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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.

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