FuelCellsWorks

TORONTO–Mercedes-Benz Canada is presenting its “cars of tomorrow” at two special exhibition sites in Vancouver. This is the first time these zero-emission vehicles have been seen in Canada.

These world-leading Mercedes-Benz B-Class fuel cell vehicles can be found on display at the Oakridge Mall and at the Edgewater Casino located in downtown Vancouver. In addition, keep your eyes on the road as two other Mercedes-Benz F-CELL vehicles will be touring the streets of Vancouver with nothing but water vapour being emitted from the tailpipe.

With a leading edge design and the most advanced fuel cell technology, the new 2010 B-Class F-CELL from Mercedes-Benz is the first production fuel cell electric car on the road today. The first of 200 vehicles produced will be placed with customers beginning in the spring of 2010.

“As the inventor of the automobile, we now must be leaders in emissions-free driving,” said Marcus Breitschwerdt, President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Canada. “Our customers demand the very best from Mercedes-Benz, and we are proud to deliver world-leading fuel cell technology that was developed right here in Canada. The technology for the B-Class F-CELL drive system is based on the optimized latest-generation fuel cell stack developed by Vancouver-based AFCC Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation.”

This advanced system is 40 percent smaller than the previous generation A-Class F-CELL, yet it develops 30 percent more power while consuming 30 percent less fuel. Compared to its predecessor, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL also excels with major technological advancements – it is considerably superior in terms of driving performance, longevity, operating range, and efficiency, and it has cold-starting ability at temperatures as low as -25 degrees Celsius.

Featuring the Mercedes-Benz Concept BlueZERO modular design concept for its future electric vehicle program, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL houses the key drive components in the sandwich floor in a crash-resistant configuration. These vehicles offer all of the attributes that customers expect of today’s vehicles, including fast acceleration, high power density, full cargo capacity, low operational costs, fast refueling, and a range of over 400 kilometres.

A cutaway of the Mercedes-Benz F 600 HYGENIUS research car is also on display at the Edgewater Casino. Powered by a 115 hp zero-emission fuel cell drive, the compact family car consumes the equivalent of just 2.9 litres per 100 kilometres. Energy that is not required for driving the car is stored in a high-performance lithium-ion battery, so it operates similar to a hybrid drive system and uses the source of energy which is best-suited to any given driving situation. The generous amount of energy made available by the fuel cell can also be used for the well-being of passengers in the F 600 HYGENIUS. The cup holders, for instance, cool or heat beverages with electricity generated by the environment-friendly unit.

“Mercedes-Benz fuel cell test vehicles have travelled over 4.5 million test kilometres up to now. Fuel cell technologies offer customers conveniences similar to today’s internal combustion engines, but address growing mobility concerns such as climate change, increased vehicle usage in developing countries, and independence from oil,” said Andreas Truckenbrodt, CEO of AFCC. “As we move towards a low-carbon future, Mercedes-Benz is also actively supporting the establishment of a comprehensive hydrogen infrastructure for the supply of fuel cell vehicles by working closely with energy companies and governments.”

About Mercedes-Benz Canada

Mercedes-Benz Canada is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of the four brands within the Mercedes-Benz Group in Canada: Mercedes-Benz, smart, AMG, and Maybach. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. employs approximately 1,250 people in 19 locations across Canada. Through a nationwide network of 14 Mercedes-Benz owned retail operations and 39 authorized dealerships, Mercedes-Benz Canada sold 26,942 vehicles in 2009, the best year ever reported for Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc.

About AFCC

Established in February 2008, AFCC is the automotive fuel cell centre of excellence for Daimler and Ford, and is responsible for research, product development and manufacturing development of its automotive fuel cell technologies. To date, AFCC technology has powered over 150 fuel cell vehicles.

FREMONT, Calif.–Oorja Protonics, the leader in ultra-powerful liquid methanol fuel cell technology, adds OorjaPac^TM Model 1 to its product line. This addition to the OorjaPac family is 50 times more powerful than other direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) products available in the market. With a 4.5kW power output, Model 1 has the highest power output in the methanol fuel cell industry. Moreover, with an operating cost of $0.18/kW-hour, the Model 1 is an economical solution for forklift operators and fleet managers.

OorjaPac addresses low vehicle runtime and operational cost challenges facing material handling fleet managers. OorjaPac continuously trickle-charges the on-board battery in a material handling vehicle, regardless of whether it is operating or parked, which ensures the battery never reaches a state of deep discharge. Battery charge and power are maintained at high levels and the battery is not subject to heat damage caused during recharging. This significantly increases productivity by eliminating the labor and equipment costs associated with battery swapping.

“The Model 1 introduction is an innovation in technology and product development in the methanol fuel cell industry,” said Sara Bradford, Principal Consultant for the Frost & Sullivan North American Energy and Power Systems Practice. “Oorja’s newest product answers the needs of Class I and II forklifts for extended shift runtime as well as improved productivity costs. Additionally, the product allows other underserved industries to benefit from Oorja’s Model 1.”

OorjaPac operates on liquid methanol. The eleven gallon methanol fuel tank is sufficient to power two eight hour shifts. Methanol is a widely available and easy to handle energy source. It is produced from natural gas and from land fill gases and bio-waste. The process of fueling the OorjaPac is as simple as refueling a car.

“Oorja is leading the commercialization of fuel cells in forklifts by using inexpensive, abundant and easy-to-handle methanol instead of volatile and expensive hydrogen for material handling operations,” said Sanjiv Malhotra, Founder and CEO of Oorja Protonics. “A single refuel of the new Model 1 takes less than one minute, and can last two eight-hour shifts. We’ve seen payback in as little as six months, with companies seeing full payback in 12-15 months.”

About Oorja Protonics

Oorja Protonics designs, develops and manufactures the most powerful direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) in the world. In development for three years and on its fifth generation of technology, Oorja’s products are customer proven, reliable, affordable and available today. Oorja’s customers include Fortune 50 companies in retail, automotive, logistics, and food processing. Founded in 2005, Oorja is a privately-held company and is backed by venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Spring Ventures, McKenna Management and DAG Ventures. For more information, visit www.oorjaprotonics.com.

Southampton, UK–Bac2, the cleantech materials company, has diversified its materials portfolio following a successful 2009 during which the company saw growing demand for its composite bipolar plates for fuel cell applications.

The ElectroPhen® family of low-cost conductive polymers, which can be cured at room temperature, has been expanded. The company’s growing experience with the material now enables it to produce mixes that are fine tuned to the requirements of specific applications. Conductivity, strength and operating temperature range are just three of the characteristics that can be adjusted. The inert and stable material can be formed into any mouldable shape including sheets and complex 3D structures. A version that is mechanically stable up to 200 degrees C has been developed.

A family of latent acid catalysts, collectively known as CSRxx, has also been developed. These enable pre-polymeric resins to be stored for months prior to controlled polymerization at around 120 degrees C. They are used in any application where pre-mix production is not carried out close to moulding operations. Here, CSRxx enables fast curing in a low-energy process. It saves time, reduces manufacturing and handling costs, cuts storage space, and improves safety in transportation. Polymer processing in chipboard and laminates manufacturing and during production of glass reinforced plastics, foam insulation and abrasives are just some of the applications.

Bac2’s bipolar plates for hydrogen and methanol fuel cells attracted over 20 new customers during 2009, despite the worldwide recession. The company is not only attracting interest in the automotive sector – the one normally associated with fuel cell development – but also from customers serving the telecommunications power industry and suppliers to a range of niche applications, such as fuel cells for powering remote sites and for the leisure industry.

Bac2 is the developer of ElectroPhen®, an electrically conductive plastic that will make a significant contribution to the early adoption of clean energy from fuel cell stacks. Fuel cells are technically proven sources of clean energy for our planet, but adoption is presently limited by cost. Bac2 is in the process of developing ElectroPhen® commercially and has patents pending in Europe, America and Japan. ElectroPhen® is made from readily available low-cost constituents, can be pressed or moulded to complex shapes, and is robust enough for harsh environments. By comparison, competitors produce composite plates using electrically insulating resins to bind together conductive particles such as graphite. In addition to its role in fuel cells, Bac2 will find an increasingly wide range of applications for ElectroPhen in electrical and electronic industries.

Located in a new, state-of-the-art NIST test facility, this specially designed chamber holds samples of pipeline, valve or delivery device materials for testing under pressure to determine their reaction to hydrogen.

If hydrogen is ever to play a significant role as a clean, everyday energy source, it will need a safe and reliable distribution system. To pave the way for a hydrogen fuel infrastructure, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Boulder Labs recently launched the largest hydrogen test facility in the United States for evaluating how component parts of such an infrastructure will react to exposure to this potentially corrosive gas in order to develop needed data and standards.

Because hydrogen can penetrate and embrittle some metals and alloys, developing standards for using existing pipelines, storage tanks, pumps and delivery systems is an essential first step before the elemental gas can be considered as a viable fuel for widespread use.

Tom Siewert leads a group of researchers at this NIST test facility that will be testing these component parts—pipes, valves, fittings and pumps, among other pieces—for their suitability in transporting and delivering hydrogen.

The facility is state-of-the-art and contains one of the largest (at 10 centimeters) internal diameter test chambers in the country. In it are placed standard test specimens of component materials – chunks of pipeline, a piece of a valve – and exposed to pressurized hydrogen to measure how it reacts to such an environment and that kind of chemical exposure. With such test data in hand, standards for building a safe, reliable and robust hydrogen fuel system can be developed for future storage, delivery and dispensing.

“You put in specimens to gather the property data, and when it’s pressurized, a shaft goes into the chamber that puts stresses on the specimen to simulate the strains that occur in everyday use,” says Siewert, who helped plan the facility. “Structural designers would then put the data we get from these specimens into their models to understand how a structural component would respond to that hydrogen under those conditions.”

The test facility is also replete with state-of-the-art safety features including the ability to run every phase of testing from a remote control center, multiple sensors that automatically shut down the entire system and vent the test building at even the slightest scent of hydrogen gas (1 percent concentration), a massive venting system that is double what code requires, and a lightning detection system that will automatically shut the facility down if a strike occurs within 10 kilometers.

“The quantity of hydrogen in the equipment is low enough that even if all the hydrogen suddenly leaked into the building, it wouldn’t be enough to cause an explosion,” said Andy Slifka, a materials research engineer and project leader.

The design of the hydrogen test facility won the RMH Group—a Denver-based mechanical, electrical and industrial process consulting engineering firm—a Gold Hardhat award in 2009 from McGraw-Hill Construction. The award honors the building teams that created the best projects of 2009 as selected by juries of local prominent industry professionals.

Media Contact: James Burrus, james.burrus@nist.gov, (303) 497-4789

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (AIM/ASX: CFU), a leading developer of high efficiency and low emission electricity generation units for homes and other buildings, has sold a BlueGen power and heating unit to European utility Alliander.

Alliander supplies gas and electricity to 2.9 million customers in The Netherlands and Germany, including to the local Heinsberg area, where Ceramic Fuel Cells has opened a volume fuel cell stack manufacturing plant.

From Q2 2010 Alliander will operate a BlueGen unit in one of its buildings in the Industriepark Oberbruch in Heinsberg, to evaluate the technology for further deployment and to demonstrate the product to customers and potential partners in the Heinsberg region.  Alliander is evaluating the BlueGen product as part of its vision to create a smart grid network in the local region.

About the size of a dishwasher, each BlueGen unit can produce twice the electricity needed to power an average home, with the surplus electricity sold back to the grid.  BlueGen also produces heat, to make enough hot water for an average home.  BlueGen units can generate electricity more efficiently than the current European power grid, significantly reducing a home’s carbon emissions and cutting energy bills.

Ceramic Fuel Cells has achieved electrical efficiency of 60 percent, far higher than any other technology in the rapidly expanding market for small scale power and heating generators.  When heat is recovered from the electricity production process, total efficiency is up to 85 percent – twice as efficient as the average among current European power stations.

By generating power close to where it is used, Ceramic Fuel Cells’ products can meet the future demand for electricity without the need for huge investments in electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The order from Alliander follows recent BlueGen orders from other leading European utilities E.ON Ruhrgas, RheinEnergie, EWE and Gasterra, as well as customers in Australia and Japan.  Ceramic Fuel Cells has also deployed fully integrated power and heating products with leading energy companies E.ON UK in the United Kingdom and GdF Suez in France.

Miami, Florida–At the Miami International Boat Show, it was announced that HB Marine (HBM) and Independence Green Yachts (IGY) will form a joint venture to pursue the development of the Independence 60, the world’s first ‘no compromise’ sustainable yacht.  The partnership between HB Marine, owner of a patented technology for the production, storage, and use of hydrogen aboard marine vessels, and Independence Green Yachts, developer of the solar/hydrogen powered Independence 60 power yacht, is a very compelling and timely combination. The joint venture will offer the marine industry fully integrated and self sustainable yachts (like the Independence 60) as well as clean energy power and propulsion systems for new construction and retrofits of existing yachts.

IGY is the developer of the Independence 60, the first totally self-sufficient, solar/hydrogen powered motor yacht that requires no fossil fuels or internal combustion engines. “Building a sustainable boat that can cruise cleanly, quietly and without ever having to use fossil fuels has been my dream since the Navy,” said Fred Berry President of IGY. “In conjunction with HB Marine, we can make this dream a reality.”

HB Marine has developed and patented internationally, a hydrogen-based, multi-use power and propulsion system for all types of marine vessels using readily available technology. “We have been searching for the right marine partner to bring this clean technology to market. The unique design of the Independence 60 effectively integrates the best of clean energy marine power and propulsion technologies , which will open a new era of simple, clean, quiet, reliable and sustainable yachting,” said Bruce Wood, Managing Director of HB Marine.

Independence Green Yachts and HB Marine will be exhibiting at booth #1933 at the Miami Boat Show and will host a press conference there at 11:30AM on Thursday February 11, 2010. Principals of both companies will be available for questions.

IGY is Maryland-based. Visit IGY at www.independencegreenyachts.com for more information.  View the Independence 60 brochure.

HBM is Connecticut-based. Visit www.hbmarine.com for more information.  View the HB Marine Overview brochure.

Please contact:
Bruce McVittie at (617) 964-8069, or bruce.mcvittie@hbmarine.com or John Mann at (717) 781-3245, or jmann5@comcast.net for further information.

Postdoctoral researcher Avni Argun and professor Paula Hammond in the lab where they developed new technology for making fuel-cell membranes.
Photo: Patrick Gillooly

Layer-by-layer assembly system could lead to improved fuel cells, batteries and solar panels

David L. Chandler, MIT News Office

A team of researchers at MIT and Pennsylvania State University has been developing a new method for producing novel kinds of membranes that could have improved properties for batteries, fuel cells and other energy conversion and storage applications.

After years of working on a novel way of making membranes through a unique layer-by-layer assembly, the team has developed a material specifically designed for the needs of advanced fuel cells — devices that can convert fuel to electricity without combustion, thereby avoiding the emission of any pollutants or greenhouse gases. This material has now undergone laboratory testing to determine its actual properties, which confirm the predictions and show the material’s promise. The results were recently reported in the journal Chemistry of Materials.

Electrolytes, used in both batteries and fuel cells, are materials that contain many ions (atoms or molecules that have a net electrical charge), making it easy for an electric current to flow through them. In both batteries and fuel cells, this material is sandwiched between two electrodes — a positive electrode (called the cathode) on one side, and a negative one (called the anode) on the other. In a battery, that’s all there is, but in a fuel cell there are channels on each side, carrying a fuel (usually hydrogen or methanol) over the anode, and oxygen or air over the cathode. That enables fuel cells to keep producing electricity indefinitely, as long as there is a supply of fuel and air.

In a fuel cell, the electrolyte membrane also serves a second function, to keep the fuel on one side of the cell from migrating across to the other side. Such migration contaminates the cell and can lead to a significant drop in efficiency. One big advantage of the new membranes produced by the MIT-developed process is that they are especially good at blocking the migration of methanol fuel.

Direct-methanol fuel cells are considered a promising clean-energy source because they efficiently convert fuel to electricity without combustion, so they don’t emit any pollutants to the air. And unlike the hydrogen used for some fuel cells, methanol is a liquid that is easy to store and transport in conventional tanks.

Layer by layer

The basic layer-by-layer system for making the membranes works like this: a substrate, such as a sheet of glass or metal, is dipped into a bath of solution that deposits a layer on the surface. It is then transferred to a second solution, which deposits a layer of a different material, then back to the first bath, and so on. The thicknesses of the layers can be controlled at the nanometer scale, and the layers bond tightly to one another because of electrostatic forces. At the end of the process, the multilayer coating can then be peeled off the substrate with tweezers, or left in place.

The researchers say this approach can produce materials that could not be made by other presently available methods. Svetlana Sukhishvili, professor of chemistry, chemical biology and biomedical engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, says “In my view, the technology is very promising and highly suited to integrate the two potentially conflicting yet crucially needed properties — mechanical strength and high ionic conductivity — in a single polymer material.” Sukhishvili, who was not involved in the research, calls this approach “a significant breakthrough” for the production of fuel-cell membranes.

Tests showed that when alternating two kinds of polymer coatings with different properties, the resulting membrane had properties intermediate between the two polymers, including how easily ions could move through it.

One potential advantage of such a system is that it could produce electrolytes that are firmly bonded to the fuel-cell electrodes on either side of them. In conventional fuel cells, the three parts are made separately and then pressed together, and these bonds can be a source of inefficiency. With the new process, the membrane could be formed directly on the electrode, creating a uniform and highly controlled membrane-electrode assembly.

No fuel cell can be 100 percent efficient in converting the fuel’s energy to electricity, but the idea is to minimize as much as possible any energy losses in the system. “The majority of the losses are at these interfaces between electrodes and electrolyte”, says the lead author of the new paper, Avni Argun, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT working with Paula Hammond, the Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering. By creating interfaces that are tightly bonded, the efficiency and reliability of the systems can be improved, he says. As a result, he says, “you can reduce the cost, or increase the performance, compared to incumbent technologies.”

By improving the efficiency of the system, it should be possible to reduce the amount of platinum needed in the electrodes — a major contributor to the current high costs of fuel cells.

The group, which also includes undergraduate student Marie Herring, as well as J. Nathan Ashcraft PhD ’09, and two researchers from Penn State, is in the process of licensing the process to a membrane manufacturer, DyPol, that hopes initially to produce membranes for laboratory research, and ultimately for commercial production. “Any promising result we see in the lab can be adapted very quickly for production,” Argun says.

The layer-by-layer method was originally developed as a method for applying coatings to other materials. “Three years ago, we never thought this would be a viable method for making membranes,” Argun says. While the new membranes still need to be tested in actual fuel cell assemblies, the team is optimistic; “we are more focused now on using this process as a membrane-producing technology,” he says. And in addition to fuel cells, they could also be used as electrolytes in advanced batteries and solar cells, he says.

Hammond says the technology can be very quickly scaled up to produce coatings for membranes for fuel cells. Ultimately, she says, membranes produced by this method “have the potential to outperform Nafion,” the material currently used in such cells, because of their improved impermeability to methanol.

“This layer-by-layer approach may allow for the rapid synthesis of membranes with unique properties,” says John Muldoon, a researcher in the materials research department of the Toyota Research Institute of North America. He adds that it may find a wide range of applications, including in such areas as drug delivery, gas separation, and electrochemical devices such as solar cells, batteries, and fuel cells. But some work remains to be done to make these functions practical, he says: “When applied in the fuel cell, the current technology seems to have the advantage of low fuel crossover” — that is, leakage of methanol through the membrane. “However, its conductivity will have to be dramatically improved to have any practical value in fuel cell application. “

New Delhi’s compressed natural gas program for auto-rickshaws is failing to make an impact on the city’s pollution problem.

Some industry leaders, led by Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, see hydrogen-fueled cars as part of the solution. They envision 1 million of the green vehicles on India’s roads by 2020, the Financial Times reports.

It is not necessarily by choice that owners of the three-wheeled rickshaws have complied with India’s 1998 Supreme Court decision mandating that the vehicles be converted to run on compressed natural gas. The government’s initiative followed a U.N. ranking of New Delhi as one of the five most polluted cities in the world.

“Petrol is better,” an operator of an auto-rickshaw taxi service told the Financial Times, complaining of the high expense to repair converted engines and the frequency of breakdowns.

Delhi has 5 million vehicles and 1,100 more are added to its traffic-choked roads each day. Diesel is the preferred fuel. The Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers said, diesel vehicles are expected to account for half of the country’s car sales this year. During the past 18 months, the market share for diesel cars increased 10 percent.

“Everybody says hydrogen is the fuel of the future, so we are working toward that,” said Deepak Gupta, secretary for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The ministry has encouraged public-private partnerships in the area but hasn’t outlined specific objectives.

But a hydrogen car will have to compete with inexpensive cars such as the Tata Nano, with a sticker price starting at $2,150.

Scientists involved in research and development admit that it may take years to lower manufacturing costs for hydrogen vehicles.

“At this stage it is very difficult to say (how long) but we need to have some breakthrough two or three years down the line,” says B.M.S. Bist, hydrogen energy specialist at the energy ministry.

As part of a $1 million pilot project, the U.N. Industrial Development Organization is developing a fleet of 15 pure hydrogen-fueled rickshaws.”Delhi is a place where pilot projects like this one have been successful in sending strong signals to the rest of the country,” a researcher told the Financial Times.

But Anumita Roychowdhury, an environmentalist, says more government support is needed for hydrogen vehicles to be viable, saying, “The government needs to design fiscal policy to cushion that cost, to enable commercialization — and rapid commercialization. Only if you have scale can this program have impact.”