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12/29/2000 Hydrogen Fuel
Cell Hums to Life - CBC (Canada)
The auto industry is very excited about the prototype of
Ford's latest Focus. That's because of what's under the hood – hydrogen fuel cells to
provide energy for an electric motor. ...Test engineer Brian Gillespey says the technology
is cutting edge. "We have the potential here to basically change the way we drive
vehicles and power them. And go to a completely clean way of driving." Gillespey says
all the major automotive companies are looking at the technology. They're working on
partnerships with the big oil companies in order to head towards what's being called 'the
hydrogen economy.' A Vancouver-based company, Ballard, manufactures fuel cells to power
the electric drive. It's part of an alliance with Ford Motor Company and Daimler-Chrysler.
12/26/2000 Iceland Sees the
Future — In Hydrogen by Seth Dunn - Environmental News Network
My quest has brought me to the cluttered
office of Bragi Arnason, a chemistry professor at the University of Iceland whose
30-year-old plan to run his country on hydrogen energy has recently become an official
objective of his government, to be achieved over the next 30 years. ``I think we could be
a pilot country, giving a vision of the world to come,'' he says to me with a quiet
conviction and deep, blue-eyed stare that reminds me of this country's hardy Viking past.
...Today, many experts are watching Iceland closely as a ``planetary laboratory'' for the
anticipated global energy transition from an economy based predominantly on finite fossil
fuels to one fueled by virtually unlimited renewable resources and hydrogen, the most
abundant element in the universe. The way this energy transition unfolds over the coming
decades will be greatly influenced by choices made today. How will the hydrogen be
produced? How will it be transported? How will it be stored and used? ...Iceland is unique
among modern nations in having an electricity system that is already 99.9 percent reliant
on indigenous renewable energy-geothermal and hydroelectric. The overall energy system,
including transportation, is roughly 68 percent dependent on renewable sources. This, some
experts believe, prepares the country well to make the transition from internal combustion
engines to fuel cells, and from hydrocarbon to hydrogen energy. With its extensive
renewable energy grid, Iceland has a head start on the rest of the world and is positioned
to blaze the path to an economy free of fossil fuels.
12/26/2000 Hydrogen or
Gasoline? Debate to `Fuels' Agenda at SAE World Congress - The Auto Channel
"The question of fuel choice for fuel
cell vehicles remains an open one," says Paul J. Berlowitz, ExxonMobil Research &
Engineering Co. and SAE panelist. "The major practical barrier to widespread
introduction of fuel cell vehicles is the need to provide hydrogen to the fuel cell.
Development of onboard hydrogen storage may be practical in the future, but will require a
large R&D effort. At this time, a practical solution for hydrogen storage is not
available." According to Berlowitz, numerous factors such as safety and health
concerns, infrastructure cost and public acceptance must be considered before a fuel is
selected. "While hydrogen may be a long-term fuel source for fuel cell vehicles,
current work in fuel processing of "gasoline" fuels could produce a practical
vehicle in the next several years. We are currently actively involved with OEM partners in
developing gasoline-based fuel cell fuel processors and determining the fuel requirements
for these processors."
12/26/2000 PGW, Sun Fires
Probed by Mensah M. Dean - Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
As early as today the Fire Marshal's office
may release the preliminary causes responsible for last week's back-to-back fires at the
Philadelphia Gas Works plant and at the adjacent Sun Oil Refinery. At the height of its
destruction, the Friday night five-alarm Gas Works blaze left upwards of 5,000 homes
without heat, snarled traffic on surrounding Southwest streets and filled firefighters and
civilians alike with fear of other explosions as plumes of orange fire rose above the
plant. The Saturday night Sun inferno packed less punch at two alarms. Sun officials
said the blaze resulted from hydrogen leaking from a compressor machine.
12/23/2000 Tomorrow’s Technology Today
by Marci Wormser - Santa Clarita Signal (CA)
 DCHT, which holds exclusive
licenses with national laboratories to develop and adapt hydrogen sensor and fuel-cell
technologies to private enterprise, opened a second location in the business park in
September. ...The increased production will allow DCHT to develop new sensors and increase
its productivity of its current generation of sensors, said DCHT’s Chief Technologist
Peter Jardine. “What we’ve done is we’ve recreated a little piece of
the Silicon Valley in Santa Clarita,” said David Haberman, co-founder
and chairman of DCHT. ...The facility is the largest manufacturing facility in the world
dedicated to hydrogen safety. It includes a first-of-its-kind Class 1000
Semiconductor Clean Room Applications Engineering Laboratory. The new facility was
dedicated to the memory of Larry Parsons, a DCHT employee who died in September 1999. His
widow, Marcie, as well as U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon were present at the
dedication ceremony. McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, is a supporter of the
Hydrogen Future Act, which outlines a national initiative for the implementation of
hydrogen to improve the energy security position of the United States. “We are
here dedicating this center as a unique national resource that will develop and build
equipment to serve today’s modern industries and tomorrow’s hydrogen
economy,” McKeon said Friday. “The current energy crises impacting the
entire nation and felt here in California can be addressed in part by hydrogen energy and
fuel cells,” he said. “And the hydrogen sensors and safety systems manufactured
here at DCH Technology will enable the use of hydrogen energy.... I congratulate DCH for
its accomplishments here, and I believe that hydrogen is the future, and its safety will
be protected by equipment built here.” VIDEO Get Quicktime
12/23/2000 Fire at PGW Creates Heat
Emergency by Jacqueline Soteropoulos - Philadelphia Inquirerer (PA)
A separate fire tonight nearby at the Sunoco
Inc. Philadelphia Refinery caused fewer problems, but did draw a two-alarm response from
firefighters. It erupted shortly before 8 p.m. in a hydrogen unit at the Girard Point
section of the refinery. ...Sunoco spokesman John McCann said refinery workers decreased
hydrogen pressure to the unit to let the fire burn itself out. ...Firefighters
fought the blaze for hours at the 3100 block of West Passyunk Avenue, and were fearful a
nearby tank of liquefied natural gas could ignite. Deputy Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers
explained that because the methane was in a liquid form, it would have caused a much more
devastating explosion than ignition of methane in its usual gaseous form. "It would
have been catastrophic if it had ignited," Ayers said today.
12/21/2000 Morgan County Home to ZeTek,
ORNL Project - Oak Ridge Online (TN)
ZeTek Power Corp. will soon be using technology licensed
from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and setting up shop in East
Tennessee. ZeTek, a subsidiary of the United Kingdom-based ZeTek Power, is a leading
manufacturer of fuel cells and expects to employ 150 people within two years at the former
Advance Transformer plant in Morgan County, according to an ORNL press release. ...At the
heart of ZeTek's alkaline fuel cell system will be two ORNL technologies. One removes
carbon dioxide from the fuel (hydrogen from natural gas, propane and other readily
available gases) and from air. This technology avoids the release of carbon dioxide into
the environment. The other technology is a method for manufacturing the carbon elements
(used in the electrical swing adsorption) through a slurry molding process.
...ORNL's Carbon Fiber Composite Molecular Sieve is one of the technologies that
enable the ZeTek alkaline fuel cell system to be robust and inexpensive to operate. The
novel activated carbon was developed as a result of ORNL's long history of carbon
research. The other ORNL technology that ZeTek will use is called electrical swing
adsorption and involves passing an electric current through the carbon fiber base material
to rid it of the carbon dioxide captured from the fuel or oxidant.
12/18/2000 Ballard Chief Isn't Worried
About California Decision by Allan Dowd - Calgary Herald/Reuters
(Canada)
"The bottom line for us is that we
think it is positive for us . . . because it provides a road map about how fuel cell
vehicles are going to be adopted," chief executive Firoz Rasul told Reuters in an
interview Friday. ...The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is scheduled to vote Jan.
25 to amend a 1990 decision that would require 10 per cent of the vehicles produced for
sale in the state to be zero emission by 2003. The changes would require only two per cent
of the vehicles to be zero emission, and a further six per cent be "extremely
clean" natural gas or other vehicles. The change is a clear blow to makers of
battery-powered cars, but supporters say it is a recognition that other technologies such
as fuel cells -- which were relatively unknown in 1990 -- were making headway. ...Rasul
said technology used in hybrid cars, such as drive systems, can also be used in fuel
cell-powered vehicles so their mass production will reduce the cost of fuel cell cars when
they also reach the market.
12/18/2000 Power Play: Fuel-Cell Stocks by
Hal Plotkin - CNBC
" FuelCell Energy is my top pick in
the space," says Maureen Murphy, energy analyst at Lehman Brothers based in New York.
"I feel very confident in their ability to get it done. They have a consistent record
of under-promising and over-delivering." ...Worries about the potential impact of the
pending change in the federal administration have also put something of a damper on
fuel-cell stocks over the past month or so. Some observers felt that a Gore administration
might have been more sympathetic to the alternative-energy industry. But others say a Bush
administration, with its emphasis on energy deregulation, will be exactly what the
fuel-cell firms need. ...Murphy agrees about the positive, or at least neutral, impact of
the new federal administration on fuel-cell prospects.She says that the energy policy
outlined during the presidential campaign by President-elect Bush bodes well for fuel-cell
stocks, given his stated desire to wean the United States from its dependence on foreign
oil supplies. "Given the closeness of the election, George Bush is not going to want
to alienate the Green vote, particularly in places like Oregon, if he seeks
reelection," Murphy says. Murphy adds that the identity of the president is far less
important than what is going on in the supply-constrained electricity market. Nonetheless,
she notes that within two weeks of the election, FuelCell Energy's stock had fallen about
55% from its all-time high."The market anticipated a Bush victory and punished the
[fuel-cell] stocks as a result," Murphy says. "We believe the reaction was
overdone. It creates one of the best buying opportunities we've seen."
12/17/2000 Fuel Cells May
Provide Electricity for Those Living Off the Grid by Linda Ashton -
AP/Miami Herald (FL)
A machine the size of an office copier could one day
bring heat and light to thousands of homes in the West at locations so remote they're out
of reach of electrical transmission lines. Fuel cells, essentially batteries that don't go
dead, run on oxygen and hydrogen and have the potential to replace wood stoves, noisy
generators and kerosene lamps for those living off the grid.
12/15/2000 VTA Board Picks
Diesel South Bay Won't Get Natural-Gas Buses by Alan Gathright - San
Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Despite impassioned pleas that switching to
natural gas-powered buses would protect the public from cancer-causing diesel fumes, the
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority board voted 7-to-5 yesterday to choose
lower-emission diesel engines. ...The board's diesel backers underscored that VTA is
committed to ''aggressively" bringing fuel-cell buses into service as early as 2007.
But critics fear that a delay in the new technology could leave the county stuck with
diesel buses for more than a decade. ..."The board majority sent clean air to the
back of the bus," said Jason Mark, an environmental advocate for the Union of
Concerned Scientists. "We see that as a mistake."
12/14/2000 'Electricity in a Box' Could
Supplement Power Grid by Linda Ashton - Daily Southtown/AP (IL)
Energy Northwest, a public power consortium of 13
utilities, is participating in a Bonneville Power Administration test of Bend, Ore.-based
IdaTech's fuel cells. The Energy Northwest fuel cell has a steady-state capacity of three
kilowatts and can handle peak loads of about five kilowatts — the power demand of an
average home. Fueled with methanol, it is supposed to last indefinitely, although that's
still to be determined. The first-generation fuel cell has had some reliability problems
with automatic shutdowns, but "it's very close to being a very practical
device," says Stan Davison, a resource development specialist for Energy Northwest.
The second generation of fuel cells from IdaTech, a subsidiary of Boise-based Idacorp, are
expected to be ready for testing early next year, and the Bonneville Power Administration
has said it will work with utilities to place some in homes. At $25,000 each, these
machines are not yet priced for most homeowners. But the cost per unit is expected to drop
eventually to the $5,000 to $7,000 range.
12/13/2000 Solar Power
Seeks a Place in the Sun by Andrew Callus - Reuters
"The energy sector is moving slowly away from the
fossil based energy economy towards the hydrogen based energy economy, driven by the fuel
cell because that works best on hydrogen,'' said Impax investment manager Bruce
Jenkyn-Jones. Hydrogen may be everywhere around us, but it still needs energy to separate
it out and turn it into a fuel. "In the much longer term solar, wind and renewable
technologies are the only sustainable way to generate hydrogen,'' said Jenkyn-Jones.
12/13/2000 Be Your Own Utility by
Jared Kendall - The Advocate (LA)
Imagine if you could buy a car that cost
only a little more than a gas-powered model but that you could refuel yourself (making
hydrogen from electricity is easy -- just pass current through water, and the water
becomes hydrogen and oxygen gas), one that was silent to operate, and one that could in a
pinch even power up your house. Just put a big old plug somewhere under the hood, and
throw in a hookup to the home's wiring.
12/11/2000 Going Nuts for
Fuel Cells - E4: Engineering/New Scientist
Researchers at University of Newcastle have
made a seasonally pertinent discovery that may well enable fuel cells to run on hydrogen
gas derived from hazelnut shells. Fuel cells use hydrogen to generate an electric current,
and researchers have been trying to make them efficient enough to power electric and
hybrid cars. But no one has decided how that hydrogen will be best produced. Murat Dogru
of the University of Newcastle believes that hazelnuts could be an answer. He said Turkey,
the world's largest producer, incinerates around 250,000 tonnes of shells a year. ...Dogru
believes a year's supply of Turkey's nutshells would produce 6000 tonnes of hydrogen,
which would be enough to allow 1000 of today's prototype hydrogen-fuelled BMWs to travel
32,500 kilometres each.
12/8/2000 Battery Power
Lagging in Clean-Air Contest by Gary Lolakovic - Los Angeles Times (CA)
California
air regulators are proposing a major shift in their strategy for smog-free cars:
downplaying battery power in favor of other technologies that may not be as clean, but
have more long-run potential for commercial and environmental success. The new proposal
effectively ends the idea--once held out as the solution for California smog--of hundreds
of thousands of battery powered cars humming down the freeways. Instead, more
consideration will be given to other clean technologies, such as fuel cells, hybrids and
natural gas engines. Under new guidelines that the state Air Resources Board plans to
unveil today, pure zero-emission vehicles [ZEVs] will occupy a dramatically diminished
position in the 10-year-old program, which was created to ensure their widespread use by
2003. ..."We have not given up on batteries, but the timetable has been turned back
due to lack of progress on batteries in the mid-1990s," said Air Resources Board
spokesman Jerry Martin. "These other technologies have moved faster and caught up, so
we are recommending that the zero-emission [vehicle] rule make room for them." ...The
air board will consider the proposed revisions to the electric-vehicle regulation when it
meets Jan. 25.
12/7/2000 California Air
Board Approves Guidelines for ZEV Incentive Program - CARB
The Zero-Emission Vehicle Incentive Program is the result
of legislation signed by Governor Gray Davis on September 30, 2000 (AB 2061 –
Lowenthal). The program will provide a total of $18 million in grants to reduce the
incremental cost of new ZEV purchases or leases over the next three years.
Individual grants totaling up to $9,000 may be provided over a 36-month period.
These grants are available to qualified private and public consumers who purchase or lease
a new ZEV between October 1, 2000, and December 31, 2002. If each recipient is awarded the
full $9,000, this program would support 2,000 vehicles. Applications will start being
taken as soon as December 15, 2000 with the first grants being distributed by February 1,
2001. The program may only provide grants to individuals, local government, state
agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private businesses purchasing or leasing an
eligible ZEV.
12/6/2000 [ FuelCell
Energy] Los Angeles Bids
on More Industrial Fuel Cells by David Hammer - Waterbury
Republican-American (CN)
The company announced Tuesday that Los Angeles City
Council has authorized the city's Department of Water and Power to pay FuelCell $2.45
million to have two 250-kilowatt fuel cells installed by the first quarter of 2002. It is
the second order in a year from the nation's largest city-owned utility, with 1.4 million
electric customers. Last year, Los Angeles' DWP ordered one of the power plants —
which are built in FuelCell's manufacturing facility in Torrington. ...DWP is funding its
fuel cell project under the Public Benefits Program developed during California's 1996
utility deregulation process. Part of that program concentrates specifically on fuel cell
technology and other methods of generating power that put control of production in the
hands of individual users as opposed to utilities.
12/6/2000 Texaco Moves
Ahead with $2 Bln Angolan LNG Plant by Colin McClelland - Reuters
Five consortia are bidding to design and engineer the
project, said Antonio Orfao, Sonangol's concessions manager. A leading consortia includes Anglo-Norwegian
engineering group Kvaerner, and Brown and Root, an industry source said. Other consortia
are led by Foster Wheeler, French oil services provider Technip and Broken Ridge. The call
for bids is expected early in 2001, final approval in 2002 and the first LNG cargo in
2005. ...Markets for the proposed plant's four million tons a year of LNG include
Brazil, Spain, France and the United States. The plant will use a fleet of four ships able
to carry 135,000 cubic metres of gas each.
| CHBC Note: The development of a global
Liquified Natural Gas distribution system is a foundational element of a hydrogen economy
because many elements of NG infrastructure are compatible with hydrogen. Liquified
Hydrogen (LH) and LNG technologies are also similar. Ocean-going LNG tankers are
powered by boil-off natural gas. Future LH tankers, perhaps transporting LH from
Iceland to Europe, may be powered by boil-off hydrogen gas (if other hydrogen storage
technologies, such as hydride, carbon or high-pressure do not prove more cost effective).
It is particularly encouraging to see Texaco undertaking this bold LNG expansion in light
of their recent investment in hydrogen technologies through Texaco Energy Systems, Inc.
(TESI). more |
12/4/2000 Celanese,
Honda to Make Car Fuel Cells - Reuters
Celanese said it would provide Honda with
solid polymer membranes which would run with a Honda-produced mechanical component to form
membrane electrode assemblies (MEA). ...``It is our intent to become the leading MEA
supplier to the emerging fuel cell industry. This agreement with Honda is crucial to our
success in the automotive sector,'' Celanese management board member Ernst Schadow said in
a statement. ...Schadow said in October that the Celanese membrane, made from
polybenzimadazol, a high performance plastic made exclusively by the company, was capable
of working at twice the temperature managed by rival manufacturers.
December 2000 Hydrogen: Fuel of the Future?
- Better Homes & Gardens
Major benefits to using hydrogen fuel cells revolve
around the element's abundance, as well as the fact that the chemical process to generate
electricity does not produce any harmful emissions. In fact, the only by-product from the
chemical reaction is water. Also, since hydrogen is a nonpetroleum fuel, using it reduces
this country's dependence on foreign-produced oil. Prototype cars are being tested today,
but along with technical challenges come problems with infrastructure. Stop on any
downtown street corner and you can fill your car with unleaded, but where do you go to get
hydrogen? Today's answer is: nowhere. Tomorrow, however, that may all change.
11/30/2000 Fuel Cells
Generate Interest for Home, Business, Vehicle Use by Rick Robinson -
Daily Oklahoman
If fuel cells take off, that could offer advantages to
natural-gas- rich Oklahoma, said Dr. William W. Talley II, chairman of the board of
Oklahoma City-based RAM Energy. Talley, who holds OU doctorates in chemical and nuclear
engineering, said natural gas is the best source for supplying the hydrogen fuel cells
require. Lobban said natural gas is best for supplying fuel cells because it is more
hydrogen-rich than other fuels. He said he believes that stationary fuel cells, which can
simply be fed from a gas line, will take off faster than mobile applications, which are
plagued by fuel processing issues. Fuel processing is the task of separating a fuel's
hydrogen from its other components. It is a problem for vehicles — the question of
fuel storage and conversion for mobile fuel cells is a thorny one. It also is a major
barrier to developing cheaper fuel cells, because about a third of a fuel cell's cost goes
into the fuel processor and related equipment, according to GTI. ...Meantime, the pace of
fuel cell development appears to be picking up. The federal Department of Energy is
predicting that more efficient, second-generation fuel cells costing $1,000 to $1,500 per
kilowatt will be available by 2003, with even more efficient models costing about $400 per
kilowatt available by 2015.
11/27/2001 Fuel Cells
Kindle Investor Energy by Beverly Goodman - Red Herring
H Power (Nasdaq : HPOW), Millennium Cell
(Nasdaq : MCEL), and Proton Energy Systems
(Nasdaq : PRTN) all went public within the past few months. While those IPOs may seem to
coincide neatly with the rising cost of fuel, that's not the whole picture. "We're
seeing a convergence of factors never seen before," says William Fogel, a power
technology analyst for First Albany. "The deregulation in the utility industry has
increased innovation; the transportation grid is in jeopardy thanks to an increase in
electrical demand from an Internet-based economy; there's a growing need for increased
reliability; and there's an increasing recognition of the environmental degradation caused
by the combustion engine." ...Portable applications for fuel cells, like generators
and boat engines, are also expected to be commercialized soon. Ballard Power
Systems (Nasdaq : BLDP), with more than 370 patents issued or pending, has proven
itself in nearly all fuel cell applications and has promised to bring a small fuel
cell-powered generator to market in 2001. "They don't make promises they're not able
to keep," says Christine Farkas, a senior specialist and director at Merrill Lynch.
"They've never disappointed." Ballard has also made significant strides in the
automotive market and owns 27 percent of Xcellsis, a fuel cell engine maker that is a
joint venture with DaimlerChrysler (NYSE : DCX) and Ford Motor (NYSE : F). ...While not a
pure-play on fuel cells, Impco Technologies
is well positioned to see its fuel cell business grow along with its other alternative
fuel delivery, storage, and power electronics systems. Mr. Fogel expects Impco's products
to compete for 40 percent, or $5 billion of the forecasted $12.5 billion automotive fuel
cell market in 2010. (Its much more down-to-earth P/S ratio of 1.6 is an added attraction
for investors -- any risk involved in Impco's fuel cell development is hedged by its full
involvement in the alternative fuel industry.) "They're involved with almost every
aspect of General Motors's global alternative fuel production, design, and implementation
efforts," Mr. Fogel says. Impco was hit particularly hard this spring, and is still,
at $18, 65 percent off its March 6 high of $52. But by using a 45 multiple on projected
2006 earnings per share of $2.86 and applying a 20 percent discount, Mr. Fogel arrives at
a price-to-earnings-to-growth ratio of less than one -- a conservative multiple for stocks
with similar growth prospects. Mr. Fogel sees more than a 100 percent upside for the
company's stock, expecting it to return to its high in the coming 12 months.
11/27/2000 Petrol's
Days of Dominance Numbered - Auto.com
US Senator Harry Reid, who has been
campaigning in Congress for hydrogen to be used as a fuel, said: "Relying on the
Middle East for energy weakens national strength. The US could be energy self-sufficient
with hydrogen. Trade balance sheets show that oil imports drain $US1 billion from the
economy every week."
11/27/2000 Technology Center Lets Science
Work by Stephen Uhles - Aughusta Chronicle (SC)
One of the showy examples comes from the
hydrogen labs. There, scientists have been working with metal hydrides, complex mixtures
of various alloys that allow for storing hydrogen at low pressure. This technology was
originally developed for controlling unruly isotopes, but it has also been found useful in
the development of fuel cells. The result has been engines that eschew the petroleum
standard for a much more environmentally-friendly alternative. ...``We feel this is the
fuel of the future,'' said the hydrogen lab's Edward Danko. ``The key reason, of course,
is because it is a very clean fuel. When you burn hydrogen the byproduct is water, very
clean water.'' Already, the SRTC hydrogen metal hydride technology has been incorporated
into a city bus, tested on the streets of Augusta and an industrial utility vehicle called
the Gator. Mr. Danko said the next logical step will be applying the technology to the
mining industry. ``There are a lot of restrictions placed on underground mining,'' he
explained. ``Noise from engines, gas fumes and particulates are real issues for worker
safety. Those restrictions have pointed arrows toward metal hydrides being very key in the
future.''
11/25/2000 Climate Talks
End in Failure - BBC (UK)
The failure of the talks to reach agreement
on the detailed working of the international climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, means its
ratification will now be delayed. ...The World Wildlife Fund said: "Persistent
efforts to weaken the Kyoto Protocol, in particular on the part of the US, Japan, Canada
and Australia, brought the talks to the current impasse." ...Greenpeace said:
"This meeting will be remembered as the moment when governments abandoned the promise
of global co-operation to protect planet Earth."
11/25/2000 US Forces
Climate Target Climbdown by Paul Brown - The Guardian
As national delegations and green groups
voiced their dismay, the French environment minister, Dominique Voynet, said on behalf of
the EU: "This is a step backwards." ...The obstacle is the US insistence that it
should be able to meet its target indirectly by growing trees to absorb carbon from the
atmosphere rather than by cutting its consumption of carbon-based fuels. ...The conference
of 180 countries was intended to create a legally binding agreement setting maximum
emissions from developed countries. Some are allowed increases, but the EU has agreed an
8% cut, the US 7% and Japan 6%. Climatologists say that a reduction of at least 60% is
needed to stabilise the climate.
11/24/2000 Cabrio Version of M3, Solar-Powered Sedan in the Works -
Financial Post (Canada)
BMW's hydrogen-powered 750HL luxury sedans
previously featured in Driver's Edge have passed the 100,000-km mark in everyday testing.
The fleet of 15 luxury sedans -- powered by a 203-hp version of BMW's conventional
5.4-litre V12, but fuelled with hydrogen -- were used as shuttles for a recent world's
fair. BMW claims they were refuelled hundreds of times without incident and there were no
technical breakdowns. "The combustion engine offers benefits in terms of cost,
performance capacity and weight. For mobile use, it cannot be replaced by the fuel cell
with an electrical engine. While fuel-cell automobiles exist only as prototypes, the BMW
hydrogen cars are on the road every day," explains Anton Reisinger, project manager
of BMW's Clean-Energy strategy. Because they are fuelled by pure hydrogen, the 750hLs emit
no pollution and consume zero hydrocarbons. BMW says the main source is solar energy.
11/22/2000 Climate Talks May be Moot Amid
Green Power Advances by Richard Valdmanis - Reuters
Judging from the sound and fury emanating from the global
climate talks in the Hague this week, the world's politicians may be living up to their
reputation for being ten years behind the times. While their concerns about global warming
are justified, advances by private business in making fuel cells and other green
technologies financially viable could make all the political hand-wringing redundant
before too long, analysts say. "If some of the thinking about technological
advancements is even approximately correct, its going to absolutely swamp the levels of
carbon reductions talked about at the Hague," said Thomas Feiler, director of the
environmental think-tank Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in Colorado. ...Experts say that
emissions are already set to slow down as the majority of new power generation being
installed in the U.S., the leading polluter in the world, uses cleaner-burning natural
gas, instead of notoriously dirty coal. But more radically, fuel cells, a developing
technology which produces clean energy using hydrogen, should be powering homes within
three years and could be commonplace in automobiles by the end of the decade.
11/22/2000 Small is Beautiful by
Chris Hewlett - The Guardian (UK)
The most exciting technological advances in energy, as in
communications, electronics and biology, are micro in scale. Solar panels, wind turbines,
fuel cells and domestic boilers which generate electricity in the home as well as heat,
are all developing rapidly and do not require the sort of capital investment that
old-style mega power stations did. Until the liberalisation of the energy sector only lone
voices such as Amory Lovins in the United States or Walt Patterson in the UK would
contemplate such a transformation. Now the big companies are getting in on the act. BP and
Shell are moving into the solar market. Offshore wind turbines are being built in northern
Europe and promoted by major engineering companies such as AMEC. BG Group, part of the old
British Gas, is developing new micro-CHP boilers which will produce electricity and heat
in the home. ABB, a major power engineering company, has pledged to move its business into
wind turbines and fuel cells. Nearly all the major motor manufacturers in the world are
developing vehicles based on fuel cells which convert hydrogen into electric power, with
an exhaust gas of water vapour. Last week, the chairman of BMW urged the UK government to
promote the use of hydrogen as a fuel.
11/21/2000 H Power Leads Quiet Revolution
for Fuel Cells - Reuters
The New Jersey-based company, which itself made its
initial public offering in August, announced last week it has installed a prototype
propane fuel cell at Canada's Hydro-Quebec research lab for testing with an aim to using
the unit to power homes, particularly in rural areas where the web of power lines do not
reach. While burning propane, a hydrocarbon, still causes green house gas emissions,
Gibbard says the fuel cells would be "a step in the right direction" because of
their efficiency. Plus these fuel cells rely on on propane distribution infrastructure
that already exists, unlike other fuel cell fuels like methanol. The move adds to a list
of the company's other milestones, including an $81 million supply agreement with Energy
Co-Opportunity, an association of U.S. rural electric cooperatives, and a military
contract through Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. H Power's focus on power
generation, as opposed to the more attention-grabbing advances in automobiles, reflects an
emerging realization in the market: fuel cells likely will become part of our lives within
a couple of years, but you probably won't see them under the hood of your car.
11/21/2000 Energy Crises
Feared if Oil Prices Gyrate by William Drozdiak - Washington Post
China alone expects to have as many as 170 million more
cars on its roads two decades from now. By conservative estimates, the proliferation of
cars throughout the developing world will boost global oil consumption to 115 million
barrels a day by 2020 from 76 million barrels today.World energy demand is expected to
double by 2030 and quadruple by the end of the century. ...And lessons of the 1973 oil
embargo notwithstanding, the United States and Europe can expect to become more reliant
than ever on oil from the politically turbulent Middle East, because it remains the
cheapest place in the world to extract the product. Crude exports from Iran, Iraq, Saudi
Arabia and other Persian Gulf states are expected to grow from 17 million barrels a day to
more than 41 million barrels a day by 2020.
11/19/2000 Global
Viewpoint: A Common-Sense Solution to Global Warming by James Hanson
- Bankok Post (Thailand)
With a little more willingness the world
could still avert the terrible consequences of human climate forcingthat currently
threaten life as we know it. ...Evidence continues to build that the world is slowly but
surely getting warmer. Almost all mountain glaciers are retreating. It was discovered this
year that even the deep ocean is warming. ...One worry is sea level, which will rise as
glaciers melt and as ocean water expands from warming. A rise of three feet, a possibility
this century, would submerge island nations such as the Maldives and the Marshall Islands,
and it would be devastating to those who live in Bangladesh and on the Nile Delta. ...We
need to develop clean fuels and renewable energy sources, and remove barriers to energy
efficiency. Improved technology, perhaps including fuel cells and hydrogen power, can help
reverse the trend to greater gas-guzzling vehicles. Utility profits should be designed to
reward improved efficiency and decreased air pollution.
11/18/2000 Organisation is
Knot a Problem - BBC (UK)
French scientists have developed a way to spin into
fibres one of the new wonder materials of modern chemistry. Carbon nanotubes, which
measure just a few billionths of a metre across, have extraordinary electrical and
mechanical properties - in particular, outstanding strength. They are likely to find
applications in many hi-tech areas, from tiny electric devices to extra-resistant
coatings. "The main point of this work is that we have processed the nanotubes into a
form that is of practical use," co-researcher Dr Philippe Poulin told BBC News
Online. "And we very pleased because we think the method is simple enough to be
scalable to an industrial level." Dr Ray Baughman, a material scientist with
Honeywell International, said long and ultra-strong nanotube fibres could be used in a
variety of future applications, from artificial muscles to hydrogen storage.
11/18/2000 Climate Talks Stall Over US
Proposal for Carbon 'Sinks', Pollution 'Credits' by Robin Pomeroy -
Reuters
The European Union firmly rejected a U.S.-backed plan to
set aside forests and farmland as ``sinks'' to soak up carbon dioxide (CO2), the main
global warming gas. It sees the use of forest and farm sinks as evading the real issue.
Senior U.S. diplomats said the powerful farm lobby could accept such a plan if they were
paid for ``climate friendly'' activities like setting aside land for forestry or using
farming methods that release less carbon from the soil. This would allow Washington to
meet its Kyoto targets for cuts in gas emissions, without having to bring in tough
controls that could hit industry and consumers. ...While the EU and U.S. remained at
loggerheads, some delegates and Green groups accused Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil
exporter, of trying to hobble attempts to piece together a deal. The Saudis argue they
stand to lose billions of dollars in oil revenues if agreements to trim greenhouse gas
emissions lead to lower world oil consumption. ``We would lose $25 billion a year by 2010
if the Kyoto cuts are implemented,'' Mohammed al-Sabban, head of the Saudi delegation,
told Reuters earlier. ``There will be no outcome if our concerns are not adequately
addressed.''
11/17/2000 GM Makes
Fuel-Cell Vehicle Progress - Car and Driver
Byron McCormick, co-director of GM's Global Alternative
Propulsion Center, announced that GM has successfully tested its current generation
gasoline fuel processor at more than 80 percent efficiency with a breakthrough catalyst
system. The catalyst will be used in the next-generation fuel processor that will be
installed in a Chevrolet S-10 pickup that GM plans to demonstrate in early 2002. The
processor will be 50 percent lighter, half the size of the previous generation, and
capable of starting in less than three minutes, compared to the 12-15 minute start times
in previous generations, GM said in a press release. In another step toward developing
fuel cell systems for commercial use by the end of this year, GM says it will demonstrate
an integrated system with this advanced fuel processor and a fuel cell stack that produces
25 kw. GM selected the 25 kw system as a learning platform, which approaches the overall
efficiency requirements for automotive use.
11/17/2000 GM Alters Fuel-Cell Strategy; Precept
Shelved; Firm Will Convert Existing Vehicles by Joe Miller - Detroit News
Although the hybrid Precept shows promise, McCormick
downplays the future role of hybrids and other alternative fuel vehicles that are powered
by diesel, methanol or ethanol fuel. Fuel cells, he said, are the future and will be in
high volume vehicles by the end of the decade. He said his job won't be done until GM
sells its millionth fuel-cell vehicle. However, the setbacks in advanced projects, such as
the fuel-cell Precept, show how far GM and other automakers still have to go. When Pearce
unveiled the Precept at the Detroit Auto Show in January, he said it would use a new
hydride storage system that was safer and more practical than storing liquid hydrogen.
Pearce promised the storage system would be ready by year-end. The announcement, however,
was premature. GM officials now say they are at least two years away from developing a
working hydride storage system.
11/15/2000 CTA Slows Down Plan for
Low-Emission Buses by Robert Herguth- Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
...Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health
programs for the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, said the organization
is "a little disappointed that they backed off on this. Ten million [fewer] dollars
is a lot of money." The organization released a report earlier this year that found
the CTA lagging behind most metro areas in use of cleaner-burning buses. Although the
agency was a pioneer in testing zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell buses, its fleet remains
almost exclusively diesel. "The reason we're advocating for alternative fuel buses is
because there's a problem in the city. There's a lot of pollution," Urbaszewski said.
11/15/2000 Deep Mantle
Volcanic Plumes Cause of Atmospheric Oxygenation - Penn State (PA)
"Oddly enough,
the rise of oxygen seems to be linked to what may have been Earth's first
glaciation," says Dr. Lee R. Kump, professor of geosciences. "After the
glaciation that occurred 2.4 billion years ago, the amount of oxygen in the Earth’s
atmospheric may have been about the same as it is today. Prior to that glaciation, the
amount of oxygen was essentially zero, far below the amount necessary to support
oxygen-breathing life." Kump and James F. Kasting, professor of geosciences and
meteorology, together with their Australian colleague Mark Barley, have developed a
conceptual model that suggests vulcanism caused a rapid change in oxygen content and the
glaciation, but this was a different type of vulcanism than had occurred up until then.
"Previous to 2.4 billion years ago, volcanoes spewed hydrogen, carbon monoxide and
methane into the atmosphere because their magma source from the near upper mantle, was
very reduced," Kump told attendees today (Nov. 15) at the annual meeting of the
Geological Society of America in Reno, Nev. Cyanobacteria produce oxygen from
photosynthesis, but none of that oxygen remained in the atmosphere because the hydrogen,
carbon monoxide and methane rapidly reduced it. These reducing gases produced a strong
greenhouse effect keeping the Earth warm. The action of water, which contains oxygen, on
the iron in basalts emerging from mid-ocean ridges, set up the potential for a more
oxygenated atmosphere. The iron in basalt rusted in contact with the water. The hydrogen
produced escaped to the atmosphere but the rust-iron oxide deposited on the ocean floors.
This oxygen rich layer eventually was subducted and accumulated at the core-mantle
boundary, far from the area-generating volcanic magmas. "The likelihood that these
deep mantles would rise as plumes of oxygenated magmas increased as more and more iron
oxide rich magma was buried," says Kump. "What we do not know is why these deep
plume volcanos appeared on three or four continents at the same time." The rising
plumes began to spew carbon dioxide and water, rather than methane and hydrogen, and this
allowed the oxygen levels to rise.
11/14/2000 A Breath of Fresh Air from
DaimlerChrysler - Speedvision
The tests are part of a program with the California Fuel
Cell Partnership. In fact, a group of manufacturers, government authorities and energy
suppliers have opened a 50,000- square-foot base in Sacramento to serve as a development
center, maintenance depot and fueling station. Over the next three years, the NECAR
prototypes will rack up 25,000 miles on California roads. Apart from being the most
car-savvy place on the planet, California is a perfect test location…with everything
from the massive urban traffic jams of L.A. and the Bay Area to the wide-open spaces of
Bakersfield and Modesto. ...The new Ballard Mark 900 Stack system, with
75 kilowatts of power, is two-thirds the weight and half the size of the NECAR 4 drive
system it replaces.
11/12/2000 Scientists Claim
Nothing Will Stop Climate Change - Sunday Times (UK)
Scientists have warned thousands of government officials
and politicians gathering for international climate talks in the Hague that the rise in
global temperatures is irreversible, and that the best they can hope for is to slow it
down by a fraction of a degree. Their research shows that even if delegates implement all
the proposals before them in full, this will cut only about six-hundredths of a degree
from a temperature rise that could be as much as 5C by 2100. The warning comes from
researchers at the Hadley Centre, the British Meteorological Office's climate change
prediction centre, who will present the results in the Hague next week. ...The centre's
research shows that even with 60% cuts, the rise in temperatures will not be halted but
could be restricted to only about 2C by 2100. This would cause a sea level rise of about
30cm. However, with cuts of just 5.2%, temperatures would rise by up to 5C and sea levels
would rise more than 60cm, flooding many low-lying areas. The obstacles facing even a 5.2%
reduction are huge. This weekend Michael Meacher, the environment minister, said the key
was to persuade America to cut its emissions. "The US has just 5% of the world's
population but it emits a quarter of all the gases," he said. Meacher and others are
worried that America favours emissions-trading, under which countries would get quotas for
emitting gases which could be sold on the open market. It could then buy the right to emit
gases without making real cuts.
11/9/2000 Russia Sets Sights on Liquid Gas Propulsion - Russian AVN
Military News Agency thru BBC
The Russian government has started preparation of a
federal purpose-oriented programme for development of aircraft, spacecraft and other
transports running on liquid gas and hydrogen, a competent source working in the sphere of
cryogenics told the Military News Agency on Thursday [9th November]. The draft programme
envisages the creation of a plane, the Angara booster rocket and the first section of the
Energiya booster rocket, all running on liquid gas, by 2010, the source said. Besides, it
provides for modernization of the Tu-204 plane so it could be fitted with PS-90AK
liquid-gas engines. The plane's developer, the Tupolev aircraft corporation, is already
negotiating with gas giant Gazprom over the Tu-204-600 planes and the Tu-136 plane, which
was originally designed to burn liquid gas. The cost of the Tu-204-600 development is
expected to be 40m dollars, and the development of the Tu-136 will demand 150m dollars.
The programme allocates over R1bn (36m dollars) for the development of the Tu-204-600. It
is to be submitted for co-ordination and approval to the Russian Aviation and Space Agency
and then to the Russian government in the middle of 2001. Specialists believe that the
programme's implementation will help fit other types of transport, such as automobiles,
trains and river ships, with liquid-gas engines after 2010. The document is being drafted
under the auspices of the National Technological Basis programme.
11/9/2000 DaimlerChrysler
Studies Direct Methanol Fuel Cell - Auto Central
The automaker says the unit from  Ballard Power Systems uses a
proton exchange membrane technology that allows the use of methanol as fuel, without
requiring a fuel processor to extract hydrogen from the methanol. “We are now
beginning to refine direct methanol technology for use outside the laboratory in
applications ranging from portable and stationary power to transportation,” says
Ballard Chief Technology Officer Alfred Steck. The three-kW system is the result of an
ongoing collaboration between the research groups at DaimlerChrysler and Ballard, he says.
11/8/2000 Plug Power to Make Fuel Cell
Prototype in Q4 by Jim Brumm - Reuters
Plug Power's first commercial product, the RU1, has been
designed to produce electricity like that delivered utilities from natural gas. Called a
fully integrated unit, it will have a fuel processor able to convert natural gas into
hydrogen-rich fuel that is passed through the system's fuel cell stack, where electricity
is electrochemically generated, producing heat as a byproduct. The unit's power
conditioner will then convert the electricity into high-quality alternating current for
normal household use.
11/8/2000 DaimlerChrysler Presents
First Fuel Cell-Reliant Cars - Wall Street
Journal
DaimlerChrysler plans to introduce the first fuel
cell-powered buses in 2002, with cars set to follow in 2004. By then, the group expects to
have invested approximately two billion euros in the project over a 10-year period. Mr.
Schrempp believes fuel cell-powered vehicles are likely to command almost 100% of the bus
market by 2020. The plan is to keep down the price of the fuel cell-powered vehicles,
keeping the price to within 10% of conventionally powered vehicles. At today's prices, the
model Necar 5, based on the Mercedes A-Class, would cost between 40,000 marks and 50,000
marks ($17,600 to $22,000 or 20,452 euros to 25,565 euros). ...Speaking on the fringes of
the announcement, Greens transport spokesman Albert Schmidt said the use of alternative
forms of energy to power cars should be part of a twofold strategy. The car producers need
to produce immediate results by cutting the fuel consumption of their existing models, he
said. Fuel cells, for their part, would become interesting if methanol could be produced
using regenerative forms of energy alone, he continued.
11/8/2000 Nuvera Fuel Cells, Backed by
Amerada Hess, Files IPO - Reuters
Merrill Lynch is the lead manager of the IPO. It will be
assisted by Lehman Brothers, ABN Amro Rothschild and Bear Stearns. Nuvera was formed in
April through the merger of De Nora Fuel Cells S.p.A., the fuel cell division of the
Italian engineering and electrode manufacturing concern De Nora S.p.A., and Epyx Corp.,
the fuel processing division of the U.S. business and technology consulting firm Arthur D.
Little Inc.
11/8/2000 DCX Unveils
Prototype for Production Fuel Cell Car - Automotive News
The Necar 5 is comprised of the underbody
of a Mercedes-Benz A class equipped with a fuel cell drive system. Liquid methanol is used
on the Necar 5 as a storage medium for hydrogen. A methanol reformer, part of the fuel
cell drive system, extracts the hydrogen from the methanol and feeds it into the fuel
cell, which converts it to energy. DaimlerChrysler says Necar 5 provides as much interior
space as the A class and can accelerate to more than 93 miles per hour.
11/8/2000 MMC Chases Partner for Fuel
Project - Japan Times
Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which is jointly developing fuel
cells with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., will negotiate with DaimlerChrysler AG on its
participation in a project to develop the environmentally friendly power source for motor
vehicles, MMC said Tuesday. "Now that DaimlerChrysler took a 34 percent stake in MMC
in mid-October, MMC wants to promote joint projects with DaimlerChrysler on a full-fledged
basis. MMC will discuss development of fuel cells with DaimlerChrysler," the Japanese
automaker said in a statement. ...Earlier in the day, the business daily Nihon Keizai
Shimbun said Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Heavy plan to tie up with DaimlerChrysler to
develop fuel cells and mass-produce vehicles equipped with them. The three have already
started negotiations and are expected to reach a formal agreement early next year. If the
Mitsubishi group makes an official offer, DaimlerChrysler will accept it, the paper quoted
Juergen Hubbert, a board member of the German-American auto giant, as saying. Under the
envisaged alliance, the three will develop small, lightweight fuel cells and mass-produce
vehicles equipped with them within four or five years.
11/7/2000 M'bishi, Daimler May Build Fuel Cell
Cars Together - Reuters
Mitsubishi Motors has been working with group firm and
its second-largest shareholder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd on fuel cell development
for the past two years and an agreement is likely to include the comprehensive maker of
heavy machinery. ...With DaimlerChrysler's purchase of a stake in Mitsubishi Motors, the
two automakers agreed to work on developing a small car platform for world markets.
Although the alliance was originally seen by some analysts as mainly based around this one
project, cooperation is expected to deepen quickly now that DaimlerChrysler has gained
more management clout at Mitsubishi in the wake of a customer complaints cover-up scandal.
The auto giant will be installing its own executive, Rolf Eckrodt, as chief operating
officer in January and DaimerChrysler chief Juergen Schrempp has said it is considering a
major overhaul of the Japanese automaker.
11/7/2000 On the Road:
UNLV Students Develop a Hydrogen-Fueled Engine for Hybrid Bus by Michele
Lombardo - Power Online
During the first trial run, it achieved NOx emissions of
5 to 10 ppm. While this is much better than most buses currently on the road, the refining
process isn’t finished. According to Jade Gaal, who handles emissions monitoring, by
changing the hydrogen-to-air fuel ratio, they can alter torque and emissions. “Once
the ratio is fully mapped out, we should be able to achieve significantly lower NOx
emissions,” she said. The goal is zero. ...In the next few weeks, the DOE plans to
install the engine into the bus for the first time. Testing will then be done on the unit
as a whole.
11/7/2000 Around-The-Globe:
New Fuel-Cell Initiatives by Arik Hesseldahl - Forbes
In the last few days, Japan's Mitsubishi Motors,
DaimlerChrysler (nyse: DCX) and Ford Motor (nyse: F) have announced development plans for
fuel-cell-based cars that will run not on gasoline or diesel fuel, but rather by combining
hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, with the only emission being heat and water,
by 2004. The ultimate goal is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. One company working
feverishly to develop fuel cells is Canada's Ballard Power Systems (nasdaq: BDLP).
11/6/2000 Carbon Tubes
Reach Their Limit - BBC (UK)
Scientists have created what they say are the narrowest,
stable, carbon nanotubes. The tiny cylinders measure just 0.4 nanometres (0.4 billionths
of a metre) in diameter. The structures are essentially tubular versions of
buckminsterfullerene, the closed cages of carbon atoms that look like soccer balls. ...Two
teams working separately - one from the NEC Corporation of Japan, the other from the Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology - report the tubes, which are smaller than a
filament of DNA, in the journal Nature. ...Scientists expect the carbon cylinders to find
wide applications in many hi-tech areas. One possible use currently under investigation is
as a storage device for hydrogen fuel. The gas would normally take up too much space and
compressing or liquefying it is expensive. Scientists have found they can reduce the
volume of any given amount of hydrogen by storing it inside nanotubes.
11/3/2000 Fuel Cell Cars Closer to Hitting
the Road - CNN
Eight of the world's biggest automobile makers along with
energy companies and fuel cell builders will work side by side in a Sacramento,
California, center to learn how to build fuel cell vehicles that work as well as cars with
gasoline engines. "We still have technical challenges getting this extremely complex
system to work properly, the way customers expect it to work," said John Wallace of
the Ford Motor Co. There are challenges in using new fuels and providing the new fuel
infrastructure. And before fuel cell vehicles hit the road, there will have to be a
network of hydrogen stations that will allow drivers to fill up with the gas, which is
flammable and must be stored under 3,600 pounds of pressure.
11/3/2000 To Bay & Back for $4: It's
Possible in Hydrogen-Run Auto of Future by Bruce Grant - Sacramento
Bee (CA)
The fueling facility is at 3300 Industrial Blvd, near the
Port of Sacramento, and is readily identifiable by a display of flags from the various
nations in which the partners are headquartered. Hydrogen is the fuel of choice at the
55,000-square-foot West Sacramento facility. A large, above-ground tank of liquid hydrogen
can be seen from the nearby freeway. ...The opening of the center Wednesday marked the
beginning of Phase 2 of the partnership. Phase 1 involved the assembling of the partners
and the building of the refueling facility. In the next two years, auto manufacturers will
test up to 20 hydrogen-powered cars and buses at the facility. Phase 3 calls for
automakers to demonstrate more than 50 passenger vehicles using hydrogen, methanol and a
petroleum-based fuel. In addition, transit agencies are to test up to 20 buses fueled by
hydrogen.
11/2/2000 DaimlerChrysler to Test Drive
New Fuel-Cell Vehicle - Detroit Free Press
The new generation New Electric Car (NECAR), based on the
Mercedes Benz A-Class model, was built for the fuel-cell alliance known as the
"California Fuel Cell Partnership." ...Over the next three years, the NECAR will
cover up to 25,000 miles on the California roads under normal operation conditions.
"We have now overcome the major technological obstacles facing the development of the
fuel cell drive system," Ferdinand Panik, head of DaimlerChrysler's fuel cell project
group, said in a statement. "The task at hand is now to reduce the costs of the drive
system even further and to pave the way for rapid introduction of these automobiles by
2004, for instance, by establishing a fuel infrastructure." DaimlerChrysler said it
intends to introduce the first fuel cell buses in 2002 and the first fuel cell cars in
2004.
11/1/2000 Fuel Cell Cars
Head to California - MSNBC
Video Interview of Ballard's Rasul, Damiler's Panik and
Ford's Wallace
The political capital of California became the fuel cell
capital of the world on Wednesday. Automakers, energy companies and government officials
unveiled the Sacramento hub that will service 70 cars and buses powered by various types
of fuel cells — technology that the auto industry expects will replace the internal
combustion engine. THE HUB includes garage bays and a hydrogen refueling station for the
vehicles, which will be street tested over the next three years. Automakers expect to sell
the first fuel-cell vehicles in 2004. ...Fuel-cell vehicles received a major boost last
month when California stuck to its target for 10 percent of zero- and low-emission
vehicles to be sold in the state by 2003, rejecting pleas from automakers for a delay.
Nov-Dec 2000 Fill 'er Up With Hydrogen
by Peter Fairley - Technology Review
DaimlerChrysler and its partners—Canadian fuel cell
developer Ballard Power Systems and rival automaker Ford Motor Co. —believe that fuel
cell vehicles can deliver the power and performance that today's drivers are used to.
Commander II shows how tough a challenge this is. While the vehicle represents the state
of the art in fuel cell technology, its engine takes half an hour to warm up and would
cost several times more to mass-produce than a standard V6. But DaimlerChrysler is closing
the gap. Its next fuel cell demo, a hatchback to be unveiled as early as this fall, will
pack a fuel cell with twice the punch of Commander II's. Not only will its fuel processor
weigh half as much, but it will start up in less than a minute. It is this type of steady
and substantial improvements in fuel cell technology that have convinced many automakers
and oil companies that the internal combustion engine has finally met its match. Facing
tighter regulation of tailpipe emissions, several automakers are investing heavily to lead
the transition. DaimlerChrysler, Ford and Ballard have spent close to $1
billion on fuel cells and plan to spend at least a billion more by 2004 to begin
mass-producing vehicles. The goal is to take fuel cells out of the skunk works and into
the showroom. “The great majority of our people who are working on fuel cells are
working on the production program,” says Bruce Kopf, director of TH!NK Technologies,
Ford's electric car enterprise. ...Looking into the future, Kopf imagines a world in which
electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar cells generates hydrogen from
water—the reverse of the fuel cell process—to power a fleet of fuel cell
vehicles. “You could make a fuel system and vehicle that produces zero greenhouse
gases and zero tailpipe emissions—a hydrogen-oxygen-water cycle that is sustainable
forever. That's the ultimate goal.”
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