Hydrogen News - May and June 2000
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6/30/2000 International Fuel Cells Joins California Fuel Cell Partnership - California Fuel Cell Partnership/IFC
IFC is a division of the United Technologies Corporation (UTC) They have supplied fuel cell power systems to NASA's manned space program. IFC is involved in both automotive and bus fuel cell applications. They are supplying fuel cells using proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology to Hyundai, the Korea-based automobile manufacturer who recently joined the Partnership.
6/30/2000 GM Plans High-Volume Production of Fuel-Cell Vehicles by John Lippert - Bloomberg/Detroit Free Press
General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, hopes to begin high-volume production of hundreds of thousands of fuel-cell vehicles annually before the end of the decade. The company still hasn't decided, however, how fuel will be delivered to the vehicles, or which other new propulsion systems it will sell in the meantime, according to Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research, development and planning. GM hopes to accelerate its research with an announcement by year's end about which kinds of fuel-cell technologies seem most promising, and which ought to be abandoned. It hopes to be joined by Toyota Motor Corp., its primary research partner, and other automakers. ...Toyota and GM are collaborating to test a wide variety of metals and other chemicals that bond with hydrogen molecules under certain conditions, Burns said. ...The Japanese automaker said the project, led on the Toyota side by Managing Director Hiroyuki Watanabe and Director Akio Matsubara, currently has about a dozen teams working on different applications, though it declined to disclose costs involved in the venture or how many technicians are involved.
6/30/2000 Iceland Tapping into the Power of Hydrogen - Irish Times
Recently, Shell and DaimlerChrysler joined forces with the Icelandic government to create a testing ground for hydrogen fuel-cell powered electric buses and cars. These are like electric cars only instead of a battery, which takes up to nine hours to recharge, they have a hydorgen-powered fuel cell, which can be refuelled instantly. In the next 10 years, the plan goes, the almost silent hydrogen-powered buses and cars will be whizzing around the island's capital Reykjavik. If the Icelandic government has its way there will be little need for oil by 2030 at all. ...Indeed, Iceland is the perfect testing ground for such a solution. It has the two natural resources needed for the cost effective production of hydrogen - water and almost free electricity. ...The aluminum company Alcan wanted to build a smelter in Iceland but the country's power grid could not support it. So it financed the building of the first geothermal power plant - taking the energy produced by hot water under the earth's surface and turning it into electricity. If Iceland harnessed all the power from its natural resource, it would have the equivalent of 115 nuclear power stations. Not surprising then that the Icelandic government believes it can reduce the state's annual oil bill, pegged at $150 million (euro 116 million) to almost zero. Even more important is that, despite Iceland's ever-so-green image, the country actually produces 2.6 millions tons of carbon dioxide each year because of the aluminum smelters. This prohibited the country from signing the Kyoto - the international climate agreement that dictates emissions - in 1997. ...When the Icelanders conceived the plan, they figured they would convert the bus fleet in the capital Reykjavik first. Now, however, they have a more ambitious plan. Currently, government officials and venture capitalists are trying to create a company that will convert the nation's fishing fleet to hydrogen fuel cell fishing vessels. And why not? After all, more than 65 per cent of the nation's exports come from fishing-related industries. This means its economy is inextricably tied to the cost of catching fish.
6/30/2000 Farewell to Riches of the Earth by Gyles Brandreth - Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Once upon a time Ahmed Zaki Yamani was one of the most powerful men on earth. What he said, what he did, touched and changed all our lives. From 1962 to 1986 he was the Saudi Arabian oil minister, the public face of the revolutionary policy that, in the early 1970s, sent the cost of petrol through the roof, threw the global economy into chaos and altered the balance of world power. ..."So, my friend, on the supply side it is easy to find oil and produce it. And on the demand side there are so many new technologies, especially when it comes to automobiles. The hybrid engines - the Japanese started that - will cut gasoline consumption by something like 30 per cent. Then you have the cell-fuel cars. This is coming before the end of the decade and will cut gasoline consumption by almost 100 per cent. Imagine a country like the US, the largest consuming nation, where more than 50 per cent of their consumption is gasoline. If you eliminate that, what will happen? I can tell you with a degree of confidence that after five years there will be a sharp drop in the price of oil."
6/28/2000 Research Links Deaths With Pollutants by Matthew Wald - New York Times
Microscopic particles of air pollutants from tailpipes, power plants and other sources are causing measurable increases in deaths and the hospitalizations of the elderly, a study of the nation's 90 largest metropolitan areas has found. The study was conducted by an independent scientific organization financed by auto manufacturers and the Environmental Protection Agency and is scheduled to be released on Wednesday by the Health Effects Institute of Cambridge, Mass. ...At the Ford Motor Company, which is a sponsor of the institute, Phil Colley, a spokesman, said: ''We respect their findings. We're not arguing with their findings.'' In a written statement, the company said it would continue developing new technologies to control particulate emissions, and would continue supporting scientific research.
6/28/2000 Gore Proposes Subsidies for 'Green' Cars, Houses - ABC/Reuters
Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore on Wednesday proposed $48.3 billion in subsidies for purchases of energy-efficient products, including a credit of up to $6,000 for cars that do not burn gasoline. ...The vehicle credits, expected to cost $12 billion over 10 years, would give consumers a $5,000 tax credit to buy hybrid electric and gas-powered cars and sport utility vehicles and up to $6,000 for electric or fuel-cell-powered cars.
6/28/2000 Porvair on a High After its Revamp - Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (UK)
Its four specialised technologies, polyurethane membranes used to make leather and textiles waterproof, advanced ceramics that help handle molten metal, acrylic materials used to mould sanitaryware and materials to solve filtration problems, are doing well. It is also a leader in the development of fuel cells that rely on the chemical generation of electricity. They will be used to power anything from laptops to cars.
6/26/2000 Shell Backs the Hydrogen Revolution - Financial Times (UK)
Don Huberts, chief executive officer of Shell Hydrogen, reckons hydrogen will eventually become the global energy currency of choice as combustion engines are phased out in favour of the cleaner fuel cells. "Hydrogen will have a major impact on our business as renewable energy takes a more important place in our portfolio," he says. Initially, it will be up to consumers to choose where they source their hydrogen from, says Mr Huberts. But eventually it will be cheaper to produce hydrogen from renewables as the necessary technology becomes more affordable and fossil fuel reserves become more expensive to access. Major oil companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on hydrogen research and developments. Already many of them have shifted their emphasis from being "oil groups" to becoming "energy providers". Direct hydrogen vehicles may sound daunting to customers more used to running their vehicles on liquid fuels. But eventually refuelling could become even easier than today. Hydrogen can be stored in powder form as a metal hydride or in carbon "nanofibres", as well as in gas form. Mr Huberts says: "Ultimately it may be as easy as switching a cassette each time you want to refuel."
6/26/2000 Fuel Cell Technology on the Verge of Explosion - Financial Times (UK)
Fuel cells, a 19th century invention that captured the public's attention when NASA and the space program used them, are coming down to earth. With the federal government and private development firms pouring millions of dollars into research and development, fuel cell technology is widely considered to be on the verge of exploding into commercial availability-with utility companies right there to join the festivities. Deregulation of utility markets, a move toward "green" energy, ever stricter environmental rules, and increasingly widespread transmission and distribution problems are combining to enhance fuel cells as a viable technology. Couple all this with the growing need by a number of end users to have an uninterruptible, high quality electricity supply, plus the utilities' need for self-preservation, and fuel cells are rapidly becoming economically feasible.
6/26/2000 Plug Power Weathers Change in Personnel, Teething Pains by Jean DerGurahian - Capital District Business Review (Albany, NY)
In mid-June, William Acker, former vice president of technology and product development at Latham-based Plug Power, left the company to join Mechanical Technologies Inc.of Albany, one of Plug Power's parents. ...Sam Brothwell, an analyst with Merrill Lynch in New York City, said he doesn't see the reorganization as very significant. ...Perhaps more of a concern for the company and investors in recent months was the announcement that Plug Power would not be able to deliver a fuel cell system designed to specifications previously agreed to by its partner and part owner, GE Power Systems of Schenectady. As a result, GE is allowed to renege on some contractual obligations it had with Plug Power. ...GE is continuing its work with Plug Power on resolving the design issue, said Jeff Ignaszak, director of corporate and marketing communications for GE. He said the setback is part of "the invention process."
6/26/2000 Oil Minister Prediction of Oil Industry Decline Accords With Allied Business Intelligence Forecasts - ABI/PRNewswire
Automotive fuel cells will cause wild swings in oil prices. According to K. Atakan Ozbek, ABI Senior Energy Analyst, "By the second decade of this century, mass production of automotive fuel cells will result in first, a glut in the world oil supply and then, in a total rejection of oil as a vehicle fuel. ...Domestic and world demand for fuel, especially for transportation fuel, is growing rapidly. US demand is at a rate of about half that of the rest of the world," notes Ozbek. "Initial fuel cell applications are in stationary power markets but fuel cells are now moving into the automotive sector. The dominant automakers are preparing fuel cell models. We will soon see the maverick of fuel cells, portables, challenge the battery industry by powering cellular phones, laptops and PDAs," said Ozbek.
6/26/2000 DaimlerChrysler Fuel Discovery - Financial Times (UK)
The company said a year-long research project with Shell Hydrogen, part of the Anglo-Dutch energy group, had proved that fuel cell cars could be produced without needing hydrogen or methanol as the main fuel source. "We have shown that the gasoline powered fuel cell vehicles is viable," said Don Huberts, chief executive of Shell Hydrogen. "We will continue to develop this exciting technology, which holds great promise for enabling fuel cell vehicles to rapidly enter the market."
6/26/2000 Tiny Energy Source May Have Big Future by Jon Van - Chicago Tribune/Bergen Record
The cells on Motorola's drawing board would run about 10 times longer than today's batteries before needing a new fuel supply, and the only waste product from the process is water, which would be expelled as vapor. "Fuel cells have an amazing ability to produce energy for longer periods while weighing far less than conventional batteries," says Bill Ooms, director of Motorola's fuel cell research project. For several years, engineers have worked to develop large fuel cells to power homes and automobiles, but Motorola's embrace of the technology on a miniature scale is just the latest signal that this is a technology on the verge of becoming a major force in society. ...A residential fuel cell will be tested in a house being built this summer in Chesterton, Ind., by Energy USA, a subsidiary of NiSource, the gas pipeline holding company based in Merrillville, Ind. NiSource is in partnership with the Institute of Gas Technology to build and sell residential fuel cells that run on natural gas. The joint venture is called Mosaic Energy LLC and is based in Des Plaines.
6/26/2000 Why Is BMW Driving Itself Crazy? by Sue Zesiger - Fortune Magazine
One of the key innovations that BMW is investing heavily in at the moment is hydrogen fuel technology. Most experts agree that within the next handful of years, consumers will see fuel-cell vehicles-- 100% clean engines that run on hydrogen and produce only water as a byproduct--hit the roads. To speed up progress and share some R&D costs, BMW has formed an alliance with Delphi and Renault to pursue fuel-cell designs. (DaimlerChrysler and Ford have also teamed up on similar work.) BMW showed a 7-Series sedan last fall with a climate-control system powered by a brick-sized fuel cell in the trunk. Technicians proudly served the water produced to thirsty passersby at the Frankfurt auto show.
6/25/2000 Sheikh Yamani Predicts Price Crash as Age of Oil Ends by Mary Fagan - Sunday Telegraph (UK)
In an unprecedented personal interview, Sheikh Yamani also predicts that, within a few decades, vast reserves of oil will lie unwanted and the "oil age" will come to an end. In an interview with Gyles Brandreth, he says: "Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil - and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil." Sheikh Yamani, who was Saudi Arabia's oil minister from 1962 to 1986 and is now in charge of an energy consultancy, became the public face of the revolutionary oil policy that altered the balance of world power in the early Seventies. He predicts that a combination of recent oil discoveries, the advance of new technology, and heavy investment in exploration and production will all lead to a collapse in the price of crude. He says: "I have no illusion - I am positive there will be some time in the future a crash in the price of oil. I can tell you with a degree of confidence that after five years there will be a sharp drop in the price of oil." Fuel-cell motor technology - which can produce electricity by combining hydrogen from a variety of fuels with oxygen from the air - will have a dramatic impact on the oil market, he predicts. "This is coming before the end of the decade and will cut gasoline consumption by almost 100 per cent. Imagine a country like the United States, the largest consuming nation, where more than 50 per cent of their consumption is gasoline. If you eliminate that, what will happen?" Saudi Arabia, he says, "will have serious economic difficulties". ...Yamani believes that automobile engine technologies including fuel cells - which can produce electricity by combining hydrogen from a variety of fuels with oxygen from the air - will drastically reduce oil consumption and that, in the longer term, no one will need oil. His views reflect those of many in the industry, although few would go so far as to predict an end to the use of oil.
6/24/2000 Ex-Saudi Oil Minister Yamani Predicts Oil Crash - ABC
Yamani, who was oil minister from 1962 to 1986 and who guided Saudi oil policy during the 1973 Arab oil embargo, said prices would fall due to successful oil exploration efforts and the development of technologies that did not use oil. 'It is coming because oil companies who generated a huge profit from this price of oil are spending so much on exploration and developments. The discoveries which took place in the last three months are significant,' Yamani was quoted as saying. He was quoted as saying the discovery -- as yet unannounced -- of huge oil fields in Kazakhstan and in the northern Caspian Sea, coupled with finds in Egypt, Yemen, Angola and Nigeria would also contribute to increasing oil supplies. ...Other technologies such as fuel cells, which use hydrogen as an energy source, would cut petrol consumption spectacularly by the end of the decade.
6/23/2000 Fuel Cell Bike Pedals Into the Future by Miguel Llanos - MSNBC
Dubbed the "Hydrocycle," the modified mountain bike has pedals but it can also be used like a scooter, with fuel cells providing power to a motor that turns the rear wheel. Testing earlier this month in Germany, where some of the technology is being developed, suggests it has a top mileage range of 70 miles along a flat surface. The top speed is around 20 mph. ...And because fuel cells have no moving parts, the motor makes no noise. ...While NASA and the auto industry design fuel cells that fit in space ships and cars, Manhattan Scientifics' challenge was to make fuel cells small enough and light enough for a bike. The company says it accomplished that by using lightweight materials and sealing technology that replaces gaskets, bolts and screws — research it is now seeking patent protection for. The result is a fuel cell "stack" that weighs around 2 pounds. ...The company believes its Hydrocycle would sell well in noisy, polluted cities, particularly in Asia, where millions already use bicycles or motorcycles to get around.
6/22/2000 Mars Water Could Sustain Human Colonies by Paul Hoversten - Space.com
Because of its chemical components hydrogen and oxygen, water is "a significant resource for exploration at the planet," said John Niehoff, a planetary-program planner at SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.) in Schaumburg, Illinois. Mars already has plenty of oxygen in its carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere. But hydrogen is exceedingly rare. "Hydrogen is a key resource in the development of fuels for all kinds of purposes. You could run surface [power] systems or fuel launch vehicles or create fuel-cell storage devices to manage your electricity," Niehoff said. "We've always been assuming we'd have to bring the hydrogen with us. But with it there, in the form of water, we can go with the equipment and have a power supply. That is a tremendous leverage."
6/21/2000 NYPA Fuel Cell in Yonkers Earns Environmental Award - New York Power Authority/Business Wire
The New York Power Authority's (NYPA) fuel cell power plant at the Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plant in Yonkers has been selected by the New York Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) as its Environmental Project of the Year. ...The 200-kilowatt project is the world's first commercial fuel cell to use anaerobic digester gas (ADG), a byproduct of wastewater treatment, to produce electricity. Up to 40,000 pounds of emissions would otherwise be released into the environment each year from the increased use of power plants to meet the wastewater treatment plant's electricity needs and the burning off of the ADG. ...The fuel cell was manufactured by ONSI Corp. of South Windsor, Conn., a subsidiary of United Technologies. ...NYPA operates a natural gas-fueled project at the Central Park police precinct in Manhattan and expects to place a similar unit in service this summer at North Central Bronx Hospital.
6/21/2000 Solid Oxide Fuel Cells - Electrical World/Australasian Business Intelligence (Australia)
Melbourne-based Ceramic Fuel Cells is running the largest solid oxide fuel cell technology development program in the world. In January 2000, company officials said a revolution is taking place in the electricity and gas industries as community, global and environmental pressures push the need to create more efficient electricity generation, especially with natural gas as the fuel.
6/20/2000 Vermont Legislature Expands Net Metering - Financial Times (UK)
The Vermont House and Senate have passed a bill amending the state's net metering law to be more favorable toward fuel cells. The bill, which was passed in mid-May, is awaiting Governor Howard Dean's signature. Under the new law, all sizes of fuel cells that use a renewable fuel are eligible for net metering; fuel cells under 15 kilowatts (kW) that do not use a renewable fuel are also eligible. Previously, only fuel cells that were powered by a renewable fuel and were under 15 kW were eligible.
6/20/2000 Energy Conversion Devices' Stanford R. Ovshinsky Honored with the Sir William Grove Award - ECD/PRNewswire
Stanford R. Ovshinsky, President and CEO, was honored by the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) with the IAHE Sir William Grove Award at the 13th World Hydrogen Energy Conference, June 11-15, 2000, in Beijing, China. The award was presented to Mr. Ovshinsky for his "life-long contributions to hydrogen energy in general, and to the fundamentals and applications of the metal hydride batteries in particular," noted the president of IAHE, Dr. T. Nejat Veziroglu.
6/20/2000 Hydro-Quebec Considering Fuel-Cell Investment, CEO Says by Jonathan Berr - Bloomberg
Hydro-Quebec Chief Executive Andre Caille said the Canadian utility is considering investing in or forming an alliance with a developer of fuel cells, the low- pollution power systems that companies are considering for use in cars and electricity production. ...Hydro-Quebec also has invested $8 million in Capstone Turbine Corp., a company that's developing microturbines -- small power generators that are expected to compete against fuel cells. Woodland Hills, California-based Capstone said in March that it plans to raise as much as $115 million through an initial public offering. Montreal-based Hydro-Quebec is a utility owned by the province of Quebec, where it sells power to 3.4 million customers. It also sells power to nine municipal power systems, one regional cooperative and 15 utilities in Canada and the U.S.
6/20/2000 [
Ballard] North American Fuel Cell Stocks Gain Sharply - Reuters
Shares of Canadian-based Ballard Power Systems Inc. jumped C$17.00 or 14 percent on the Toronto Exchange Tuesday to C$137. The company's shares traded in the U.S. on Nasdaq were up 11-9/32 to 93. Auto giant DaimlerChrysler AG Monday restated its intention to bring fuel cell-powered vehicles to the market within two years. Ballard is a partner with the automaker in developing the engines. "The Daimler item is quite specific to Ballard, the rest of the (fuel cell) group continues to run off publicity of power outages and, given the seasonal nature of of that, we could be beginning that season now," said Christine Farkas, an analyst at Merrill Lynch on alternative energy firms. ...Fuel cells are also a darling of environmentalists because can generate electricity with only heat and water as byproducts and because they represent a potential alternative in to internal combustion engines for transportation.
6/20/2000 DaimlerChrysler to Invest $1 Billion in Fuel-Cell Cars by Hans Greimel- Detroit Free Press/AP/Knight Ridder
DaimlerChrysler said Monday it would invest nearly $1 billion in low emission vehicles as increasingly restrictive U.S. laws crack down on auto pollution. ...The move prepares DaimlerChrysler for California's zero emissions law, which requires 10 percent of the cars and light trucks sold there to use nonpolluting technology by the year 2003. ..."Fuel-cell cars are not expected to be competitive against traditional gasoline engines in a volume market before 2010," said Hans Scholbach, an auto analyst with Oppenheim Finance in Frankfurt. "But DaimlerChrysler has the lead in the technology and one day when it becomes a volume business, DaimlerChrysler may be able to maintain a higher share in the market."
6/20/2000 NASA's Space Buggies May Someday Speed You to Mars by Alan Hall - Business Week
Known as a "rocket-based, combined-cycle engine," the spacecraft gets its initial takeoff power from specially designed "air-augmented" rockets, which, as do automotive turbochargers, boost performance about 15% beyond that of conventional rockets. When the vehicle's velocity reaches twice the speed of sound, the rockets are turned off and the engine relies on oxygen in the atmosphere to burn hydrogen fuel. At about 10 times the speed of sound, the engine converts to a conventional rocket to thrust it into orbit. Because they are designed to take off and land at airport runways -- and be ready to fly again within days -- NASA says they could "make space transportation safe, reliable, and affordable for ordinary people."
6/19/2000 Auto R&D Firm Eyes Downtown by Celia Lamb and Mike McCarthy - Sacramento Business Journal (California)
A little-known research and development company trying to develop low-polluting automobile fuel-cell technology is moving to downtown Sacramento. Once there, it plans to build a plant to make and demonstrate cars powered by fuel cells. Anuvu Inc. is moving its headquarters from Rancho Cordova to 53,000 square feet at the northeast corner of 12th and C streets, a space 10 times bigger than it has now. The company is looking ahead to 2003, when a state law kicks in requiring that 10 percent of new cars sold in California create no emissions. It hopes to make and sell cars into that market. ...The company is moving from laboratory research and development into demonstrations, said Anuvu's president and chief executive officer Rex Hodge. ...Anuvu's biggest competitors are likely to be big car makers developing their own fuel-cell-powered cars. ..."The automobile manufacturers are trying to figure out how (to) integrate these things called fuel cells into their cars," Hodge said. Anuvu, on the other hand, is starting with a "blank piece of paper."
6/19/2000 DaimlerChrysler Corporation's Juergen Schrempp Calls Engineers to Action On New Energy for Future - DaimlerChrysler/PRNewswire
In just two years, DaimlerChrysler will become the world's first automaker to launch fuel cell vehicles on the market. That is the scheduled delivery date for new city buses equipped with fuel cell drives. In the same year, DaimlerChrysler's plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama will start drawing power from a stationary fuel cell manufactured by the company's subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen. And the first fuel cell passenger cars will be ready to roll another two years after that. ...Schrempp views the fuel cell as the most promising of all alternative drive systems. "The fuel cell boasts efficiency levels greater than those offered by the combustion engine. It can be used in both mobile and stationary applications, can run on regenerative fuels and has the potential to become the drive of the future," he said. The company intends to invest around one billion dollars in the development of this drive between now and 2004. ...Schrempp called on the roughly 3,300 participants at World Engineers Day in Hanover and on engineers around the globe to organize themselves using the Internet. In this way, he said, they would be able to work on securing future supplies of energy without regard to national boundaries. In his speech, Schrempp also dealt extensively with the current discussion, particularly in the U.S., on the dangers inherent in technological progress. One of the leading promoters of this discussion is Bill Joy, chief engineer of the U.S. software company Sun Microsystems. Schrempp pointed out that the estimation of future developments should not be conducted on the basis of what will happen, but on the basis of what can happen. "The decisive factor is that one is well prepared and able to react quickly to events," he said. He distanced himself from the "two-camp theory" as represented by the dispute between euphoric optimists and apocalyptic pessimists. Schrempp categorically pointed to the ability of human beings and the ethically guided will of engineers to tackle the problems of the coming decades in a manner that benefits human beings and the environment.
6/19/2000 DaimlerChrysler to Invest $1 Billion in New Fuel Cell Cars - ABC
The German automaker, a leader in super-low emission fuel cell technology, said the first buses powered by the new engines would be delivered in 2002, with passenger cars following in 2003. ...DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman Annette Kliem said the company would produce only between 20 and 30 buses in the initial batch. She declined to provide figures for additional bus or passenger car production. ...DaimlerChrysler and Ford Motor Co., which is also developing fuel cell technology, have said they hope to sell the cars at 10 percent more than the cost of gasoline-powered vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. are also working on a five-year deal to develop cars and trucks using fuel cells and other environmentally friendly fuel systems. At the announcement, DaimlerChrysler chairman Juergen Schrempp said fuel-cell powered motors "have the potential to become the alternative motor of the future."
6/19/2000 DaimlerChrysler Sees Fuel-Cell Vehicles in 2 Years - Reuters
Speaking at a news conference in Hanover, DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp said that public transport buses would be equipped with fuel cells in just two years time. Two years later the first passenger cars would be fitted with fuel-cells, Schrempp said.
6/19/2000 Internal Combustion Buster by Simon Mann - Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
GM's HydroGen 1, the first road-going, hydrogen-fuelled electric car, is a long way from mass production, but it is the first test car of its type - combining fuel-cell technology with pure hydrogen - to prove itself on the highway. Its vital statistics compare favourably with similar vehicles powered by a 2.5-litre diesel engine: zero to 100 km/h in 16 seconds, a top speed of 140 km/h, and a range of 400 kilometres on a tank of fuel. As a demonstration of its confidence in the vehicle, GM will use it as the marathon escort car at the Sydney Olympics. ...GM says that converting petrol is an interim measure. Winning the pollution fight would almost certainly depend on the world's eventual conversion to hydrogen, which produces no pollutants. "This is the only energy carrier that will be able to satisfy the need for a lasting reduction in carbon dioxide emissions despite a steady increase in the number of motor vehicles on the roads," says Dr Erhard Schubert, co-director of GM-Opel's Global Alternative Propulsion Centre, which has research facilities in Germany and the United States. "This is because it reacts electro-chemically with oxygen in the fuel cell to yield water." Dr Schubert says the enormous potential of the fuel-cell car is that it will one day be powered by hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources such as hydro-electric, wind or solar. He referred to Jules Verne's description of water as "the coal of the future", adding: "Today, we know just how right he was."
6/18-30/2000 Natural Gas Buses Are the Path Towards Sustainability by Sacha Shivdasani
The Report, "Bus Futures: New Technologies for Cleaner Cities," was published by INFORM. The New York-based environmental think tank has studied clean fuel transportation technologies for more than a decade. Joanna Underwood, President of INFORM spoke with The Earth Times the publication. ...They looked the different kinds of fuel, both diesel and natural gas, and the hybrid-electric engine and the hydrogen fuel cell. Underwood said that it is well established that hydrogen is a fuel that can deliver a sustainable transportation system because it is pollution free and renewable. But she admits that this technology has not been tested for commercial use, and is not a viable solution to the air pollution problem at hand. "Compressed Natural Gas isn't the only choice; it is the best choice for this country now. It is the cleanest choice for commercial busses. And it puts us on the path toward sustainable hydrogen. It is the combination of all those factors that makes it such an exciting avenue for change," said Underwood. A switch to natural gas would also reduce US dependence on imported oil. The US imports 50 percent of its oil, and in New York state the figure is even higher, with 85 percent being obtained through foreign imports. This puts consumers at risk to supply interruption and price shocks, much like the one we are experiencing now. "Energy security is an added incentive for CNG, calling on us to use our domestic fuels," said Underwood.
6/16/2000 Germany Decides To Shut Its Atom Plants by Roger Cohen - International Herald Tribune
An agreement reached early Thursday between the ''Red-Green'' coalition of the Social Democratic chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, and the energy industry sets out a program for closing the country's 19 nuclear plants over a period of about 20 years, depriving Europe's largest economy of the current source of one-third of its power. ...Power companies appear to have accepted the accord because they are tired of the constant and costly harassment that has surrounded their nuclear operations and because the current large surplus of electrical power in Germany will allow them at least five years to consider what sorts of new plants they wish to build. The adoption of gas and new fuel cell technologies are central to their plans, while use of coal will almost certainly be limited. The Greens are pushing hard for wider use of solar and wind power
6/16/2000 Germany: Plan To End Nuclear Power Raises Some Questions by Roland Eggleston - Radio Free Europe
How will Germany make up for the loss of the plants that generate 35 percent of its electricity? Dietmar Kuhnt, head of the RWE power company, says the energy operators see no reason to build alternative power plants before 2005 at the earliest. According to him, excess capacity on the European power market is an impressive 40,000 megawatts. This surplus has contributed to an enormous decline in power prices in Germany in recent months. Kuhnt says there are several possible alternatives to nuclear power. "The development of fuel cell technology, mainly on the basis of natural gas, is already at a highly advanced stage," he says.
6/16/2000 ''Hot' Fuel Cells Get Cooler and Cooler by John Roach - ENN
In conventional solid-oxide fuel cells, carbon atoms join together and clog the fuel cell instead of joining with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. Gorte's team overcame this problem by developing a material that does not promote the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. Thus, the apparatus does not get fouled by carbon buildup. The Japanese researchers, led by Takashi Hibino of the National Industrial Research Institute of Nagoya, developed a single-chamber fuel cell with unique materials that operates at temperatures cool enough to deter carbon buildup. "In principle (the technology) could be applied to a regular type of fuel cell," said Gorte. "What they are doing is working at low enough temperatures that carbon buildup doesn't occur." It may take several years of development to work out glitches and get the technology ready for industrial use, according to Subash Singhal, who heads the fuel cell research program at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. However, the Department of Energy recently launched a $35-million-a-year program known as the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance to bring the technology to the marketplace. If successful, cool fuel cells that run on ordinary hydrocarbon fuels may be in operation within the decade.
6/15/2000 DC German Research Lab is Busy by Leah Larkin - Detroit Free Press
The Ulm Research Center, completed in 1993 for about $135 million, forms part of the Science City of Ulm, a research conglomerate involving industry and the University of Ulm. Some 600 DaimlerChrysler scientists and engineers work in four sleek, white buildings. Improvements and enhancements for tomorrow's cars are on the researchers' drawing boards. ..."We are the most advanced with fuel-cell technology," said Dr. Peter Narozny, director of high-frequency technology in Ulm. "We had the technology from our aerospace company, therefore we were the first." His colleague, Dr. Wolfgang Doenitz, director of energy supply and new propulsion systems, explained that DaimlerChrysler researchers are searching for solutions to the problems of the next generation. Fuel is at the top of the list as the world's population and the number of cars steadily increase. "This means oil consumption will be at a maximum," Doenitz said. The challenge is to reduce emissions and fuel consumption but maintain functionality. "By 2004 we will have fuel cell cars on the market," he said.
6/15/2000 Putting a Price on Clean Air by Tim Hirsch - BBC (UK)
On a hillside created by decades of rubbish from the citizens of Hamburg, a giant wind turbine helps supply the energy needs of Germany's second city. The local electricity company which built it now has to produce slightly less power from its coal-fired station across the River Elbe. By making that change, the company has earned what are known as emission reduction credits. These could be used towards Germany's targets to cut the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide which many scientists now believe are heating up the Earth's atmosphere. But Hamburg Electricity has decided instead to become the first European company to put those credits on the international market. It is selling them to Canada's second largest polluter, the TransAlta Corporation of Calgary, the BBC has learned. ...UK firms like Zetec Power, which is developing emission-free vehicle engines powered by hydrogen fuel cells, believe the growing demand for these credits will help pump cash into cleaner technology. Zetec's Gerard Sauer says the finance available from this market, estimated at £900m a year in Britain alone, should make it easier for the company's products to become economically competitive. There are still strong doubts about whether the United States, the world's biggest polluter, will ratify the Kyoto treaty, and even if it does come into force the rules governing these trades are far from clear. A UN conference at the Hague in November is due to settle the remaining arguments about the working of the agreements.
6/15/2000 Shares in Modine Manufacturing Rise on DC fuel-cell Deal by Jonathan Berr - Detroit Free Press (Ohio)
Modine, which also makes radiators and condensers for automobiles, will supply Xcellsis with reformers, which are devices that extract hydrogen from fuel. The company also will make heat exchangers, which can emit the heat created by the fuel cell's chemical reaction or move it into other processes. DaimlerChrysler has a 51 percent stake in Xcellsis. Ford Motor Co. and fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems Inc. own minority interests in the venture. DaimlerChrysler said last month it had received more orders for its fuel-cell-powered buses than it could fill.
6/14/2000 Shell Invests in Green Future by Todd Nogier - CANOE
Oil may one day go the way of the dinosaur, but oil companies won't. That prediction was given yesterday at the World Petroleum Congress by one of the world's largest oil companies -- Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which is investing millions in alternative power sources that analysts say will someday render the industry obsolete. "Just as hydrogen power may be the oil of tomorrow, that's fine, so long as it's Shell hydrogen that everyone's buying," said Jeroen van der Veer, Shell's head man. Unlike many of its counterparts, Shell supports the accord which many have predicted will ravage the industry. ..."For my part, if the world thinks that carbon dioxide emissions should be reduced, I see this as an opportunity," van der Veer told delegates. ..."The Stone Age didn't end because they ran out of stones -- but as a result of competition from the bronze tools, which better met people's needs," he said. Some delegates have suggested society is not ready to make sacrifices to save the environment, but van der Veer disagrees. "I feel there's something in the air -- people are ready to say that this is something we should do."
6/13/2000 'Green' Energy Boom May Hit Boulder City by Greg Harman - Las Vegas Sun (Nevada)
A tenuous alliance forged between the Nevada Test Site Development Corp. and Boulder City -- expected to be finalized tonight -- could spark a "green" energy boom in the vast dry lake bed along U.S. 95, supplying Southern Nevada, Arizona and Southern California with nonpolluting power. The valley also is a prime location for solar and wind power generation, Tim Carlson, president of NTS Development Corp., said. Carlson's vision of a high-tech valley of solar and wind plants selling clean energy in a freshly deregulated market has attracted interest. But before solid negotiations may begin, the nonprofit agency must secure a lease agreement with Boulder City. "We're capable of bringing in the best in the world. Once we get them here we want to keep them here," he said. Though hesitant to name names, Carlson said the companies contacted about moving to Boulder City are all expected to attend the NTS Development Corp.'s second annual GlobeEx 2000 sustainable energy conference and trade show in Las Vegas this summer. ...Test Site Development Corp. Vice President George Ormiston said he met with representatives of three companies -- two domestic, one international -- recently. Though he would not divulge their identities, one source familiar with the discussion said that representatives from Siemans and Duke Energy, both of which are participating in GlobeEx 2000, met with NTS Development staff just over a week ago. Others expected to attend GlobeEx 2000 include Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Texaco, National Hydrogen Association, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, ABB PowerPlant Technologies and the Solar Electric Light Fund.
6/13/2000 Gas Conference Not Short On Enlightenment by Fred Kapner - Dow Jones
Enough lightning to power half the companies attending the World Gas Conference crackled during the opening gala dinner last week. The storm was a reminder that, while gas is increasingly fueling electric generators, the gas industry's basically waiting for the day - 20 or 40 years away - when cheap solar, hydrogen , wind and perhaps even nuclear fusion start eating its market share. Gas may be the energy source of the 21st century, as the conference motto proclaimed, but it's a bridge to the hydrogen age, and that age might be here sooner than many gas executives - but not their scientists - admitted. ...The real savior for the gas industry may yet be more breakthroughs in technology, notably gas-fed fuel cells and microturbines. ...Then again, fuel cells could be fed by hydrogen rather than gas, many researchers believe. For the time being, one easy way to get hydrogen is to extract it from gas. Still, given that hydrogen -based energy systems are likely to be twice as efficient as gas-based, demand will shift down. In that case, as Gaz de France Chairman Pierre Gadonneix also told the conference, "we're in a more and more uncertain environment."
6/13/2000 Cleaner Exhaust Will Cost: Industry - Toronto Star (Canada)
The world's refiners are looking at costs of up to $3.7 trillion to replace 25-year-old oil-refinery and distribution networks, and those costs will be passed on to drivers, said Fabrizio d'Adda, chief executive of Italy's ENI Group petrochemical company. "We've eliminated 95 per cent of emissions from cars, but the next 5 per cent is going to be very difficult," he said in Calgary at the opening of the 16th World Petroleum Congress. The meeting has drawn dozens of protest groups to the city. In non-violent street theatre yesterday, protesters waved giant papier mache suns and cheered Solar Man, a super-hero-type figure with a pith helmet and a bright silver shield. ...Replacing the internal combustion engine with fuel-cell technology, which combines hydrogen with air to generate electricity and leaves only water as a byproduct, is among the best alternative energy technologies, but it's still 20 years from adoption, said Jurgen Hubbert, a manager with DaimlerChrysler AG. Cost remains the obstacle, he said. "It costs about four times more to produce one kilowatt of power from a fuel cell than a conventional engine."
6/13/2000 [
DaimlerChrysler AG will spend at least 1-billion euros ($1.41-billon) in the next few years years to commercialize fuel cells, but significant cost and technological challenges must be overcome before the environmentally friendly power source gains wide market acceptance. Jurgen Hubbert, a member of the management board and head of the giant automaker's smart car efforts, said Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems Inc. is part of a global push to make fuel cells competitive with internal combustion engines. "We are putting in at least one-billion euros before we get the first penny back," he said yesterday while in Calgary attending the World Petroleum Congress. "We are developing with Ballard, and with our partner Ford, technology to reform methanol into hydrogen and then run the fuel cell with the hydrogen ." Ballard, which is partially owned by DaimlerChrysler and Ford Motor Co., is aiming to have commercial versions of its fuel cell powering cars by 2004. He said mass sales are critical to reducing costs, but it is hard to find buyers for the first generation of fuel cell vehicles that will pave the way to further refinements and lower prices in subsequent models.
6/13/2000 Canada Blows Prime Chance to Strut its Stuff: Promise From WPC's Opening Brought to Grinding Halt by Rod McQueen - National Post (Canada)
The opening festivities on Sunday evening held such promise. ...Even Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister, got into the act by arriving on stage amid flag-waving children to declare Calgary as "the capital of the new west." ...Offered the prime spot, the 8 a.m. kick-off plenary session, Canada brought to a grinding halt the momentum begun so well the night before. The speakers were two politicians, Ralph Goodale, federal Minister of Natural Resources, and Stephen West, Treasurer of Alberta, along with the boss of a foreign-controlled firm, Robert Peterson, chairman, president and chief executive of Imperial Oil Ltd. ...And so it was that some 800 delegates were treated to a dreary history lesson about energy development in Canada. ..."Since those heady days, we've never looked back," said Mr. Goodale. Or looked ahead. ...Imagine how much more exciting it would have been to feature Ballard Power Systems Inc., of Vancouver, the world's recognized leader in fuel-cell technology.After all, the future will be all about how fuel cells will generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen. Or, better yet, the morning program could have focused on Global Thermoelectric Inc., another fuel-cell leader, and a home-brew enterprise based right here in Calgary. ...Oh, Canada. We never miss a chance to miss a chance.
6/13/2000 Texas Power Prices In Holding Pattern With Gas - Dow Jones
...output from the 1,250-megawatt South Texas 2 nuclear unit was reduced to 90% early Tuesday for additional work. The unit was cut to 8% last week to repair a hydrogen leak, but had returned to 100% early Monday.
6/12/2000 Oil Congress Tech Leaders: Fuel Cell Technology a Possible Alternative: Applications Years Away: Oil Industry Watches Developments in Leading-Edge Field by Ian McKinnon - National Post
In a small room at the back of a brick building in an industrial park in southeast Calgary, white lab-coated technicians wearing gas masks pour a slurry of grey material onto a table and spread it into a thin film that will be baked, placed in metal frames and bolted together to form the heart of a solid oxide fuel cell. The plant, owned by Global Thermoelectric Inc., is part of an evolving industry long on both potential and uncertainty as it targets two of the biggest sectors of the economy - transportation and electrical power generation. "Fuel cells as a mainstream technology are not going to have much impact until the end of the decade and that's when you get into the market potential of tens of billions," said Peter Tertzakian, a stock analyst who specializes in alternative energy. "From milliwatts to megawatts, one of the beauties of fuel cells is that they are fully scalable." Led by Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems Inc., Canadian firms such as Global Thermoelectric and Westport Innovations Inc., another Vancouver company, are in the vanguard of fuel cell development. ...Standing in the shadow of Ballard has advantages and disadvantages for players such as Global Thermoelectric, which is following a different path by focusing on solid oxide fuel cells. Mark Kryzan, an official with the firm, said Ballard's success in finding major partners and the dizzying rise in its stock price, which peaked at more than $210 per share in March before sliding to about $120, have opened doors for smaller firms. "We like the way fuel cells in the last few years have become a very visible technology," he said. "If it weren't for that, we wouldn't be where we are today. But we're the dark horse and we have a very different take on how to create energy." ...Competition is fierce. Mr. Tertzakian, an analyst with Goepel McDermid Inc., estimated more than 650 firms, organizations and research centres are working on the non-traditional energy source. ...The huge price tag for a pure hydrogen infrastructure is the reason many firms and individuals are betting that gasoline or methanol, derived from natural gas, will serve as a bridge fuel over the medium term. It makes sense, therefore, for delegates at World Petroleum Congress to focus some attention on fuel cells, since the technology could greatly affect their future.
6/12/2000 Fuel Cells: They Bring Good Things to Life by Bethany McLean - Fortune
The real excitement- -and the current focus for companies like Plug Power, Ballard, and IFC--lies in bringing fuel cells to the masses. Big reductions in cost over the past decade are for the first time making that a possibility. Combine a few cells, and you could have energy for, say, a laptop. Stack a bunch together, and you could power a house, or a car. If that proves economical--a big if--then fuel cells could be a $100 billion market by 2010, says analyst Bobby Winters at Bear Stearns. That potential is why some serious money is backing fuel-cell research. General Electric owns 12% of Plug. Ballard Power is 32% owned by DaimlerChrysler and Ford Motor. Indeed, Winters estimates that automakers have spent upward of $1 billion on fuel-cell technology. In January, Bill Gates set off a rocket when a regulatory filing showed that he had taken a 5% stake in Avista, a 113-year-old Washington utility whose subsidiary, Avista Labs, is developing fuel cells. Avista's stock soared 46% in one day. ...All the fuel-cell companies claim to be very close to delivering commercially viable cells. Ballard says that portable products--like Honda generators powered by Ballard cells--will be on the market in 2001.
6/12/2000 Auto-Makers, Oil Refiners Urge Cooperation On Fuels - Dow Jones
"We need your commitment now because the alternatives for the combustion engine are still some years ahead," Jurgen Hubbert, a member of the board of management of Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX), told conference delegates here. "In the next decade, we have to improve conventional combustion engines to defend our individual mobility," he added. Hubbert said he sees fuel cells, which efficiently produce electricity from hydrogen and oxygen with few, if any, harmful emissions, as the first "real alternative" to internal combustion for powering automobiles. However, due to production costs that currently run about four times higher than for conventional automobiles, fuel-cell-powered vehicles will capture only a 1% share of worldwide automotive sales by 2010, he projected. It could take 20 years for significant development of hydrogen -fuel infrastructure, he added. DaimlerChrysler and Canada's Ballard Power Systems Inc. (BLPD) are jointly pursuing commercial development of fuel-cell-powered passenger cars, which they expect to start selling in 2004.
6/11/2000 An Idea That Just Took Off by David Colker - Los Angeles Times
AeroVironment Inc., birthplace of the famed Gossamer Albatross human-powered airplane--has spent years developing a solar-powered aircraft so light and efficient that it could stay aloft for six months. The Helios, as the solar plane is called, would circle slowly at altitudes up to 100,000 feet above cities, relaying ultra-fast Internet, television and telephone signals directly to homes, like a miniature satellite. Its power would come from solar cells mounted on the wings. A major technological barrier on the project was conquered earlier this year, company officials say, with the development of a lightweight, self-contained fuel cell to power Helios when the sun goes down. ..."Everything about this project relates to weight and size," said Ted Wierzbanowski, director of the AeroVironment division that developed Helio's fuel cell. ..."We had to work out about a dozen critical performance matters on this project that had never been done before." Turning to a working prototype of the fuel cell, Wierzbanowski pointed out a key device called an electrolyzer. Using excess power generated by the aircraft's solar cells during daylight hours, the device separates water stored on board into its two chemical components-- hydrogen and oxygen.
6/9/2000 Hyundai Motor Joins Fuel-Cell Alliance Including Ford, Honda by Yoo Cheong-mo- Korea Herald
Hyundai Motor said yesterday that it agreed to join the "California Fuel Cell Partnership," a five-automaker joint consortium set up to build emission-free fuel-cell vehicles by 2003. Hyundai became the sixth member of the California partnership, following DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor, Honda Motor, Nissan Motor and Volkswagen, the company said. Meanwhile, entry into the fuel-cell strategic alliance immediately raised speculation that Hyundai's effort to tie up with DaimlerChrysler or Ford Motor to jointly take over Daewoo Motor would allow for speedier progress. "The membership will pave the way for Hyundai to team up with global majors in standardizing and commercializing next-generation fuel cell technology," said Hyundai Motor spokesman Park Chan-keun. "We are committed to working with global leaders to determine the best path for establishing zero-emission fuel cell vehicles as a viable technology." The agreement was initialed by Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo and Alan Lloyd, chairman of the California Air Resource Board (CARB), during a signing ceremony at the latter's Los Angeles office. ...As part of the partnership agreement, Hyundai will tie up with U.S.- based International Fuel Cells (IFC) to develop six fuel cell vehicles by 2002 at a cost of $10 million. The six fuel cell cars to be jointly built with IFC will use hydrogen , gasoline and methanol as fuels. Earlier on May 24, Hyundai and IFC signed a $40 million fuel cell vehicle project. Meanwhile, according to industry sources, Hyundai recently sent negotiating teams to DaimlerChrysler and Ford, respectively, to discuss ways to cooperate in the Daewoo Motor bidding. Negotiations with Ford are reportedly mired in a deadlock due to equity sharing differences. In contrast, recent press reports said Hyundai and DaimlerChrysler are close to an agreement to form a joint consortium for the Daewoo takeover.
6/8/2000 Futurists See Living 'Off the Land' of the Moon by James McWilliams Huntsville Times (Alabama)
Robots could lay the groundwork for lunar-mining colonies and orbiting solar-power stations could turn space trips into profitable commercial ventures, said Gregg Maryniak, executive director of the X Prize Foundation, a St. Louis-based group promoting space-based commerce. ''You could get 99 percent of the materials for a solar-power station from the moon,'' Maryniak said at the conference, hosted by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center at the Von Braun Center. ... Building colonies in space from materials in space could allow people to live ''off the land,'' like the first explorers visiting the Americas did, said Maryniak and other speakers. The rocks and soil on the moon have aluminum, iron, silicon, calcium, glass and other materials that could be useful in building a power station, and have oxygen and hydrogen that could be used in rocket fuel for propelling lunar materials into orbit or toward Earth, Maryniak said. ''The moon is 40 percent oxygen, by weight,'' said Maryniak. Hydrogen is at the lunar poles.
6/6/2000 Las Vegas Bus Will Exhibit Fuel Cell - Las Vegas Review Journal (Nevada)
6/6/2000 Island Voices: Fuel Cells Hold Great Promise of Clean Power by Dr. Robert Wilder, Director of Conservation, Pacific Whale Foundation on Maui - Honalulu Advertiser (Hawaii)
Recently, energy experts toured the
6/6/2000 BOC Buys Hyundai Unit by David Firn - Financial Times (UK)
BOC, the industrial gases group, has acquired the hydrogen production facilities of Hyundai Petrochemical of Korea as part of a long-term supply agreement. BOC will invest $12m including the acquisition of the plant, which produces 9m cubic feet of hydrogen a day.
6/6/2000 RWE Energie AG Goes for Fuel Cells - Berliner Zeitung/HyWeb (Germany)
Management sources disclosed that the company is planning to start distributing natural gas fuelled fuel cell systems for combined power and heat production for residential use in 2004. RWE will offer financing, operation and maintenance of the systems, the newspaper reports. Internal RWE calculations show that the electricity produced by the fuel cells could in the mid-term reach 14% of the company's electricity sales. This is equal to the amount produced in RWE's nuclear power plants at present. See RWE Energie Builds Demonstration Plant Which is Unique in Europe - 7/2/1999.
6/5/2000 Fighting Global Warming by Mitzi Perdue - Scripps Howard/Rocky Mountain News
Surprisingly, the air you just breathed has a somewhat different chemical makeup from the air you were breathing a few years ago. The concentration of carbon dioxide has been steadily increasing over the years. According to Dr. Robert Socolow, a physicist from Princeton University, the breath you just took probably had around 365 molecules of carbon dioxide in every million molecules of air. If you are 40 and took a similar breath shortly after you were born, there would have been roughly 315 molecules of carbon dioxide. ...In the last few years, scientists have been exploring practical ways of slowing down the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If they're successful, we may be able to address the greenhouse gas issues in a less disruptive way than previously thought possible. Instead of radically changing our entire fossil-fuel-based energy system, we may be able to make it less polluting. How could this be done? The answer involves many approaches, but one major one is the use of hydrogen fuel.
6/5/2000 United Tech Unit to Develop Thor Bus Fuel Cell - Reuters
The company's South Windsor, Conn.-based International Fuel Cells Inc. (IFC) division said it formed an alliance with Thor Industries Inc. and ISE Research to build a nonpolluting bus by the middle of next year. ..."A prototype will be delivered in the next 12 months, but we are optimistic about commercial sales in the future," said Mike London, spokesman for IFC. He did not give a time frame for commercial sales, but said it could happen "over the next few years." ..."These are not for city buses, but the same size buses used by car rental companies to chauffeur people around airports," London said. "Thor will take an existing bus and put this fuel cell into it -- a 75-kilowatt, single-stack fuel cell," London said. IFC is the world's biggest maker of fuel cells, and has sold 250 of them since its formation four years ago.
6/2/2000 Daido Metal Invests Jointly with DCH Technology - Fuel Cell Development Information Center/Neiki (Japan)
Daido Metal invests jointly with DCH Technology, US to establish the joint company in Nagoya. There they will work on the project of mobile PEFC. Daido Metal spends 1.2 billion yens to construct a new factory in Gifu and will start the mass production in the spring of 2001 after the completion of the line for the production. The developed PEFC by the Daido is a cylindrical which stack the round electrodes. This structure enables to circulate hydrogen and oxygen efficiently between electrodes. By supplying a small amount of water from the outside, the water react with the solid calcium and the hydrogen will be automatically produced. By changing the number of the electrodes, various FC from a to 50kW can be made. The size of the cell is a diameter of 7cm, height of 15cm, and weight of 600g for the output of 18W. The cost will be around \50,000 per cell. Daidoh has a technique of putting the platinum catalyst on the electrodes efficiently. The DCH has a patent technique about the material of the electrodes and the total structure. By adding these two technologies, it made possible to lower the cost. For the present, they will make the cell for the leisure such as the outside light. And in the future, they are aiming for the OEM supply as power sources for household and industries.
6/2/2000 U-turn Gives Greens an Identity Crisis by Ralph Atkins - Financial Times (UK)
Thanks to a political system that forced Gerhard Schröder, Social Democratic chancellor, to find a coalition partner, the environmental Green party's radicalism proved no barrier to office - making it the most powerful environmentalist movement in Europe. But almost two years after Mr Schröder's election, and with their poll support down to only 6 per cent, the Greens have this week declared that open hostility towards the car is no longer compatible with the party's long-term survival. A strategy paper drawn up by Rezzo Schlauch, parliamentary leader, and two other deputies, argues that Greens have to accept that any anti-car measures would be rejected by most voters. The emphasis, therefore, should be on promoting more efficient technologies, including hydrogen-powered vehicles. "In the eyes of the young, but also those living out in the country, we had created a communications barrier that made political life very difficult for us," says Mr Schlauch.
6/1/2000 [
The rise of an honest-to-goodness industry based on hydrogen, the world's cleanest energy source, has occurred with a suddenness that even its most zealous advocates can hardly believe. Speaking at the Canadian Hydrogen Conference in Quebec City this week, California's Alan Lloyd, the man who may be more responsible than any other individual for putting clean cars on North America's roads, recalled that just five years ago, boosters of hydrogen-based technologies like fuel cells were considered "zealots" and "hydrogen groupies." Now, he grinned, "It's actually happening." ...Wanda Cutler, marketing manager of Toronto-based Stuart Energy Systems, demonstrates how a car owner could fuel a car with hydrogen. The machine would break down water into hydrogen and oxygen, releasing the oxygen into the atmosphere, and storing the hydrogen until needed. A smaller version of the machine, about the size of a washing machine, will be available for home garages by 2003, with a target price of $1,500 to $2,000.
6/1/2000
It is "no longer an experimental technology," said John Rohr, portfolio manager at Mackenzie Financial Corp., which held 247,500 Ballard shares as of March. "It comes down to grinding away at engineering to improve manufacturing, efficiencies and cost." That's no small task. The company is three years from projected profitability, fuel-cell production costs are 10 times too high to compete with traditional engines, and the industry is still debating concepts as basic as what fuel to use. Ballard also faces competition as United Technologies Corp. steps up efforts to make the cells, while automakers pursue their own research. ..."A lot of investors are looking for new and interesting plays, which Ballard provides, especially with its strong backing from auto companies," said Paul Devlin, who helps run $750-million at MMA Investment Managers Ltd. Ballard has a vote of confidence from Ford, the world's second-largest automaker, and fifth-ranked automaker DaimlerChrysler AG. Ford bought a 15% stake in 1997 and DaimlerChrysler owns about 20%. ...Ballard and Sunbeam Corp.'s Coleman Powermate Inc. unit plan to develop portable and standby power generators for hospitals andconstruction sites to be sold in chains such as Home Depot Inc. Ballard also plans to enter Japan's residential power market. It will begin small-scale production later this year.
5/30/2000 German Greens May Put Anti-Car Policy in Reverse - Environment News Service/Environmental Data Services UK
Leading members of Germany's Green party, junior partners in the ruling red-green coalition, have argued that the party should leave behind its traditional hostility to cars. ...The party's current poll ratings are just six percent and its popularity among young people is particularly low. The paper says Greens must now accept that the car is Germany's "number 1 mode of transport," guaranteeing independent mobility, "security for women" and "[social] status," according to the party's parliamentary leader Rezzo Schlauch and transport and energy spokespeople Albert Schmidt and Michaele Hustedt. ...The discussion paper promotes renewably produced hydrogen fuel cell and solar powered electric vehicles as replacements for petrol, diesel, kerosene and oil and goes on to encourage lightweight "three-litre cars." "In 10 years' time, 10 percent of new vehicles could be hydrogen-powered," Hustedt said on Friday.
5/30/2000 Clean-Power Drive Could Lead to Economic Spinoffs by Jay Bryan- Montreal Gazette
As the once-visionary idea of switching the world's cars, home furnaces and electrical generating plants from polluting fossil fuels to clean hydrogen power begins to move toward practicality, Canadian companies are playing a surprisingly important role. ...a remarkable number of Canadian companies' names come up in association with leading-edge hydrogen demonstration projects. One, of course, is
5/30/2000 Power Play by Jerry Ackerman - Boston Globe (MA)
Along with a small cluster of other companies, many of them in New England, SatCon is betting its future on an alternative energy technology called fuel cells, which generate electricity from units that are compact, nonpolluting, and reliant only on hydrogen for fuel. Others in this field include Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc., a Cambridge-based venture owned by Arthur D. Little Inc. and an Italian fuel-cell manufacturer; International Fuel Cells Inc., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. of Hartford; Giner Inc. of Waltham, a consulting firm in a partnership with General Motors Corp.;
5/30/2000 EU Research Fosters Development of Fuel-less Car - The Auto Channel
According to EU projections for world energy demand, a worldwide economic growth of 3.3% in a business-as-usual scenario would double energy demand between 2000 and 2030 and double energy-related CO2 emissions from 6.3 to 13 Billion tons of Carbon. Two-thirds of this increase can be attributed to developing industrial countries. This would clearly hamper the sustainability of Europe's development and prosperity. The European Commission has therefore supported fuel cell research since 1988. In fact, the budget spend has developed from 8 million Euro in the Second Framework Programme (1988-1992) to 54 million Euro in the Fourth Framework Programme (1994-1998). In the currently running Fifth Framework Programme (1998-2002), 28 million Euro have been allocated so far.
5/30/2000 New Airship Carries Commercial Hopes - BBC
On May 6, 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the Hindenburg was completely destroyed when it crashed and burst into flames, with a loss of 36 lives. The cause of the fire has always been assumed to be an electrostatic discharge setting light to a hydrogen leak. Recent research by a retired Nasa engineer has shown that the airship's lifting gas was not a direct cause of the fire. An expert on hydrogen, Addison Bain studied photographic evidence of the disaster together with remnants of the airship and came up with an alternative theory. He found that the airship's fabric had been coated with a mixture of cellulose nitrate 'dope' and aluminium powder, which is potentially flammable in its own right. As the Hindenburg came into land it passed between two thunderstorms and built up a large static charge. As it touched down most of this electricity passed harmlessly to earth, but parts of the covering remained charged. A spark between two panels set fire to the dope/aluminium mixture in the fabric. The fire quickly spread and in turn set off the hydrogen in the Zeppelin's gas cells. Bain's research has since been confirmed by contemporary German records which were suppressed at the time because of the impact they would have had on the image of German industry just as Nazi power was reaching its zenith.5/29/2000 EVI Rides Into Future on Methanol Fuel Cells by David Reevely - Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
Part of the problem with all fuel cells is that a certain amount of the reactant (whether it's hydrogen, methanol, or something else) gets across the membrane without releasing its energy, and is wasted. That's what Mr. Kimmel calls a "crossover problem," and it's bedeviled many other companies in the business. EVI's solution is to run the leftovers through the cell again, to get back the methanol that's made it through the membrane. It does away with the reformer. "That makes the cells tremendously more efficient," says Mr. Kimmel. "It's actually pretty simple, so it's surprising nobody else came up with it first. We think it's a technology that can be placed into both stationary applications, like generators, and eventually, automobiles."
5/27/2000 University of California, Irvine, Will Host First 'Power Park' by Gary Robbins - Orange County Register
UCI will host the nation's first campus-based "power park," an area where emerging energy technologies provide electricity for commercial customers. The experimental program will generate all or some of the electricity consumed by private companies in University Research Park, a 185-acre tract in and around the northwest end of campus. "We're trying to generate electricity locally, improve its quality, reliability, and efficiency, and cut down on emissions that pollute," said Jack Brouwer, associate director of UCI's
5/26/2000 Introduction of Hydrogen Filling Stations to Get Fast Start - Japan Times
The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, affiliated with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, plans to begin operating the next-generation gas stations in the fall of next year, 18 months earlier than planned. ...NEDO also plans to speed up studies with automakers on developing fuel cell vehicles so Japan can catch up to other industrialized nations that have already introduced hydrogen-powered buses. A pilot station for extracting hydrogen from natural gas will be located on the premises of Osaka Gas Co. in the city of Osaka, and another one for extracting hydrogen from water will be erected on the premises of a Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture-based affiliate of Shikoku Electric Power Co., the officials said.
5/26/2000 Explosion Kills 1, Injures 10 in Donaldsonville by John McMillan - The Advocate (Baton Rouge LA)
An explosion and fire in an ammonia unit at a Donaldsonville fertilizer plant killed one man and injured 10 others late Wednesday night. The blast turned the CF Industries ammonia unit No. 3 into flaming, twisted steel and was felt as far away as Prairieville.
5/25/2000 Hyundai to Develop Electric Car This Year: Carmaker Teams Up with IFC for Fuel Cell Technology by Samuel Len - Korean Herald
At a press conference at its research center near Seoul, the carmaker signed a joint development contract with U.S.-based IFC, which specializes in the development of electric fuel cells powered by compressed hydrogen. "Through the alliance, we will be able to join the ranks of the world's top carmakers in their efforts to develop new fuel technology," said Lee Choong-ku, Hyundai Motor president in charge of R&D. The two sides plan to develop a model equipped with a 75kW fuel cell system within this year and jointly participate in California Fuel Cell Partnership, a test-driving program for electric cars. According to the contract, Hyundai will develop the automotive chassis, motor and transmission, while the U.S. firm will handle development of the fuel cells. An initial prototype will be based on the Santa Fe, a sports utility model Hyundai plans to market beginning next month. Mass production has been slated for 2005. The electric car will come with an aluminum frame to offset the increase in weight caused by the fuel cell system and will be able to reach speeds of up to 124 km/h, the company said.
5/25/2000 Pilot Hydrogen Stations to be Launched Earlier Than Initially Planned - Kyodo World Service (Japan)
A semi-governmental body aims to move forward the launch date of pilot hydrogen stations as part of plans to accelerate the development of pollution-free, hydrogen-powered vehicles, officials said Thursday. The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), affiliated with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, plans to start operating the next-generation gas stations in the fall of next year, about 18 months earlier than initially planned.
5/22/2000 What Could Turbocharge Tiny
FuelCell's primary product is a 250-kilowatt production plant that can fit into a conference room and produce energy at around 10 cents per kilowatt hour. That's nearly twice the cost of power-grid electricity, but the company says it expects to reduce costs to around 6 cents per kilowatt hour by 2003, once its Connecticut factory has completely ramped up production and brought economies of scale into play. If such an efficiency can be reached, the market for their product is difficult to estimate.
5/19/2000 Germany's BMW Puts Lots of Green Into Prototype to Break Fossil-Fuel Chain by Carol Williams - Los Angeles Times (California)
When BMW rolled out 15 sleek silver hydrogen-powered sedans here last week to promote their rather limited market debut next month at the Expo 2000 world's fair in Hanover, the move was more to provoke the leftist government here into investing in alternative-fuel development than to catch competitors off guard. In fact, the Munich manufacturer sent few tremors through the sales departments of Volkswagen or DaimlerChrysler by announcing that it is now ready to deliver hydrogen-powered cars to the consumer. With only two fueling stations in Germany and per-mile driving costs nearly four times those of conventional autos, there remains neither the needed infrastructure nor the market for the 12-cylinder 750 hL, even with BMW subsidizing its $90,000 sticker price to compete with other full-size luxury models. ...."We chose Berlin as the venue for our launch to make clear to politicians that we, the industry, are ready for this, and we want them to have a clear signal that we expect them to act," says BMW's Berlin director, Johannes Neukirchen.
5/19/2000 Doron Levin: From the Law to the Latest Fuel Cell News - Detroit Free Press
In the category of bizarre career trajectories, David Redstone deserves recognition. Redstone, 39, of Ferndale, began publishing "The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Investor's Weekly Newsletter" in February, fulfilling a lifelong interest in science.
5/19/2000 Comment: A Clear and Present Danger by Ralph Torrie - The Globe & Mail [Canada]
Climate change has brought energy back as a policy concern, and with the David Suzuki Foundation, I have revisited the possibility of a sustainable energy future in a report released last month. Using a detailed model of the Canadian energy economy, and assuming 20- to 40-per-cent growth in population and economic output over the next 30 years, we systematically analyzed the potential for emission reductions. When we began, we thought such a future would be radically different from the present, and that sweeping changes in lifestyle and behaviour would be required. What we found was that a 50-per-cent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions in Canada could be achieved over the next 30 years with technologies that are already available. Here's some of what we can do: The fuel efficiency of cars and trucks increases by a factor of two or three over current levels; the vehicles that can achieve this are already coming on the market. Gasoline/electric hybrid vehicles, along with appropriately fuelled hydrogen fuel cells and ethanol made from agricultural wastes all contribute to a drop of more than 60 per cent in emissions from transportation, even while total travel continues to increase.
5/19/2000 BP Amoco Describes Future Energy Economy Powered by Natural Gas to World Energy Council Conference - M2 Presswire [UK]
In a keynote speech to the world's first on-line energy e- conference and exhibition, sponsored by the World Energy Council and BP Amoco (www.energyresource2000.com) Richard Flury, Chief Executive, BP Amoco Gas & Power described how many factors now in place are leading to the emergence of a pre-eminent 'gas economy' in the early decades of the century. ...In a wide ranging speech, Flury noted how gas would become the principal fuel for electricity generation in high efficiency combined cycle gas turbines. The chemicals industry would in large part be based upon gas feed stock using gas-to-liquids and/or gas to chemicals process technology. And gas could also power the transport sector, firstly as compressed natural gas (CNG) in applications such as buses and taxis, and later as the primary feed stock for onboard fuel cells. Fuel-cell fuel could initially be manufactured as clean diesel and/or methanol in gas-to- liquids plant. Later gas could be used as the fuel to generate hydrogen for direct use in on-board fuel cells. Flury described how the technologies for delivering this vision of the gas economy have now largely been invented. But not all have been demonstrated at scale and many technical issues remain to be solved. Nevertheless implementation of the vision has already started and the rate of gas market share growth will likely progress firstly for heat and power generation, secondly for gas-to- chemicals and lastly gas for transport fuels.
5/18/200 Army To Test Clean Fuels by Vicki Smith - Associated Press
The Army will be "cleaner and greener" when it begins testing cleaner-burning alternative fuels for the National Energy Technology Laboratory this fall, a scientist says. ...The agreement gives the lab a testing ground and, eventually, a buyer for both battery-like fuel cells and liquid fuels made from coal, oil, natural gas and waste products from landfills and sewage-treatment plants. ...The lab has about 1,200 employees in Morgantown and Pittsburgh, and nearly $70 million of its annual $482.5 million budget goes toward research on alternative fuels and fuel cells.
5/18/2000 US Senators Propose Alternative Fuel Tax Credit by Doug Palmer - Reuters
Purchasers of alternative fuel vehicles will qualify for a hefty federal income tax credit under a new bill introduced on Thursday by a bipartisan group of six U.S. senators. The bill will allow both consumers and businesses to claim a tax credit equal to 50 percent of the difference in cost between a "dedicated alternative fuels vehicle" and one that runs on gasoline or diesel fuel. Qualifying vehicles must operate on compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane, hydrogen or a fuel that is at least 85 percent methanol by volume. Electric vehicles that run on rechargeable batteries or fuel cells using alternative fuels would qualify for a credit equal to 10 percent of the cost of the vehicle, up to a maximum of $4,250.
5/18/2000 Johnson Matthey in Fuel Cell Development Deal with James Cropper - Financial Times (UK)
The two will collaborate on the manufacture and development of key components in Johnson Matthey's new Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) products for fuel cells. The agreements focus on the development of carbon composite substrates to be used to support the catalysts and other active components within the MEA, which forms the heart of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells. Johnson Matthey will market all of the new products for fuel cells that result from the collaboration with James Cropper's subsidiary Technical Fibre Products.
5/17/2000 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. "We're focused on developing two types of fuel cells -- solid oxide and molten carbonate," said Bob Gee, assistant secretary for fossil energy at the DOE's office in Washington, D.C. "Most importantly is what's going on in the solid oxide area through our partnership with Siemens-Westinghouse. It's an important project because we're trying to get the fuel cell to a point where it is more commercially feasible," he added. 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.
5/17/2000 MTA Plan to Buy Diesel Buses Draws Criticism by Jeffrey Rabin - Los Angeles Times (California)
In an abrupt departure from its role as the operator of the nation's largest fleet of cleaner natural gas-powered buses, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is contemplating the purchase of 370 new diesel buses, even though they produce more air pollution. ...Tom Conner, the MTA's executive director of transit operations, said the issue before the board is not black and white. "It is a tough call," he said. "I feel bad about not continuing with natural gas." But, he said the purchase of diesel buses "seems a reasonable thing to do." ...Eventually, he said, the agency wants to be in a position to consider emerging technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells. "The dilemma is what to do in the interim until the first fuel cell buses are available." The MTA's recommendation to proceed with the diesel purchase has angered the AQMD, which on June 16 will consider adoption of a rule requiring transit operators in the basin to buy only alternative-fuel buses. Chung Liu, the AQMD's deputy executive officer, said the MTA board is trying to squeeze in the purchase of diesel buses before the air quality agency has a chance to impose the new rule. "We don't think it's really a reasonable way of doing things," he said. "They are going to set back our clean air effort."
5/16/2000 [
The new energy technologies being brought to market by a dozen or so North American companies aren't absolutely clean and they aren't always cheap, but they're much better than anything now on the market. One measure of their promise is that alternative-energy stocks, as measured by the Goepel McDermid Energy Technology Index, have tripled in value over the past six months - even after plunging during this spring's sharp drop in technology stocks. And this particular high-tech index has a very unusual feature: unlike an index of North America's biotechnology or computer industries, the alternative-energy index has lots of Canadian companies, which make up more than half its total market value. ...Ballard's proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells are generally regarded as the leading contender to revolutionize the huge automotive market, a view buttressed by the big investments it has attracted from two leading automakers, DaimlerChrysler and Ford. ...Global Thermoelectric of Calgary, a small company that speciaizes in making ultra-reliable generators for remote locations, will soon begin selling a radically different kind of fuel cell. ...Westport's president, Dave Demers, stresses that unlike Ballard, his company isn't seeking to develop a "silver bullet" that will solve all the internal-combustion engine's problems of pollution and inefficiency. Instead, Demers seeks to capture the single biggest environmental and cost opportunity, and to do so quickly.
5/15/2000 GE Unit Joins National Fuel Cell Association - Capitol Business Review (Albany NY)
GE MicroGen of Latham, which will market fuel cell systems developed by Latham-based Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq: PLUG), became a member of the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, the trade association for the fuel cell industry. The council now has 47 members, including fuel cell developers, industry suppliers and potential customers.
5/15/2000 Texaco Appears to Moderate Stance On the Issue of Global Warming by Steve Liesman - Wall Street Journal
In the oil industry, the big Europeans, BP Amoco PLC and Royal Dutch/Shell Group, were early leaders in embracing the need for change. However, the U.S. industry, led by Exxon Mobil Corp., generally has insisted that the global-warming theory is unproven, and that efforts to curb carbon output will do more economic harm than environmental good. Until recently, environmentalists viewed Texaco as backing a set of policies "antithetical to the agenda that we need to pursue to protect our planet's health," said Gregory Wetstone, director of programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. ...Amid the headline-grabbing mergers in the fall of 1998, Texaco Chairman Peter Bijur gave a little-noticed speech in which he posited a world where "we will see multiple ways to power cars -- hybrids, advanced batteries, fuel cells, even cars that run on pure hydrogen." Several months later, in April 1999, the company formed Texaco Energy Systems Inc., a fuel-cells venture.
5/15/2000 U.S. Fuel Cell Council Growing Rapidly - U.S. Fuel Cell Council/PRNewswire
The US Fuel Cell Council (USFCC) has added eight new member companies to its roster. Formed in 1998, with 14 original members, the Council now boasts 47 member companies. ...The newest members of the USFCC approved by the Board of Directors are: GE Micro Generation of Latham, New York; Methanex Corporation of Vancouver, Canada; Enable Fuel Cell Corp. (a subsidiary of
5/12/2000 N.J. Auto Engineers Rev Up a Pollution-Free Prototype by Thomas Zolper - The Record (Bergen County NJ)
In a cooperative project unlike anything in the country, the state Department of Transportation has teamed with several small companies, colleges, and even a few high school auto shop programs to build Genesis -- a car that produces no pollution. Instead of kicking out black smoke, its exhaust system produces only a trickle of water. But unlike the puny electric cars of the past, Genesis has plenty of varoom -- more than 100 horsepower. "A lot of people think electric cars are going to be these little roller skates," said Steve Amendola, whose Monmouth County company, Millennium Cell, manufactured a key component for the car. "I want to be able to do what nobody else can do, and that is take a 5,000-pound [alternative fuel] car on the New Jersey Turnpike at 70 mph and drive it the way I'd usually drive it."
5/12/2000 BP Amoco Confirms Support for California Fuel Cell Partnership - BP Amoco/PRNewswire
BP Amoco p.l.c. today confirmed its continuing support for the California Fuel Cell Partnership, following the combination of Partnership member ARCO with BP Amoco. ARCO was an original member of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, which officially began in April 1999. ...BP Amoco and ARCO merged operations effective April 18, 2000. BP Amoco is an active supporter of hydrogen and fuel cell vehicle technology with representation and participation in both the National Hydrogen Association in the USA and the CEFIC Hydrogen Group in Europe. BP Amoco is also an active participant in the General Motors fuel cell vehicle development program.
5/11/2000 Sweden Invests $5.7m to Boost Gas Use - Financial Times (UK)
"We have doubled our investment in this new programme," SNEA [Sweden National Energy Administration] told FT Gas Daily Europe. "It will fund research into uses for gas, such as combined heat and power units and natural gas vehicles." Approved projects will be funded 40% by the SNEA and 60% by the energy industry. As well as natural gas, the programme will fund research into the use of landfill gas, liquid petroleum gas and hydrogen.
5/11/2000 BOOKS: 'Green' Cars Are Still Up on Blocks, but Not for Long by Eric C. Evarts - Christian Science Monitor
With less than 5 percent of the world's population, Americans produce 14 percent of all global warming carbon-dioxide gas. And car tailpipes pump out more than 30 percent of US air pollution. In his new book, "Forward Drive: The Race to Build 'Clean' Cars for the Future," environmentalist Jim Motavalli concludes that capitalist competition is taking over from government mandates to clean up that exhaust. In the preface, he notes that he set out to write a book critical of the auto industry for teaming up with Big Oil to block development of clean cars. But when he dug in to do more research, he found a different story. Namely that automakers in Detroit, Japan, and Europe are in a heated race to start selling cars that are more environmentally correct.
5/11/2000 Metro Exhorted To Give Up Diesel Fuel by Lindsey Layton- Washington Post (Washington DC)
The best solution to the emissions problem, Requa said, is a fuel cell technology that won't be ready for widespread transit use for a decade. A fuel cell generates electricity from the chemical reaction of combining hydrogen and oxygen into water. The only emissions fuel cells produce are heat and water. Until fuel cell buses are widely available, Metro should stick with diesel buses, Requa said. He said Metro is willing to invest in expensive low-sulfur diesel fuel to cut emissions further. But Graham said the public shouldn't have to wait. He plans to meet with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) to discuss whether Metro can get federal grants to help it purchase compressed natural gas buses and facilities. ...After several meetings with Metro, the Carter Barron Neighborhood Association is now demanding that Metro shut down the bus garage. "This car barn and its managers are dinosaurs, and they're killing us," Johnson said. "There's no justification whatsoever to purchase diesel. There's a cleaner fuel out there."
5/11/2000 DC Fuel-Cell Buses Popular - Detroit Free Press Auto.com/Knight Ridder (Ohio)
DaimlerChrysler AG, Europe's largest industrial company, said it received more orders than it could fill for the first city buses powered by fuel cells. DaimlerChrysler received 17 orders from European cities, though it can supply only 10 with three fuel cell-powered Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses, said Dr. Ferdinand Panik, head of the automaker's fuel-cell project. The company plans to narrow the list of cities this month.
5/9/2000 Stronger-Than-Steel Carbon Unwraps Limitless Potential Nano-Scale Storage Could Power Clean Cars by Michael Wentzel - USA Today
''The potential for nanotubes is quite high,'' says Michael Heben, a senior scientist at the energy lab in Colorado and the team's director. ''No material known to man behaves in the manner of nanotubes. That's why NASA, the automakers and a lot of people are interested in them.'' ...If the tubes can be produced in the required amount and shaped properly, they could become a lightweight hydrogen sponge, ideal for a storage system or a ''gas tank'' in a car. ...And with many working on the production question -- including labs at Cornell University, IBM and Lucent Technologies -- a breakthrough discovery could be made soon, Heben says. ...''There is a big push on,'' Heben says. ''Usually when there is a push, you uncover the critical stumbling blocks . . . or the technology advances. ''Nanotubes today are where silicon and silicon chips were in 1947. We believe there is great potential. We have a long-term perspective.''
5/9/2000 Avista Explores Options for Fuel Cells by Bert Caldwell - Spokane.net (Washington)
Avista Labs has developed a patented design for fuel cells, which produce electricity from hydrogen. There is no combustion, and the only byproducts are heat and water. The design allows the operator to swap cartridges out of microwave-sized subracks without interrupting power production. Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Fla., and Arizona Public Service in Phoenix are among the sites where the units are being tested. Vice President Dave Brukardt said performance has been so good Avista Labs has been asked for more units than it has the capacity to produce.
5/9/2000 Avista Looks for Help with Fuel-Cell Unit's IPO - Seattle Post-Intelligencer/Bloomberg
Avista Corp., a Pacific Northwest utility owner, said yesterday that it hired investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co. to help it consider alternatives for its fuel-cell unit, including an initial public offering.
5/8/2000 Microturbine Firm Hopes IPO Generates $115 Million by Karen Kaplan - Los Angeles Times (California)
Though they produce relatively inexpensive electricity, they are noisy, they can be unreliable, they typically require major maintenance after 10,000 to 12,000 hours of operation, and they emit a relatively high amount of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, which depletes the Earth's protective ozone layer, said Neal Elliott, a senior associate with the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, a nonprofit think tank in Washington. ...Fuel cells could be even cleaner than microturbines if they use the proper fuel. (The cells use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, but hydrogen isn't commercially available yet.) They are silent and extremely reliable because they have no moving parts. But they are about three times as expensive as microturbines, Elliott said, although prices for both devices are expected to drop over time.
5/8/2000 We Need Clean Hydrogen Soon by Dr. Robert J. Wilder - Engineering News-Record
At last, a long-overlooked technology promises to transform much of society, including the construction industry. Offering clean and abundant power, fuel cells may end our reliance on oil and help minimize pollution and global-warming gases. But to take full advantage of this 161-year-old technology, we need to find ways to produce hydrogen cleanly, economically and plentifully. In the past few months, investment analysts and others have begun paying a great deal of attention to a vision of a world powered by fuel cells with little or no pollution. Yet fuel cells are not new. Invented in 1839 by William Grove, a British amateur physicist, the fuel cell was once viewed as a novelty. Until recently, fuel cells were used only sporadically, where cost is not the overriding issue such as in spacecraft. But sooner than most in the construction industry might realize, professionals such as architects, engineers and contractors may begin working with fuel cells on a regular basis. Cost-cutting technological strides are being made in producing power from fuel cells at costs that may soon be low enough to meet or beat all competitors, even oil, the priceleader. Consider the progress by
5/7/2000 Trucks Carrying Hazardous Cargo Getting Free Pass by Doug Caruso - Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)The signs directing hazardous- cargo carriers around Columbus went up in 1987, shortly after a tanker truck carrying highly flammable liquid hydrogen crashed at the interchange of I-71 and I-70 near Downtown. Both highways were closed for 12 hours. Authorities evacuated an area bounded by Main Street, Parsons Avenue, Livingston Avenue and S. 4th Street. Children's Hospital prepared for a possible blast as if a tornado were coming. Dana G. "Buck'' Rinehart, mayor at the time, remembers it well. "Of the eight years I spent as mayor, that is the nightmare I relive most,'' Rinehart said recently. "That would have been a disaster of national proportions because it would have involved the lives of little children who were sick.'' Even after the near-miss in 1987, the city's hazardous-cargo law was rarely enforced. A 1989 Dispatch story said that a handful of truckers had been cited since the law was enacted but only after they had crashed.
5/4/2000 Ford Demonstrates P2000 Concept - Powered by Ballard Fuel Cells - Ford/Canada News Wire
Four federal Ministers today got a crystal-ball glimpse of the future and a chance to drive Ford's 21st century P2000, a hydrogen fuel cell-powered concept car, developed with significant Canadian content. ...The P2000 is Ford's first, no-compromise, family-sized fuel cell research vehicle. It also represents a technology that Canadian families could be driving by 2004, when Ford aims to bring fuel cell vehicles into limited production. The car demonstrates how pure hydrogen, converted to electricity within Ballard's revolutionary fuel cell, can provide clean, zero-emission power for a new generation of automobiles.
5/4/2000 No Diesel Buses by 2025: Chicago Transit Authority Plan by Robert Herguth - Chicago Sun-Times
The CTA recently completed a test involving three zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell buses, and it is searching for outside funding so it can experiment with the next generation of machines. Even if that doesn't occur, CTA hopes that fuel cells will be more efficient and less expensive by 2005, so the CTA can start buying them for active duty, Reynolds said. By 2025, the goal is to have the entire fleet operating on fuel cells, he said. Jerry Trotter, senior project manager for bus programs at the American Public Transportation Association, said advancing technology will make that goal realistic--though potentially costly. Each of the three fuel-cell buses costs the CTA about $1.5 million, while new diesel buses cost about $230,000 apiece, officials said.
5/3/2000 Hubble Finds Much of the Universe's Missing Hydrogen - Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA
Previous observations show that billions of years ago this missing matter formed vast complexes of hydrogen clouds -- but since then has vanished. Even Hubble's keen eye didn't see the hydrogen directly because it is too hot and rarefied. Instead, Hubble found a telltale elemental tracer -- highly ionized (energized) oxygen -- between galaxies, which the hydrogen heats to the temperatures observed in intergalactic space. The presence of highly ionized oxygen between the galaxies implies there are huge quantities of hydrogen in the universe, which is so hot it escapes detection by normal observational techniques. ...Astronomers detected the highly ionized oxygen by using the light of a distant quasar to probe the invisible space between the galaxies, like shining a flashlight beam through a fog. Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph found the spectral "fingerprints" of intervening oxygen superimposed on the quasar's light. Slicing across billions of light-years of space, the quasar's brilliant beam penetrated at least four separate filaments of the invisible hydrogen laced with the telltale oxygen.
5/3/2000 Texaco Buys Stake in Troy Energy Firm by Jeffrey McCracken - Detroit Free Press
Texaco Senior Vice President William Wicker said Texaco became interested in fuel-cell technology 16 months ago and began looking at investing in various alternate-fuel companies late last year. They were familiar with ECD and began talking to Stempel and Ovshinsky in January about taking a stake in the company. ...White Plains, N.Y.-based Texaco and other oil companies once would have been considered opponents of anything that threatened reliance on fossil fuels. But Texaco said the investment in ECD is part of its effort to be an energy company, not just a oil company. The move is also, Texaco noted, a way to cover its bases, should the energy landscape change in the future. "Our long-term goal is to provide affordable energy, whatever energy that is," said James Metzger, Texaco chief technology officer. "There are other forms of other energy, like hydrogen, that can be profitable, clean and available at our service stations."
5/2/2000 Texaco Takes Alternative Fuel Cell Step by Timothy Gardner - Reuters
Texaco Inc. on Tuesday became the first U.S. major oil company to take a big stride toward hydrogen energy, a clean energy that could one day replace petroleum. Texaco, the third largest oil company in the United States, agreed to invest $67.3 million for a 20 percent stake in a fuel cell and alternative energy company Energy Conversion Devices Inc. The move comes just two months after the White Plains, New York based oil company quit the Global Climate Coalition, a business group that opposes the Kyoto treaty's approach to fighting global warming.
5/2/2000 Texaco Buys 20 Percent Stake in Energy Conversion - Reuters
In a joint statement, the companies have also agreed to establish joint ventures for the development and commercialization of advanced energy technologies, initially in the fields of Energy Conversion Devices' proprietary Ovonic solid hydrogen storage technology and the Ovonic regenerative fuel cell. Texaco's interest in Energy Conversion Devices will be managed by Texaco Energy Systems Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Texaco established in 1999 to focus on developing fuel cells and hydrocarbons-to-liquids.300
5/1/2000 Future of Fuel: Micro Fuel Cells - Environment News Service/Wired
A miniature fuel cell with a volume of only five cubic millimeters -- the size of a pencil eraser -- has been developed by researchers at Case Western Reserve University. The new fuel cell was produced using high-tech mini-fabrication techniques.
5/2000 The Personal Fuel Cell: DCHT's portable Innovation Debuts in Germany - Scientific American Fuel Cell Industry Report
"Acceptance" might be the word to describe what was seen by staff from DCH Technology who attended the March 20-25 Hannover Industrial Fair Joint Exhibitions on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies, Systems and Products. Company representatives observed the positive reaction of attendees as DCHT's newest product, a hydrogen gas-powered fuel cell about the size of a cola can, simultaneously powered a toy train, a miniature radio and a lamp. Resulting queries regarding immediate scale-up potential from this 12 W system proffered a distinct feeling "of having arrived with this technology, of people accepting hydrogen and fuel cells as conceptually viable for many of their power requirements," recounts David Haberman, DCHT chairman. "The level of acceptance of fuel cells by global equipment builders at the Fair who are now using diesel generators or lead acid batteries was unexpected,? he adds. "They wanted to know how to switch to fuel cells in short order, and what the criteria are to apply the technology. They don't see fuel cells as some interesting laboratory species, but rather a power solution ready to move into manufacturing mode. We found that to be a dramatic moment."
5/2000 Making Metallic Hydrogen by William J. Nellis - Scientific American
By re-creating extreme conditions like those in Jupiter's core, physicists have at long last turned hydrogen into a metal. Future work on metallic hydrogen might bring revolutions in electronics, energy and materials.
5/2000 DaimlerChrysler Offers First Commercial Fuel Cell Buses to Transit Agencies, Deliveries in 2002 - H&FCL
Like its predecessor, the fuel cell Citaro's eight compressed hydrogen gas tanks are carried on the roof over the front axle. But the 250 kW fuel cell system which in the NEBUS was in the back where normally the diesel engine is located, is now on the roof in the center. The main reason for the switch was to achieve more balanced weight distribution but also to extend the low-floor configuration offering optimal passenger flow all the way to the rear of the bus. The main electric motor is in the back (the NEBUS was powered by hub-mounted electric motors). Range is about 186 miles (300 km), and top speed is 50 miles/hour (80 km/h).
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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)? |