12/31/1996 World's Love Affair With the
Automobile: A Century Old and at Full Throttle by David
Holmstrom - Christian Science Monitor
This much is clear: One hundred years after the
invention of the automobile, the vast majority of people on earth do not own one. We can
be grateful for this. If even a quarter of the world's estimated 5.7 billion people piled
into a car every day bound for work, or elsewhere, most cities on Earth would very likely
resemble Bangkok - where cars are semi-frozen in an exhaust-belching traffic jam day and
night.
12/1/1996 Beyond Batteries
by Tim Beardsley - Scientific American
Here come fuel cells--the ultimate clean machines for
generating electricity: Fuel cells sound like a science-fiction fantasy: an efficient,
nonpolluting power source that produces no noise and has no moving parts. But such cells
not only exist, they have been providing electricity on spacecraft
since the 1960s. In more down-to-earth applications, they could be used as
electricity-generating plants or as a power source for nearly exhaust-free automobiles.
The main sticking point is the high cost of manufacturing the devices, which has largely
limited them to a handful of exotic applications. Now falling prices and new technologies
suggest that the fuel cell's day may finally have arrived.
11/11/1996 Fuel Cells Offer Cleaner, More Efficient Energy -- At A Cost by
Nino J. Repetti - San Jose Business Journal (California)
The city of Santa Clara is so convinced of
fuel cells' potential that it has created the Santa Clara Demonstration Project - the
largest fuel-cell power plant ever operated in the United States - to provide two
megawatts of power to the city for 10,000 hours. The plant is operated by Fuel Cell
Engineering Corp. in Santa Clara, a subsidiary of Danbury, Conn.-based Energy Research
Corp. The $50 million project is being funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy
in Morgantown, W.Va., and the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto. Seven other
entities are contributing to the project, including the city of Santa Clara, Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
11/4/1996 SwRI Developing Fuel Cell to Power Passenger Vehicle by
Mally Strong - San Antonio Business Journal (Texas)
Scientists at SwRI have applied for patents and are
testing a fuel cell that uses all of the same material in the typical PEM fuel cells but
is constructed in a cylindrical fashion. Called the "rolled sheet technique,"
more testing on these fuel cells is currently underway. In another technique, called
solution casting, scientists are drying mixtures of liquid materials, such as platinum and
carbon, to form parts of the fuel cell. The liquid contains a solution form of the
membrane. Bass says scientists are hoping this method will glue the membrane tight to the
core of the cell. In another technique, called ion-beam sputtering, scientists are
shooting electron beams at a carbon and platinum material with the expectation that the
particles will fall and stick onto the membrane sheet.
11/1/1996 Chemistry Research
Could Improve the Vehicles of the Future by Ivan Muzychka
- Research Matters
Dr. Pickup will be working
with a Canadian company, Ballard Power Systems Inc. of North Vancouver, which is a
recognized leader in the area of designing vehicles with fuel cell technology. A previous
sabbatical leave spent at Ballard led Dr. Pickup to this area of research. He and his team
will work closely with the Ballard scientists. "They have taken [this technology] to
the point where they have produced a small transit bus," Dr. Pickup said of the
company. "Their goal is to produce commercial automobiles powered on fuel cells. To
do this they need to improve the performance of the cells and bring down the cost."
Dr. Pickup is optimistic about the future of fuel cells. "I don't think there is any
question in my mind that this technology will be adopted eventually. Because it has the
efficiency advantage," he said. "But it is very hard to predict how soon it will
be commercialized. The first commercial application is likely to be buses...In the United
States two transit authorities -- Los Angeles and Chicago -- have invested a lot of money
in this research, and will have prototype buses soon. The key to the research is to have
people making and testing materials, demonstrating that our ideas will work."
10/21/1996 U.S., Russian Scientists Collaborate on Project - Triangle
Business Journal (North Carolina)
The project -- known as the "MAGNIC Project"
because a magnesium nickel (MAGNIC) alloy is used to extract the hydrogen from sea water
-- is being funded through the end of 1996 by the Army Research Office at a cost of
$750,000. Two follow-up projects, now getting under way, will cost an additional $100,000,
Cleland said. The group of Russian scientists, including Dr. Valentin Serebrennikov,
former vice rector at St. Petersburg Technical University, and Marina Semenova, a chemist
from the Academy of Chemistry in St. Petersburg, are working as subcontractors for Magnic
International Inc. Cleland said another project is focusing on the use of sodium aluminum
hydride instead of a magnesium nickel alloy. In this process, which produces even more
hydrogen than the MAGNIC method, the hydrogen is released merely by "heating the
hydride," he said.
10/18/1996 Alternative
Energy Now by Stefan Halper
- Christian Science Monitor
Among the few benefits from the recent
ill-considered Gulf fiasco was Defense Secretary William Perry's reminder - two decades
after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' price shocks of the '70s - that
we remain critically dependent on Gulf oil. Reagan Energy Secretary Donald Hodel warned 10
years ago that "We are sleep walking into a disaster."
10/14/1996 "Green" Machines - Time International Magazine
Mercedes-Benz's Necar II van is powered
exclusively by 300 fuel cells tucked neatly away under a flap in the floor; the hydrogen
gas is held in pressurized cylinders in the roof. The Necar II seats six, has a range of
250 km and a maximum speed near 100 km/h. The fuel cell, says Mercedes-Benz president
Helmut Werner, "is no longer a technical gimmick." But while Mercedes has built
a prototype, it is still far from commercial viability.
10/10/1996 President Signs Walker Hydrogen Initiative Into Law -
U.S. House of Representatives Press Release
House Science Committee Chairman Robert S. Walker's
(R-PA) years of advocacy to dedicate more research and development into hydrogen as an
alternative fuel resource ended in success yesterday when President Bill Clinton signed
the Hydrogen Future Act, H.R. 4138, into law. The main purpose of the Hydrogen Future Act
is to provide for a basic research and development program, under the auspices of the
Department of Energy (DOE), to explore the uses of hydrogen as a fuel which will encourage
private sector investment in the development of new and better enabling technologies.
9/30/1996 Ashland
to Replace Its California Fleet With Methanol Cars - AMI
Ashland Chemical, Inc. has begun replacing
its entire corporate fleet of cars in California with methanol Ford Taurus Flexible Fuel
Vehicles (FFVs).
8/27/1996 Ford's
Methanol Taurus Costs Less Than Gasoline Model - AMI
The Ford Motor Company is offering an
"unlimited" number of Taurus FFV (flexible fuel vehicle) sedans for the 1997
model year at a discounted sticker price of $345 less than the conventional
gasoline-powered Taurus. ...The methanol Taurus FFV operates on M-85, a blend of 85%
methanol and 15% unleaded gasoline or any mixture of the two fuels in the same fuel tank.
8/23/1996 'Chain Reaction' Hits
Very Close to Home - Honolulu Star-Bulletin
The film's premise is this: Scientists
develop a way to produce hydrogen gas from water, thereby creating a limitless source of
clean, cheap energy. However, nefarious government officials don't want this discovery
known because they believe the world isn't ready for cheap energy (go figure). So they
destroy the project to keep the technology from spreading. Mayhem ensues. Convoluted movie
plots aside, what we found interesting about "Chain Reaction" is that it
presents a connection to Hawaii and to research being done at the University of Hawaii.
7/12/1996 11th World Hydrogen Energy
Conference: Minister Arrives in a Hydrogen Fueled Car - DECHEMA
"The changing of energy structures is
bound up with long term time constraints. It is, therefore, most important that long term
options should be developed and tried out in practice. One of these options is renewable
energy and especially hydrogen" said the Minister for the Environment Dr. Angela
Merkel at the opening of the 11th World Hydrogen Energy Conference, HYDROGEN '96, on
Monday, 24 June 1996, in Stuttgart. The conference was held for the first time in Germany
and, no doubt to emphasise this, the Minister... arrived in a hydrogen fuelled car.
7/12/1996 Hydrogen Technology is in
the Pipeline but Still Too Expensive - DECHEMA
The first successes of hydrogen technology
have been registered in the transport sector. Hydrogen fuelled prototype buses and cars
are running not only in America but also in Germany. The vehicle manufacturers have
adopted one of two methods of energy conversion - internal combustion engines or fuel
cells. The latter ensure the best use of energy with an efficiency of up to 60%. Fuel cell
technology has made enormous advances in recent years and with reductions in the weight
and size of the cells it is now possible to use them in cars. Canada's Dr. Ballard is
particularly optimistic about the future of fuel cells: the ones which he manufactures
have proved themselves in long term use in buses.
7/1/1996 Platinum Nanocubes -
Chemistry & Industry Magazine
The search for the perfect catalyst continues. US
chemists have now found a way to build minute cubes from platinum atoms, which could work
more effectively than traditional catalysts which are irregularly shaped.
6/14/1996 German Hydrogen Association
Founded - German Hydrogen Association DWV
The German Hydrogen Association (DWV) has
been founded at Berlin on 12. June. Among the first members are industrial companies
(Messer Griesheim, Air Products, CONOC, Ludwig-Boelkow-Systemtechnik), research institutes
(Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen
Research Baden-Wuerttemberg) and private persons (Ludwig Boelkow, Horst-Henning
Giere/Aral, H.-G. Klug/DASA). Members of the board are: Eberhard Behrend (BAM), Rolf Ewald
(Messer Griesheim), Ulrich Schmidtchen (BAM), Oliver Weinmann (Hamburgische
Electricitaets-Werke) and Reinhard Wurster (Ludwig-Boelkow-Systemtechnik).
6/3/1996 Dedication of Fuel Cell
Power Plant in California - ERC/Business Wire
Energy Research Corporation and the Santa
Clara Demonstration Project (SCDP) formally dedicated the world's largest Direct Fuel Cell
power plant. The ceremony, which took place at the site of the 2 MW power plant,was
attended by more than 200 representatives from the utility and financial sector, federal
and local government, and the research and scientific community.
6/1/1996 Fuel Cells Come Down to Earth
by Edward A. Bass, P.E. - SWRI Technology Today
Institute engineers develop new designs for an energy
source first used in space: The search for clean and efficient alternatives to
fossil fuel combustion for power generation has led to several new approaches to energy
production; one of the most attractive of these is electrochemical fuel cell technology.
Fuel cells have several advantages that make them attractive power sources for vehicle
propulsion including high thermal efficiency, extremely low or zero emissions, and low
noise and vibration in comparison to conventional powertrains. Institute scientists and
engineers, supported by the SWRI Advisory Committee for Research, are carrying out
specific research into the structural design, thermodynamics, and heat transfer processes
of one class of these cells, known as proton exchange membrane (PEM) or polymer
electrolyte membrane fuel cells. PEM fuel cells have found application in a number of
critical markets, including the automotive industry.
5/29/1996 Fuel Cell Breakthrough
Doubles Performance, Reduces Cost - Ernest
Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Up until now, SOFCs have been most
fuel-efficient operating at 1000 degrees Centigrade... Visco, de Souza and De Jonghe hit
paydirt with an inexpensive and simple ceramic process. They have devised a technique that
doesn't just preserve performance at the lower temperature of 800 degrees but actually
doubles the power output.
5/1/1996 Hydrogen Bus Project in Georgia Promotes Renewable Fuel of the Future
- Southeastern Technology Center
4/16/1996 Automated Hydrogen Gas Leak
Detection System - NASA
4/1/1996 Mideast Oil
Forever? by Joseph J. Romm and Charles B.
Curtis - Atlantic Monthly
A decade's worth of little-heralded technological
advances funded by the Department of Energy have helped to bring such a renewables
revolution within our grasp. Yet budget cuts already proposed by Congress would ensure
that when renewable energy becomes a source of hundreds of thousands--if not millions--of
new high-wage jobs in the next century, America will have lost its leadership in the
relevant technologies and will once again be importing products originally developed by
U.S. scientists.
3/22/1996 US
Scientists Form Metallic Hydrogen at a Squeeze by Adrian Berry
- Electronic Telegraph (UK)
Scientists claimed yesterday to have created metallic
hydrogen, a substance believed only to exist in the centre of giant planets such as
Jupiter.
3/21/1996 Hydrogen Produced in
Metal Form for First Time - LLNL
1/16/1996
Ready to Buy a Zev?
Christian Science Monitor
There may be an electric car in your future, but
it's likely to be farther down the road. California, which has been the engine of
low-emissions automotive technology in the US, has shifted into a lower gear. It's moving
to lift its mandate that 2 percent of the cars sold there be zero-emission vehicles
(called ''zevs'') by 1998. That sent chills as far as the snow-bound Northeast, where New
York and Massachusetts had vowed to follow California's lead.
1/1/1996 Kaiser Permanente to Install Scores of Fuel Cell Plants in
S. California, Identifies 160 Sites - H&FCL
Starting with its Southern California
headquarters here, Kaiser Permanente plans to install fuel cell power plants by the dozens
in its hospitals, medical offices, and office buildings in partnership with the Enron
Corp., of Houston, a major supplier of natural gas.
1996 Power Shock: The Next Energy
Revolution by Christopher Flavin -
Worldwatch
In the United States, the race is on. Last September,
ONSI Corporation, a division of United Technologies, launched the world's first commercial
fuel-cell factory, which will initially turn out some 50 fuel cells each year, at less
than half the cost of earlier fuel cells. Meanwhile, Allied Signal has been working on a
5- to 10-kilowatt fuel cell for home-scale use, relying on technologies it developed in
its aerospace business. And IBM announced last summer that it is applying its expertise in
multi-layer ceramic substrates to make less-expensive fuel cells in a joint venture with
the Dow Chemical Company. In Canada, Ballard Power Systems has developed a fuel cell that
is designed specifically for use as a bus engine. Such commitments suggest that a
commercial takeoff for fuel cells is likely within the next decade.