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana is slated to expand to 60,000 square feet in 2010. It opened as Purdue’s first satellite technology center in January 2005 and currently serves 24 technology-based tenants. Employment within the center currently numbers approximately 100, including researchers with advanced degrees, recent college graduates and interns.
BOTHELL, Wash.– Neah Power Systems, Inc. (NPWZ), the company developing fuel cell-based renewable energy and storage solutions for the military and consumers, disclosed today the benefits of using methanol in its patented porous silicon architecture fuel cell. This further validates Neah’s quest to make its fuel cell the eventual replacement for batteries.
Technology Brief: Methanol: A New Fuel for a New Age
By Danny Wilks, Research Scientist, Neah Power Systems
Neah Power Systems has patented a unique fuel cell using methanol, a readily available fuel source that can provide a volumetric-efficient way to store and deliver hydrogen and which can help balance the carbon cycle.
Methanol is currently produced by reforming natural gas (which is abundant in North America[1]) with steam, but may be produced using biomass sources such as wood or other cellulosic materials[6]. Recent advances show promise in directly converting methane as a waste gas from landfill sites and cattle farming into methanol[2]. Thus creating low-cost, clean renewable energy sources.
Portable power markets continue to rely on conventional batteries for off-grid use, which eventually die, or require re-charging. As the need for long lasting, lightweight and remote power grows, alternative methods to create highly efficient energy fuel sources that can provide continuous power for the military, police, fire departments, first responders, and consumers becomes ever more urgent.
A large driving force for the use of methanol as a fuel source is cost. Historically, the price of methanol has been low in comparison to other alternative fuels, which is currently $0.95/gallon[3]. Although the cost of methanol is subsidized, it may be expected to remain stable as efficient synthesis techniques become more widely practiced.
While hydrogen is primarily produced from fossil fuels, it may be also be made by photosynthesis of algae[4], or electrolysis of water. CO and CO2 can be harvested from sources such as coal power plants or vegetable matter, thus stimulating alternative technology to generate methanol.
Methanol is a commonly found chemical in our daily lives, used in fuels, plastics, cleaning agents, etc. When methanol burns, the byproduct is carbon dioxide and water. Although it must be handled safely, unlike more traditional fuels, such as gasoline, methanol fires are extinguishable with water.
Neah Power Systems specializes in providing a methanol-centric power source that is safe, reliable, economical and environmentally friendly.
Methanol is a very energy dense fuel (by weight and volume) when compared to traditional and advanced energy storage technologies, as shown in Table 1.
This advantage enables longer use of power with minimal impact on size and weight.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Power Gravimetric Energy Volumetric Energy
Source Density (W-hr/kg) Density (W-hr/L)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Lithium-ion [5] 125 440
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Lead-acid [5] 30-40 60-75
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Methanol [6] 5,833 4,400
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hydrogen [7]
(5,000psi
compressed) 33,333 833
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Table 1: Advantages of methanol over conventional fuel sources'
Methanol may also be produced through the reaction of hydrogen and carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as follows:
CO + 2H2 --> CH3OH CO2 +3H2 --> CH3OH + H2O
-----------------------
[1] NaturalGas.org, http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/resources.asp,
accessed 10/13/09.
[2] Indarto Antonius et al., "The kinetic studies of direct methane
oxidation to methanol in the plasma process", Chinese Science
Bulletin, Vol. 53(18), 2783-2792, Sept. 2008.
[3] Methenax, http://www.methanex.com/products/methanolprice.html,
accessed 10/13/09.
[4] M. S. Dresselhaus, I. L. Thomas, "Alternative energy
technologies", Nature, Vol. 414(15), Nov. 2001.
[5] D. L. Anglin, D. R. Sadoway, "Battery", in
AccessScience@McGraw-Hill, http://www.accessscience.com,
DOI 10.1036/1097-8542.075200
[6] B. Sorensen, Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Emerging technologies and
applications, Elsevier Academic Press, Burlington, MA, 2005.
[7] National Research Council and National Academy of Engineering of
the Engineering of the National Academies, The Hydrogen Economy:
Opportunities, Costs, Barriers, and R&D Needs, The National
Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2004.
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, and is developing energy storage solutions based on its proprietary porous silicon technology.
Further company information can be found at www.neahpower.com.
Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD; NASDAQ: BLDP) today announced that John Sheridan, President & CEO will present at the Thomas Weisel Alternative Energy & Natural Resources Conference 2009 in New York on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 2:05pm ET.
John Sheridan will provide an update on the business and discuss Ballard’s strategy within key fuel cell growth markets. Visit www.ballard.com to learn more and listen to the live audio webcast. A playback of the audio webcast will be available for 30 days following the conference.
About Ballard Power Systems
Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD; NASDAQ: BLDP) is recognized as a world leader in the design, development, manufacture and sale of clean energy fuel cell products. Ballard’s mission is to accelerate fuel cell product adoption. To learn more about what Ballard is doing with Power to Change the World(R), visit www.ballard.com.
Automotive students at the Greater Southern Tier BOCES Coopers Campus in Painted Post will have the opportunity to see the General Motors Fuel Cell Vehicle from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Building 1.
The vehicle is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, giving off only water vapor as waste.
It will travel to the campus from Honeoye Falls, where it was manufactured, according to a news release from BOCES.
Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Eric Massa, D-Corning, used the vehicle to travel to Washington, D.C., for his swearing-in ceremony to bring attention to local business, manufacturing and green technology.
A compressed natural gas car from the New York State and two electric cars from the BOCES Bush Campus New Visions engineering program also will be on hand for students to explore.
Corning Community College automotive students will join BOCES students for the demonstration
Speaking at a media luncheon in Detroit today, Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager of Toyota confirmed that the automaker would launch a production electric vehicle in 2012. Toyota has shown two different BEV concepts in the past year, both of which were small urban commuter cars.
The FT-EV that was shown at the last North American international auto show in Detroit was based on the overseas market iQ mini-car while the FT-EV II from the recent Tokyo show is even smaller. Carter told the attendees that the first new BEV will not look like either of these concepts. He declined to comment on what type of vehicle would be introduced, but it will likely be a similar type of vehicle.
Most major automakers are leaning toward city cars for their initial plug-in efforts because lithium ion batteries remain very expensive. A smaller limited range vehicle allows the use of a smaller, lower cost battery pack. The limited range will be less of an issue with these vehicles because they are typically not driven as far.
While some other automakers, notably Nissan and Mitsubishi have been extremely bullish on electric vehicles, Carter seemed more circumspect. Many advocates of plug-in vehicles have projected that they would capture 10-20 percent or more of the market over the next decade. Carter told the group that “the technology has to advance much further than it is today to hit 10 percent of the market.”
This echoes comments recently from Takanobu Ito, Honda CEO at the Tokyo Motor Show. Honda, like Toyota has publicly stated that it expects hydrogen fuel cells to be the best long term zero emissions vehicle solution. Ito told Green Fuels Forecast that he expects support for hydrogen fuel cells would return once people realize the limitations of batteries.
One of the possible solutions that electric vehicle advocates have proposed to the range problem of batteries is fast changing of batteries. So far only Nissan and Renault have expressed public support for the concept, but even those companies are designing most of their upcoming electric vehicles without battery swap capability. Carter told Green Fuels Forecast that Toyota has “no definitive position” on battery swapping.
The company does however have a position on hydrogen and expects that to be the best long-term solution to full function vehicles. While introduction of fuel cell vehicles remains dependent on the deployment of a hydrogen filling network, Toyota hopes to start retail sales of fuel cell vehicles in the US by 2015.
Despite the company’s efforts on battery and fuel cell vehicles, Carter feels that the internal combustion engine and hybrid drive will remain an important part of the lineup for many years to come. Toyota is continuing to expand it hybrid offerings and will add plug-in hybrids. A test fleet of 500 plug-in hybrid Priuses will be deployed to commercial and government fleets world-wide beginning in late November of this year.
This test fleet will be used to evaluate the real world performance of PHEVs over the next two years. Unlike the current fleet of 20 or so plug-in Priuses that use larger nickel-metal hydride batteries, the new cars use a lithium ion battery. Carter tells GFF that the Prius can travel at up to 62 mph on electricity alone for up to 5 miles. Toyota expects retail sales of a plug-in Prius to begin in 2011-12.
One of the issues that Carter addressed was unfounded expectations among consumers. “We want to be very realistic in our approach” says Carter. Many of the range specifications quoted by other automakers are based on standard test drive cycles that focus on very low speeds such as the Japanese 10-15 cycle. Whether testing internal combustion engine mileage, or EV range this particular cycle gives unrealistically optimistic estimates. If plug-in vehicles are to achieve any level of mainstream acceptance, automakers will have to be honest about they can do.
With a number of different powertrain options available in the future, Carter acknowledged that car makers will have do a better job of educating customers about the best vehicle for their needs. He gave the example of a customer that has a longer commute that likely would not see much benefit from a plug-in hybrid, being better off with a standard Prius. Carter himself only has a five mile commute to his office and could drive most of the week without using any gas.
This education process will be a tough problem for all manufacturers in the coming years until customers determine what best suits their needs.
Now successfully installed aboard the OSV Viking Lady, fuel cell technology is one step closer to a commercial application for the maritime industry.
Launched in 2003, the FellowSHIP project began with a feasibility study and completed basic design and development of fuel cell technologies for vessels by 2005. In 2006, the JIP began development of an auxiliary electric power pack (320kW) fueled by LNG, which was successfully installed in September aboard the Viking Lady, and offshore support vessel owned by Eidesvik Offshore on charter to Total. The third and final phase of the project, intends to be testing, qualifying and demonstrating a main fuel cell electric system, delivering between 1MW to 4MW of power.
The success of the project so far has raised expectations that fuel cell technology is close to a commercial application and has resulted in a regulatory review to establish frameworks for moving the technology forward.
The FellowSHIP project was developed in response to rising concerns about the environmental impact of harmful emissions to air, including NOx, SOx, and CO2. According to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) AND University of Colorado (Boulder) study published earlier this year in the Journal of Geophysical Research, commercial ships emit almost half as much particulate matter pollutants into the air as the total amount released by the world’s cars.
The study is the first to provide a global estimate of maritime shipping’s total contribution to air particle pollution based on direct measurements of emissions. The authors estimate that globally, ships emit 0.9 teragrams, or about 2.2 million pounds, of particle pollution each year. The study also notes that since more than 70 percent of shipping traffic takes place within 250 miles of the coastline, emissions represent a significant health concern for coastal communities.
With new tougher, emissions regulations now being considered by the IMO and EU, demand for commercial alternatives to traditional onboard power systems has risen. Fuel cell technology is not expected to manage the issue alone, but the technology represents a vital piece of the puzzle in certain shipping segments, such as short sea, local port traffic, commuter ferries and cruise ships and offshore, among others. The technology may also enable vessels access to clean energy while in port.
The FellowSHIP project is a Joint Industry Project managed by Det Norske Veritas, Eidesvik Offshore, Wärtsilä Ship Power, Wärtsilä Ship Design and MTU Onsite Energy. The project has received funding from Norwegian Research Council, Innovation Norway and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. DNV has approved the system considering all safety- and risk aspects of the installed equipment. The development of class rules for installation of fuel cells onboard is a critical part of the project.
Author: Per Wiggo Richardsen
From 2006 to 2009 there have been 47 buses operated under an extremely wide range of climatic and topographical conditions. In total 2.5 million kilometers have been travelled and more than 8.5 million passengers transported safely.
Within the HyFLEET:CUTE project, a Fuel Cell bus fleet of 33 Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses was operated in public transport in 10 cities on three continents. There were no major breakdowns or problems caused by either the fuel cell technology and their components, or of the buses themselves.
MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG (MAN) developed 14 buses based around the standard low floor MAN Lion’s City Bus model powered by two different hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) technologies for operation in regular public transport service in Berlin. The naturally aspirated engines in particular have proved their operational readiness.
At the HyFLEET:CUTE final conference bus operators and industry partners will give results of their work in answer to many key questions: What were the performance parameters of the buses? What were the main technical problems during the operation? And what was their availability and reliability?
And the biggest question of all: When are we likely to see hydrogen buses commercially available?
The new generation of the Mercedes-Benz Fuel-CELL-Hybrid will be presented at the conference and will take passengers on test drives. First testing of the prototype has already showed further improvements: up to 50 % efficiency improvement, very low noise and a simplified maintenance and service concept with reduced operating costs. The zero-emission bus has been awarded the Gold f-cell Award.
MAN will also have their ICE Bus there for test drives.
For more answers join the HyFLEET:CUTE Final Conference in Hamburg, Germany on Tuesday, 17th & Wednesday 18th November 2009.
Contact / more information: www.global-hydrogen-bus-platform.com or info@hyfleet-cute-final-conference.com. Registration fee includes a gala dinner. The conference is supported by the European Commission.
Please note that the number of participants is limited.
