12/30/1998 Daimler's Decision Gives Ballard a Boost - Financial Times
Chrysler, before its merger with Daimler-Benz, had hired Delphi Automotive Systems, a unit of General Motors Corp., to help develop fuel cell cars that would take the hydrogen from ordinary gasoline. Meanwhile, Daimler-Benz had chosen the technology being developed by Ballard, which had done more work with a methanol-based system, by purchasing a 25% stake in Ballard for $450-million in 1997... ...a DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman, said yesterday that the company's contract with Delphi, which expires Friday, will not be renewed.
12/29/1998 DaimlerChrysler Focuses Methanol by Brian S. Akre - Associated Press
...DaimlerChrysler, created by the merger of Chrysler and Germany's Daimler-Benz AG in November, has not given up on developing a commercially viable way to reform gasoline into hydrogen. But now it's saying that won't happen soon despite progress in other areas. ``The technology itself is still very immature,'' said Chris Borroni-Bird, senior manager of technology strategy planning. ``It's not realistic to expect we can commercialize gasoline fuel-cell technology by 2004. Maybe 2010, but not 2004.''
12/29/1998 DaimlerChrysler to Produce Fuel-Cell Engines by 2004 - Bloomberg Financial Post
The company is changing its strategy to focus on a fuel-cell system based on methanol instead of gasoline.
12/23/1998 N.Y. Venture Nears "Breakthrough" In Fuel Cells - Reuters
A small, New York-based research venture called Plug Power Wednesday said it successfully demonstrated a natural gas-based fuel cell system, an important step in its goal of making the technology available for residential use in two years. The use of natural gas is a "breakthrough," which means the more than 70 million homes that already use the fuel for heating and cooking in the United States alone will eventually be able to use to meet all their energy needs -- including electricity -- from natural gas, Plug Power said.
12/23/1998 Honda To Sell Gasoline-Electric Car by David Goodman - Associated Press
Honda will introduce a gas-electric hybrid vehicle in the United States next fall that averages 70 miles per gallon. car, which is powered by a combination of gasoline and electricity, will be unveiled at next month's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Code-named ``V V,'' the car will meet California's Ultra Low Emission Vehicle standard, Honda said.
12/21/1998 Ballard Buses Pulled Out of Test Run in Chicago - Financial Times
Two of the three buses used in the Chicago trial are in Burnaby for upgrades. They are expected to be back in use in Chicago early in the new year. At that time, the other Chicago bus will be taken out of service and returned to Burnaby for an upgrade.
12/21/1998 Science Watch: The Auto's Road to the Future by Lee Dye - Los Angeles Times
But as promising as hybrids may seem, many experts view them as a transitional phase in the march toward the true car of the future, which will be powered by fuel cells. Long the dream of automotive engineers, fuel cells use hydrogen to generate electricity through an electrochemical process. Hydrogen is broken down into protons and electrons, and the electrons are channeled into a stream that provides the electricity to run the motor. The protons then combine with oxygen to form water, the only waste product. Such a benign system could satisfy all our needs, but until recently, it faced a nearly impossible hurdle. Where does a body go to fill up the fuel tank with hydrogen?
12/18/1998 Graphite Nanofibers: DaimlerChrysler Terminates Cooperation with Rodriguez and Baker - DWV
DaimlerChrysler has in July terminated its cooperation with the Boston chemists Nelly Rodriguez and Terry Baker, reports the Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter in its December issue. Spectacular news releases about the hydrogen gas storage capabilities of carbon nanofibers had created a lot of interest. A company spokesman said that samples of satisfactory capacity could not be found. From the fuel cell development center is was said, however, that the topic is still of interest there, even aside from the work with Rodriguez and Baker.12/18/1998 Hamburg: World's first public hydrogen filling station to open - DWV
Hamburg's First Mayor Ortwin Runde will open the world's first public hydrogen filling station on 12. January. It is part of the Hamburg-Icelandic project W.E.I.T (see Wasserstoff-Spiegel 6/97) which comprises equipping six vans to combustion engines running on hydrogen.12/18/1998 Hydrogen Energy to provide a push to Lorraine - DWV
The French region Lorraine which was historically shaped by steel and coal will use hydrogen energy as one motor of its economical development.12/14/1998 Skoda Teams Up with Daimler-Benz Ballard to Sell Fuel Cell Buses - HyWeb
According to a Bloomberg report of October 20th, Czech Skoda Plzen AS has teamed up with Daimler-Benz Ballard to produce fuel cell buses.
12/9/1998 BMW Aims to Power All its Forklifts With Fuel Cells - CALSTART
The fuel cells are expected to be proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells running on either compressed or liquefied hydrogen, but BMW has not yet settled on a fuel-cell supplier.
12/11/1998 Ballard Power Wants to Drive Cars of the Future by Mike Robbins - MSN Money Central
"A promising fuel-cell technology might start our engines soon. Investors hope for a smooth ride, since some analysts believe success is already priced into the stock."
12/8/1998 Comprehensive German Fuel Cell Strategy Study for Stationary Applications - HyWeb
The study is part of a thematically larger TAB project "Fuel Cell Technology", which in addition to the area of heat and power also includes the areas of transportation and of micro-applications such as laptop computers.
12/4/1998 DOE Joins State of Alaska in Promoting Fuel Cell Energy for Remote Arctic Villages - SNL
This research and deployment program is exploring an alternative to the most common remote arctic village electrical supply, diesel generators. The researchers envision that utility companies might place fuel cells in homes and operate them in a decentralized fashion. A small network of fuel cells in a village of several dozen or more homes might more flexibly meet demands for heating and lighting. ..."This may be the first application of distributed small fuel cells for electrical power production," adds Jay Keller (8362), who is the technical program manager and who coordinates Sandia's part of the project at Sandia's Combustion Research Facility.
12/4/1998 Vaillant, Germany: "We Believe in the Fuel Cell" - HyWeb
"Talking about the future, it is the fuel cell," says Manfred Ahle, managing director of Vaillant, a leading German manufacturer of space heating installations... "We are working hard on bringing the fuel cell, which can be installed in small units for combined heat and power supply in single and multiple family homes, to market maturity. The fuel cell has enormous advantages: We can still use natural gas, our most important fuel, we would use a primary energy source which will last for a long time to produce heat and power in a decentralized fashion with a very high efficiency and with near-zero emissions, and this in existing single and multiple family homes. We can, thus, replace an existing heating unit by a power producing fuel cell."12/4/1998 Pilot project with 7.5 kW PEM fuel cell in Riesa, Germany - HyWeb
Since spring 1998, a natural gas reformer developed by ISE supplies hydrogen to the fuel cell. A prototype of the reformer was displayed on the joint presentation of hydrogen technologies with fuel cell applications on the Hanover Industrial Fair this year by ISE. The fuel cell was delivered by Energy Partners of West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. The fuel cell system is coupled to a solar rooftop system and a catalytic natural gas burner. A desiccant cooling system for room climatization is driven by the solar system. The idea of the project is to use natural gas in an extremely clean manner and to couple it to renewable energies.
12/4/1998 Hospital with Fuel Cell and Solar Collectors in Saxony, Germany - HyWeb
...a new hospital in the Saxonian town of Kamenz, Germany, will be equipped with a 200 kW ONSI fuel cell and solar collectors.
12/4/1998 World's First Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Demonstration Project in Bielefeld, Germany - HyWeb
The molten carbonate fuel cell of the highly integrated "Hot Module" type is under test in the laboratory since 1997, but has so far never been given to a customer. The cell will be integrated in the heating station of the university. It delivers about 280 kW electrical energy at an electrical efficiency of 52 %; more than 60 % are considered as feasible. The waste heat at about 450 °C will be used for process heat for the university and for heating by the utility. ...Last july the group entered a development and selling cooperation with the US companyEnergy Research Corporation.
12/9/1998 Scientists Describe Structure of an Enzyme that Uses Iron to Make Hydrogen - NSF
Peters and Seefeldt depict CpI as a collection of 20 iron atoms arranged in clusters around a mushroom shaped framework. Electrons move in through the `stem' of the mushroom in a series of reactions between the iron clusters that pass electrons, like a molecular bucket brigade, towards the `cap' of the mushroom. The `cap' contains the active site of the enzyme, where the final reaction takes place. At the active site, more clusters of iron atoms introduce electrons, two at a time, to two protons stripped from a single molecule of water. As newly formed molecules of hydrogen leave the enzyme, they make room for more electrons and protons to take their spot, providing the energy for the next reaction to take place.
12/2/1998 Hydrogen Explosion by Jim Motavalli - Metro Times Detroit
"If the research now proceeding feverishly in a dozen "skunk works" around the world is successful, the 100-year reign of fossil fuels could soon be over. Instead of relying on a limited resource that may well be running out, fuel cells run on hydrogen, the most available element in the universe, constituting 80 percent of all matter. If hydrogen is produced by renewable energy sources, like photovoltaics or geothermal power, it can be a perfect zero-emission loop, with very clean water the only byproduct. "It's like a dream, isn't it?" said one auto company fuel cell expert, and he's right."
12/1/1998 Fuel Processors, Record Attendance Highlight Fuel Cell Seminar - H&FCL
Dr. John H.Gibbons, former Science Advisor to President Bill Clinton, said in his keynote address that this break-out from Carnot's heat engine - basically a mechanical system - to a chemical engine and electrical system presents opportunities for "disaggregated electricity and heat production," a "spur to electrical restructuring and "virtually unlimited potential in developing countries undergoing electrification."
12/1/1998 Remembering the Oil Embargo... and Preparing for the Next Storm - DOE Alternative Fuel News
It took half a billion years to create the world's oil, and according to Richard Kerr of Science Magazine, we "will consume it all in a two-century binge of profligate energy use." In 1973, 1979 and again in 1990, big price increases in oil surprised the world, exposing the serious consequences of U.S. dependence on inexpensive oil supplies. Our reliance on foreign suppliers leaves the United States increasingly vulnerable to adverse economic impacts of disruptions in oil supply, and causes major transfer of wealth from the United States to the oil-exporting countries.
11/17/1998 Water Splitting by Means of Metal Oxides Observed - DVW
Japanese scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology claim to have found an uncommon method to spilt water at ambient temperature (and not at 3000 °C) into its elements: with a common laboratory stirrer under addition of metal oxide powder.11/16/1998 The Real Price Of Gas - International Center for Technology Assessment
This report by the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) identifies and quantifies the many external costs of using motor vehicles and the internal combustion engine that are not reflected in the retail price Americans pay for gasoline. These are costs that consumers pay indirectly by way of increased taxes, insurance costs, and retail prices in other sectors. The report divides the external costs of gasoline usage into five primary areas: (1) Tax Subsidization of the Oil Industry; (2) Government Program Subsidies; (3) Protection Costs Involved in Oil Shipment and Motor Vehicle Services; (4) Environmental, Health, and Social Costs of Gasoline Usage; and (5) Other Important Externalities of Motor Vehicle Use. Together, these external costs total $558.7 billion to $1.69 trillion per year, which, when added to the retail price of gasoline, result in a per gallon price of $5.60 to $15.14.
11/14/1998 Stirred and Shaken by Lila Guterman - New Scientist
The words "mysterious" and "bizarre" don't often come up in conversations among chemists. But that's how they are describing a way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen at room temperature using a simple catalyst. Japanese researchers now say that the energy needed to break the bonds that hold water molecules together seems to come from stirring the liquid.
11/9/1998 European Hydrogen Association to be Founded - German Hydrogen Association DWV
A supranational European organization for the introduction of hydrogen in the energy economy will be founded under the name "European Hydrogen Association" (EHA). The hydrogen associations of France, Italy, Norway, and Germany as well as experts from Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain decided this on a meeting on 27. October in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission at Ispra (Italy). Belgium, Great Britain, and the non-EU members Russia and Switzerland are involved in the project as well. The European Hydrogen Association will promote the foundation of more national hydrogen associations. It will represent the field on the European level and above and advise the public, experts, and politicians. Its contacts will be supranational institutions like the European Commission, the World Bank, or the United Nations, but also national authorities and other parties.
11/9/1998 California Cracks Down on Car Pollution - ENN
The new standards, when fully implemented in 2010, would mean an estimated reduction of smog-forming emissions in the Los Angeles area by 57 tons per day; while the statewide reduction would be 155 tons per day. The plan is also expected to promote development of ultra-clean gasoline vehicles and of advanced technologies including hybrids and fuel cells.
11/6/1998 Air-breathing Rocket Engine Tests Successfully Completed - NASA Marshal Space Flight Center
When the vehicle's velocity reaches twice the speed of sound, the rockets are turned off and the engine relies totally on oxygen in the atmosphere to burn the hydrogen fuel.11/11/1998 Future Car Receives Fuel Cell - Texas Tech
Texas Tech University’s FutureCar Research is receiving an energy boost from Energy Partners, Inc. of West Palm Beach, Fla. The company is donating a hydrogen-powered fuel cell that Texas Tech will install in a Chevrolet Lumina when the cell arrives the first week of December.
11/1/1998 Nasa Checks Shuttle After Near-Disaster - Electronic Telegraph
An aluminum door, which ripped off on the launch pad, hit a rocket engine less than a foot from a vital hydrogen cooling line.
11/1/1998 Last Tango in Buenos Aires by Christopher Flavin, Seth Dunn, Ashley Mattoon - Worldwatch
When the Kyoto Protocol was signed a year ago, hopes ran high that the world was finally on the way to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and getting the global climate back under control. But since then, complicated new provisions (critics call them loopholes) have sharply divided key governments. The making of the treaty became a black box -- a process largely invisible and incomprehensible to the public. Meanwhile, the apparent effects of global warming are beginning to break out in ways that call for far more decisive action than the past ten years of negotiation have produced. Unless the November meeting of climate treaty negotiators in Buenos Aires demonstrates real progress, it may be time to take a whole new approach to this problem. In the following pages, three authors define the challenge. Christopher Flavin [HTAP] leads off with a candid assessment of the prospects for the Kyoto Protocol -- what's wrong with it and what has to be remedied soon. Seth Dunn analyzes the welling tensions between industrial and developing countries, and the prospects of finding common ground. Ashley Mattoon looks at how the negotiators have bogged down over the issue of carbon "sinks." -- from Worldwatch11/1/1998 Hydrogen Purification by Walt Pyle - Home Power Magazine (October/November
Hydrogen guru Walt Pyle provides the scoop on decontamination of homemade hydrogen. Important safety considerations, too.
11/1/1998 Large German Solar Hydrogen SWB Test Site to Halt Operations Next Year - H&FCL
11/1/1998 China at the Crossroads: Energy, Transportation and the 21st Century by
Since 1986, the number of vehicles on China's roads has nearly tripled, and its use of energy for transportation is up 700% since 1980. China at the Crossroads (James S. Cannon, 1998, 30 pp.) describes the implications--for the health of China's environment and population, for the energy security of China and the United States, and for global climate change--of this vast explosion in vehicle growth, and argues that the time is ripe for China to choose alternatives to petroleum-based transportation fuels and the vehicles that burn them. With little existing vehicle-related investments, China is in a position to set its sights on a transportation infrastructure based on cleaner fuels and more efficient engines. The report provides an overview of energy use in China and describes the current state of transportation development. Included are some promising ventures involving alternative fuels: large fleets of natural gas-fueled buses and taxis; a program to market electric bicycles; a state-sponsored program to put 3000 to 5000 electric vehicles on the road by 2000; and a variety of promising initiatives to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology. -- from INFORM, November 1998
10/20/1998 KU Researchers Develop Clean-Burning Synthetic Diesel Fuel - Science Daily News
To convert natural gas to a liquid form, heat, steam and a nickel-based catalyst are used to produce a carbon monoxide and hydrogen mixture known as synthesis gas - or syngas. The second step in the process is to produce a liquid fuel from the syngas using the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. Developed in 1923 by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, Fischer-Tropsch technology was used by Germany in World War II to produce liquid fuels from coal.
10/20/1998 Passenger fuel cell boats: Expo 2000 project - HyWeb
10/9/1998 Higher Energy Prices, Cuts in Fuel Use May be Needed to Comply with the Kyoto Protocol - EIA
Significant increases in energy prices may be required for the United States to meet the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions agreed to in December 1997, according to a report released today by the Energy Information Administration (EIA)... Electricity generation by renewable sources will increase as more technologies become economic with higher fossil fuel prices. Renewables could capture between 11 and 22 percent of the generation market by 2020, relative to 9 percent in the baseline, with more than half supplied by renewables other than hydropower. Major increases are expected in wind and biomass gasification and also in geothermal generation.
10/6/1998 The True Story of Hydrogen and the 'Hindenburg' Disaster - U.S. Congressional Record
Mr. HARKIN: Mr. President, for many years I have spoken of the promise of hydrogen energy as our best hope for an environmentally safe sustainable energy future. My vision, and the vision of many of our top scientists is simple. Hydrogen, which is produced by renewable energy with absolutely no pollution and no resource depletion of any kind, will prove a truly sustainable energy option. I recognize that hydrogen is not yet a form of energy widely known to the American public. In fact, hydrogen has an unfortunate association. I would like to spend a few minutes dispelling one unfortunate myth of hydrogen energy.
10/2/1998 Israeli competition in the development of very small fuel cells for cellular phones - DVW
10/1/1998 Environmental Image Survey Finds No Clear Leader Yet Among Automakers - CALSTART
10/1/1998 Tumbling' Atoms May Help Explain Hydrogen Re-forming Reactions - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
"Currently, we don't really know how methane bonds to a metal center," Girolami said. "Is it through one hydrogen atom? Two? Three? No one has been able to stabilize a complex containing a methane molecule and investigate it in solution by spectroscopic methods that can distinguish among the various possibilities."
10/1/1998 Siemens Halts Planar SOFC Development, Focus Now on Westinghouse Tubular Design - H&FCL
10/1/1998 Expanding Wind Power: Can Americans Afford It? by Jamie Chapman, Steven Wiese, Edgar DeMeo, Adam Serchuk - Renewable Energy Policy Project
The installed capital costs of wind-driven generating systems decreased from more than $2,500 per kilowatt (kW) in the early 1980s, to $1,000 per kW or less for large scale installations in the mid-1990s. The costs of unscheduled and preventive maintenance also decreased in the same time period, from more than 5 cents to less than 1 cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh). These improvements have reduced the levelized cost of wind energy systems from more than 15 cents to less than 5 cents per kWh not including the federal 1.5-cent/kWh tax credit now available. Design and manufacturing advances, the further results of ongoing research and development programs, and the realization of large production volumes promise to reduce these costs still further to the range of 2.5 to 3.5 cents per kWh over the next ten years. Meanwhile, improvements in rotor aerodynamics and turbine operating modes along with increases in turbine size have boosted the efficiency of wind energy systems in converting energy. Under good wind conditions, modern wind energy systems typically achieve capacity factors of 28 percent or more.
9/29/1998 Automakers Argue Against Tax Breaks Based on Fuel Use - Detroit News
"It's a good idea to provide incentives for (consumers to buy) cleaner cars," said Dan Becker, the Sierra Club's Washington lobbyist on global warming and energy issues. Becker found irony in automakers' cool reception of the bill. "They've been ragging on this administration for years, saying, 'Don't regulate us. Create incentives, instead, to help build a market for these cars,'" Becker said. "Now they're fighting the incentives; they won't take 'Yes' for an answer." ...Among the green technologies automakers are considering: Fuel cells, which convert hydrogen into electricity to power a vehicle and yield water vapor as the only by-product.
9/28/1998 Mobil Ads Say Fuel Cell EVs are 'Greener Option' - CALSTART
9/28/1998 A Fresh Jolt for Fusion by Charles W. Petit - U.S. News
An avalanche of stored electricity pours from outer, concentric rings of capacitors, races down 36 spokelike cables as big around as horses' torsos, and converges on the center. Waiting there in a vacuum chamber is a delicate array, the size of a spool of thread, with several dozen to hundreds of wires finer than human hair. As the stupendous jolt of energy courses through the wires--a mistreatment worse than running Niagara through a soda straw--the delicate metal strands explode. Tiny but intense columns of plasma--vaporized, electrically charged atoms--briefly hover where the wires were. In a phenomenon called the Z pinch, the ferocious magnetic fields spawned by the current slam the remains of the wires together at more than a million miles per hour.
9/24/1998 Ford Seeks to be Auto Environmental Leader - CALSTART
9/23/1998 Opel's First Driveable Fuel Cell Car Based on Zafira - HyWeb
9/14/1998 Renault to Use Allied-Signal TurboGen in Hybrid EV - CALSTART
9/10/1998 Scientists Create Antimatter Factory - Reuters
Nine atoms of antihydrogen were produced just over a year ago. Now, the new factory will produce them at a rate of more than 2,000 atoms per hour... One answer may be that matter and antimatter are not really mirror images of each other, something the scientists hope to find out by comparing antihydrogen atoms with hydrogen.
9/3/1998 Researchers Find New Evidence of Water on the Moon
Paul Recer - U.S. News"There is an abundance of hydrogen at both lunar poles and we interpret that to mean there is water there,'' said Alan Binder, chief scientist for the Lunar Prospector spacecraft now orbiting the moon."There is at least one billion tons of water, but there could be as much as 10 billion tons.'' That would be 10 times the amount previously estimated, enough to build a colony on the moon's surface and to operate a rocket service station for journeys beyond, he said.
9/1/1998 New Superconductive Magnet-Suspended LH2 Car Tank Cuts Boil-Off in Half - H&FCL
9/1/1998 The Promise of Methanol Fuel Cell Vehicles (Summary) (Full Report) - American Methanol Institute
Methanol - a liquid fuel made from natural gas or renewable biomass resources - is the leading candidate to provide the hydrogen necessary to power fuel cell vehicles. The commercialization of methanol-powered fuel cells will offer practical, affordable, long-range electric vehicles with zero or near-zero emissions while retaining the convenience of a liquid fuel. By 2004 or sooner, fuel cells operating on methanol will power a variety of cars and buses in the U.S. and worldwide. Automakers and component suppliers are spending billions of dollars to develop these advanced technology vehicles. The industry leaders include Daimler-Benz, Toyota, General Motors, Volkswagen, Nissan, Ford, Honda and Volvo. The broad-based industrial commitment to fuel cell vehicles derives from their inherent energy efficiency and low emissions. -- from AMI
8/18/1998 Shell Summoned to Aid Daimler's 'Hydrogen Car' by Roland Gribben - Electronic Telegraph
Daimler-Benz, the German car and aerospace giant which is in the throes of merging with Chrysler, is in the vanguard of long-running research to replace the traditional internal combustion engine with fuel cell technology which converts hydrogen into electric power. Ford joined Daimler and
Ballard Power Systems, the Canadian company, in the fuel cell company last year. Daimler has already developed prototypes, including vehicles using hydrogen storage and cars capable of running on hydrogen converted from methanol in the vehicle. Shell is confident that its catalytic oxidation technology will deliver better results and be able to make a major contribution by converting liquid fuels into hydrogen and dispense with the need for on-board storage tanks.
8/9/1998 Naval Facility Develops Nonpolluting Propellant - CNN
Navy researchers have developed a nonpolluting rocket fuel that relies on alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, and scientists say a variation might one day propel cars... The key is the catalyst -- the substance that causes the hydrogen peroxide to break down into water and oxygen, generating heat. The Navy would not disclose the composition of the catalyst.
8/7/1998 Marine Vessels a Major Source of Air Pollution - Responsible for 42 tons per day - SCAQMD
Marine vessels -- including ocean-going ships, harbor tugs and commercial boats -- emit twice as many smog-forming emissions as all of the region's power plants.
8/1/1998 ZEVCO Unveils Fuel Cell Taxi, Shell UK Chief Says Company is into Hydrogen for Real - H&FCL
8/1/1998 Fuel cells Space Age Cabs - The Economist
London taxis are best known for their distinctive black bodies and their smelly, rattling diesel engines. But the rattle could be about to disappear, for Zevco (the Zero Emissions Vehicle Company) , a small Anglo-Belgian firm, has just launched the world's first taxi to be powered by smooth, silent fuel cells.
8/1/1998 Fusion and the Z Pinch by Gerold Yonas - Scientific American
A device called the Z machine has led to a new way of triggering controlled fusion with intense nanosecond bursts of x-rays: Today researchers have been pursuing the Holy Grail of fusion for almost 50 years. Ignition, they say, is still "10 years away." The 1970s energy crisis is long forgotten, and the patience of our supporters is strained, to say the least. Less than three years ago I thought about pulling the plug on work at Sandia National Laboratories that was still a factor of 50 away from the power required to light the fusion fire. Since then, however, our success in generating powerful x-ray pulses using a new kind of device called the Z machine has restored my belief that triggering fusion in the laboratory may indeed be feasible in 10 years.
7/25/1998 Hydrogen Atoms Chill to Quantum Sameness - Science News
After 20 years of trying, physicists have supercooled hydrogen into a Bose-Einstein condensate, in which all atoms are in the same quantum-mechanical state.
7/9/1998 Local Firm Works on High-Tech Ship Project - Honolulu Star-Bulletin
"Pacific Marine is helping develop a high-speed, hydrogen-powered ship: Seed money of $10 million will fund a Hawaii project to develop hydrogen-fuel propulsion systems for ships, engineering that the Navy has said may eventually produce sea craft capable of 100 miles an hour. Pacific Marine & Supply Co., a high-technology ship design and building company, said today it is teaming up with University of Hawaii scientists and three federal laboratories to work on hydrogen power. The idea came from Asian Infrastructure Development Group Inc., headed by Philip Cavana. The initial money, partly from the federal government, will be used to develop a high-speed prototype at Pacific Marine, including hydrogen-powered electrical and propulsion systems. A list of Fortune 500 companies backing the project was to be announced tomorrow, the companies said. The lead partners are Pacific Marine, AID and
7/9/1998 Financial Incentives Auction a Success for California Energy Technologies - CEC
7/8/1998 Climate of Opportunity: Renewable Energy After Kyoto by Christopher Flavin and Seth Dunn - Renewable Energy Policy Project
For supporters of renewable energy, the Kyoto Protocol presents an important opportunity to accelerate policy reforms and spur the development of new markets. It has generated great enthusiasm in both public and private sectors for expanding the use of renewable energy technologies. Indeed, the climate policy process has already contributed to the buildup of a sizable market for renewable energy in Europe and Japan, nurturing industries now poised to capture export opportunities in the "emerging markets" of the developing world. But many U.S. renewable energy promoters have failed to anticipate or exploit the growth of these markets. It is time for U.S. companies to participate in the climate policy process more actively, informing the administration, Congress, and the international community of the enormous economic opportunities that may result -- opportunities that will be grabbed by foreign competitors if the United States stays on the sidelines of the renewable energy revolution.
7/1/1998 EPA Approves DuPont's Use of Hydrogen Flares - Chemical Processing
7/1/1998 First World H2 Conference in Latin America Opens, Shell is Briefed on Hydrogen - H&FCL
6/21/1998 Liquid Hydrogen Leak Causes Highway Fire in Pennsylvania - CIRC
A fire started when a trailer leaked an unknown quantity of liquid hydrogen on State Highway 837 in West Elizabeth, PA. The cause of the leak is unknown.
6/17/1998 China's Transportation Growth Threatens Health, Political Stability and Environment - INFORM
6/17/1998 Dodge that Hydrogen - Oh, No! Killer Cosmic Clouds!
Lee Dye - ABCHydrogen atoms in space pierce the heliosphere, but if the number of atoms is low, as it is now, the effect is minimal. But if it’s much higher, Zank says, watch out. He used supercomputers to analyze just what might happen if a cloud of hydrogen—containing hundreds of particles per cubic inch—collided with Earth. The higher concentrations of hydrogen inside Earth’s heliosphere would form a “hydrogen wall” that would slow the solar wind near Earth to the point that the heliosphere would collapse, Zank says.
6/16/1998 Hydrogen Fuel Challenges Petrol - BBC
6/13/1998 Better Catalysts Could Bring Fuel Cells Down To Earth - Penn State
Up to now, a platinum-ruthenium alloy has been the best known catalyst for methanol fuel cells. The new catalyst, a alloy containing platinum, ruthenium, osmium, and iridium, is between 40 percent and 100 percent better, depending on the power demand on the cell and is particularly good under high current/high power conditions, the researchers say.
6/4/1999 Engineer Declares Fuel-Cell Demo a Success by Lewis McCool - Durango Herald (Colorado)
La Plata Electric’s fuel cell demonstration project has set a record while converting natural gas into electricity at Fort Lewis College. "It’s a world’s record for operation at altitude," LPEA engineer Dan Harms said during an on-site interview Monday. "We’ve learned a lot from it." The freight-car-size device, valued at $600,000, was installed adjacent to the arts building at the college in early November. Since then, it has been stripping hydrogen from natural gas, combining it with the oxygen in Durango’s thin air to continually produce about 150 kilowatts of electricity that’s fed into the power grid – enough to power 15 average homes – plus a lot of hot water. The lower oxygen content has reduced its output of electricity from the 200 kilowatts expected near sea level.6/1/1998 Iceland and Daimler-Benz/Ballard Start Plans for Hydrogen Economy - H&FCL
5/28/1998 Cosmic clouds threaten Earth - BBC
"Hydrogen would bombard the Earth, producing increased cloud cover, leading perhaps to global warming, or extreme amounts of precipitation and ice ages."
5/19/1998 Bus Showcases Fuel Cell Technology - ENN
The bus, which was one of three built as a prototype in 1993 with a $30-million grant primarily from the Department of Energy, will be driven by researchers from the University of Florida who hope to promote their work in the emerging field of fuel cell technology... When the bus's fuel processing system converts methanol to hydrogen, it also produces carbon dioxide, but at lower levels than diesel engines.
5/13/1998 UF Bus Will Tour State To Show Off Emerging Fuel Cell Technology by Aaron Hoover - Science Daily
Completed in 1993 with help from computer models created at UF, the bus was one of three identical 30-foot prototype city buses built with a roughly $30 million grant primarily from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Roan said. It was sitting unused at a federal lab in Chicago when the DOE agreed to give it to UF for research and demonstration, he said. ...When the bus's fuel processing system converts methanol to hydrogen, it also produces carbon dioxide, but at lower levels than diesel engines.
5/13/1998 "Energy Strategy for Transportation" Started in Germany - HyWeb
Environmentally benign hydrogen - seen by many as the energy form of the future - will then play an important role in the energy and fuel supply, if we make an effort in this direction. -- Rainer Laufs, chairman of the board of directors of Deutsche Shell AG5/11/1998 Hydrogen powered buses in Reykjavík - Daily News (Iceland)
A delegation from the German car maker Daimler-Benz spent the weekend in Iceland, finalizing a deal on experimental use of hydrogen run cars, and vessels. An agreement was reached last night between Daimler-Benz, the Canadian maker of generators Ballard, and the Icelandic authorities on test driving hydrogen buses in Iceland. According to member of parliament Hjálmar Árnason, who leads the Icelandic delegation, such vehicles are already in use in Chicago and Vancouver. The hydrogen will be produced by the Fertilizer Plant in Gufunes. The next step will be to test drive vans and cars run on hydrogen and in the future the hope is to empower fishing boats with hydrogen. Daimler-Benz intends to start mass production of hydrogen powered buses in the year 2004.
5/11/1998 Piston engine, R.I.P.? by William J. Cook - US News
The No. 66 bus may run quietly, but it is making a very loud statement: The tried-and-true internal combustion engine may at last have a serious competitor. The remarkable vehicle--one of three that began service on Chicago's streets in March--is propelled by a fuel cell, an electric power generating system similar to those on the space shuttle. ...
5/11/1998 "Green" Buildings in the National Parks Will Save Taxpayers Millions of Dollars - NREL
5/6/1998 High-pressure Scientists 'Journey' to Center of Earth - Can't Find Elusive Metallic Hydrogen - Cornell U.
The failure of solid hydrogen to become an alkali metal even at extreme pressures, says the Nature article, "has implications for our current theoretical understanding of the solid-state phase."
5/1/1998 Norsk Hydro to Generate Power With H2 Turbines, Inject CO2 into Oil Fields - H&FCL
The primary energy would come from natural gas. But in a new concept under investigation by several of Norsk Hydro's business centers and research units, the carbon dioxide would be stripped cleanly out of the natural gas before combustion, reducing CO2 release into the atmosphere by as much as 90%.
4/29/1998 America's 1st Fuel-Cell EV Hits the Road - ENN
The first street-ready fuel-cell car made is debut April 24 at the Clean Cities Celebration in Palm Desert, Calif., about 800 miles south of the lab where it was made. The car is a cherry-red, pint-sized coupe. Produced at Humboldt State University's Schatz Energy Research Center, it represents a major step toward a quiet, pollution-free automobile.
4/22/1998 Wide Range of Technologies Could Reduce Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, Study Finds - DOE
4/17/1998 Rugged, Inexpensive, and Simple Sensor Improves Hydrogen Safety - ORNL
4/16/1998 Just Water and Sunlight for Fuel? Electrolysis-Powered Car - AP
4/16/1998 One-Step Device Converts Water, Sunlight Into Fuel of the Future - NREL
4/16/1998 Solar-powered Car Advances by H. Josef Hebert - Associated Press
Researchers say they have moved a step closer to a cost-effective way to power automobiles with only sunlight and water. The technology behind a solar-hydrogen-powered car has been known for years, but commercial development remains unrealistic, in part because of the high cost of using solar power to produce the hydrogen from water. But two scientists at the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., have developed a one-step device that uses solar power to convert water into a hydrogen fuel. This could substantially reduce the cost of using solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules, a process known as electrolysis, said John Turner, a chemist at the laboratory, who outlined his research in Friday's issue of Science magazine. In an interview, Turner said it likely will take years of research and a greater political and economic commitment for solar-hydrogen fuel to become commercially acceptable.
4/1/1998 Senate Help for Carbon Sequestration, New Nevada H2 Site Reported at NHA Meeting - H&FCL
4/1/1998 Taking on the Energizer Bunny by Alden M. Hayashi - Scientific American
Researchers develop fuel cells for portable electronics: While various laboratories have been busy developing large, powerful fuel cells to replace automotive combustion engines, other work has concentrated on miniaturization. Robert G. Hockaday, a researcher on leave from Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked in diagnostic physics, has patented a microfuel cell that he predicts will be able to provide power for up to 50 times longer than traditional nickel-cadmium batteries--all for a comparably sized and priced package but at half the weight. With this technology, Hockaday envisions cell phones running continuously for 40 days on standby while consuming less than two ounces of methanol. -- from May 1998 Scientific American
3/30/1998 Study Reports U.S. Hydrogen Sales Increased 25 Percent Annually Over the Past Five Years -
3/30/1998 The Automakers' Big-Time Bet on Fuel Cells by Stuart F. Brown - Fortune
Some final details remain to be settled, but it appears likely that the German-North American fuel-cell enterprise will consist of three entities. One will be Ballard Power Systems, which will make the fuel-cell stacks, with Daimler-Benz taking a 20% interest and Ford 15%. The second, DBB Fuel Cell Engines, will integrate the stacks with fuel systems and other necessary peripherals; Daimler will own 51%, Ballard 26%, and Ford 23%. Finally, E-Drive will supply complete power trains, including electric motors and the electronic black boxes that control them. Ford will hold a 60% share, Ballard 20%, and Daimler 20%.
3/16/1998 Puny Power by Fenella Saunders - Discover Online
Right now, Hockaday's prototypes put out only a few milliwatts of power. To run a state-of-the-art cell phone, a fuel cell would need to generate about a quarter of a watt while the phone is in standby mode, and a full watt when making calls. Hockaday is confident that he can achieve that level of power. "There are three parameters where we can definitely pick up the improvement, and there are some great little details to getting that together," he says, though he declines to share any further information. The final version of the micro fuel cell will be a four-by-four-inch array of 15 cells printed side by side on a plastic sheet, with back-up cells stacked behind.
3/15/1998 Planting the Seeds for a Crop of Lean, Green Machines by Michelle Krebbs - New York Times
Virtually every major manufacturer has a fuel-cell vehicle in the works, but none are likely to reach the market before 2004. Fuel cells have been in laboratories since the 1960's and have been used in space. Daimler-Benz, the parent of Mercedes-Benz, is at the forefront of the development of fuel-cell vehicles, having introduced its first one four years ago. Most recently, Daimler-Benz and Ford announced a venture with the leading fuel-cell maker, Ballard Power Systems, of Vancouver, British Columbia, to begin jointly producing by 2004 as many as 100,000 cars a year. General Motors also has a fuel-cell vehicle in the works, and Toyota has a fuel-cell program.
3/13/1998
DCH Technology commercialized and exclusively licensed the Robust Hydrogen Sensor from Sandia, and is working closely with the laboratory to make improvements to the sensor, extending its life in severe environments. The full-range hydrogen measurement device features built-in redundancy and purge capability, and works in environments ranging from space to nuclear facilities.
3/13/1998 Balloon Accident Investigation - German Hydrogen Association DWV
The result of the investigation by the Federal Aviation Authority (LBA) at Brunswick was that the balloon was too close to a strong radio station. Deutsche Welle has four short-wave antennas with a power of 500 kW each at the site of the accident. The balloon approached them to about 100 m. The strong electromagnetic field caused a separation of the balloon itself and the net over it, which carries also the basket. Net and basket fell down from a height of about 150 to 200 m. There was no chance to survive. The balloon itself, which had caught fire, rose after the loss of the basket and flew burning for a while until the residual gas burnt explosively. Media reports described the accident on this basis as "explosion in mid-air". This is an unjustified over-simplification. Competent sources in the Federal Aviation Authority told DWV that the hydrogen in the balloon was not the cause of the accident. To a helium filled balloon exactly the same would have happened.
3/13/1998 Praxair Starts Up On-Site Hydrogen Generator - CALSTART
3/12/1998 All Systems Go for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles - ENN
3/11/1998 No Potholes on the Road to Zero-Emission Vehicles - INFORM
3/11/1998 Gearing Up for Hydrogen by
"Gearing Up for Hydrogen" by James S. Cannon shows that the technology to power vehicles with hydrogen is ripe for development. The report indicates that hydrogen-powered buses are the true pioneers. While only twenty hydrogen buses are currently being tested on the world's roadways, more are expected. "Two companies -- Ballard in British Columbia, Canada, and Daimler-Benz in Germany -- have made the plunge to demonstrate hydrogen fuel cell buses," Cannon said. In September, the Chicago Transit Authority unveiled the first of three fuel cell buses made by Ballard to be "in revenue service". -- from INFORM press release 3/11/1998
3/5/1998 Ford, Mobil Form Fuel, Fuel-Cell and AFV Alliance - CALSTART
3/1/1998 The End of Cheap Oil by Colin J. Campbell and Jean H. Laherrère - Scientific American
About 80 percent of the oil produced today flows from fields that were found before 1973, and the great majority of them are declining. In the 1990s oil companies have discovered an average of seven Gbo a year; last year they drained more than three times as much. Yet official figures indicated that proved reserves did not fall by 16 Gbo, as one would expect rather they expanded by 11 Gbo. One reason is that several dozen governments opted not to report declines in their reserves, perhaps to enhance their political cachet and their ability to obtain loans. A more important cause of the expansion lies in revisions: oil companies replaced earlier estimates of the reserves left in many fields with higher numbers.3/1/1998 GM Launches New Global PEM Fuel Cell Project with German Opel Subsidiary - H&FCL
2/28/1998 Catalysts for Change by Peter Hadfield, Tokyo, Rebecca Warden - New Scientist
The prospect of a cheap supply of hydrogen has moved closer to reality now that researchers working independently in Japan and Spain have succeeded in splitting the elements of water at room temperature with a catalyst.2/18/1998 Cinergy, Navy Test Gas-Powered Fuel Cell - The Kentucky Post
Cinergy Corp. is expanding its test of fuel cells with the planned installation of one of the world's first 250-kilowatt, natural gas-powered cells at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind. The fuel cell should be installed by mid-1999 and will be operated by Cinergy Technology, a unit of Cincinnati-based Cinergy Corp., the company announced Tuesday. The Naval Surface Warfare Center in southern Indiana is a test facility for advanced power technologies. The 250-kilowatt cell will be evaluated for military and commercial uses. ''Competition in the electric business will come not just from other companies, but also from technology that may change the way we do business,'' said James E. Rogers, vice chairman, president and chief executive officer of Cinergy. The natural gas-powered fuel cell generates electricity virtually pollution-free.
2/9/1998 Methanol Fuel Cells Featured on PBS Stations - AMI
2/7/1998 Carry On Talking by Jonathan Beard - New Scientist
Hockaday says he has made two big breakthroughs since he left Los Alamos. "The first is that we can now make fuel cells that use methanol at room temperature. And, secondly, these fuel cells are suitable for mass production."
2/4/1999 Gassing Up Your Cell Phone by Gene Koprowski - Wired
The micro fuel cell proof-of-concept technology is of a similar size and price but half the weight of the conventional nickel-cadmium batteries commonly used in cell phones, Hockaday said. Los Alamos continues to provide technical support through a cooperative research and development agreement with Hockaday's new company, Energy Related Devices. An interesting possible benefit of the technology: The micro fuel cells should last at least 20 years, whereas conventional batteries are depleted in about two years.
2/2/1998 Room Temperature Alkane Activation Reaction Measured - Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Alkanes are compounds of carbon and hydrogen atoms held together by single bonds. The simplest and most abundant is methane, the primary constituent of natural gas.
2/1/1998 President Clinton Calls for $6 Billion Global Warming R&D Program in State-of-Union Speech - H&FCL
1/20/1998 Methanol Buses Return to Los Angeles - AMI
1/7/1998 Big Three Committed to Fuel Cell Vehicles - ENN
With the announcement Monday by General Motors Chairman John Smith that the auto giant will have a "production ready" fuel-cell vehicle by 2004, there are now public commitments by the big three American auto makers to produce the environmentally-friendly cars.
1/6/1998 Technologies Fight for Position - Fueling Auto's Future by Joe Feese - ABC
Gas stations will still pump gas, but that gas will likely be gaseous hydrogen. The pumps will look the same, with one difference: A simple click will lock an airtight valve onto the tank opening so as not to let any hydrogen escape. A tank of hydrogen will power the fuel cell that runs your car—with better gas mileage and no emissions. And all of these changes will likely occur in your lifetime.
1/5/1998 Beyond Kyoto: It's Time to Think Big - ENN
Technology is not at issue. The array of renewable energies at hand is capable of filling virtually all our energy needs today. Once they attain economies of scale through mass production, photovoltaics, wind farms, fuel cells and hydrogen gas will provide power as cheaply as coal oil.
1/1/1998 Energy Loss in Fuel Cells and Batteries Brought to Light - NTNU Gemini
In a polymer fuel cell with hydrogen as fuel, ions carrying water molecules flow from a platinum electrode via a polymer membrane to a cathode. The scientists postulate that there can be a temperature difference between the electrode and membrane surfaces.
1/1/1998 Ground is Broken for H2 Fueling Station for Six-Van Delivery Fleet - H&FCL
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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)? |