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4/28/2000 Experts Warn of 'Catastrophe' With Rapid Consumption of Oil - Toledo Blade (Ohio)
The oil shortages of the 1970s were temporary, minor, and political in origin. Yet inflation became rampant worldwide, economic growth was imperiled, and monetary systems were strained, said Dr. Craig Bond Hatfield, a professor emeritus of geology at the University of Toledo. "When the price of oil goes up, the price of everything increases because our economy is largely oil-driven," Dr. Hatfield said. "If you can envision that situation on a permanent rather than a temporary basis, with oil production rates declining indefinitely every year into the future, then you can begin to appreciate the magnitude of the problem. "We have no long-term energy policy," he said. "We don't even seem to recognize the existence of a long-term problem. We simply vacillate from panic to complacency in direct concert with short-term shortages and surpluses respectively." ...The oil won't run out for more than a century, but "that time of exhaustion is an unimportant date," Dr. Hatfield said. "The important date is the time when oil production rates stop growing and begin that permanent decline," he said, "because that will be an economic catastrophe unless we prepare for it, and that time will be within 12 years." ...Dr. Hatfield advocates accelerated research in fuel processors, which extract hydrogen from gasoline, and fuel cells, which use the hydrogen to generate electric power. But such efficiency can only buy time. "We must use that time to quickly develop long-term alternatives to conventional fuels," Dr. Hatfield said.
4/28/2000 Nation's First Hydrogen Pavilion Opens at
Sunline Transit Agency - Sunline Transit, Thousand Palms, CA
On Apdl 28, the millenium's first major clean air achievement was cast in concrete. The hand-prints-in-cement ceremony was part of the dedication of the SunLine Hydrogen Generation and Education Pavilion, located at SunLine's Thousand Palms headquarters. The project is the first hydrogen generation and education facility in the nation to be built and operated by a transit agency. "This is a true milestone for transit, the Coachella Valley, and for public- private partnerships," noted Richard Cromwell, III, SunLine general manager and CEO. "What happens here in the next few years has the potential to change transportation forever. We believe the air quality and economic benefits will be staggering!" To honor SunLine's valued hydrogen partners, three buildings were named: the Schatz Hydrogen Generation Center, City of Palm Desert Vehicle Complex and Zweig Education Building. Distinguished innovator Louis W. Schatz, Ph.D., president of General Plastics Manufacturing Company, established the Schatz Energy Research Center (SERC) at Humboldt State University in 1989. In 1990, SERC introduced one of the first solar hydrogen/fuel cell power plants in the nation. In 1994, the City of Palm Desert, which had a "golf carts as public transportation program," approached the research center with the idea of developing solar/hydrogen fuel cell technology for mobile uses. By 1996, SERC's first hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle was put into service in Palm Desert. Two additional vehicles arrived in 1997; the fourth, a neighborhood electric vehicle, in 1998. The fleet, which is still operating, was the first to test hydrogen fuel cells in daily service. Today, SERC is known as one of the foremost fuel cell development laboratories in the world, and the City of Palm Desert operates the world's largest fleet of fuel cell vehicles. Renowned hydrogen proponent Robert Zweig, M.D., became interested in the components of smog in 1972. He began investigating alternate fuels, found hydrogen to be the cleanest and most healthful, and has dedicated the years since to developing hydrogen vehicles. He is chairman of the public advocacy group Clean Air Now, which developed a solar-hydrogen generation facility and vehicle demonstration at Zerox Corporation's campus in El Segundo. That project was relocated and reintegrated into the SunLine Hydrogen Generation & Education Pavilion. In 1994, SunLine Transit Agency became the first transit agency in the nation to park a fleet of diesel buses and switch overnight to buses powered by clean-burning compressed natural gas. Since then, the agency has been a beta test site for projects ranging from a smog-munching catalyst to a hydrogen fuel cell powered bus. Because of its leadership role in promoting alternate fuels, SunLine received California's highest environmental honor, the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award for Environmental Management. For more information on SunLine's alternate fuels projects, contact Sharon O'Donnell, (760) 343-3456, ext. 170.
4/28/2000 Energy Cells Fuel the 'Green' Debate by Dick Ahlstrom - Irish Times (Ireland)
High on an environmentalist's wish-list would be a power source that delivered unlimited amounts of power while producing no pollution and little or no carbon dioxide. Impossible, many would say, but a new research project at University College, Cork aims to provide just such a power source. The approach is based on combining a renewable energy supply, the wind, with a fuel cell, a device that burns hydrogen and air to produce electricity, heat and pure water. The project's promoter is Dr Eamon McKeogh of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCC and head of the sustainable energy research group there. ...The plan developed by Dr McKeogh and Dr Egan is to provide all the power, heating and light required for a proposed 200,000 sq ft "green building" which would be built on campus and be used as a centre for environmental research. It would need no connections to external power supplies and would be selfcontained in terms of its own energy requirement.
4/27/2000 Generating Electricity from Natural Gas - The Hindu (India)/New Scientist
Conventional fuel cells cannot cope with hydrocarbons because the process produces carbon which clogs up the cell's nickel catalyst within minutes. But, this week, Raymond Gorte and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have shown that using a copper and cerium oxide catalyst in the fuel cell, instead of nickel, prevents carbon building up. ``This discovery is a winner,'' says Kevin Kendall of the University of Keele chemistry department. Gorte sees his fuel cells powering clean cars, but Kendall thinks the main application could lie elsewhere. ``Millions of homeowners replace their gas-fired central heating systems in Europe every year. Within five years they could be installing a fuel cell that would run on natural gas,'' says Kendall. This battery in the basement could generate enough electricity to run the home as well as heating it, he says. ``Every home could have a combined heat-and- power plant running off mains gas.''
4/26/2000 NWA Faces Fine Due To Hazardous Cargo - CDT/AP
FAA Says Airline Improperly Carried Hydrogen On Two Flights. ...The Federal Aviation Administration said Northwest carried a 50-pound container of compressed hydrogen from Guam to California on two separate flights April 25, 1999. Under FAA rules, airlines must use cargo-only planes to fly such flammable containers. The proposed fine is for carrying the container and failing to provide proper paperwork to the pilot on one of the flights. ...The category "dangerous goods" includes such items as oil-based paints, paint thinners, automobile batteries, infectious substances, toxic or poisonous materials, flammable adhesives, industrial solvents, bleach and acids.
4/25/2000 Washington State AddsFuel Cells to Net Metering Law - Financial Times E Source (UK)
Among the other states that include fuel cells in net metering laws are Colorado (Public Service Co.), Connecticut, Maine, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island (Narragansett Electric), Vermont (if the hydrogen is from a renewable source), and Wisconsin.
4/23/2000 Fuel Cells May Threaten Utilities, or Put an Extra Charge in Services by Shanon Murray - Baltimore Sun
Because the on-site devices allow customers to disconnect from a utility's power grid, they could siphon off customers and revenue. But utilities could embrace fuel cells and use them to increase their customer base and develop new revenue sources, analysts and industry experts said. "In the U.S., fuel cells will become a solid alternative and augmentation to the existing power system," said Rhett Ross, development director at Breakthrough Technologies Institute, an energy and environmental nonprofit group in Washington that studies fuel cell technologies. ..."Eventually, fuel cells may start to displace the new construction of power plants," Ross said. "But we won't see utilities shut down operational coal-plants because of fuel cells. The U.S. is growing too rapidly and is using too much energy to justify that." Brian Fernandez, an analyst with First Albany Corp. in Albany, N.Y., agrees that the demand for energy creates a mandate for fuel cells. "We're almost at capacity now," Fernandez said. "Siting [a power plant] is getting harder, and getting a new oil-fired or coal-fired plant through the necessary processes and the time it takes make it very difficult for utilities to expand capacity. Fuel cells are a rational alternative."
4/23/2000 Hybrid Cars Are Here; How They Work by David Whitney - McClatchy/Rocky Mt. News/Scrips Howard (Denver, CO)
As impressive as hybrid cars are, they are only an interim step to a new age of automobiles that probably won't use gasoline at all. The first cars using fuel cells that convert hydrogen into electricity will be on the market within a few years and are expected to be readily available within a decade. "We see fuel cells as having a much bigger impact than hybrids over the long term." said Edward Murphy of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade lobby for the domestic oil industry. Murphy said that if fuel cell cars go commercial by 2005, as manufacturers such as Honda promise, worldwide petroleum consumption could drop by the end of the decade....According to Burke, who directs the Electric Vehicle Power Systems Laboratory at the University of California-Davis, what started the technological revolution was California's toughened air pollution requirements that accelerated development of electric cars. ...Ford recently announced its intention to market a hybrid SUV. In fact, every domestic auto manufacturer has a hybrid entrant in the works, and all are engineering fuel cell models as well.
4/21/2000 [
According to the National Energy Technology Center (NETL), which has been working with FuelCell Energy on the project, the demonstration included the longest running (8,600 hours) carbonate fuel cell fuel cell stack ever, as well as the largest. Beginning operation in February 1999, this grid-connected power plant used a full-size stack of 340 nine-square-foot area cells. The stack, manufactured at the company’s state-of-the-art production facility in central Connecticut, is the building block for FuelCell Energy’s family of commercial products ranging in size from 250 kilowatts to three megawatts. The next step toward commercialization will be field trials of the packaged submegawatt product. "FuelCell Energy’s one-year anniversary of the start up of this advanced power plant is a major milestone in our efforts to develop the clean energy systems of tomorrow," said Rita Bajura, Director of the NETL. "This is not a small scale laboratory experiment but rather a full-sized, grid-connected power plant that has been powering FuelCell Energy’s own facilities and providing power to the local utility grid for a year," Bajura said. "It has been running in an unattended mode for the past eight months and has operated exactly as designed, delivering clean, high quality electric power efficiently, quietly and reliably." While the US trials have been progressing, so have European field trials of the sub-megawatt FuelCell Energy stack. The European trial started in November 1999 at Bielefeld, Germany by the company’s European partner, MTU, a unit of Daimler-Chrysler. The MTU unit provides 225 kilowatts of electricity with utilization of waste heat. The unit showed overall thermal efficiency of 77 percent with 45 percent fuel-to-electricity efficiency.
4/21/2000 [
Dallas Area Rapid Transit should look to Canada for ideas about how to obtain nonpolluting buses for a region that badly needs to clean its air. ...Last month, Ballard and a consortium that also includes the automobile manufacturers Ford and DaimlerChrysler, completed testing of two fuel-cell powered buses operated by the Chicago Transit Authority. The result: fuel-cell powered buses that can withstand the strain of daily passenger service. For two years, the buses carried more than 100,000 passengers, covered more than 30,000 miles and clocked more than 5,000 hours of service. They operated in rain and shine, in freezing and blistering temperatures. They emitted neither nitrogen oxide (an ozone-forming chemical) nor carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), just water. How's that for environmentally friendly technology? ...DART should be bold about acquiring this promising technology when it is cheaper. With federal environmentalists primed to punish Dallas-Fort Worth unless it complies with federal clean-air standards, fuel-cell powered buses could significantly improve the region's economy, environment and quality of life.
4/21/2000 Gore Still Wants Traditional Car Engine Eliminated by Thomas Ferraro - Reuters
Vice President Al Gore arranged to go to Detroit, home of the automotive industry, Friday to renew his embattled eight-year-old call to abolish the internal combustion engine. Aides said the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would be joined by industry and union leaders who agree the engine should be replaced with a cleaner machine for the benefit of all. Gore first proposed abolishing the internal combustion engine in his 1992 best-selling book, "Earth in the Balance," a call to arms to protect the environment. ...In his 1992 book, Gore wrote: "It ought to be possible to establish a coordinated global program to accomplish the strategic goal of completely eliminating the internal combustion engine over, say, a twenty-five year period." Gore does not change a word in the re-release of the book, and in the new introduction tells critics where they can find the passage on his call to abolish the combustion engine. "It is possible (to abolish this engine); it needs to be done; it will create more jobs, not destroy jobs," Gore adds in the new introduction. "I am proud that I wrote those words in 1992, and I reaffirm them today." As vice president, Gore heads a partnership between the federal government and the U.S. automotive industry dedicated to developing more fuel-efficient cars that use alternative energy sources.
4/20/2000 Standard for Fuel-Cell Cars Sought to Drive Competition - Japan Times
The government aims to set a standard for hydrogen intake systems for fuel cells by fiscal 2002 to spur the production of pollution-free vehicles, sources at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Wednesday. Automakers have come up with a variety of hydrogen intake systems in their quest for emission-free cars. The ministry hopes that mandating one particular format will encourage competition among carmakers and streamline infrastructure development, the sources said. ...Various methods being developed for generating and handling hydrogen include storing it in a special alloy that can be loaded onto cars, and installing removable devices in which materials decompose to produce the gas, the sources said. Basic infrastructure to support fuel-cell vehicles, such as hydrogen stations, is planned to be in place by fiscal 2005. By 2010, the government aims to have fuel cells generating up to 2.2 million kw of electricity, which is equivalent to the amount that can be generated by two nuclear reactors.
4/20/2000 [
One Merrill Lynch analyst who covers Plug Power rates it a long-term buy and says its recent price jump indicates the market has decided that a succession of announcements about significant moves toward commercial viability are real and that fuel-cells will have an impact. Another Merrill Lynch analyst has a strong buy rating on Ballard with a target price of more than double its recent trading range. And a Bear Sterns analyst puts a buy rating on both companies saying fuel-cells are getting significantly closer to reality. And expect more names to come into play. Merrill Lynch's Sam Brothwell says there is a lot of pre-IPO stuff out there and by the end of the year there could be another three or four names.
4/19/2000 India: Hydrogen Leakage Cause of Cryogenic Engine Test Failure - BBC/Financial Times/PTI (India)
Inadvertent leakage of hydrogen caused a fire and subsequent premature shutdown of India's first test of an indigenous cryogenic engine, the Indian government admitted for the first time Wednesday [19th April]. Preliminary analysis indicates that the hydrogen leakage caused a flame outside the engine, resulting in premature shutdown of the test by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in February, India's Junior Minister for External Affairs [and Space] Vasundhara Raje told Lok Sabha (the lower house of Indian parliament) in a written reply. The test firing on 16th February this year had to be aborted at 15 seconds instead of the planned duration of 30 seconds. ...The indigenous cryogenic engine using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen was ignited at liquid propulsion systems centre test complex at Mahendragiri in southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
4/19/2000 The Fuel Cell’s Future and the Developers Who Will Take It There by Cathy Swirbul - Power Online
Dozens of companies worldwide—from Ford Motor Company to newly formed Avista Laboratories of Spokane, WA—are banking on the marketability of fuel cells, technology still in its infancy. A fuel cell is a device that chemically produces electricity that could power vehicles and portable devices, such as cellular phones and wearable computers, and provide electricity and heat for homes and other small buildings. ...For the residential power market, developers must reduce the fuel cell’s operation/maintenance costs and the price per kilowatt in order to compete with combustion engines, according to Dan Rastler, area manager for distributed resources at EPRIsolutions. ...Despite the challenges remaining to wide-spread commercialization of fuel cells, numerous developers are making great advances in research and development and a few have products already on the market. Other developers plan to introduce their products to the market within the next two to three years.
4/19/2000 Hydrogen-Powered BMW 750hl To Appear At New York International Auto Show - BMW
As an additional highlight, the BMW 750hL will feature a fuel cell implemented where BMW Group researchers consider it to be most useful: as a battery replacement to provide vehicle electrical power. This means, for example, that the air conditioning system can be operated without the engine running. This will be important in climates where drivers are tempted to leave their engines and air conditioners running in the summer even when they are not in the car. Since hydrogen fuel is not widely available, the V12 engine of the 750hL is configured to run on hydrogen or gasoline. Running like a normal smooth-as-silk 12 cylinder gasoline engine, this one produces the same power of approximately 204 horsepower from a displacement of 5.4 liters, whether using hydrogen or gasoline. BMW Group engineers see the development opportunities with this high-tech power-plant, which will allow it to approach the same levels of utility as modern gasoline engines. BMW researchers have attained a travel range of up to 250 miles on one tank of super-cooled fuel (-423o F). If the hydrogen tank is empty far away from a hydrogen station, the driver simply switches to gasoline operation.
4/18/2000 Earth Day Turns 30, Stretches Across Globe by Patrick Connole - Reuters
This year's global Earth Day theme is clean energy, according to Denis Hayes, one of the event's founders in 1970, and now head of the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation which funds environmental projects in the Pacific Northwest. "We presently have the technology ... fuel cells, solar cells, hydrogen ... the opportunities are amazing for clean energy," Hayes said. He said this year's celebration needed a global focus, and the theme of clean energy applied to all countries and a call by environmentalists for ratification of the Kyoto global climate change treaty.
4/17/2000 Tanker Carrying 125,000 Cubic Feet of Flammable Liquid Hydrogen Catches Fire, Forces Evacuation - Chemical Incident Reports Center
Burns Harbor, Indiana -- Early Saturday morning Dennis White, a trucker for Praxair, Inc., noticed a safety device malfunctioned on his tanker's vent stack, causing a "clear fire" to erupt and burn straight into the air. Minutes later, emergency personnel converged on the scene at Air Products and Chemicals, just west of Bethlehem Steel's main gate. Everyone within a one-mile radius was evacuated. Traffic along U.S. Highway 12 was detoured, 300 residents from a mobile home park evacuated and train service was curtailed to allow firefighters to run water hoses across railroad tracks. Local firefighting units kept steady streams of water on the volatile tanker to maintain a safe temperature. Tom White, assistant director of the Porter County Haz-Mat team, said his primary concern was that the tanker would overheat, causing an explosion and endangering emergency personnel. The gas product inside the tanker is kept at minus 434 degrees (Fahrenheit) and could cause severe burns upon touch, White said. The gas could also pose a serious health hazard if inhaled in an enclosed area. No one was injured. The mechanical breakdown that caused the fire is under investigation.
4/17/2000 [
For several decades, fuel cells have powered spaceships. They are now propelling buses around Chicago. Just five years ago, skeptics would have scoffed at any suggestion that the technology could reach this point this soon. But the power source of the future -- the clean, efficient fuel cell that produces electricity from hydrogen, one of the most ubiquitous elements on earth -- has arrived. Well, almost.
..."Fuel cells are getting significantly closer to reality," adds Robert Winters, an analyst at Bear Stearns, who initiated coverage of Ballard and Plug Power in early April with "buy" ratings. ...With no expectation of revenue or earnings any time soon, however, "valuations are very, very difficult," says Christine Farkas, another Merrill Lynch analyst. She covers Ballard and gives it a "strong buy" rating with a $165 price target, more than double its recent price in the $60s, but closer to its pre-pullback high of $145. ...In the next several months, Farkas expects DaimlerChrysler to take the wraps off its own prototype car powered by Ballard fuel cells. And she wouldn't be surprised by fuel cell-related announcements from other auto makers, as well as in the portable-generator market. ...Fuel cells have already reached performance milestones that would have been considered unthinkable not long ago. "They haven't completely resolved the performance issues," says Winters, of Bear Stearns. "But Ballard's Mark 900 has power-generation capability north of 70 kilowatts, which is comparable to the internal combustion engine, in the same space. That is performance far beyond what anyone thought was possible in this time period five or 10 years ago. They've also tremendously brought down the cost, as well."4/17/2000 Energy Lab Contributes to Futuristic Power Source Cells in Netherlands by Tracy Carbasho - Pittsburgh Business Times
The 100-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell system represents a research collaboration between the National Energy Technology Laboratory in South Park Township and Siemens-Westinghouse Corp. in McKeesport. DOE officials say the $196 million project achieved a milestone in January by completing one year of operations at a Dutch cogeneration plant. The accomplishment signals the halfway point in the two-year demonstration phase and also marks the longest-known period of operation for a solid oxide fuel cell of this size. ...The DOE is funding $82 million of the project, with the remainder coming from Siemens-Westinghouse and the Dutch government agency known as Novem. The test unit at the Dutch power station has operated for a record 8,760 hours, providing electricity to the local power grid in Westervoort in the Netherlands and hot water for the area's district heating system. ..DOE officials describe the cells as the new power plants of the 21st century, representing an effective, environmentally friendly energy source.
4/16/2000 Bubbles in Fuel Caused Crash of H-II Rocket, Experts Claim - Japan Times
The panel has found that the blades in the turbo engine pump in the H-II rocket were damaged as a result of forces generated by bubbles that built up inside the liquid-hydrogen fuel tank during the rocket's brief ascent from its launch pad. The bubbles, combined with what experts believe were shoddy production process in the construction of the rocket, led to the rupture of the blades in the fuel pump, the panel said. Investigators say they have found tiny cracks in the fuel-pump blades which they believe occurred during the production process. As the outside atmospheric pressure declined during the rocket's ascent, launch controllers reduced the pressure inside the fuel tank. This process led to an increase in bubbles inside the fuel pump, triggering a fluctuation in internal pressure that put stress on the engine. This phenomenon was not widely known when the rocket was being developed, but the experts said the problem should have been dealt with in 1998, when a Japanese expert raised the issue. The H-II rocket crashed after the main engine in the first stage stalled four minutes after it lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Nov. 15.
4/15/2000 Tanker Carrying 125,000 Cubic Feet of Flammable Liquid Hydrogen Catches Fire, Forces Evacuation - AP/Chemical Incident Reports Center
Burns Harbor, IN - Early Saturday morning Dennis White, a trucker for Praxair, Inc., noticed a safety device malfunctioned on his tanker's vent stack, causing a "clear fire" to erupt and burn straight into the air. Minutes later, emergency personnel converged on the scene at Air Products and Chemicals, just west of Bethlehem Steel's main gate. Everyone within a one-mile radius was evacuated. Traffic along U.S. Highway 12 was detoured, 300 residents from a mobile home park evacuated and train service was curtailed to allow firefighters to run water hoses across railroad tracks. Local firegighting units kept steady streams of water on the valatile tanker to maintain a safe temperature. Tom White, assistant director of the Porter County Haz-Mat team, said his primary concern was that the tanker would overheat, causing an explosion and endangering emergency personnel. The gas product inside the tanker is kept at minus 434 degrees (Fahrenheit) and could cause severe burns upon touch, White said. The gas could also pose a serious health hazard in inhaled in an enclosed area. No one was injured. The mechanical breakdown that caused the ire is under investigation.4/12/2000 The Man Who Was Sure of Shell by Roger Trapp - The Independent (UK)
Mark Moody-Stuart would not be happy to suffer the high-profile attention paid to Sir John Browne, his counterpart at Britain's other giant, BP Amoco. ...What brought the company up with a jolt were the events of 1995 – the company's annus horribilis. The disputed disposal of the Brent Spar oil platform and the company's activities in Nigeria, amid severe civil unrest in the oil-producing Niger Delta area, led to boycotts of the company in some countries. If this period triggered the conditions that produced the company's poor financial performance three years later, it also sparked a realisation that the organisation needed to think carefully about its role in the 21st century. In 1998, Shell joined the trend for publishing reports on its environmental and social record, as well as financial performance. This was backed by a commitment to sustainable development by moving into other energy areas, notably renewables, such as solar power and forestry, and hydrogen, which produces the fuel cells being developed to power vehicles. To critics who suggest such ventures were distractions when they were initiated in the midst of the company's financial troubles, Mr Moody-Stuart says sustainable development and financial performance are inextricably linked. "Sustainable development builds the platform on which business thrives and society prospers," he says, though he also accepts a commitment in this area is no substitute for a first-rate financial performance.
4/12/2000 Inventor Hopes to Create Fuel from Sewage by Mike Berry - Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
Officials at the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy have seen demonstrations of Thomas' process, which involves introducing water into a mix of powders made from manufacturing waste metals, including magnesium, iron and zinc. The combination produces what is known as a galvanic effect, releasing hydrogen gas, a hot, clean-burning fuel. Officials say similar processes have been developed before, but no one has come up with an economically feasible way of liberating large amounts of hydrogen from water. John Turner, a senior electrochemist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., says Drano, the common household drain cleaner, produces hydrogen gas in basically the same way, so that's nothing new. In Thomas' process, Turner says metallic elements don't just disappear when hydrogen is produced from them, and he wonders what organic compounds may remain behind to be disposed of. "I have some serious concerns about what's left in the pot when they get through," he said. ...In addition to providing a cheap source of energy, Thomas says his process could also clean up polluted groundwater. Contaminated water, such as waste from hog and cattle feedlot lagoons, can be used in the process, whose byproducts are water vapor and a bit of grayish-white ash. ...Neil Rossmeissl, head of the Department of Energy's hydrogen research and development program in Washington, D.C., isn't convinced yet. "It's strictly a matter of economics," he said. Magnesium is a relatively expensive metal, and unless Thomas can find huge amounts of waste magnesium for free, it probably would cost more to make hydrogen than gasoline, he said. Thomas' process may have "niche applications," such as the on-farm scenario, but Rossmeissl added, "When you try to make a very large-scale business out of it, suddenly the economics just don't make sense."
4/11/2000 Firms to Test Run Fuel-Cell Cars; Mazda to Team Up with Mitsubishi, DaimlerChrysler Units - Japan Times
DaimlerChrysler Japan Holding Ltd. and Mazda will each provide a car for test runs at Nippon Mitsubishi's refinery in Yokohama to collect data for the development of a fuel cell-powered vehicle. Nippon Mitsubishi will provide the fuel for the experiment. ...The experiment, which will cost over 1 billion yen, is to be completed within fiscal 2000, which ends in March 2001. It is expected to receive 200 million yen to 300 million yen in subsidies from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Mazda's main stockholder, Ford Motor Co. of the United States, and German-U.S. company DaimlerChrysler are cooperating in the development of fuel-cell cars.
4/10/2000 The Right Fuel for Fuel Cells: a Crucial Choice by Bill Eggertson - Environmental News Service
"The fuel cell is a remarkable technology that has the potential to replace the internal combustion engine as a clean and economic source of power," says David Hocking of the David Suzuki Foundation. "But if we make hydrogen from the wrong fuel source, such as gasoline, we will have squandered a crucial opportunity to address global warming and air pollution."
4/10/2000 Mazda Joins Test for Fuel Cell Cars - Associated Press
Mazda Motor Corp. said Monday that it will join the Japanese unit of DaimlerChrysler AG and a Japanese oil company in a government-led project to test fuels for next-generation vehicles. Japan's Trade Ministry will contribute about two-thirds of the $3.77 million to $4.71 million it will cost to test fuel-cell-powered vehicles, said Keiichi Yumoto, an official in the ministry's Natural Resources and Energy Agency. Yumoto said the aim of the three-year project is to help decide which fuels are most appropriate for use in Japan. He said the companies will test a variety of fuels, including methanol and hydrogen. Mazda and DaimlerChrysler will each contribute fuel cell vehicles, while Nippon Mitsubishi Oil contributes the fuels and test track, Yumoto said. ...Mazda, which is 33.4 percent owned by Ford Motor Co., has a small, prototype model, called the Demio FC-EV fuel cell vehicle, which runs on methanol.
4/10/2000 Will We Live On Mars? by Jeffery Kluger - Time Magazine
For the past decade--ever since NASA's 1989 proposal laid its half- trillion-dollar egg--the space community has been intrigued by a mission scenario known as the Mars Direct plan. Developed by engineers at Martin Marietta Astronautics, a NASA contractor, Mars Direct calls not merely for visiting the Red Planet but also for living off the alien land. As early as 2005, when Earth and Mars are in their once-every-26- months alignment, the plan envisions launching a four-person spacecraft to Mars--but launching it with its tanks empty of fuel and its cabin empty of crew. Landing on the surface, the craft would begin pumping Martian atmosphere--which is 95% carbon dioxide--into a reaction chamber, where it would be exposed to hydrogen and broken down into methane, water and oxygen. Methane and oxygen make a first- rate rocket fuel; water and oxygen are necessary human fuels. All these consumables could be pumped into tanks inside the ship and stored there. Two years later, when Mars and Earth are again in conjunction, another spacecraft--this one carrying a crew--would be sent to join the robot ship on the surface. The astronauts could work on Mars for 18 months, living principally in their arrival craft, and then, at the end of their stay, abandon that ship, climb into the robot craft and blast off for home.
4/9/2000 Industry Touts Fuel Cells as Viable Energy Source by Asako Murakami - Japan Times
As Group of Eight ministers discussed climate change, industry representatives meeting here Friday were touting fuel cells as an "energy for the future." The Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment held its 15th general assembly meeting at a hotel near the site where the environment ministers from the G-8 are currently holding talks. ...While prototypes of automobiles run by fuel cells have been developed, some difficulties still need to be worked out before they become commercially viable, said Norihiko Nakamura of Toyota Motor Corp. He cited the high cost of fuel cell production as one of the biggest obstacles to proliferation of the cells. Nakamura also pointed to the importance of cooperation among the government and business in promoting the product. Osaka Gas, Ltd., Sanyo Electric Co. and Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. also gave presentations, focusing on their ongoing development of compact fuel cell development systems for residential use.
4/8/2000 Canada, U.S. Join Forces to Build World's Largest Fuel Cell Demo - Canadian Press
Canada and the United States are joining forces to build the world's largest prototype heat and power plant using solid oxide fuel-cell technology. The $18-million Cdn project, which will be a test plant, is being jointly funded by the Canadian government, the U.S. Department of Energy and Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. The plant, to be built in Toronto, is being incorporated into the existing technology facilities of provincial utility Ontario Power Generation, which will operate it. A number of Canadian technology companies will contribute to the development, manufacture and delivery of components for the prototype. ...Ottawa is investing more than $2 million to help develop and build the prototype heat and power plant. Additional funding is being provided by the National Research Council.
4/8/2000 Ranchers Fear Methane Boom Could Mean Watery Demise by Mead Gruver - Associated Press/Nando Times
Gas companies, state and federal governments, and mineral rights owners stand to reap a financial windfall by tapping into the vast underground methane gas reserves in northeast Wyoming. But many of those who live on the land fear losing precious underground water reserves and seeing their land scarred by runoff and heavy equipment. ...Coal-bed methane is a form of natural gas considered a clean-burning fuel. It is held in place in underground coal seams by water pressure, and is released by placing wells at regular intervals over a large area and continuously pumping out the groundwater. ...The use of coal-bed methane gas was nearly nonexistent 12 years ago. It accounted for 5.9 percent of the nation's natural gas production in 1997, according to the Gas Research Institute in Chicago. Today, methane development is booming in Wyoming and beginning in Montana and Colorado, among other places. Industry officials promote it as an alternative fuel and say it can be developed with little environmental impact. For Wyoming, the growth comes at a time when state coffers are suffering from a decline in other mineral industries. If projections for up to 15,000 coal-bed methane wells come true, the state could reap millions in royalties and taxes on production. ...In southeastern Montana's Powder River Basin, a moratorium has been declared on new drilling permits for coal-bed methane wells pending a judge's decision on an injunction. The ban is being sought by a conservation group that claims the state issued the permits without studying the environmental effects.
4/7/2000 Hydrogen Will Drive Petrol Cars into History by Niall McKay - Irish Times (Ireland)
"Fuel cells will end the 100-year reign of the internal combustion engine" said William Clay Ford, Ford chairman. The sports utility vehicle is the last great hulking tribute to the internal combustion engine. Soon the only place you will find petrol-fired cars is in museums. Remember, at the end of the last ice age, how large mammals got? Well SUVs are the dinosaurs of the transportation industry, said Bill Van Amburg vice-president of CalStart, a California advanced transportation technology consultancy. With the price of oil tripling in the US in the last 12 months, Mr Van Amburg may have a point. This September, in California's capital city, Sacramento, the world's largest automakers - Ford, Daimler Chrysler, Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen will join forces with the world's largest Oil companies - Shell, ARCO and Texaco, to solve the problem and test drive fuel-cell vehicles that run on hydrogen. The coalition is calling itself the California Fuel Cell Partnership and its objective is to road test fuel-cell vehicles. ...How much would it cost? Well most scientists believe that by the time the public actually gets there hands on fuel-cell vehicles it will cost about the same as petrol. While hydrogen is more expensive than petrol, fuel cells tend to be about 50 per cent more efficient. ...The Canadian company, Ballard has made great progress in the last couple of years and now it boasts that its fuel cells "due for release in 2003" will not only compete with the internal combustion engine on price but on power too. Ford and Daimler Chrysler seem to concur that Ballard has solved the problem and have sunk over $1.25 billion into the company.
4/7/2000 Fuel cells Power Former General Motors CEO by Rick Haglund - Newshouse News Service/Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune (Minnesotta)
Stempel's new company, Energy Conversion Devices Inc., is betting that the internal combustion engine eventually will give way to the fuel cell. Many are talking about the Internet economy, but Stempel said the buzz is about to change. We're heading into a "hydrogen economy," said Stempel, ECD's chairman. "When [hydrogen] replaces fossil fuels, it will change the world economy forever," he said in a recent speech to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit. ...In most experimental systems, the hydrogen is stored as a super-cooled liquid or as a gas in high-pressure tanks. Both methods present safety concerns in the event of a crash. ECD has developed what the company claims is a safer, more efficient method. Its system stores hydrogen as a solid in hydrides, or metal alloys, that soak up the hydrogen. The hydrogen is released as the hydrides are heated. GM used ECD's storage system in its Precept concept fuel-cell car, which the automaker introduced at the Detroit auto show in January. "We believe hydrogen will be the fuel of the future," Larry Burns, GM's research and development chief, said at the Precept introduction.
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Some of the world's greatest inventions have been discovered by accident. One such accident led to the discovery of the fuel cell; another led to its commercialisation. And in around 30 years', when most of the energy analysts have predicted the oil wells will run dry, motorists will be thankful for both these strange twists of fate. ...The early development of the fuel cell was fraught with problems and high cost, although in 1954 US giant General Electric's intensive work had in operation a prototype that, by using pure oxygen and hydrogen, proved sufficiently effective to interest NASA. The Gemini space program proved the viability of the fuel cell to provide electrical power. The spacecraft used six ''stacks'' of cells, with three cells in each stack.The electrical power output from each stack was quite modest, just one kilowatt and, as a by-product, produced half a litre of water for each kilowatt hour of operation. The Gemini cells were notoriously temperamental and required constant monitoring, and had to regularly be purged with extra bursts of oxygen and hydrogen to avoid breakdown. At this time if anyone had thought to suggest to Canadian scientist Geoffrey Ballard that he would become a world leader in fuel-cell technology he would have laughed. ...The big breakthrough on Ballard's fuel cell came by accident in the search for cheaper materials. Up until late 1986 Ballard's team had only worked with one type of fuel-cell membrane manufactured by Dupont, but Dow Chemical had also developed a similar membrane, which had not been released for sale. Ballard's team tracked down an experimental batch of the Dow material, put it into a fuel cell and set up a standard test. Within a few minutes, the fuel cell was generating so much electricity on the test bench that it had melted through the power-output cable. Ballard immediately knew he had a saleable product, the problem was: should he aim his fuel cell at small niche markets like military field generators, wheelchairs and golf carts, or ''go for broke'' and try to sell it as a full-blown alternative to the combustion engine?
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Automotive giant DaimlerChrysler will build and sell up to 30 city pollution-free buses over the next three years using the Canadian-developed Ballard fuel cell. In an announcement Thursday in Frankfurt, DaimlerChrysler said it will be the first automaker to offer hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles for sale. Along with Ford, DaimlerChrysler is a major investor in Ballard Power Systems, a high-tech company based in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby. ..."We want to introduce our customers early on to technology that is particularly suited to city traffic because of zero emissions and significantly lower noise levels," said Wolfgang Diez, head of DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes-Benz/Setra Bus business unit. The first buses are planned for delivery in 2002 and will be used under normal conditions for two years to provide detailed operating data. The buses, which will carry up to 70 passengers, will cost about $1.2 million US each, about three times the price of conventional diesel buses. Ballard's own prototype buses have undergone tests in Vancouver and Chicago, although there are no purchase orders yet. While the technology is maturing, DaimlerChrysler is aware it has to reduce the cost, volume and weight of fuel-cell systems to compete with internal-combustion engines, said Ferdinand Panik, head of the company's fuel-cell project. "We have decided to begin a dialog with our future customers at this early stage so that they can gain experience with this new technology," he said. The buses will use drive units developed and built by Xcellsis, jointly owned by Ballard, Ford and DaimlerChrysler, with fuel-cell stacks supplied by Ballard.
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DCH Technology of Valencia cut its losses by almost 25 percent in 1999, offsetting a portion of its
capital-intensive research and development activities by finding new markets for itscutting-edge hydrogen sensors and fuel cells.4/5/2000 Nation's First Propane Fuel Cell Installed at Delta-Montrose Electric Association - DMEA/E-Wire
This prototype, built by H Power of Clifton, N.J., is reputedly the first in the nation outside of a laboratory which runs on propane, a fuel readily available in areas served by rural electric cooperatives. "We're proud to be in the vanguard of fuel cell installations nationally," said Dan McClendon, DMEA's general manager. "Sixty-two years ago our cooperative was formed to bring electric power to rural areas at a time when for-profit utilities were not interested in providing electric service to our communities. Fuel cells--particularly propane powered fuel cells--represent an exciting way to continue our mission of providing power to areas not currently served through traditional means. Fuel cells will also provide more options and benefits for all of our members." "We are very pleased to have delivered the first unit of our propane-powered fuel cell generating system to DMEA for field testing," said Dr. H. Frank Gibbard, H Power's CEO. "DMEA was our first contact in the rural electric cooperative community." DMEA's propane fuel cell is the first of a series of units which will be installed this spring by rural electric cooperatives working with Energy Co-Opportunities (ECO), a national cooperative created to assist electric distribution cooperatives diversify into new energy services. ...The Delta-Montrose Electric Association will unveil its prototype fuel cell to the public on Earth Day, April 22.
4/5/2000 Earth Day Turning 30, Organizers Push Clean Energy by Patrick Connole - Reuters
Denis Hayes, an Earth Day founder and chief architect of this year's gala, said much progress had been made on environmental policies since 1970, but much needs to be done for fighting the gravest threat yet: global warming. "Earth Day will not just be a call for clean energy, but a bold demonstration that we currently possess the technology necessary for responsible energy production and consumption," Hayes said. The move to clean power encompasses a sweeping agenda, led by EPA efforts to force old, coal-burning power plants to meet stringent new clean air standards, to developing hydrogen-fueled vehicles, to Congress passing budgets with adequate funding for research and development, speakers said.
4/3/2000 Sticker Shock Stalls Fuel Cells by Bill Virgin - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washngton)
A lot of companies and research organizations in the Pacific Northwest are betting they can drive down the cost of fuel cells, and that the potential market will be closer to the former figure than the latter. If they can make fuel cells more affordable, the potential applications are huge. Vacation cabins or islands far from transmission lines. Industrial plants, especially those that wind up with hydrogen (a feedstock for fuel cells) as a byproduct of their own manufacturing processes. Telecommunications relay towers. Military vehicles that can operate their weapons without running noisy engines that can tip off the enemy. Ships. Auxiliary power units to drive all the electronics on cars. Auxiliary power units to drive heating and air conditioning units on trucks without running the engine. ...Some of the biggest players in the current bid to drive down fuel cell costs and bring them to the mass market are utility companies. ...Ballard Power Systems is perhaps the best-known Pacific Northwest player in fuel cell development, in part because of its partnerships with major auto manufacturers, in part because its stock has been one of the market's high fliers in recent months. ...Idacorp, the Boise-based parent of Idaho Power, bought a Bend, Ore., company last year that is developing fuel cells. Northwest Power Systems is building the 10 fuel cells that the Bonneville Power Administration will deploy this spring at participating utilities. ...Seattle City Light is due to get one of Northwest Power Systems' units in a second round of testing later this year. ...Avista Labs currently has 30 fuel cells installed around the country (at the utility they're used to recharge batteries). In June, it plans to increase production to build 10 fuel cells a week until it has 120 units for further deployment. ...Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories is part of a consortium known as the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance, which is looking at ways to drive down the cost of fuel cells through mass production. ...The Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute was the site of research sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency into developing a fuel reformer that will convert ammonia to hydrogen to ammonia for use by a fuel cell. ...King County's wastewater treatment division has been working on a fuel cell demonstration project at its Renton facility. The Environmental Protection Agency is providing financing.
4/3/2000 Utility Companies Hope Fuel Cells Will Power Homes by Bill Virgin - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washngton)
"They're quiet, they're small and they'll definitely produce electricity as well as hot water," says Corinne Grande, power analyst with Seattle City Light's environment and safety division. "It's just that they're expensive." True -- for now, anyway. The demonstration units that 10 Northwest utilities will be testing this spring cost around $50,000 each. But the cost of electricity produced by fuel cells, excluding the cost of the units, is already competitive with conventionally delivered power in some parts of the country. As manufacturers mass-produce fuel cells, the costs will drop even more. ...If fuel cells catch on, they could be used to accommodate growth in electricity demand, particularly in the peak hours when the load on the system is the greatest.
4/2/2000 New Energy Technology Gains Power by Fred Barbash - Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
A number of companies have stepped up work on newer approaches, with some aiming at lower power uses, such as transportation; others at residential uses; and still others at heavy commercial deployment. Among the companies are Avista Corp.'s (AVA) Avista Labs, Plug Power Inc. (PLUG), Ballard Power Systems Inc. (BLDP) and FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCL), all of which have stocks that are heating up as well, despite the absence of any fuel cell sales, let alone profits from fuel cells. The funding comes almost entirely from investors, government grants and research money from partner firms.Why now? Fuel cell materials are less expensive. Sophisticated computers are permitting better testing. The big power producers are making less power and not building new plants. The Department of Energy is funding an increasing number of projects. More significant has been pressure to reduce pollution, combined with electricity deregulation--which is inviting more players into markets that were once monopolies. "The first spark was primarily the quest by the automotive industry to strive for zero-emission vehicles," said Kim Zentz, president of Avista Labs. "The stationary markets [homes and buildings] are being driven by changes in the utility industry." A larger vision is at work here. Fuel cells and micro-turbines, essentially small jet engines, are now seen by some as the links in a new chain of "distributed power generation."
4/2000 [
In late February, Stuart Energy delivered a larger 40 standard cu.m./hour fueler to SunLine Transit in California's Coachella Valley in Riverside County, which is fast emerging as a national leader in putting into place hydrogen technology for its urban bus routes after starting with CNG buses six years ago. The Stuart fueler began churning out hydrogen 36 hours after it was delivered.
3/31/2000 Military Is Interested in Fuel Cells for Fighting - Seattle Times/Gannett News Service
The Pentagon is as excited about fuel-cell technology as the private sector, but not for the same reasons. The military sees new mobility, stealth and speed from this potentially super-efficient power source. Military planners envision: Tanks and other vehicles running on quiet fuel-cell engines that generate cooler thermal signatures that are harder to detect than combustion engines. Fuel cells on ships and other large battlecraft could maintain mission-critical systems in the event the engine room is destroyed. Fuel cells boast another bonus especially valuable on the battlefield: almost no moving parts, nothing to jam up at critical times.
3/31/2000 Clean Energy Partnership Delivers New Power Technology To Long Island - Department of Energy News
Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson joined state and local officials at the Energy Department's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory today to dedicate an advanced fuel cell power system at the lab. Today's installation of three state-of-the-art 7 kW cells is the first of several installations across Long Island planned by the Long Island Power Authority and Plug Power to test the performance and measure the potential for power generation from fuel cells.
3/31/2000 Scientists Seek Cleaner Environment by Robert S. Boyd - Pioneer Planet (St. Paul, MN)
Research on artificial photosynthesis is following two major tracks, each with its own motive: The first track harvests the energy of sunlight to split water into its constituent elements -- hydrogen and oxygen. Many experts think hydrogen can be a limitless source of energy for the time when Earth runs out of fossil fuels. The other research track aims to convert carbon dioxide to useful chemicals without adding to the load of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
3/30/2000 Efficient Cars Key to Solving Oil Crisis - Gore by Sue Pleming - Reuters "Energy-efficient cars will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Right now, millions of Americans are paying higher gas prices," Gore said at a ceremony to roll out the three new fuel-efficient cars, made by leading automakers Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler . ...Ford Group Vice President John Rintamaki said his company would build a mass-production hybrid electric vehicle beginning in 2003. Ford is also making good progress in developing a hydrogen-fueled car that would be ready for production by 2004. The vehicle's only emission would be clean, hot water -- which drivers could use to make a cup of tea, Rintamaki quipped.
3/29/2000 [
Among auto makers, grabbing for the green crown is likely to be the next big marketing effort after years of competition for leadership in comfort, utility, quality and safety. "After all, you can only put so many air bags in a car," said Bill Van Amburg, spokesman for Calstart in Pasadena. The nonprofit industry consortium was formed to pursue and promote development of advanced technologies, including alternative fuel systems, for the transportation industry. The increased globalization of the auto industry also makes eco-friendliness a major concern. "When you are selling in countries where every city is crippled by pollution, cup holders are no longer an issue," Van Amburg says. "Tailpipe emissions are." ...For Californians, there are four key organizations that issue broad-based green ratings of auto makers and their products: the Union of Concerned Scientists, Calstart, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and the state Air Resources Board. ...Calstart, for instance, promotes development and use of advanced technologies--low-sulfur fuels, hydrogen -charged fuel cells and lean-burn, direct-injection gasoline engines.
3/28/2000 Fuel Cell Bus Undergoes Public Testing by A M Hansen, Ecotraffic Norge, and E F Hagen, Norsk Hydro - CADDET Centre for Renewable Energy (Oxfordshire, UK)
In Oslo, a new hydrogen fuel cell bus, “Nebus”, has been tested for the first time under normal public transport conditions. It showed good driving performance, particularly in dense city areas, and the prospects for the technology are promising. ...The Greater Oslo Transport Authority and Norsk Hydro have been evaluating hydrogen as a fuel for bus operation since 1994. In 1997/98, the possibility of using fuel cell technology became more realistic – major equipment manufacturers announced fuel cell vehicle programmes, and fuel cell-powered vehicles were being demonstrated in Canada. In 1997, DaimlerChrysler developed Nebus, a demonstration bus powered by fuel cells operating on hydrogen. A collaboration between the Norwegian project and DaimlerChrysler was established in 1998 to focus on this fuel cell technology. In August 1999, the demo-bus was tested in normal operation, on a test drive along an ordinary public transport route. Nebus is fuelled by compressed hydrogen at 300 bar, which is stored in seven 150 litre cylinders on the roof of the bus. The fuel cell stack contains 10 fuel cells each rated at 25 kW, and the stack provides 190 kW for the drives. The fuel cells also supply electricity to the power-steering pumps, an air compressor and the door control system. The range of the bus is 250 km before refuelling is necessary and the maximum speed is 80 km/hour. The overall energy efficiency is 37%. The only by-product of the fuel cells is water at 80¡C which can be used in the heating system of the bus. The German Technical Inspectorate has licensed the Nebus for use in public transport. ...According to Norsk Hydro, hydrogen consumption was 636.6 Nm3 for the test period. The energy content of the hydrogen was 11 MJ/Nm3. Based on the measured 583 km travelled, the specific average consumption was 1.092 Nm3/km, which is equivalent to 0.33 litres/km of diesel. The average diesel consumption in city driving ranges from 0.4–0.5 litres/km. Therefore, energy consumption for the Nebus is significantly less than that of a diesel bus.
3/28/2000 A Saviour on the Horizon for Smoky River Coal? - Daily Herald Tribune (Calgary, Canada)
Major Floyd McLennan says if the region's coal isn't mined today, it will be in the future as technology improves environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel production.
3/27/2000 Ukraine: Power Reduced at Chernobyl Generator Due to Failure - Ukrainian news agency UNIAN
The emergency shut-down was caused by a failure in one of the systems of the electric generator, which is designed to prevent hydrogen from leaking from the cooling system of the electric generator. As a result of the shut-down of the turbine generator, energy generation was reduced from 800 MWh to 500 MWh (to 50 per cent of the normal level).
3/27/2000 [
Driven by increasingly tougher government demands, automakers are spending billions to develop fuel cell cars, which convert hydrogen to electricity. Honda's Insight, a gas and electric "bridge" model, is in showrooms, and Toyota's Prius will be soon. ...Brian Urbaszewski of the Chicago Lung Association said ethanol and natural gas are the front-runners among fuels vying to replace gasoline. Cars of the future will be powered by cells that convert alternative fuels to hydrogen, whose only by-product when burned is water. "Within the next five years you're going to see [fuel cell cars] in commercial production," Urbaszewski said. "It's not rocket science anymore. The only question is how to make them cheaper." Last week the CTA, Ballard Power Systems and XCELLSIS Fuel Cell Engines Inc. ended the nation's first demonstration of a fuel cell bus. Over the last two years, three cell-powered buses traveled more than 30,000 miles, carried more than 100,000 riders and emitted nothing but water vapor. "A commercial fuel cell bus engine is now just two years away," Ballard Chairman Firoz Rasul said.
3/25/2000 Gas Lessons of the '70s Foster Calm by David Crary - Associated Press
"There's a difference between 1973 and today," said Ed Porter, research manager for the American Petroleum Institute. "We haven't done any major stupid things yet." ...Jason Mark, transportation analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said America should focus less on expanding oil production and more on reducing demand. He cited promising automotive technologies, such as fuel cells. "The time is certainly right to put a down payment on strategies that move us away from petroleum," he said. "Even in the auto industry, people are talking about moving beyond this century-old technology. The opportunity is very real."
3/25/2000 [
Mounting air pollution, global warming and traffic congestion are driving more countries to mandate clean transportation technologies, Bill van Amburg told a Globe 2000 panel Friday. In Europe, smog and gridlock have forced some major cities to ban all but electric cars and transit buses from city centres at least one day a week, he told the business and environment conference. Vehicles are fingered as a major and growing source of greenhouse gases, as much as 25 per cent in Canada and perhaps one-third worldwide, said van Amburg. ...But van Amburg, whose company
3/26/2000 [
A fuel-cell engine uses no combustion process, the fundamental cause of poisonous emissions from conventional engines. Instead, it combines hydrogen and oxygen in a chemical process to produce electricity. The by-products are heat and water. There is much work being done in " bio-mass" fuel-cell power plants that use vegetation to produce the gas needed to provide the hydrogen , but the time when these will have practical use is still far distant. It's believed that this is just one of five fuel-cell principles being worked on at present, including a ceramic type in Australia. But there is one fuel-cell type that is powering experimental motor vehicles right now, and that is the Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell, the type used by Ballard Power Systems of the US. The advantage of PEM technology is that, unlike other fuel-cell systems, it operates at practical temperatures - around 80 degrees Celsius. Ballard PEM fuel cells are being trialled in conventional motor vehicles by several manufacturers, including GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen, Honda and Nissan, and are being tested in buses by the US public transport bodies, Chicago Transit Authority and Translink. ...But different markets may need different fuels, so the boffins are working on several fuel options and it's quite likely that we will have a choice of fuel types when we go to buy our fuel-cell-powered family car sometime after 2004.
3/24/2000 Climate-Change Tech Firms Out-Performed NASDAQ - Canadian Press
The Delphi Group's Climate Change Innovative Technology market index isn't available yet. But the Ottawa environmental information firm says an analysis of stocks on the index show it out-performed the red-hot NASDAQ index over the last few months. The index's performance shows investors are becoming aware of the profit potential of companies in the forefront of technologies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, Michael Gerbis, Delphi's director of environmental market research, said Friday. "We see tremendous growth in these companies," said Gerbis, managing editor of Delphi's Environmental Business Canada newsletter. "A number of them are in the research phase, so it's potential growth." The climate change index is made up of only 11 companies specializing in greenhouse gas-reducing technologies. It includes firms such as Ballard Power Systems, developing hydrogen fuel cells, alternate-energy producer Global Thermoelectric and Kafus Industries, which is developing moulded fibre board from recycled and sustainable materials.
3/23/2000 OPEC Should Enjoy Stranglehold While It Can, Future Technologies Will Eliminate Dependence Upon Oil, ABI Says - Allied Business Intelligence/ Business Wire
While rising gas prices seemed to be a problem decades ago, the recent squeezing of the US by OPEC nations may be the last time such a crisis arises due to emerging technologies. In the near future, vehicles will run on the simple combination of hydrogen and oxygen, commonly known as a fuel cell. Fuel cell technology is now in development with the R&D leading to fuel cell implementation this decade, according to Allied Business Intelligence. "Automotive fuel cells is just another emerging energy technology which will change the way we live," said Allied Business Intelligence Senior Energy Analyst K. Atakan Ozbek. "Technologies such as wind turbines, photovoltaics, and fuel cells are now being readied for mass deployment during this decade," Ozbek said. Fuel cells purveyors are providing a new energy source which is arriving at the most opportune time, according to Ozbek. "Domestic and world demand for transportation fuels is growing rapidly, with U.S. demand growing at a rate about half that of the rest of the world (ROW)," Ozbek said. From 1990 to 1996, U.S. transportation energy use increased 10% (1.6%/year) to about 13 million barrels per day while that for the ROW increased 22% (3.4%/yr) to about 30 million barrels per day. "Within ten years, transportation will account for over fifty percent of total worldwide petroleum demand, a percentage the US has exceeded since the early 1970's," Ozbek added.3/23/2000
"This very successful program proves that hydrogen fuel cells can power transit buses in the daily grind of revenue service," said CTA President Frank Kruesi. "There's no question that these buses performed well in the heat of summer and the chill of winter. This program has benefited the CTA, our customers, our employees, and the city of Chicago." During the past two years, three buses powered by Ballard(R) fuel cells have clocked more than 5,000 hours in revenue service, covered over 30,000 miles, carried more than 100,000 passengers, and emitted nothing more than water vapour. Later this year, XCELLSIS and Ballard will complete a second two-year program involving another three buses in revenue service in Vancouver, Canada. The demonstration programs were initiated by Ballard with XCELLSIS assuming responsibility for them following the formation of XCELLSIS as part of the fuel cell engine alliance between DaimlerChrysler, Ford and Ballard. "As a pioneer in the use of fuel cell technology, the Chicago Transit Authority has contributed directly to advancements in fuel cell engines now being used in both cars and buses," said XCELLSIS President Dr. Ferdinand Panik. "Our experience in Chicago enabled the design and construction of the next generation fuel cell engine that is simpler in design, easier to maintain, and half the weight of the engines used in the Chicago buses." A bus using the new XCELLSIS pre-commercial fuel cell engine will enter revenue service in Palm Springs, California this summer as the first vehicle delivered under the California Fuel Cell Partnership. Under the partnership, 25 buses and 30 cars will hit the streets of California for testing and demonstration between 2000 and 2003. [CHBC Note: The Palm Springs XCELLSIS hydrogen bus will be operated by
3/23/2000 Ordinary Energy Powers New Fuel Cell - ENN
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have built a fuel cell that runs efficiently on readily available forms of hydrocarbon fuels such as methane and butane instead of pure hydrogen. ...Previous attempts to run a solid-oxide fuel cell on hydrocarbon fuels failed because the electrochemical process that generates electricity caused a buildup of carbon, which ruined the cell. ...The Gas Research Institute in Chicago, Illinois, funded Gorte's research. The goal of the institute is to generate electrical power in every home through sources such as fuel cells.
3/22/2000 Problems, Promise in Building Wonder Car by Charles Soloman - Los Angeles Times (California)
Fuel cells offer even greater promise: They run on hydrogen, and their only waste product is pure water (it's even potable). The technology has improved significantly in recent years, bringing down cost and weight while increasing energy output. Motavalli notes that prototype fuel-cell buses in Chicago and taxis in London have received overwhelmingly favorable reviews. But pure hydrogen requires special insulated fuel tanks, as it must kept at minus 400 degrees to remain liquid. Hydrogen for fuel cells can also be extracted from methanol, gasoline, diesel fuel and natural gas. But all of these sources have drawbacks, including the cost of creating an infrastructure to support them.
3/22/2000 [Gasoline] Fuel Cell Powered Cars Not the Answer: Report - National Post (Canada)
In a report funded by the David Suzuki Foundation, the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development said fuel cells are themselves clean because hydrogen, the fuel that ultimately makes fuel cells tick, is a clean fuel. The problem, the institute said, is that hydrogen has to be extracted from other sources, which could include gasoline, methanol and natural gas. The institute says this can produce "dirty" hydrogen because the extraction process generates greenhouse gas emissions. Rob Macintosh, a director with the institute, said natural gas is the cleanest fuel source, generating about 70% less emissions than today's ordinary gasoline-powered internal combustion engines. But fuel cell cars running on gasoline generate only "modest" emissions reductions of about 20%, while methanol would reduce emissions by about 35%. The institute's report takes aim at a June, 1999, memorandum of understanding between
3/21/2000 Hydrogen Can be Extracted from Natural Gas at Central Refineries - Canadian Press
Ballard Power Systems of suburban Burnaby is considered the world leader in fuel-cell development. Its technology is licensed to several major automakers and DaimlerChrysler and Ford Motor Co. both have large equity stakes in the company. The Suzuki Foundation's David Hocking noted Ballard's test fleet of Vancouver transit buses carry large hydrogen tanks on their roofs and refuelling is handled safely. "It has to be done carefully but just like with propane there are methods that have been developed and used and are operating today," he said. Methanex Corp. of Vancouver, the world's largest methanol producer, questioned the study's conclusions, especially the difference in greenhouse-gas efficiency between methanol and natural gas. "There isn't the big gap that they're showing," said Brad Boyd, director of investor relations. Petro-Canada Ltd., which is partnered with Methanex in a fuel-cell pilot project, is intrigued by the study's conclusions about natural gas, said spokesman John Percic. But there are questions about whether gas could be converted in sufficient quantities to produce hydrogen for transportation use, he said from Calgary. Automakers don't see methanol or gasoline as the ideal hydrogen source, said Chris Banks, spokesman for Ford of Canada. Parent Ford Motor Co. is a big investor in Ballard. "Methanol is the first step," said Banks. "Our goal is to use straight hydrogen."
3/20/2000
About the size of a beverage can and weighing less than two pounds, the PFC unit provides 12 watts of electric power at 12 volts with the same simplicity of a battery, without the weight and environmental issues and limitations. Haberman said Enable Fuel Cell Corporation hopes to use the PFC as an effective recharging technology for batteries minimizing the inherent longevity and recharge issues associated with current technology. “Our solid-state fuel cell, designed specifically with users in mind, delivers the features that the commercial customer demands,” Haberman said. “It is part of our strategy to be the first company to provide fuel cells to everyday people for everyday needs. When most of us think of fuel cells we envision space shuttles, urban buses and cars, and large stationary power plants. Yet, we believe fuel cells can also enhance the quality of our individual lives. It is exciting that customers see uses for small, portable fuel cells beyond our own vision.” The Enable Fuel Cell Corporation is also developing a larger “active” fuel cell, with increased power output using a proprietary control system. A 5 kW unit known as the Enable AFC (application fuel cell) will be evaluated soon by strategic allies, public utilities and energy services companies.
3/20/2000 Avista Gets Fuel Cell Patent, Stock Jumps by Jim Brumm - Reuters
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office took more than two years to decide on the patent because the Avista claims are "very broad, very sweeping," said Kim Zentz, president of Avista's Avista Labs Inc. unit. She told Reuters the patent supports Avista's cartridge-based approach. This approach "is reliable and convenient for consumers because fuel cell cartridges can be easily removed and replaced while the power system continues to operate," Zentz said. Explaining that each cartridge produces 60 watts of power, she said the company expects the technology to enter the market in supplemental power sources for residences and small commercial establishments needing more reliable power than provided by their local utilities.
3/17/2000 Blast Injures Attleboro Worker - AP/MSNBC
An explosion Thursday morning in an Attleboro [MA] factory left one woman injured. Fire officials say the accident at the Stern-Leach plant on Pearl Street was caused when hydrogen used in the precious metals factory exploded in duct work at about 8:30. A woman working in the area at the time of blast was hospitalized with what authorities said are non life-threatening injuries. The second-floor explosion shattered several windows.
3/16/2000 Ford Motor Company Recognized as Top Automaker In Global Survey of Environmental Leadership - Calstart/PRNewswire56
"The results of our Green Index(TM) clearly show that Ford's growing commitment to environmentally friendly, clean technologies and vehicles is starting to reap positive image benefits," said Michael J. Gage, president and CEO of
3/15/2000 Clean Fuel Cell Uses Gas - ABCNews/Reuters
The Penn fuel cell is a kind of high-tech battery that combines oxygen and hydrocarbon molecules to produce enough free electrons to generate electricity. Unlike a battery, however, it does not run down or need recharging as long as it is supplied with fuel. Earlier versions ran into trouble because the electrochemical process caused a buildup of carbon that soon ruined the cell. But the Penn team overcame the problem by substituting different materials, for example, using a Cu-ceria composite instead of zirconia for the cell’s anode. As a result, the cell was able to generate one-tenth of a kilowatt of electricity and remain in operation for four days. The process occurred at a temperature of 700 degrees C (1,292 F). Gorte said that equalled only half the amount of heat used in combustion.
3/15/2000 Fuel-Cell Future for Gasoline? by Miguel Llanos - MSNBC
“We've demonstrated that we can run a fuel cell directly on hydrocarbons like gasoline and diesel,” researcher Ray Gorte told MSNBC. “In the past, everyone assumed you had to use hydrogen.” Essentially, the University of Pennsylvania fuel cell streamlines the fuel-cell process. Until now, supplying hydrogen to fuel cells was seen as the best way to power them. The new process gets hydrogen directly from hydrocarbons like gasoline, diesel or natural gas, so there’s no need for extracting hydrogen from costlier and more complicated sources like methane. And because fuel cells are two to three times more efficient than internal combustion engines in how they use energy, a gasoline fuel cell could get two to three times the mileage of a traditional engine. ...Gorte’s team used a “solid oxide fuel cell,” while others have tended to focus on “proton-exchange membranes.” Gorte emphasized that the the experiment was not on a commercial scale and that long-term testing is needed. One hitch is that the cell is sensitive to sulfur, so that gasoline would have to be cleaned further to make it a viable fuel. Moreover, the small-scale fuel cell churns out only one-tenth of the power of a hydrogen fuel cell.
3/13/2000 Solid, Man, Solid… ECD Could Make Fuel Cells Safe and Practical by Paul A. Eisenstein - The Car Connection
While the fuel cell itself is looking increasingly attractive as the "green" alternative to the Internal Combustion Engine, it’s not likely to see widespread use unless and until engineers can find a practical way to store or produce a steady stream of hydrogen gas to feed the fuel cell. Storing hydrogen in liquid form is impractical, since that means cooling it to nearly absolute zero. Storing it as a compressed gas isn’t much better, since it would be difficult—and potentially dangerous—to carry enough to provide much range. So until now, the onboard reformer has seemed the only practical alternative. ...ECD’s hydride mixture absorbs 7 percent of its weight in hydrogen gas. In a given space, that means it can hold three times more hydrogen than in compressed gas form, and 50 percent more than in liquid form. Fill a container the size of today’s typical gas tank with this hydride, and you could hold enough hydrogen to double the range of a conventional, gasoline-powered car. General Motors’ prototype Precept is an example of a hydride-fueled vehicle. Introduced at the North American International Auto Show, last January, it is a five-passenger midsize sedan "that could deliver (the equivalent of) better than 100 miles per gallon fuel economy performance, just over nine seconds 0-60 mph acceleration, and 500 miles range," said Byron McCormick, co-executive director of GM’s Global Alternative Propulsion Center. "And all of this with no compromises in driving safety, crashworthiness and safe refueling." ...While it’s not difficult to produce hydrogen, there’s currently no easy way to get it to the pump. One possibility would be to place reformers at service stations. Given an efficient method of storing hydrogen onboard a car, it would be more practical and cost effective to convert gasoline, natural gas or methanol into hydrogen at a fixed location. Hydrides could provide another alternative, according to Stempel. Hydrogen could be produced at regional refineries, then shipped to service stations on fuel tankers filled with hydrides.ECD is reportedly negotiating with a major oil company that would like to use its hydrides to ship hydrogen from Iceland, where large quantities of the gas are already being produced.
3/13/2000 Promising Industries of 21st Century - Korea Herald
Fuel cells, which generates limitless amounts of energy with only a modicum of electricity and water, are receiving great attention as a next generation energy source that can substitute for oil. The fuel cell is expected to be widely used from mobile telephones and laptop computers to the electric power supply for large buildings and houses. In Korea, several large companies are developing fuel cells. Hyundai Motors has developed the first prototype fuel cell for automobile usage in Korea, and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology succeeded in developing a 40W PEM (roton exchange membrane) fuel cell for laptop computer usage.
3/13/2000 SGL Carbon Reorganizes, Sees New Growth From Fuel Cells by Angela Cullen - Dow Jones
Chairman Robert Koehler also forecast the group raising operating profit to DEM600 million over that period, from DEM200 million in 1999. ...Koehler expects fuel-cell technology to revolutionize the auto industry, with companies such as Porsche and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (G.BMW) leading the way. He said this division could realize sales of more than DEM200 million by 2003 or 2004 if the technological breakthrough occurs. ..."We're in talks with a number of companies (involved in the catalyst part of fuel cell technology) to see about making processes more efficient," he said. ...Germany's Degussa-Huels AG (G.DHA) subsidiary dmc2 Degussa Metals Catalytic Cerdec AG, U.K.-based Johnson Matthey PLC (U.JMA) and U.S.-based Engelhard Corp. (EC) are the three main players in the market.
3/13/2000 US DOE Richardson: Stable Grid Requires Legislation by Campion Walsh and Bryan Lee - Dow Jones
"The reliability of our electric grid is at times faltering, mainly because policymakers have not kept pace with rapid changes in the electric utility industry," Richardson said. In addition to endorsing legislation to create a mandatory and government-enforced system for grid reliability, the task force report called for development of market-based approaches to reliability. Such market-based mechanisms include competitive markets for ancillary services - power generation needed to keep the grid stable - and real-time pricing to give consumers a role in reducing demand when reliability is at risk. The report called for promoting "distributed generation" technologies, such as fuel cells and small-scale gas-fired power turbines, by removing roadblocks to their interconnection with the grid.
3/13/2000 US DOE Grid-Outage Report Boosts Distributed Power by Bryan Lee - Dow Jones
Manufacturers of so-called "distributed generation" technologies got a major endorsement from the U.S. Department of Energy Monday. The agency released a report by a DOE task force looking into last summer's grid outages, which strongly recommended deployment of what is known as distributed power or distributed generation as a means of shoring up grid reliability. "We need to remove the barriers to distributed energy resources - micro turbines that are closer to consumers - to help utilities respond faster to an increased demand for electricity in areas where demand is already high," Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said in announcing the report's release. The government endorsement is seen as a boon for manufacturers of fuel cells and small-scale natural gas-fired power turbines, which generate small amounts of electricity for use on-site by a home or small business.
3/13/2000 [
Europe's leading manufacturer of water treatment technology has seen its shares soar over 130 percent since it announced in January that it had developed a high-performance membrane for use in fuel cells. Billions of dollars are being invested worldwide in developing fuel cells, a pollution-free alternative to batteries as a source of power. ...Dwindling reserves of fossil fuels and mounting concern about damage to the environment caused by carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases have prompted big conglomerates to seek alternative sources. Car makers including Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Honda, Nissan, General Motors and Toyota as well as the big oil groups are all working on the development of fuel cell technology. DaimlerChrysler plans to start limited production in 2004 of a car using fuel cell technology developed by Canadian-based Ballard Power Systems. According to business consultants Arthur D. Little, global sales potential for the fuel cell market should reach three billion euros per year by 2005.Of this, 300 million euros is expected to be generated by membranes in the auto industry alone. ...BWT says its membrane differs from conventional membranes in that it is recyclable. It says rival products such as those made by its main competitor DuPont, Ballard and W.L.Gore & Associates Inc of Goretex fame are generally made from fluoropolymer, a non-recyclable compound. ...Membranes now cost between between $1,000-1,500 per square metre but carmakers say the price needs to be slashed to around $75 to be worth mass-producing. A 50-kw engine needs around 12 square metres of membrane. ...Current annual capacity at BWT's plant in Germany is 40,000 square metres of membrane. Weissenbacher said the group, headquartered in the picturesque lake resort of Mondsee, near Salzburg, would have no problem raising this to meet demand.
3/12/2000 Perth Pioneers Hydrogen-Powered Buses - Australian Broadcasting Corp
Perth has become the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to trial a new hydrogen fuel-powered bus. A two-week trial of the New Electro Bus has been launched by the Premier Richard Court and Transport Minister, Murray Criddle. Mr Criddle says the new buses could be introduced into the current fleet when they become commercially available in about four years time.3/10/2000
Ballard, which has said the key to success in the fuel-cell market will require being one of the first to get its products into commercial production, had research and development expenses of C$19 million in the fourth quarter of 1999, C$7 million more than in the same period 1998. Ballard officials told analysts on Friday they expect to get more productivity from its spending on research and development in 2000, as technical staff added in 1999 become more experienced in the company's operations. The company said that fuel-cell orders in the fourth quarter through its affiliate XCELLSIS and directly from Honda Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. demonstrate progress toward commercializing fuel-cell vehicles.
3/10/2000 Others Ahead of CTA in Buses That Use Less-Polluting Fuel by Robert Herguth - Chicago Sun-Times
The CTA lags behind most major transit agencies in the use of less-polluting alternative-fuel buses, according to a new report from the American Lung Association. Designed to coincide with the CTA's anticipated announcement on the future of its three experimental hydrogen-powered buses, the report says at least 14 major transit fleets have a higher percentage of "cleaner" buses. It calls on the CTA to boost its numbers so half its fleet run on natural gas, electricity or hydrogen by 2010. "One of the concerns is there are plans to buy 1,500 diesel buses [through 2007], but there are no plans to use cleaner technologies, at least not to any significant extent," said Ron Burke, deputy executive director of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago. ...In addition to the three hydrogen fuel cell buses, which were first assigned to routes two years ago, the CTA has 15 that run on Oxy-diesel, a blend of ethanol and diesel fuel. ...Burke noted the CTA canceled plans to buy natural gas buses. CTA officials said they'll continue the hydrogen project if funding can be found.
3/10/2000 `Burping' Tank May Be Running Out Of Gas - The Oregonian/AP
CH2M Hill Hanford Group has completed its third cycle of pumping out liquid waste and venting gas from Tank SY-101, said Richard Raymond, SY tank farm manager for the contractor. Some 714,000 gallons of liquid and sludge remains in the 1.12 million-gallon tank, which has been a problem since the 1980s. Tank SY-101 became known as the burping tank for its periodic release of thousands of cubic feet of hydrogen gas. A mixer pump installed in 1993 took care of that by allowing the continuous escape of small amounts of gas from the tank. But without the huge gas releases, the contents of the tank did not roll over regularly, and gas bubbles and waste particles began to build up in the meringue-like crust floating in the liquid waste.
3/10/2000 Return of the Jetta: Mileage Matters Again by Kris Axtman - Christian Science Monitor
"If you want a large SUV that will haul 3/4 of a ton up a 30 percent grade, be safer than safest car,... get about 120 m.p.g., and emit nothing but hot drinking water, we now know how to do that," says Amory Lovins, vice president of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo., and a long-time alternative-energy guru. Dr. Lovins, who's considering buying one of the new hybrids coming out this summer, has been crusading for more fuel-efficient vehicles since the 1970s. He believes the price of gasoline will become irrelevant as gasoline/electric vehicles turn into hydrogen/electric vehicles in the next decade.
3/8/2000 Hyundai Motor to Seek Tie-Up with Global Giant - Korea Herald
Hyundai declined to disclose details about the alliance, including the name of its prospective partner. But a Hyundai official said the partner will be chosen from General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota and Volkswagen. ...The alliance ranges from technical tie-ups in specific sectors, production of mutually beneficial items and original equipment manufacturing (OEM) supply for the joint development of electric fuel cells. Special focus will go to state-of-the-art electric fuel cells, which Hyundai hopes will make the company play a leading role in restructuring the world auto industry.
3/8/2000 US Energy Dept Awards $11 Mln In Clean Energy Projects - Dow Jones
The department said its awards will fund six projects by private companies, which will develop technologies and design-methods needed to build fossil-fuel energy plants that produce virtually no emissions. The projects fall under the department's Vision 21 program, which aims to remove environmental concerns from the way coal and other fuels are used to generate energy. Vision 21 envisions the development of plants that would use a variety of fuels and recycled emissions to produce multiple forms of energy, including electricity, transportation fuels and chemicals. The department said the proposed awards for the six new projects are as follows:
Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa., $2.1 million.
Eltron Research, Inc., Boulder, Colo., $1.74 million.
Clean Energy Systems, Inc., Sacramento, Calif., $1.77 million.
Fluent, Inc., Lebanon, N.H., $1.5 million.3/6/2000 Melting of Earth's Ice Cover Reaches New High by Lisa Mastny - Worldwatch Institute
The Earth's ice cover is melting in more places and at higher rates than at any time since record keeping began. Reports from around the world compiled by the Worldwatch Institute (see attached data table) show that global ice melting accelerated during the 1990s-which was also the warmest decade on record. Scientists suspect that the enhanced melting is among the first observable signs of human-induced global warming, caused by the unprecedented release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases over the past century. ...Some of the most dramatic reports come from the polar regions, which are warming faster than the planet as a whole and have lost large amounts of ice in recent decades. The Arctic sea ice, covering an area roughly the size of the United States, shrunk by an estimated 6 percent between 1978 and 1996, losing an average of 34,300 square kilometers-an area larger than the Netherlands-each year. The Arctic sea ice has also thinned dramatically since the 1960s and 70s. Between this period and the mid-1990s, the average thickness dropped from 3.1 meters to 1.8 meters-a decline of nearly 40 percent in less than 30 years. The Arctic's Greenland Ice Sheet-the largest mass of land-based ice outside of Antarctica, with 8 percent of the world's ice-has thinned more than a meter per year on average since 1993 along parts of its southern and eastern edges. The massive Antarctic ice cover, which averages 2.3 kilometers in thickness and represents some 91 percent of Earth's ice, is also melting. ...Antarctica alone is home to 70 percent of the planet's fresh water, and collapse of the WAIS, an ice mass the size of Mexico, would raise sea levels by an estimated 6 meters-while melting of both Antarctic ice sheets would raise them nearly 70 meters.
3/6/2000 SAE 2000 World Congress by Alejandro Bodipo-Memba - Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder
The four-day event begins today and will attract as many as 50,000 engineers and salespeople to Cobo Center. ...Government figures show that salaries for mechanical engineers -- the specialty most commonly associated with the auto industry -- have jumped nearly 70 percent since 1990. Companies are not just going after experienced engineers, they are clamoring for newly minted college grads as well. ...According to a recent Jobs.com survey, the average starting annual salary for engineering graduates is $42,281, which is 23 percent above the national average for college students entering other fields. The average starting salary for recent graduates in mechanical engineering is even greater than that at $55,406. ...Driving this demand is the exponential growth of technology. Everyone in the auto industry simply needs more engineers to keep up because the cars of the 21st Century aren't the same machines that Henry Ford built. The internal combustion engine, which has ruled the automotive world for 100 years, is facing serious competition for the first time. Exotic powertrains are showing real promise. Automakers are spending millions to develop fuel-cell engines that can run on hydrogen and electricity, with near-zero emissions.
3/6/2000 The Engine of the Future -Will Fuel Cell End Otto-Cycle Engine’s Reign of Power? by Tod Campbell - ABC
In the long run, the four-stroke internal combustion engine will be a relic of the distant past, something you go see at the Smithsonian Museum, where it will be displayed alongside the manual typewriter and the teletype machine. ...Fuel cells have some incredible advantages over internal combustion engines: They extract mechanical energy from fuel more efficiently; they are much quieter; and, most important in this day and age, they offer the possibility of a pollution-free engine that runs on a cheap, renewable fuel. ...Currently, car companies are pouring massive amounts of money into fuel-cell development. Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and Ballard Power Systems, a Canadian company that is one of the leaders in fuel-cell technology, have invested $750 million in a joint project to develop commercially viable fuel-cell vehicles and they plan to sink another $1.2 billion to bring the car to market. Toyota, General Motors, Ford, and BMW are all racing to build fuel-cell vehicles of their own. The reason for their strong interest? Tighter and tighter emission standards that automakers probably won’t be able to meet with internal combustion engines.
3/5/2000 [
Maurice Schoenwald, co-manager of the New Alternatives mutual fund, is especially keen on FuelCell Energy of Danbury, Conn., which is developing fuel cells for the power industry. On Friday, FuelCell announced that it was chosen by the Department of Energy to help design a power plant using fuel cells. Its stock rose 19 percent to close at $87.25. Schoenwald says FuelCell's technology has the potential to be twice as efficient as that of its rivals.
3/4/2000 Honda Develops Fuel-Cell Vehicle - Chicago Tribune/Spokane.net
Honda has developed hydrogen and methanol fuel-cell prototype models and is committed to introducing a fuel-cell-powered vehicle by 2003.
3/3/2000 Canada Offers CN$450 Million to Renewable Energies - Worldwide Information System for Renewable Energy
The government of Canada will spend up to $450 million on renewable energy, energy efficiency and other sustainable energy options, according to plans tabled February 28 in the federal budget. Since 1998, the government has been developing a National Implementation Strategy for Climate Change to outline how Canada will meet its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by six percent over 1990 levels by the 2008-2012 timeframe. To maintain momentum, the budget provides $700 million over the next three years to protect the environment and to harness new technology that will respond effectively to the challenges of climate change. ..."The development, dissemination and use of environmental technologies are essential as Canada makes the transition to a more environmentally benign information economy," said Martin, who will create a Sustainable Development Technology Fund with initial funding of $100 million to stimulate new environmental technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as wind turbines and fuel cells.
3/3/2000 Ford Motor Company Receives
The Blue Sky Award is presented annually by CALSTART to recognize outstanding marketplace contributions to advanced, sustainable transportation that cleans the air, improves energy efficiency and helps reduce greenhouse- gas emissions. ...In addition to members of CALSTART, the review committee for this award included representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Union of Concerned Scientists and Coalition for Clean Air. Dr. Alan Lloyd, chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), co-presented the award to Ford Motor Company with Michael Cage, president and CEO of WestStart-CALSTART.
3/3/2000 California Fuel Cell Partnership Honored With
CALSTART -- the advanced transportation consortium -- has recognized the California Fuel Cell Partnership with a special Blue Sky Innovation Award(TM) for taking early steps to create a fuel cell market by demonstrating fuel cell electric vehicles in California. The award was presented Friday at CALSTART's Awards Luncheon in Pasadena. On hand to accept the award on behalf of the partnership was John Wallace, Chairman of the Partnership's Steering Committee and Executive Director of TH!NK Group, an enterprise of Ford Motor Company.
3/3/2000 Nissan Joins Fuel Cell Venture by Matthew Jones - Financial Times (UK)
Scientists hope that fuel cells will eventually replace the internal combustion engine to help cut global levels of greenhouse gas emissions which threaten to change weather patterns. ...Last month Shell and DaimlerChrysler said they had successfully developed a fuel cell which could extract hydrogen from conventional gasoline which would allow existing fuel stations and storage facilities to be used. However, high costs mean this is unlikley to be a viable option for years. The partnership's first demonstration vehicles will operate using hydrogen gas itself as the fuel. However, the partnership has enlisted Methanex Corporation, a methanol production and marketing company, to evaluate the feasibility of using liquid fuels at a later date.
3/2/2000 Algae As A Source Of Fuel - The Hindu (India)
Currently, hydrogen fuel is extracted from natural gas, a non- renewable energy source. The new discovery makes it possible to harness nature's own tool, photosynthesis, to produce the promising alternative fuel from sunlight and water. ...While current production rates are not high enough to make the process immediately viable commercially, the researchers believe that yields could rise by at least 10 fold with further research, someday making the technique an attractive fuel-producing option. Preliminary rough estimates, for instance, suggest it is conceivable that a single, small commercial pond could produce enough hydrogen gas to meet the weekly fuel needs of a dozen or so automobiles...
3/2/2000 The Fight to Dump Diesel Buses in California - National Resources Defence Council
Environmentalists, green businesses, and a network of California activists joined forces to lobby the Air Resources Board for the stricter standards. Thousands of letters and phone calls poured into the board's offices strongly urging the agency to clean up California's transit buses. This outpouring of public support made it easier for those fighting for stricter bus emissions rules to counter an extensive lobbying effort by transit agencies and bus-engine manufacturers that wanted to hang onto dirty diesel technology and prevent any strengthening of the pollution standards. ...Many cleaner alternatives to diesel engines are currently available, including electric, hybrid-electric, and natural gas. Current natural gas buses emit up to 90 percent less particulate soot than even the cleanest diesels available, according to U.S. Department of Energy analyses.
3/2/2000 California Fuel Cell Partnership Adds Nissan as Partner, Methanex as Associate Partner - CFCP
Sacramento - The California Fuel Cell Partnership today announced that automotive manufacturer Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., has joined its public-private venture to help commercialize fuel cell electric vehicles. The Partnership has also added Methanex Corporation, a methanol production and marketing firm, to its team of associate partners. The Partnership -- which formally began in April 1999 -- includes auto manufacturers (DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and now Nissan); energy providers (ARCO, Shell, and Texaco); a fuel cell company (
Nissan: Alan Jones - Engineer 310-771-6242
Corp. Communications: Fred Standish 248-488-4227
Methanex Brad Boyd 604-661-2673
CA Fuel Cell Partnership Joe Irvin 916-600-2564
CA Air Resources Board Jerry Martin 916-322-2990
CA Energy Commission Claudia Chandler 916-654-4989
ARCO Cheryl Burnett 562-590-4493
Ballard Power Systems Debby Harris 604-412-4740
DaimlerChrysler USA: Ann Smith 248-512-6502 Germany: Annette Kliem +49-711-179-3307
Ford: Glenn Ray 313-248-5994
Honda Art Garner 310-783-3163
Shell Kitty Borah 713-241-4544 or Stacy Hutchinson 713-241-5660
Texaco Tyra Metoyer 713-752-4784
Volkswagen Tony Fouladpour 248-340-5064
U.S. Dept. of Energy John Townsend 202-586-4258The California Fuel Cell Partnership is a voluntary effort to advance a new automobile technology that could move the world toward practical and affordable environmental solutions. The Partnership will demonstrate fuel cell-powered electric vehicles under real day-to-day driving conditions; will demonstrate the viability of an alternative fuel infrastructure technology; explore the path to commercialization; and increase public awareness of fuel cell electric vehicles. The Partnership will place more than 50 fuel cell passenger cars and fuel cell buses on the road between 2000 and 2003.
3/2000 BMW's Car for Tomorrow by Jean Borge - Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Automotive Engineering
"We feel that hydrogen, generated from a renewable resource such as sunlight, is the only viable long-term solution to providing an absolutely environmentally sound fuel," said Henrich Heitmann, Board Member for BMW AG, at the North American International Auto Show in January. "Use this fuel in a combustion engine, and you can provide the performance characteristics desired by those who seek the 'ultimate driving machine.'"
March 2000 Fuel Cell Enabler by Gerry Kobe - Automotive Industries Magazine
...recently,
Hydrogen News - March and April 2000
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THE ICHC SHORT LIST |
 1) The Riversimple Open Source Car Design
Are Our Designs Free? How does open source car design work? - There’s a technical challenge to share ideas on-line, where there is no satisfactory open source CAD (Computer-Aided Design) application. Our solution is to use a low tech approach at first, using a wiki-based website and freely available 3-D viewers to show the 3-D drawings. In time we may get involved in developing a OS CAD program. - Licensing. We cannot simply take the standard OS software license (the GPL is the most common), since we are dealing with hardware, which is not so well protected by copyright. See further down for some thoughts on the licensing issues. We'd like to hear from you! The stages Stage 1 Over the coming months, starting this month (July 2009), we will make available design schematics from the Riversimple technology demonstrator vehicle, together with a description of each component's function in the whole system, and a vehicle design brief for the production prototype. We will provide a mailing list or discussion forum to enable comments and discussions. At this stage we expect Riversimple, as the creator of the original designs, to be leading the discussions. Stage 2 As the detailed discussions develop, we expect a broad consensus to emerge amongst the participants as to which is the best solution to pursue for each design . By this stage, we expect the conversations to be more democratic, with a broad cross-section of collaborators participate, sharing their knowledge and insights. Stage 3 We start creating detailed designs collaboratively and publishing them on-line. Eventually an entire vehicle will be created, and tested, on-line. We are aiming to complete the design of the production prototype by the summer of 2010. Stage 4 Riversimple and other entrepreneurs, under license from 40 Fires, can start downloading the schematics and building and testing the vehicles. With the lessons from this, work can start on an improved production prototype. Are our designs free (as in beer)? |