By Michael d'Estries
April 28, 2008 – 3:24 pm
The above fact comes courtesy of a new announcement that HydroGen Corporation has started up a 400 kw hydrogen-powered phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) at ASHTA Chemicals in Ashtabula, Ohio. Essentially, this is a demonstration “small power plant” that uses by-product hydrogen from the ASHTA plant that is created in the production of chlor-alkali. The 400 kw plant is the first in a series of “Power Islands” that will output 6 MW-30MW from fuel cells. From the release,
“John Freeh, HydroGen’s CEO, stated: ‘The successful start up of the ASHTA demonstration plant is another significant operational milestone for HydroGen. With this start up, we have validated our capability to design, engineer, manufacture, and successfully commission a full scale fuel cell power plant at a representative potential customer site, in a key “hydrogen-available” market segment - the chlor-alkali industry. We believe that plant startup positions us for near term commercial uptake of our multi-megawatt PAFC plants for the chemical industry, while giving us an operating platform from which to improve further the design of our systems. We anticipate bringing prospective customers to the site as early as this week to observe fuel cell operations.’”
As a result of this technology, waste hydrogen is fed through the fuel cell and used to help power the chemical plant. Sounds like a great way to take advantage of a usually wasted resource to benefit an area of production.
via hydrogen cars and vehicles
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By Michael d'Estries
April 2, 2008 – 2:00 pm
$12 billion dollars. That’s the amount General Motors estimates would be needed to install an energy infrastructure based on hydrogen that could provide fuel for more than 70% of Americans. Does anyone think this is a bit on the low side? I mean, if that’s a realistic number — awesome — but why the hell are we arguing over costs? I understand that this is only one piece of the puzzle, but when we’re giving away $18 billion in tax breaks to Big Oil regularly, I don’t see allocating money for shifting America to a more sustainable fuel as an issue. Obviously, we just require the will and collective planning to make it a reality. From the article,
Establishing an infrastructure to fuel hydrogen- powered vehicles is “economically viable and doable,” General Motors Corp. said Wednesday as the auto giant keynoted the National Hydrogen Association’s annual meeting. Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research and development and strategic planning, called on the energy industry and government to step up and help automakers make the futuristic vehicles a reality, in part by opening hydrogen fueling stations to encourage their use.
Obviously, some hurdles remain before hydrogen can be considered a clean fuel. The generation of the hydrogen is still energy intensive and produces CO2. Fuel cells also currently require the precious metal platinum; though alternatives are in development. GM’s plea is great to hear, but the old saying of “10-15 years” will probably still apply to this futuristic industry before you see a hydrogen station in your neighborhood.
via morningstar
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By Michael d'Estries
March 12, 2008 – 4:52 pm
We’ve seen motorbike concepts powered by small fuel cells, but this is the first time in my memory that a full-scale commercial test of such technology has actually gotten off the ground. Such is the case for the Clear Air Bike — a joint venture between Masterflex and German bike maker Hawk. Supposedly, this cargobike can handle loads up to 150 kg and travel 250km on one fuel cell needing only 90 grams of hydrogen within a 2.2kg storage unit. If that wasn’t enough, there’s even enough energy left over to power secondary functions such as lighting or cooling for transporting temperature sensitive goods. From the article,
With a motor rated at 250 watts it’s exempt, just like a ‘normal’ bike, from European vehicle registration laws (in other words no MOT, insurance or tax requirements). Potential uses include postal delivery services, city cleaning divisions, large industrial site transport and tourist applications.
Of course, practical use of this vehicle is limited to the nearest hydrogen station — but manufacturers are confident such infrastructure will become available once companies latch onto the advantages of fuel cell technology. “Pound for pound, hydrogen-powered fuel cells deliver three times the energy of conventional batteries and unlike petrol motors the only emission is water,” said one representative.
For more information, jump over to the article.
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By Michael d'Estries
March 4, 2008 – 3:47 pm
Increasing their commitment to utilizing alternative forms of energy, Virgin Atlantic announced yesterday that they will be partnering with General Motors to offer complimentary Chevy Equinox hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to first class passengers. Three “green” SUVs will be available for those arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. From the article,
“The program will last for 30 months. Virgin and Chevrolet are studying the possibility to expand this service to New York. Branson stated that this program was one of Virgin’s initiatives to reduce the airline’s carbon footprint. GM’s Larry Burns said that it was a perfect endorsement of GM’s fuel cell technology and ‘an important new avenue for demonstrating the new DNA of the automobile.’”
As we’ve mentioned time and again, hydrogen vehicles are a glimpse of what the future of alternative energy sources might look like. Currently, simply creating hydrogen for cars is an energy-intensive process — coupled with the fact that the infrastructure for such an industry will be expensive and daunting. Still, if cleaner methods of production can be found — and Big Oil doesn’t find a way to kill it — we may yet see a hydrogen economy in our lifetimes.
via autobloggreen
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By Michael d'Estries
February 27, 2008 – 11:34 am
The commercialization of small fuel cell chargers is proceeding rapidly, with the first portable units potentially hitting stores as early as next year. One of the companies on the forefront of fuel cell development (they recently signed a deal with Duracell) is MTI Micro. Their Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC) will be shown this week at the Fuel Cell Expo in Japan. The biggest benefit of DMFCs is that they keep portable electronics products running for longer than conventional batteries and make recharging much easier. From the article,
“DMFCs produce electricity from a reaction between methanol, water and air. The only by-products of the reaction are a small amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide, so the fuel cells are typically seen as a much greener form of energy than traditional batteries. A big advantage of DMFCs is that they can be replenished with a new cartridge of methanol in seconds. The cell-phone DMFC prototype takes advantage of this quick replenish and potentially offers an immediate recharge when the battery dies, while the camera DMFC provides twice the energy of a Lithium Ion battery-based grip.”
Before the cell phone unit hits, MTI is planning to release a DMFC-based charger. Equipped with a usb input, this device would be able to recharge a cell phone about eight to 10 times. A replacement methanol cartridge would give you another month. Obviously, for road warriors or people out in the field, the advantages of having such a power source would be enormous. MTI expects these chargers to be available in early 2009.
Check out the article for more details.
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Haven't we heard this before?
By Michael d'Estries
February 18, 2008 – 4:27 pm
I’m always on the look out for clean, efficient alternatives to harvesting hydrogen, compared to the energy-intensive options currently available. You see, if the hydrogen economy will one day become a reality, we’re not going to want coal-fired plants providing the energy to create the fuel to run these clean, green cars. Currently, for every kilogram of hydrogen produced, 9.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide are also created. No good.
Some Penn State researchers announced today that they’ve created a solar cell that can effectively split water to harvest the hydrogen. There’s quite a large amount of technical detail in the ‘how’, but the researchers expect an efficiency level of about 15%. The odd thing about this ‘discovery’ is that we’ve written about it before. In fact, a company by the name of Nanoptek recently released details on a “low-cost, durable titania electrode that can split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.” A space 50 feet by 50 feet on a sunny roof could provide enough surface area for a Nanoptek hydrogen generator to supply enough energy for a family of four. They’ve already got $4.7 million in the bank to continue research.
Odd. While I don’t see any reference, I wonder if these announcements are somehow all linked. Nanoptek seems much further ahead in terms of commercialization, but perhaps there’s more to Penn State’s announcement than I can put my finger on. Either way, exciting developments — and it’s great to see the industry continue to move forward on clean, future sources of hydrogen.
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By Michael d'Estries
February 5, 2008 – 9:59 am
With GM’s “Project Driveway” giving more than 100 families and individuals in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington the opportunity to test fuel-cell vehicles over the next year, there’s new talk of ramping up the program to include an entire city. Of course, these hopes are a bit of a pipe dream at the moment — but it wasn’t too long ago that the thought of 100 fuel cell cars on the road was left to the imagination as well. Here’s how Larry Burns, the top scientist at General Motors envisions the experiment working:
“It would have to be a huge commuting metropolis such as New York, Detroit or Los Angeles — would agree to have dozens of hydrogen-fuel filling stations built throughout its region. The upcoming experiments with small groups of customers clustered around single fuelling stations isn’t sufficiently “real world,” he says. “What we need to have happen is for some city or metropolitan area to step up and say we’ll put 50 to 80 stations in place. We’ll locate them intelligently so our citizens are no farther than a couple of miles away from these places. “Once we have a commitment like that I think the auto industry would be capable of targeting its first real, true first-generation vehicles.”
Larry isn’t leaving out the idea that U.S. policy or red tape might cause GM to choose another city somewhere in the world for the experiment; like Shanghai. One thing is for sure: Without a sufficient infrastructure in place, no real commercial tests of next-generation hydrogen vehicles can take place. Burns admits that Project Driveway is lacking in this area. “It’s been engineered to commercial specifications but we’re only doing 100″ hand-built units. “The next step is to do 1,000 of something.”
One thing is for sure: This will not happen without government support — so don’t expect anything till at least 2010. We’ve got a long way to go before fuel-cell vehicles make any type of impression on the automotive industry; not to mention the cost issues. Still, it would be cool to see an entire city participate in a hydrogen experiment across many different automotive brands. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.
via the province
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By Michael d'Estries
January 18, 2008 – 5:43 pm
Auto companies love to tout hydrogen as the clean burning fuel of the future. Unfortunately, while it may be green on the way out — actually producing the hydrogen gas (or liquid) is an extremely energy-intensive process that produces 9.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide for every kilogram of hydrogen. That’s not quite the closed loop clean-energy system often envisioned.
There are some intriguing solutions - the latest of which comes from a new startup called Nanoptek. According to the company, they have come up with a “low-cost, durable titania electrode that can split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.” CNET helps put this into laymans terms for the rest of us:
“Sunlight hits the electrode, and the electrode splits the light into a positive charge (called a hole) and an electron. Before the two charges can rejoin, the electron gets captured by the electrode and then is exploited to split water. Silicon solar cells operate on the same principle.”
Apparently, a space 50 feet by 50 feet on a sunny roof could provide enough surface area for a Nanoptek hydrogen generator. This in turn would provide enough hydrogen to meet the demands of a family of four. Granted, this is all very much in the experimental stages — but it’s worth knowing that we’re moving towards this fuel source with full-on research on how to produce it cheaply and cleanly.
Nanoptek has raised $4.7 million in funding to move onto the next stage of development. We’ll be watching closely to see if what they come up with shakes the industry further.
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By Bill Hobbs
December 14, 2007 – 4:39 pm
Five years after they first released their hydrogen fuel-cell toy car kit, Thames & Kosmos is back with a new version of the popular toy, the Fuel Cell X7.
The Fuel Cell X7 model car kit includes a unique reversible fuel cell not found in other fuel cell car models. The kit also includes a user’s manual that the compay says is “focused more on building and designing a fuel cell car, rather than the comprehensive lesson on the science of fuel cells and solar cells found in the first version.” Additionally, the instructions have been rewritten to be accessible to a younger audience - the X7 is said to be for kids 10 and up.
Fuel-cell powered cars are likely to become a common form of transporation within the lifetimes of this generation’s children. Why not get them a model version for Christmas, and let them learn about the technology and get comfortable with it now?
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