FuelCellsWorks

Intelligent Energy CEO, Dr. Henri Winand with London Deputy Mayor, Kit Malthouse, at unveiling of Fuel Cell Black Cab at City Hall (Photo Business Wire)

LONDON–Intelligent Energy, Lotus Engineering, LTI Vehicles and TRW Conekt, with funding from the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board, today unveiled a full performance, zero-emissions Fuel Cell Hybrid London taxi.

While the taxi looks and drives like an iconic London black cab, the Fuel Cell Black Cab is powered by an Intelligent Energy hydrogen fuel cell system hybridised with lithium polymer batteries; allowing the vehicle to operate for a full day without the need for refuelling. Capable of achieving a top speed of over 80 mph, it has a range of more than 250 miles on a full tank of hydrogen, refuels in about 5 minutes and produces no emissions other than water vapour.

London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Chair of the London Hydrogen Partnership, Kit Malthouse, who unveiled the zero emissions fuel cell hybrid taxi at London’s City Hall, said, “The black cab is a much loved London icon, but it is also a significant source of pollution especially in the centre of the city. This prototype Fuel Cell Black Cab, which emits only water from its tailpipe, is an exciting glimpse of how hydrogen technology could soon play a vital role in cleaning up air quality for urban dwellers.”

Later this year, Transport for London will start operating five hydrogen-fuel cell buses, and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has committed to working with manufacturers to make all taxis operating in London zero tail-pipe emissions by 2020.

For the Fuel Cell Black Cab unveiled at City Hall, Lotus Engineering has packaged the full propulsion system including the fuel cell engine and has designed control systems to optimise performance of both the fuel cells and electric drive systems. TRW Conekt led the safety analysis programme, including braking and steering systems, and LTI has provided donor vehicles to assist with the structural modifications to the chassis of the taxis.

The first hackney-carriage licences date from 1662 and apply literally to horse-drawn carriages that operated as vehicles for hire. The black cab that most people associate with London taxis was the Austin FX4, introduced in 1959. The model, with many modifications over the years, remained in production until 1997, making it one of the longest running production vehicles in history. The Intelligent Energy fuel cell system has been integrated into the most recent LTI TX4 design, and fits in to the vehicle without intrusion into its internal or luggage space.

“The Fuel Cell Black Cab is a hackney-carriage fit for the 21^st Century and its ever larger urban centres, where the reclamation of good air quality matters hugely to all of us. The LTI TX4 is an internationally recognised and iconic symbol of London, and to put an entirely new fuel cell hybrid electric zero emissions ‘engine’ into the existing vehicle design in such a short amount of time and still deliver performance, refuelling speeds and range, is a fantastic achievement for all the companies involved,” explained Dr. Henri Winand, CEO at Intelligent Energy. “We now look towards the introduction of the first fleet of these vehicles into London for 2012. The launch today at City Hall demonstrates that we are well on course to achieving this goal.”

About:

Intelligent Energy is a clean power systems company, with a range of leading fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies. The company is focused on the provision of cleaner power and low carbon technologies.

Lotus Engineering is an internationally recognised automotive engineering consultancy based in Norfolk, UK.

LTI Vehicles is Britain’s premier manufacturer of purpose-built taxis, including the ‘black cab’, the icon of the world’s best taxi system.

Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental public body, established by the government.

London Hydrogen Partnership, chaired by Kit Malthouse, recently published an action plan detailing ways to help accelerate the wider use of this zero-polluting, zero-carbon energy in the capital.

TRW Conekt has over 50 years experience in advanced product development, application engineering and validation services.

The Fuel Cell Hybrid Taxi unveiled today is not yet commercially available and is presently undergoing track and road-testing prior to wider deployment. The vehicle will also need to meet the London Public Carriage Office conformity for use as taxi on public roads.

The Technology Strategy Board’s Lead Technologist for Low Carbon Vehicles, Andrew Everett said, “This is a great demonstration of the way that the Technology Strategy Board helps business to be innovative. In providing just under £5.5M towards a programme to develop and embed fuel cell hybrid technology into the London Black Cab we have helped the consortia take steps towards applying this new technology into new markets.”

BEND, OR – IdaTech (AIM: IDA), a global leader in the development and manufacture of clean and reliable extended run backup power fuel cell products, is exhibiting its next generation ElectraGen™ ME fuel cell system at the 2010 International Telecommunications Energy Conference (Intelec) in Orlando, Florida.Intelec is an annual conference which examines and analyzes the latest developments in telecommunications energy systems and related power processing devices. The four-day exhibition is a perfect showcase to present the latest technological developments and product innovations for backup power fuel cells.

Participating for the sixth year, IdaTech will display its next generation ElectraGen™ ME Fuel Cell System — a five kilowatt fully integrated solution that provides clean reliable extended run backup power for telecom base stations. The newest member of the ElectraGen™ product family of fuel cell systems that can be powered by hydrogen gas or by IdaTech’s proprietary fuel reformer system which converts liquid fuel (methanol-water) into high-purity hydrogen onsite as needed, ElectraGen™ ME is a liquid fueled system that provides +24 or -48 VDC backup power for telecommunications applications. It replaces and/or augments traditional solutions such as batteries and diesel generators, but with greater reliability and significantly reduced maintenance. The ElectraGen™ ME Fuel Cell will be available in production quantity end of this year.

Visit IdaTech at the Hilton-Orlando, Bonnett Creek Resort, booth#205, during the Intelec Conference, June 6-9th in Orlando, Florida.

About IdaTech

IdaTech plc is an advanced fuel cell products company which is operationally headquartered in Bend, Oregon, USA and is listed on AIM with the ticker code IDA. IdaTech designs, develops, and manufactures extended run backup power fuel cell products for Telecom applications requiring 100 W to 15 kW of backup power. IdaTech’s unique PEM fuel cell technology provides solutions for a wide range of applications to directly support efforts towards sustainable energy. IdaTech’s portfolio of industry-certified fuel cell products are based on the company’s fuel processing, purification and fuel cell system integration capabilities. With the support of strategic partners and customers, the company’s extended run backup power products are being deployed worldwide for stationary applications.

Additional information may be obtained by contacting the company direct or by visiting its website at http://www.idatech.com.

Singapore’s first eco-friendly bus is completed and will transport athletes and officials around the Youth Olympic Village located at the Yunnan Garden Campus of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in August. The inaugural Youth Olympic Games will be held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010. The hybrid fuel cell-battery bus is a joint research project by NTU and China’s Tsinghua University and marks another major step forward in NTU’s sustainability research and development.

At the completion ceremony in Beijing this morning together with Prof Gu Binglin, the President of Tsinghua University, NTU’s President, Prof Su Guaning said: “This fuel cell bus project is an excellent symbol of the friendship between NTU and Tsinghua University and our respect and care for the environment. Sustainability research is a key thrust for NTU.

“There is an urgent need globally to find new solutions in sustainability and energy research and as responsible global citizens, we all have a part to play. By combining our strengths, we can make greater progress and headway, as evidenced by the speed at which this joint project was accomplished.”

A team of engineers and researchers from both universities has been developing the hybrid fuel cell-battery bus in China since last November.  The bus uses a hybrid fuel cell and battery system which allows it to generate and store energy on board. The fuel cell acts as an “energy converter” that transforms hydrogen and oxygen – chemical energy sources – into electricity, which powers the bus.

Unlike conventional buses that run on diesel fuel, it has zero carbon emission and only clean water and heat are released.

The bus, completed in just seven months, has been tested in Suzhou where it was built and will be shipped over to Singapore in June 2010. It will undergo test runs in Singapore and be fine-tuned, in preparation of its maiden run during the Youth Olympic Games.

This project is supported by Singapore’s Land Transport Authority as well as Singapore bus company SBS Transit in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and develop a more energy-efficient model of public transportation for the future.