Welcome
to the
International Clearinghouse for Hydrogen Commerce
BUILDING A WORLD THAT WORKSTM
CONTACT
"First they laugh at you,
then they ignore you, then they fight with you, then you win." -- Ghandi
"Mankind's future depends
on sensible energy choices. Let's clean house and abandon the
phony solutions that result in war, environmental ruin,
poverty, hunger, hatred and disease.
We must lead. We must set the example and Build A World That
Works!"TM - Richard D.
Masters
Creating
Hydrogen Part 1
2
3
Big Oil's nightmare, renewable hydrogen cheaper than gasoline,
has already happened - but you won't hear about it from them.
Matthew R. Simmons, Chairman of Simmons & Company
International, will keynote the sixth annual ammonia
conference. Mr. Simmons’ recently published book Twilight in
the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy
has been listed on the Wall Street Journal’s best-seller list.
He has also published numerous energy papers for industry
journals and is a frequent speaker at government forums,
energy symposiums and in boardrooms of many leading energy
companies around the world. Simmons & Company is the only
independent investment bank specializing in the entire
spectrum of the energy industry. ... Ammonia as the closest thing to an ideal fuel and
potential key element to near-term U.S. energy independence.
Can be produced from any raw energy source
(i.e. wind, solar, biomass, coal, nuclear, hydro, etc.)
Is cost effective
Has significant storage and delivery systems already
in place
Environment friendly
Can be used in any prime mover (i.e. diesel engines,
fuel cells, SI engines, gas turbines, etc.)
Jetstream Wind Inc. officials said the $219 million plant
would use electricity from wind, solar and other renewable
energy sources to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. The
hydrogen would then be burned in a turbine — similar to those
used by natural gas-fired power plants — to generate enough
electricity to power about 6,000 homes and businesses.
HECA is an IGCC power plant that takes
petroleum coke, coal, or blends of each, combined with
non-potable water and converts them into hydrogen, a clean
burning gas, and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen gas will be used
to fuel a net 250-megawatt power station, and the CO2 will be
transported by pipeline to nearby oil reservoirs and injected
for storage with the additional benefit of enhanced oil
recovery. ...BP Alternative Energy and Rio Tinto Hydrogen
formed Hydrogen Energy International to create low-carbon
hydrogen from fossil fuels. The hydrogen would initially be
for use in industrial scale power generation plants and the
CO2 from the fossil fuel would be captured and stored in deep
geological formations.
A Recipe for Clean, Green Hydrogen Power Kathy Gray
The Dalles Chronicle
June 25 2009
The process captures nitrogen from
the air, which is 70 percent nitrogen, hydrogen from a commercial
water source using an off-the-shelf electrolyzer. The two elements
are then combined through the early 20th century Haber-Bosch
process, which fixes one atom of nitrogen with three atoms of
hydrogen to produce anhydrous ammonia.
"When this works, it
will immediately change the future energy map for the world. One
cubic kilometre of sea water has the fusion energy equivalent of
whole world's oil reserves," said John Parris at the Hiper
project. That would overturn concerns over energy security
caused by vast amounts of the globe's oil been locked up beneath
a small number of nations.
Norway moves to transition to
an electric economy before the North
Sea Oil runs out. Above:
HyWind deep off-shore wind turbine.
Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon
fills tank of hydrogen car at opening of both hydrogen
filling station in Oslo and the Hydrogen Road between Oslo and
Stavanger. To right of Prince Haakon are StatoilHydro New
Energy head Alexandra Bech Gjørv and Norwegian Minister of
Transportation and Communication Liv Signe Navarsete.
Photo: Erlend Aas, Scanpix
Norway opened a
350 mile "hydrogen highway" on Monday with more than a dozen
hydrogen-powered cars rallying along a scenic route between
its capital city Oslo and North Sea oil hub Stavanger.
...StatoilHydro sells hydrogen in Norway at around 40
Norwegian crowns ($6.28) per kilo, which it says is roughly
equal in energy terms to the price of petrol. The company
seeks to keep its hydrogen clean by using energy from Norway's
vast
hydropower-plants to split water into oxygen and hydrogen
gas.
StatoilHydro and the HyNor partnership are pleased to announce
the official opening of the Norwegian hydrogen highway, HyNor,
at StatoilHydro's new hydrogen station at Økern
in Oslo. HyNor was opened by Norway's transport minister, Liv Signe
Navarsete.
HRH Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway joined the first
stage of the EVS Viking Rally, from Oslo to Lier, together
with internationally renowned racing car driver Henning
Solberg.
The first hydrogen station was opened at Forus in Stavanger
in 2006, the second in Porsgrunn in 2007, and now the two new
stations are open in Oslo and Lier. HyNor has some 50 partners
and manages a fleet of more than 50 hydrogen vehicles made by
Mazda, Toyota and Think.
"We are very pleased to open up this
hydrogen infrastructure for testing and demonstrating hydrogen
cars. By doing this, we nurture our ambition to help implement
hydrogen as a fuel in the transport sector," says StatoilHydro's head of new energy, Alexandra Bech Gjørv.
The EVS Viking Rally vehicles are the first to drive the
Norwegian hydrogen highway. The rally commences with Prince
Haakon racing together with the famous Norwegian racing car
star Henning Solberg.
Fourteen hydrogen vehicles, two plug-in hybrid cars and 14
battery electric vehicles are starting in Oslo and will reach
the beginning of the EVS (Electrical Vehicle Symposium) 24 in
Stavanger on 13 May.
Events will take place along the way in Porsgrunn, Grimstad,
Arendal, Kristiansand, Lyngdal and Egersund. Another 10
battery electric vehicles will join the rally in Egersund.
Hydrogen may grow significantly as an alternative
transportation fuel and stored stationary energy source. One
of hydrogen's big advantages is that it can be produced from
many power sources, and can be efficiently produced and used
without emitting any pollutants. In addition, hydrogen cars
possess many of the same qualities found in today’s
conventional automobiles.
"As a future clean transport alternative, hydrogen and
fuel-cell technology have big potential. Hydrogen is
potentially a game changing transportation fuel," says Ms Bech
Gjørv.
EVS Viking Rally 2009 is an
international rally for hydrogen cars, electric cars and plug
in-hybrid cars. Starting in Oslo and finishing in Stavanger,
it consists of transport stages and special stages; the latter
are run either on track or road and include regularity tests,
hill race stages, acceleration tests and auto slalom.
The rally is organized in accordance with International
Sporting Regulations (ISR), The Norwegian Sports Regulations (NSR)
and Regulations for the event.
Competition length
Hydrogen Cars: 743,34 km
Electric Cars: 641,48 km
Plug in-hybrid Cars: 743,34 km
Minirally: 69,55 km
An artist's concept of a Greater Cleveland
Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus at the hydrogen fueling
station located in downtown Cleveland at the Great Lakes Science
Center. The fueling station will generate hydrogen from Lake
Erie water for use in a RTA bus powered by fuel cells.
Image: Greater Cleveland RTA
CLEVELAND -- NASA's Glenn Research Center is leading a team of
industry and university partners in demonstrating a prototype of
a commercial hydrogen fueling station that uses wind and solar
power to produce hydrogen from water. This initial installation
will produce hydrogen from Lake Erie water to fuel a mass
transit bus powered by fuel cells.
The demonstration, featuring a unique, high-capacity
electrolyzer that separates water into its elemental components
of hydrogen and oxygen, is part of an economic development
program in the Cleveland area. Local workers will design and
build the electrolyzer using commercially available components.
The Glenn-led collaboration will customize the electrolyzer
for the prototype fueling station, and design the circuitry
needed to use renewable energy sources to power the electrolyzer
and fueling station.
"The project is more than a key technology demonstration,"
said project team member Valerie Lyons, chief of Glenn's Power
and In-Space Propulsion Division. "It will be a great
educational tool for the public and will serve as a catalyst to
inspire new ideas and initiatives that can generate many new
jobs and manufacturing opportunities in Ohio."
Great Lakes Science Center
The hydrogen fueling station will be located in downtown
Cleveland at the Great Lakes Science Center on the south shore
of Lake Erie, where it can be powered from the science center's
existing wind and solar power sources. The fueling station will
generate hydrogen from Lake Erie water for use in a Greater
Cleveland Regional Transit Authority bus powered by fuel cells.
The transit authority will operate the bus in revenue service.
Cleveland State University's Nance College of Business
Administration will work alongside the collaborators to develop
a business template for the electrolyzer and station. The
designs for both will be treated as intellectual property and
placed in a trust benefiting Ohio citizens.
The build-up of the electrolyzer, a major step toward the
reality of the fueling station, is funded by the Ohio Aerospace
Institute through a $310,000 grant from The Cleveland
Foundation. The initial funding is $110,000, with an additional
$200,000 to be provided for milestone progress.
The goals of the economic development program include
engaging Ohio's supply chain manufacturers and retraining a
skilled work force for clean energy jobs. The project will
demonstrate the viability of clean energy systems for
transportation and stationary power and boost regional economic
development.
Other collaborators include Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
Consultants of Brecksville, Ohio; the Center for Automotive
Research at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio; Parker
Hannifin and Technology Management, Inc. of Cleveland; Sierra
Lobo of Milan, Ohio; Hamilton Sundstrand of Windsor Locks,
Conn.; the University of Toledo; and the Earth Day Coalition of
Cleveland.
...A hydrogen hub would be a
power plant that uses water and air to produce a form of ammonia,
then burns the ammonia to yield hydrogen energy. ....A hydrogen
hub would buy up cheap hydro and wind power for several weeks in
the spring, say for 1 or 2 cents a kilowatt hour. PGE now sells
green power to residential customers for 10 cents a kilowatt hour.
The hub would use an electrolyzer to extract hydrogen from water
and an air-separation unit to extract nitrogen from the
atmosphere. Hydrogen and nitrogen would be synthesized into
anhydrous ammonia, using the Haber-Bosch process, named for its
inventors. Anhydrous ammonia, a common fertilizer, would be stored
in liquid form in tanks. ...Ammonia is an efficient way to store
hydrogen, says Holbrook, executive director of the nonprofit
Ammonia Fuel Network. “We call it the other hydrogen.” When the
electricity price jumps in the summer, the hydrogen hub runs the
ammonia through a generator, producing hydrogen power. ...The
electricity would free utilities from building extra power plants
to meet peak summertime demand for energy.
THERE IS NO ENERGY CRISIS
FOR OVER A DECADE,
WE HAVE BEEN HELD IN THE GRIP OF A POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL
EMERGENCY THAT HAS PREVENTED RATIONAL ENERGY CHOICES.
HERE, IN ITS ENTIRETY, WE REPRINT JACK ROBERTSON'S SUPERB 2003
SOLUTION TO EXCESSIVE NORTHWEST OIL CONSUMPTION IN HOPES
THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT BLITHELY DISREGARD IT THE
WAY THE GRAND OIL PARTY DID. --RDM
Columbia's Power: The River Contains the
Secret to Drive a National Energy Revolution Jack Robertson
Register-Guard
January 16, 2003 The mighty Columbia
River's nighttime flow holds a remarkable secret. This secret
can put the Northwest at the center of a global energy
revolution, create thousands of new jobs and help end forever
our dependence on Middle East oil.
While you sleep, the power of the Columbia River can create a
revolutionary new energy source - lighter than air, completely
renewable, and yet with the highest energy content of any fuel.
In the Northwest we can produce this new fuel faster, cleaner
and cheaper than anywhere in the world. What's its source?
Water. That's right. The power of the Columbia River can
unlock hydrogen from water. It can turn the Northwest into the
Saudi Arabia of hydrogen - the revolutionary fuel at the center
of President Bush's bold, $1.2 billion proposal to build
hydrogen-powered cars and a national hydrogen infrastructure.
For centuries, people have dreamed of a limitless, clean
source of energy. For decades, scientists have known that
hydrogen - the most common element in the universe - holds the
answer to a global energy revolution.
Critics insist hydrogen-powered cars are at best a decade
away, that a national hydrogen infrastructure is impractical,
that hydrogen costs too much, and that consumers will consider
it unsafe.
But now the world faces grave economic, environmental and
foreign policy dangers - all linked to energy. We need a
fundamental breakthrough, the energy equivalent of the computing
revolution of the last 20 years, to solve these problems.
Hydrogen holds the key to a radical break from the past. It's
time the critics were answered.
We can start right here. Hydrogen produced at night and
stored in fuel tanks throughout the Northwest can revolutionize
energy consumption in the 21st century. The end of the age of
oil can begin here.
Most importantly, you don't have to wait a decade or more to
drive a hydrogen-powered car - it can power the minivan or SUV
sitting in your garage. Hydrogen is 50 percent more powerful
than gasoline. It can increase the horsepower of your existing
car, take you hundreds of miles on a single tank, and never
require a tune-up.
With existing technology, your car can be retrofitted to run
on both gasoline and hydrogen. It will require basically three
things; a new fuel tank, new spark plugs and a few hours in a
local car shop. Today, a retrofit will probably cost a few
thousand dollars - until dual-fuel hydro cars become popular.
The price should drop, and you should be able to order a
dual-fuel car from the factory.
With our natural, hydrogen-producing resource, the Columbia
River, we can put thousands of these cars on Northwest roads
within a handful of years. Our economy will strengthen even as
our skies clear.
The secret to our success will be found in a simple equation.
We can produce hydrogen from water as cheaply as big oil
companies can produce gasoline from oil.
How? Through water power.
At night and during the spring runoff, the Columbia River
produces huge amounts of very low-cost electricity that can be
sent to municipal fueling yards and gas stations region-wide.
The electric current runs through water in an electrolyzing
machine about the size of a refrigerator. There, electricity
splits water into its two fundamental components - hydrogen and
oxygen gas.
Oxygen is put in tanks and sold to hospitals. The hydrogen
gas is safely stored on site in a large propane-like tank. Right
now, hydrogen test stations are already fueling cars in
California, Las Vegas and Phoenix. In the future you will pull
up to the hydrogen fueling station, attach the nozzle to your
tank, and swipe your credit card. Hydrogen gas will be
automatically pumped into your upgraded car. Two minutes later
the computer shuts off the valve, and your tank is full.
You pull away and - presto - you are transformed from a
gas-guzzling commuter into a powerful force for change. You're
now driving a hydro car - a car that runs on hydrogen made from
water. You have become a cutting-edge consumer, a powerful
environmentalist, and a leader for U.S. energy independence -
all by driving the kids to school.
There are three crucial steps to building the infrastructure
to support thousands of hydro cars in the next few years.
Step one will require that we turn water into low-cost
hydrogen. Technology to turn water to hydrogen - hydro fuel -
exists right now. Most of the infrastructure is already built.
The Northwest has 40 percent of the nation's hydroelectric
power. Electricity is sent out over the existing power grid to
every big city and small town in the Northwest. Electrolyzing
machines are off-the-shelf technology.
The electrolyzing machine transforms tap water into hydrogen.
The energy content from the hydrogen in a gallon of water equals
10 gallons of gasoline. Most remarkably, when hydrogen is burned
in your car engine its only exhaust is water vapor. This vapor
returns to the atmosphere, producing rain and replenishing our
rivers. Hydrogen becomes a perpetual fuel - power from a perfect
natural cycle.
Not only is it clean, it can be very cheap.
At night while we sleep, demand for electricity ebbs. The
wholesale price of electricity drops to about 2 cents a kilowatt
hour. During the massive spring runoff, the price drops even
further - to less than 1 cent a kilowatt hour even in low water
years. Experts say it takes 38 kilowatt hours of electricity to
produce the hydrogen equivalent of a gallon of gas.
At 2 cents a kilowatt hour, hydrogen gas equal to a gallon of
gasoline would cost 76 cents. At a spring price of 1 cent a
kilowatt hour, the cost of producing hydrogen fuel equal to a
gallon of gasoline drops to 38 cents. Even with retail mark-ups
and added energy used for compressing hydrogen into the
station's fuel tank, the cost of producing hydrogen here should
be competitive with gasoline.
Some would consider this calculation conservative. It assumes
no benefit from selling oxygen to hospitals. Nor does it include
benefits from a new power source centered in this country. We
now pay billions to nations in the Middle East and elsewhere for
the basic source of energy - oil. The electricity prices we will
pay for producing hydrogen will go instead to local utilities,
helping keep overall transmission and electric power rates low.
This strengthens our economy.
Hydrogen revenues also will strengthen the Bonneville
Power Administration, which provides half the region's
electricity and funds the world's largest fish and wildlife
program on the Columbia River. Finally, large-scale hydrogen
production will increasingly free us from the political turmoil
in oil-rich regions of the world. Given the threat of terrorism
and war, this benefit is - as they say in the commercial -
priceless.
Early-stage costs of hydrogen fueling stations, if added to
the cost of producing pure hydrogen, could push hydrogen's price
above the price of gasoline in the near term. But as demand for
hydrogen increases, the cost of producing this infrastructure
should drop rapidly.
Cost is just one factor. Just imagine the enormous long-term
environmental and human health benefits of a practical,
powerful, zero-emissions fuel. Gasoline-powered cars account for
half the oil consumed in the United States, half the urban
pollution, and one-forth the greenhouse gases. Hundreds of
millions of tons of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and other
chemical pollutants would be eliminated every year. Pollution
alert days could disappear forever in the rear-view mirror of
history.
Step two is to convert your car. This can be simple.
The internal combustion engine in your car can run on
hydrogen or gasoline. It doesn't care. New injectors, capable of
handling both hydrogen and gasoline, will replace spark plugs. A
new hydrogen fuel tank is under consideration by the federal
Department of Transportation. With it, a hydrogen-powered car
can travel 200 miles before refilling. Tanks on the drawing
board can extend that range up to 1,000 miles.
With two tanks, your car can run on hydro fuel until its
empty. Then you switch your engine to gasoline with the flip of
a switch, extending your car's range by hundreds of miles. As
the "hydrogen highway" expands and tanks improve, gasoline can
be phased out.
Car safety is a vital issue. Because we've all heard of
hydrogen bombs, some consumers are frightened of putting such an
explosive material in the tank of their car. This fear is
understandable, but exaggerated. A hydrogen bomb, for example,
can be triggered only by the heat of an atomic bomb.
Hydrogen fuel burns a lot like the natural gas fueling some
buses today - only faster and cleaner. Because it is lighter
than air, if a tank of hydrogen gas is broken in an accident,
the flames will burn straight up - away from passengers.
The rupture of a car tank filled with hydrogen can pose less
danger to passengers than a tank filled with gasoline.
Step three is to create a hydrogen highway.
A public-private consortium should select key rural and urban
markets to create an initial network of fueling stations.
This project will form the initial backbone of a new hydrogen
infrastructure, linking up to existing stations on the West
Coast and expanding with demand.
The hydrogen in tanks region-wide can serve another purpose.
During emergencies, electricity-generating turbines can be
powered by the stored hydrogen gas.
This keeps the lights on with a nonpolluting source of
electric energy - right in our neighborhood. This can save
hundreds of millions of dollars in electric grid expansion
projects.
Our regional economy needs help. Global oil-based energy
markets are unstable and threatened by terrorism. Worldwide,
demand for energy far outstrips supply - condemning billions to
a life of grinding poverty with no lights, no heat and no
future. Carbon-based pollution adds to a threatened global
environment.
The sheer magnitude of these challenges demands a
fundamental energy breakthrough - a new, hydrogen-based economy
to power the 21st century. With the enormous power of the
Columbia River, the Northwest enjoys a huge natural advantage in
a hydrogen future. We can help lead the nation and the world
away from the carbon-based economy of the last century and
toward an energy revolution fueled by water.
We need to unlock the river's powerful secret - now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------Jack
Robertson of Portland worked for the Bonneville Power
Administration from 1986 through 1999, serving as acting chief
executive officer and deputy CEO. He helped found the Bonneville
Environmental Foundation. From 1973 to 1982, he worked on the
staff of Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield in Washington, D.C.
Columbia's Power: The River Contains the Secret to Drive a
National Energy Revolution
The Register-Guard, February 16, 2003
BREAKTHROUGH
“This changes the whole
paradigm. We’ve
eliminated pressurization and storage costs.
We’ve shortened the timetable to the point where hydrogen will
be a major component
of our national energy. This excited the Department of Energy so
much, it put together
a special brief for the Secretary of Energy.”
Gerald Groenewold, EERC Director
...The EERC technology converts alcohols or liquid
fuels, including ethanol and gasoline, to high-pressure hydrogen
at the time of fueling, making it more accessible and
affordable.
EERC Foundation Receives Patent Application Approval for
On-Demand Hydrogen Fueling System
EERC April 13, 2009 GRAND FORKS --- After 6 years of diligent
prosecution, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued
the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) Foundation
in Grand Forks, North Dakota, allowance for a patent
application on a system that produces high-pressure hydrogen
on-demand. The final patent will be approved in the very near
future.
The EERC technology converts alcohols or liquid fuels, such
as ethanol, methanol, and gasoline, to high-pressure hydrogen
at the time of fueling. Utilizing this state-of-the-art
process, the prohibitive infrastructure costs of nationwide
hydrogen transportation and storage will be eliminated so that
hydrogen refueling will be accessible and affordable. The
hydrogen is produced on-site, on-demand at the fuel pump,
rather than at a separate location.
"Through the hydrogen programs at the EERC, we are breaking
down barriers, bringing down the costs, and shortening the
timetable to the point where hydrogen will be a major
component of our national energy future," said EERC Director
Gerald Groenewold. "The high-pressure hydrogen production
technology is a cornerstone technology for achieving those
goals."
Researchers in the EERC's National Center for Hydrogen
Technology, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy
National Energy Technology Laboratory and over 85 corporate
partners, have proved the conversion of methanol into hydrogen
and are working toward obtaining similar results for ethanol
and hydrocarbon fuels, including military jet fuel.
This technology is a cornerstone for the EERC's proposed
United States-Israel Hydrogen Fueling and Fleet Demonstration,
which proposes to demonstrate hydrogen as a fuel for transit
buses in North Dakota and Tel Aviv, Israel. The EERC is
currently seeking federal cofunding for that project.
Tom Bechtel, EERC Foundation Board President and the
Principal at TFB Consulting Services in New Bern, North
Carolina, said, "The EERC Foundation Board of Directors is
extremely proud of this milestone. It is a marvelous example
of the ever-increasing portfolio of EERC technologies the
Foundation is bringing to commercial deployment."
The technology is also being commercialized for many other
different applications as well as with a variety of corporate
and governmental partners and includes industrial applications
that provide near-term commercial opportunities for North
Dakota in manufacturing and cold-weather testing.
"This patent allowance will clearly strengthen the ability of
the EERC Foundation to license the technology," said Carsten
Heide, Associate Director for Intellectual Property Management
and Technology Commercialization. "We are continually making
design advancements to this technology and are broadening the
patent to protect those new developments." The EERC Foundation
houses the rights to technologies developed by the EERC and
promotes business relationships with strategic partners
interested in commercializing those technologies. The patent
term expires on December 13, 2024.
Discovery of an efficient artificial catalyst for the sunlight-driven
splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen is a major goal of renewable
clean energy research. So far, Milstein’s team has demonstrated a
mechanism for the formation of hydrogen and oxygen from water, without the
need for sacrificial chemical agents, through individual steps, using
light. For their next study, they plan to combine these stages to create
an efficient catalytic system, bringing those in the field of alternative
energy an important step closer to realizing this goal.
Researchers at UALR -- the University of Arkansas at
Little Rock -- said they have developed a process involving nanostructure
that shows great promise in boosting the efficiency of titania photoanodes
used to convert solar energy into hydrogen in fuel cells. ....The UALR
team, working with researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno, and
supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Arkansas Science and
Technology Authority (ASTA), has reported an
80 percent increase in efficiency
with a new process.
Enhancement of the photoelectrochemical conversion efficiency of
nanotubular TiO2 photoanodes using nitrogen plasma assisted surface
modification Rajesh Sharma et al Nanotechnology
January 26, 2009 A synergistic combination of nanostructure synthesis and plasma
surface modification was used to enhance the photoelectrochemical
activity of titania (TiO2) anodes. Titania nanotubular photoanodes were
synthesized by electrochemical anodization of Ti thin foils. Nitrogen
plasma was used to dope N at the surface of the photoanodes while
removing chemisorbed species. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis
showed an increase in the surface concentration of nitrogen.
The
photocurrent density of plasma treated samples was approximately 80%
higher than that of the control. The open circuit potential of
the plasma treated samples was more negative compared to that of the
control, implying a favorable energetics for water splitting. This
increase in photoactivity could be ascribed to: (1) increased absorption
of visible light due to bandgap reduction, (2) minimization of charge
carrier traps, (3) optimal oxygen vacancies, and (4) increased surface
area for enhanced optical absorption and improved charge carrier
generation.
NETL Building Hydrogen Production
and Dispensing Facility at Yeager Airport
DOE National Energy Technology Lab
March 25, 2009
The facility will use grid
electricity to split water to produce pure hydrogen fuel. The
fuel will then be used by Yeager Airport operations and the
130th Air Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard. ...The
opening of the hydrogen facility will coincide with a hydrogen
energy conference to be held August 17–19 in Charleston.
Information about the conference is available at
www.mountainstateshydrogen.com
WHO SAYS HYDROGEN
PIPELINES DON'T WORK?
Air Products’ Hydrogen Pipeline Extension Strengthens Gulf
Coast Network
Air Products March
2, 2009
The new extension creates a
more than 150 mile continuous hydrogen pipeline network from
the city of Plaquemine to Chalmette, with 15 hydrogen
production source points feeding the system including
recently announced hydrogen plants being built in Garyville
and Baton Rouge.
Algal farms at Hutt Lagoon, Western Australia
(Google Earth image, April 18th 2006)
We have examined various scenarios
involving the growth of algae and the sequestering of carbon
during its growth. End-uses for algae are found in the
production of food supplements for humans; animal feed; oil
extraction and its transesterification to produce biodiesel;
electricity production upon combustion directly or by
transforming the algae
to methane anaerobically; or fuel production via pyrolysis,
gasification or anaerobic digestion. In every case, the
greenhouse gases sequestered by the algae are released into the
atmosphere, so that greenhouse gas benefits arise only as
offsets when the algal use displaces the combustion of a fossil
fuel in a vehicle or for the production of electricity. This
paper examines the greenhouse gas, costs and energy balance on a
life-cycle basis for algae grown in salt-water ponds and used to
produce biodiesel and electricity. Under the conditions
described and the data assumed, it is shown that
it is possible to
produce algal biodiesel at less cost and with a substantial
greenhouse gas and energy balance advantage over fossil diesel.
However, when scaled up to large commercial production levels,
the costs may exceed those for fossil diesel. The economic
viability is highly dependent upon algae with high oil yields
capable of high production year-round, which has yet to be
demonstrated on a commercial scale. ...it may be
concluded that it could be possible to produce biodiesel from
algae grown in ponds at a lower cost than ULS diesel; in the
best case (with an adjacent ammonia plant) the biodiesel is 42%
cheaper. Biodiesel grown with the help of CO2 being trucked in
every day enjoys a 33% advantage, which indicates that it may be
economically viable to grow algae for biodiesel production even
without an attached power station or other extensive producer of
CO2....
Hempstead NY to Build a Hydrogen Fuel Station Jennifer Smith
Newsday
February 19, 2009
Hydrogen Station to be Built on Camp Pendleton Camp Pendelton Scout
February 17, 2009
Camp Pendleton currently has
three hydrogen-fueled vehicles, two General Motors Equinoxes and
one Ford Escape hybrid. Camp Pendleton is also in the process of
getting three more fleet vehicles that run off hydrogen within the
next three months.
"It is exciting because
using cellulose instead
of starch expands the renewable resource for producing hydrogen to
include biomass." Jonathan Mielenz, team leader
Bioconversion Science and Technology Group
Oak Ridge National Lab
Enzyme Cocktail Converts Cellulosic Materials, Water Into Hydrogen
Fuel Susan Trulove Virginia Tech
February 16, 2009
Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL), and the University of Georgia have produced hydrogen gas
pure enough to power a fuel cell by mixing 14 enzymes, one
coenzyme, cellulosic materials from nonfood sources, and water
heated to about 90 degrees.
Northwestern University chemist Mercouri
G. Kanatzidis, together with postdoctoral research associate
Gerasimos S. Armatas, has developed
a class of new porous materials, structured
like honeycomb, that is very effective at separating hydrogen from
complex gas mixtures. ...Tests of one form of the family of
materials -- this one composed of the heavy elements germanium,
lead and tellurium -- showed it to be approximately four times
more selective at separating hydrogen from carbon dioxide than
conventional methods, which are made of lighter elements, such as
silicon, oxygen and carbon.
Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) are an efficient
technology for generating hydrogen gas from organic matter, but
alternatives to precious metals are needed for cathode catalysts. We show
here that high surface area
stainless steel brush cathodes produce hydrogen at rates and efficiencies
similar to those achieved with platinum-catalyzed carbon cloth cathodes in
single-chamber MECs.
...These results demonstrate for the first time that hydrogen production
can be achieved at rates comparable to those with precious metal catalysts
in MECs
without the need for expensive cathodes.
Hydrogen production by synthetic
enzymatic pathways is the most efficient way to convert the energy stored
in renewable sugars to hydrogen energy. In addition, an endothermic
reaction at ambient temperature means absorption of some low- temperature
heat energy and conversion to a high-quality chemical energy carrier –
hydrogen. Hydrogen production from the enriched chemical energy source –
sugars produced from photosynthesis – suggests minimal challenges for
scale-up and storage of feedstocks. We now need to address both increasing
the hydrogen production rates and decreasing the hydrogen production
costs. With technological improvements, this carbohydrate-to-hydrogen
technology will address the challenges associated with hydrogen
production, storage, safety, distribution, and infrastructure in the
hydrogen economy.
We envision that we will drive sugar-powered vehicles having
a driving distance of >300 miles per refill. Solid sugar (27–68 kg of
sugars or 4–10 kg of hydrogen per refilling) will be added at local outlets
such as grocery stores and the like. The on-board bioreformer with a
volume of several tens or hundreds of litres containing a number of
stabilized enzyme cocktails will convert sugar syrup to hydrogen, which
will be converted to electricity quickly with very high energy efficiency
and high power density via the PEM fuel cell. As a result, driving
tomorrow with renewable sugars will no longer be viewed as science fiction!
These systems will be the most energy efficient and greenest power-train
with high power density and high energy storage density. This ambitious
project of the sugar-powered vehicle will become a hen that will lay
golden eggs for various sub-directions – enzyme engineering, enzyme
immobilization, synthetic biology, fuel cells, battery, powertrain system
integration, and so on.
"Our previous research
suggested that electronic properties govern everything about these
aluminum clusters, but this new study shows that it is the arrangement of
atoms within the clusters that allows them to split water," said A.
Welford Castleman Jr., Eberly Family Distinguished Chair in Science and
Evan Pugh Professor in the Penn State Departments of Chemistry and
Physics. "Generally, this knowledge might allow us to design new nanoscale
catalysts by changing the arrangements of atoms in a cluster. The results
could open up a new area of research, not only related to splitting water,
but also to breaking the bonds of other molecules, as well."
2005 Fall Chemistry Newsletter Penn
State Matter of Nanoscale Dimensions Albert Welford (Will) Castleman, Jr.
...recently we have found specific aluminum and aluminum
compound clusters that behave as superhalogens, and others with
superatom characteristics akin to alkaline earth metal atoms. These
surprising indings have led to two recent papers in Science that are
laying a foundation for the exciting prospects in the area of material
development through cluster assembly. Subsequently, we identiied that
some of these aluminum cluster species form classes of polyhalides
analogous to ones known for polyhalides in the condensed phase.
Signiicantly, the growth of an analogous halide series was found to
undergo assembly by a unique chemistry involving the formation of active
sites on the cluster structure. Evidence from our work is now beginning
to be acquired showing that these concepts may be even more far reaching
than irst thought. The prospect exists for forming multivalence systems
comprised of speciic numbers of aluminum atoms bound to other metals, as
well as carbon, oxygen, and even nitrogen. If these new ideas are borne
out, there is the very promising and exciting prospect that new
materials using atomic or compound clusters of selected electronic
properties and geometries may be able to be formed through the
self-assembly of superatoms that mimic selected elements of the periodic
table. This would bring about an unprecedented level of atomic control
that could be realized in using the properties of individual clusters in
designing complex materials with desirable collective traits and could
open up the possibility of assembling materials designed to display a
pre-selected functional activity. The promises of developing new
materials with tailored properties abound.
Hydrogenases researcher
Fraser Armstrong at Oxford University
Sun Shines on a Solution for Hydrogen Production RSC Chemical Technology (UK)
December 8, 2008
Researchers have found that
platinum catalysts can be replaced with hydrogenase enzymes that have
nickel and iron in their active sites. But now selenium-containing
hydrogenase is showing even more promise.
UK Pioneering
H2-powered Building Receives Wind Turbine New Energy Focus (UK)
December 8, 2008
The Environmental Energy
Technology Centre in Rotherham, Yorkshire, will use a Vestas V29
turbine to generate hydrogen from January, which will then be used to
power the building.
WEST
VIRGINIA Hydrogen-Electrolysis
Plant Awarded to Charleston Rick Steelhammer
Charleston Gazette (WV)
December 4, 2008
In exchange for making a small
parcel of land available for the project, Yeager Airport will be
provided with four new hydrogen-fueled vehicles. The Yeager-based
130th Airlift Wing of the Air National Guard also will be provided
with several hydrogen-burning vehicles.
Two years later, Mr. Strizki’s company, Renewable Energy
International, has yet to install a single new system, and it
hasn’t secured any significant source of investor funding. But
R.E.I. does have its first customers lined up, including a
homeowner in the Cayman Islands, and Mr. Strizki remains
unreservedly optimistic.
"I said, 'I'm not waiting anymore. We're
going to work through the existing code, and I'm going to drag them kicking and
screaming, but we're going to do it.' And we did. I convinced enough people to
be believers, and the ones I couldn't convince, other people helped me move them
aside."
Michael Stritzki
Hopewell Project Goes Hydrogen
Home is first to be all Solar / hydrogen powered Leonard N. Fleming Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
Oct 21, 2006
The Zero-Energy SolutionThe New York Times
May 20, 2007 The implications of the
solar-hydrogen house are immense. Eventually, it seems, for the price of a
home-improvement loan, millions of homeowners could install solar-hydrogen
systems, with zero emissions, generating 100-percent clean renewable energy.
The Environmental Energy Technology Centre (EETC), located at the
Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, will use Europe's largest
capacity Hydrogen Mini-Grid System (HMGS) - developed by Pure Energy in
the Shetlands and the energy consultancy TNEI - as a primary power source
to the building. The system uses renewable energy produced by a 225kW wind
turbine, which will produce over 500MWh of electricity each year, enabling
the EETC to be self-sufficient for power.
UK:
Foundations Laid for Wind-Hydrogen Mini Grid
New Energy Focus August 18, 2008
The new Environmental
Energy Technology Centre (EETC) between Rotherham and Sheffield should see
all its power provided by a 225kW turbine. And, even when the wind does
not blow, the turbine should be able to provide the building's power needs
through a hydrogen fuel cell system. The system will generate hydrogen
from excess power from the wind turbine through an electrolyser, which can
then turned back into electricity by the fuel cell during periods of low
wind speed. ...It should be the largest wind-to-hydrogen power system in
the UK, and is being seen as a "proof of concept" development with hopes
that it could help kick-start the use of hydrogen as an alternative power
source to fossil fuels.
Ramea is the site
of a five-year innovative research and development project for an isolated
wind-hydrogen- diesel generation system, among the first of its kind in
the world. This project is focused on developing an
environmentally-friendly energy solution to be used in small, isolated
electrical distribution systems. The project builds on the existing,
successful wind-diesel system that has been operating in Ramea since 2004.
Researchers are
using nano-sized catalysts to vastly improve the production of hydrogen
through water electrolysis a vastly more efficient process. The goal is to
make it practical and cost-effective to produce hydrogen from water and
electricity for existing industrial uses and for fueling the
next-generation hydrogen-fueled vehicles.
The researchers are using tiny particles of nanometals that
are almost perfectly spherical in shape. The mass production of these
particles is enabled through patented, gas phase condensation method. The
size and shape of the nano particles are proving to be ideal in the
electrolysis process since they increase the amount of reactive surface
area for the catalysts used in the electrolyzers that produce the
hydrogen. By increasing the surface area of the catalysts, the efficiency
of the electrolysis process has been improved to 85 percent.
-- THE END OF THE CARBON AGE --
ELECTROLYSIS
BREAKTHROUGH "Solar power has always been a limited,
far-off solution. Now we can
seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon." Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of
Energy at MIT
'Major Discovery' from MIT Primed
to Unleash Solar-Hydrogen Revolution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
July 31, 2008
"This
is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity
of humankind. The importance of their discovery cannot be
overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for
energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and
addressing the global climate change problem." James Barber, Ernst Chain Professor of
Biochemistry
at Imperial College London.
Chemist Daniel Nocera, head of the
M.I.T.'s Solar Revolution Project, focused on one side of the equation:
splitting water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen molecules. This
can be done well, but it remains difficult to actually separate the
molecules. But Nocera and postdoctoral fellow Matthew Kanan discovered it
could be accomplished by simply adding the metals cobalt and phosphate to
water and running a current through it.
In contrast to platinum, cobalt
and phosphate cost roughly $2.25 an ounce and $.05 an ounce, respectively.
In Situ Formation of an Oxygen-Evolving Catalyst in Neutral Water
Containing Phosphate and Co2+
July 31, 2008 Matthew W. Kanan and Daniel G. Nocera, Dept of
Chem, MIT Science
In natural photosynthesis,
energy from sunlight is used to rearrange the bonds of water to O2
and H2-equivalents. The realization of artificial systems
that perform similar "water splitting" requires catalysts that produce O2
from water without the need for excessive driving potentials. Here, we
report such a catalyst that forms upon the oxidative polarization of an
inert indium tin oxide electrode in phosphate-buffered water containing
Co2+.
Natural Gas Leak, Explosion, and Fire
Plum Borough, Pennsylvania Dominion Peoples Natural Gas
Company
National Transportation Safety Board
March 5, 2008
On March 5, 2008, about 1:39 p.m., a natural gas explosion destroyed a
residence at 171 Mardi Gras Drive in Plum Borough, Pennsylvania, killing a
man and seriously injuring a 4-year-old girl. Two other houses were
destroyed, and 11 houses were damaged. Property damage and losses were
$1,000,000.
Hydrogenics will
provide its HySTAT-10 electrolyzer driven by wind turbines for the
production of hydrogen, which will then be used to power a Hydrogenics 1 x
HyPM 12 fuel cell power module. The hydrogen will also be used to fuel
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, including a delivery van and a shuttle bus
previously integrated with a Hydrogenics fuel cell power module.
Scientists Solve 10-year Hydrogen Mystery CleantechFebruary 29. 2008
Since 1997, hydrogen researchers have
known that the titanium allows hydrogen to be generated at lower temperatures
and with higher efficiency, which means hydrogen can be stored onboard a vehicle
at realistic pressures and temperatures. What they didn’t understand was how it
happened.
"This is a proof-of-concept system that
is very inefficient. But ultimately, catalytic systems with 10 to 15
percent solar conversion efficiency might be achievable," says
Thomas E. Mallouk, the DuPont Professor of Materials Chemistry and
Physics. "If this could be realized, water photolysis would provide a
clean source of hydrogen fuel from water and sunlight."
With hydrogen production currently
dominated by the petrochemical industry, it's nice to see some simple
carbon neutral solutions to producing hydrogen, which you can make
yourself.
more
"This report is one in a series of emergency
technology assessments sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA). The purpose of this report is to develop detailed,
illustrated instructions for the fabrication, and operation of a biomass
gasifier unit (that is, a producer gas generator, also called a wood gas
generator) which is capable of providing emergency fuel for vehicles,
such as tractors and trucks, in the event that normal petroleum sources
were severely disrupted for an extended period of time. These
instructions are prepared in the format of a manual for use by any
mechanic who is reasonably proficient in metal fabrication or engine
repair."
-- U.S. Defense Technical Information Center
Construction of a Simplified Wood Gas Generator for Fueling Internal
Combustion Engines in a Petroleum Emergency
H. LaFontaine, Biomass Energy Foundation, lnc. Miami, Florida and F. P.
Zimmerman, Oak Ridge National laboratory, Energy Division FEMA
lnteragency Agreement Number: EMW-84-E-1737 Work Unit: 3521 D for:
Federal Emergency Management Agency Washington, D.C. 20472 "This report
has been reviewed in the Federal Emergency Management Agency and
approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents
necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency." Date Published: March 1989 APPROVED FOR PUBLIC
RELEASE: DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED Prepared by: Oak Ridge National
laboratory Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6285 for the U.S. Department of
Energy
Denmark's Wind-Hydrogen Projects
Fuel Cell Today (UK)
February 4, 2008
This summer, six new hydrogen plants
will be opened in western Jutland, all of which will use renewable energy
such as wind to produce hydrogen.
Northern Jutland Invests Millions in H2 and Fuel Cell Projects
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
December 20, 2007 Hydrogen technology
is an innovation and enterprise focus area in Jutland, with the
development of a "Hydrogen Valley" cluster centred around the town of
Hobro, which is centrally located between three of Denmark's leading
centres for hydrogen and fuel cell research as well as bioenergy
research – the universities in Aalborg and Århus, and the Centre for
Danish Agricultural Sciences near Viborg.
Catching the WindJim Motavalli
EMagazine.com
Jan/Feb 2005
Claus Moller of the Danish Wind Energy Association says that
the concept of hydrogen from wind is being actively pursued in Denmark,
with small-scale demonstration projects and long-term feasibility
studies underway in research institutes. If economics of scale come into
play to dramatically reduce the cost of wind-powered hydrogen
electrolyzers, reports a paper by Harry Braun of the Hydrogen Political
Action Committee posted on EV World, then electricity could be generated
at a cost of one cent per kilowatt-hour, resulting in liquid hydrogen
produced for the same cost as gasoline at $1.95 a gallon. Braun calls
for 12 million wind systems to be mass-produced and installed within 24
months and coupled to an interstate hydrogen pipeline. “It is possible
for the U.S. to be energy independent, with a pollution-free and
inexhaustible energy resource within five to 10 years,” he says.
Artist's
concept of full-scale NASA Lunar Power Plant
Images courtesy of NASA
"On the moon, you would start with a tank of water. You'd use the solar
arrays to make hydrogen and oxygen during the day, then use the hydrogen
and oxygen to make electricity during the night when there's no sun.
Ideally, if nothing broke and nothing wore out, it could run forever
without being refueled." David Bents, NASA Glenn Research Center
Schematic of closed-loop lunar power system
Artist's concept of basic array.
Rengenerative fuel cells at NASA.
NASA's Glenn Research Center in
Cleveland is leading an effort to develop systems that could store energy
for use during the long, frigid lunar nights. The solution may be a fuel
cell system that originally was designed for a high-altitude
solar-electric airplane. ...."Even though it was originally designed for
an airplane, the system has given us a leg up," said Ann Over, chief of
Glenn's Advanced Capabilities Project Office. "The knowledge we gained
will feed directly into our lunar regenerative fuel cell technology
program." Glenn plans to begin work in 2008 on a prototype regenerative
fuel cell system for the lunar outpost.
more
AeroVironment HELIOS
In-flight breakup of HELIOS - June 2003
H2 Bus has finished the pilot version
of its hydrogen-fuelled bus, Napi Gazdaság learnt. The bus was made for
Quantum Energy, which signed a letter of intent with the government to
make hydrogen fuel available in Hungary. "Quantum Energy is planning
hydrogen-producing wind power plants for use in mass urban transport," CEO
László Molnár said. "This will help to reduce city pollution and aid the
utilisation of the notoriously erratic wind power," Molnár explained.
BREAKTHROUGH!
HAS PENN STATE'S BRUCE LOGAN SUDDENLY SOLVED HUMANITY'S ENERGY CONUNDRUM? DOES HIS RESEARCH MARK THE END FOR
THE GREAT ETHANOL FRAUD?
Traditional ethanol production
requires either hydrocarbons from fossil fuels or the fermentation of
sugary plants. This necessitates sugary crops such as corn or sugarcane to
be grown solely for fuel, not for human use. Bacteria-produced ethanol and
enzymatic produced ethanol are both being researched, but they have been
very costly, and have relatively low efficiencies.
Logan and his team found that with certain
configurations nearly all the hydrogen in the source material could be
converted into hydrogen gas. He foresees this allowing for the process to
be adopted on a large scale for easy hydrogen production.
Even with the initial electrical jolt, energy lost to
processing the hydrogen and other inputs, the overall efficiency of the
system is 80 percent in the vinegar driven system. This is far better than
any existing process for ethanol generation. It also handily beats
electrolysis generation, being between three to ten times more efficient.
more
In tests the system produced hydrogen
that if burned would make between two and six times the amount of energy
put in as electric power. By comparison hydrogen extracted from water can
only pay back 50 to 70 per cent of the energy used to extract it. "It is
surprising that such high hydrogen yields can so readily be obtained,"
says Patrick Hallenbeck of the University of Montreal in Canada. "The net
energy yield appears much higher than what people are getting in other
biofuel production processes – bioethanol, for example," he adds.
more
"Our country does not have a
long-term, national policy in place to promote
renewable energy development." Randall Swisher, AWEA executive director
U.S. Wind Industry Blowing Past Previous Development Records RenewableEnergyAccess.com November 8, 2007
The U.S. wind industry is on track to
complete roughly 4,000 megawatts (MW) of wind projects in 2007, shattering
the 2006 record of 2,454 MW and solidifying wind as a major source of new
power in the country today, according to a new market report from the
American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
“Using Minnesota
wind to make nitrogen fertilizer for farmers could transform agriculture, wind
and hydrogen economics overnight. The fact that this could reduce input costs
for farmers and boost wind development without the need for transmission lines
or power purchase agreements makes this approach a potential grand slam." Rolf Nordstrom, Director
Great Plains Institute’s Upper Midwest Hydrogen Initiative University of Minnesota to Develop Wind to Hydrogen
to Nitrogen Pilot Project
Iowa Farmer Today (IA)
August 2, 2006
A $2 million, 1.6-megawatt wind turbine installed in 2005 generates
supplemental electricity for the 1,800-student campus, while about 20
percent of the juice is sold to Fergus Falls–based Ottertail Power
Company. In a pilot project now in the design phase, sales to Ottertail
will decrease as the wind turbine becomes the power source for a $3.75
million facility housing an electrolyzer that captures hydrogen from
water.
Hydrogen is the main component of anhydrous ammonia, which is
the main component of nitrogenous fertilizer. Given that a world powered
by hydrogen fuel cells is still far from reality (see
The
Elusive Hydrogen Economy), anhydrous ammonia is an excellent and
economically promising use for hydrogen, says Michael Reese, coordinator
of the Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center at the Morris
campus. It gives the hydrogen immediate value, and because the fertilizer
is a liquid, it’s practical to store and ship it; one pound of hydrogen
gas fills an 800-gallon tank.
...The cost of electrolysis and of the steam methane method
are now roughly equal, and the world’s largest manufacturer of
electrolyzers, $26 billion
Norsk Hydro of Norway, has taken a keen interest in the Morris project,
providing research help and supplying the electrolyzer.
Prior to spinning off its fertilizer business in 2005, Reese
explains, Norsk Hydro also was the world’s largest fertilizer company.
From its perspective,
a successful
pilot project in Morris could lead to a new market for the company’s
water-to-hydrogen-to-ammonia technology, as any wind turbine in a farming
area could become the power source for a local fertilizer plant.
Fertilizer from Wind University of Minnesota
Spring 2008 Aside from the CREB-funded projects, some of the
campus's wind energy will also be used for a unique pilot project by the
University and several public and private partners. The energy will be
used to turn nitrogen from the air into ammonia, an important
fertilizer. As envisioned, the technology would be installed as a series
of small systems to supply farms.
"A relatively small plant could supply enough ammonia for
400,000 to 500,000 acres," says Michael Reese, renewable energy director
at WCROC. "But it's very easy to scale up."
The $3.75 million project is funded through state bonding and
University sources. The pilot
plant is scheduled for completion in spring 2009.
The production of ammonia currently uses large amounts of
fossil fuel energy. Approximately one billion pounds are applied every
year for the Minnesota corn crop.
The Elusive Hydrogen Economy
October 2007 Jack Gordon Twin Cities Business (MN)
Despite large-scale research and development efforts on fuel cells,
under way for years at national laboratories and at companies including
Maplewood-based 3M, challenges remain, Schmidt says.
Foremost among them is a chicken-or-egg issue that doesn’t
apply only to transportation, but is best expressed like this: There is
no mass market for fuel cells because there aren’t cars on the market
designed to use them; there aren’t hydrogen cars because the
distribution problems that hydrogen presents have prevented anyone from
setting up a network of hydrogen fueling stations where drivers would
replenish the cells; therefore, even if fuel cells are perfected, they
can’t be made economically. That’s why
the most
valuable use for most of the hydrogen produced today is anhydrous
ammonia for fertilizer.
BREAKTHROUGH
Self-aligned, vertically oriented
titanium iron oxide nanotube arrays demonstrate the ability to split water
under natural sunlight.
"As I see it, we are a couple of
problems away from having something that will revolutionize the field of
hydrogen generation by use of solar energy." Craig A. Grimes, Associate Professor
of Electrical Engineering, Penn State
The prospect for the wide spread use
of hydrogen as a portable energy carrier is dependent on finding a clean,
renewable method of production. At Penn State University, a research group
headed by professor of electrical engineering Craig Grimes in the
Materials Research Institute is "only a couple of problems away" from
developing an inexpensive and easily scalable technique for water
photoelectrolysis - the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen using
light energy - that could help power the proposed hydrogen economy.
...Previously, the Penn State scientists had reported the
development of titania nanotube arrays with a photoconversion efficiency
of 16.5% under ultraviolet light. Titanium oxide (TiO2), which is commonly
used in white paints and sunscreens, has excellent charge-transfer
properties and corrosion stability, making it a likely candidate for cheap
and long lasting solar cells. However, as ultraviolet light contains only
about 5% of the solar spectrum energy, the researchers needed to finds a
means to move the materials band gap into the visible spectrum.
They speculated that by doping the TiO2 film with a form of
iron called hematite, a low band gap semiconductor material, they could
capture a much larger portion of the solar spectrum. The researchers
created Ti-Fe metal films by sputtered titanium and iron targets on
fluorine-doped tin oxide coated glass substrates. The films were anodized
in an ethylene glycol solution and then crystallized by oxygen annealing
for 2 hours. They studied a variety of films of differing thicknesses and
varying iron content. In this paper they report a photocurrent of 2 mA/cm2,
and a photoconversion rate of 1.5%, the second highest rate achieved with
an iron oxide related material.
The team is now looking into optimizing the nanotube
architecture to overcome the low electron-hole mobility of iron. By
reducing the wall thickness of the Ti-Fe-O nanotubes to correspond to the
hole diffusion length of iron which is around 4nm, the researchers hope to
reach an efficiency closer to the 12.9% theoretical maximum for materials
with the band gap of hematite.
more
White Plains: Hydrogen Fuel Vehicles Forbes/AP
August 20, 2007 The hydrogen fuel depot will
extract hydrogen from water, producing
what would be the equivalent of up to about 40 gallons of gas a day.
Bismarck, N.D. -- Dedication ceremonies for a
Wind-to-Hydrogen project have been set for Saturday, July 21 at 2:30 p.m.
The event will be held at the project site located at North Dakota State
University's (NDSU) North Central Research Extension Center, one mile
south of Minot, N.D. on U.S. Highway 83. The public is invited to attend
and enjoy refreshments, provided by Verendrye Electric Cooperative. The
hydrogen fueling site is the first of its kind in the nation. A short
program will include a speech by U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan
and speakers from electric cooperatives and industry
sponsors.
Curtis Jabs, senior legislative representative for Basin
Electric Power Cooperative, said that the Wind-to-Hydrogen project was a
joint effort between a consortium of energy companies and research
institutions in North Dakota and made viable through funding arranged by
Sen. Dorgan through the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy division.
"Senator Dorgan has been a huge supporter of wind and
developing hydrogen as a fuel of the future," Jabs said. "We're thankful
to have him involved, as well as our many other project sponsors and
participants."
The primary consortium members include Basin Electric,
Verendrye Electric Cooperative, Velva; Central Power Electric Cooperative,
Minot; NDSU North Central Research Extension Center; the National Rural
Electric Cooperative Association's Cooperative Research Network; and the
Energy and Environmental Research Center, Grand Forks, N.D.
The $2-million project just received the final component last
month, a hydrogen electrolyzer delivered from Belgium. Now the research
begins to turn variable wind energy into a firm, value-added energy source
that can be stored and used as needed in the form of hydrogen fuel.
The wind energy will come from Basin Electric's wind
resources at Minot, Edgeley/Kulm and Wilton, N.D. As electricity is
produced by wind turbines, it will be dynamically scheduled over the local
transmission system to the project site where it will be used in an
electrolyzer that separates water into oxygen and hydrogen through
electrolysis. The hydrogen produced will primarily be used to refuel
hydrogen-powered vehicles and a converted tractor, which will operate on a
blend of hydrogen and diesel fuel. more
Converting Wind into Hydrogen Bismark Tribune (ND) May 8,
2007 The modified tractor is
part of a project involving Bismarck-based Basin Electric Power
Cooperative to take wind energy, from two turbines near Minot, and
convert it to hydrogen. The project was made possible by $1.5 million in
federal grants. Early this summer, project collaborators will install
equipment at the NDSU agricultural experiment station south of Minot,
which will pass an electrical current through water to separate hydrogen
and oxygen. The hydrogen will be used to help fuel the prototype tractor
and three pickup trucks that can run on hydrogen, regular gas and E85
ethanol-blended fuel. The modified tractor will be subjected to field
tests at the Minot experiment station plots.
Basin Electric Prepares to Launch Pilot Project Aug 23 2006 Andrea Blowers
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
The production facility will be at the NDSU/NCREC research
site south of Minot. Basin Electric wind resources planned for the
project include two wind turbines located approximately 10 miles south
of the research center and two larger wind farms located near Edgeley,
ND, and Wilton, ND. These wind farms will provide the electricity
required for the hydrogen production process. As electricity is produced
by the wind turbines, it will be dynamically scheduled over the local
transmission system in “near real time” from the turbines to the
hydrogen production site. The dynamic scheduling will be done using
software currently being developed by Basin Electric and EERC. Meters at
the production facility and each wind farm will use telecommunication
paths to achieve the dynamic scheduling interconnection. ...Sen. Dorgan
says this project has enormous implications for the future of wind
energy, hydrogen power and economic growth in America’s Heartland. “
North Dakota is positioned to become a world leader in wind power, and
North Dakota scientists are already doing some of the most important
hydrogen technology work in the world.”
Hydrogen-Wind ProjectSeptember 17, 2004
North Dakota sustainable Energy for Economic Development
Wayne Backman, Senior vice president of generation at Basin
Electric, said funding for this project could be a major step toward
efficiently producing hydrogen fuel using wind energy in North Dakota.
“While research is always uncertain, the effort is centered on the
creation of a wind-to-hydrogen facility and accompanying hydrogen uses.”
Dedication of a $2 million project between the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory and Xcel Energy at the National Wind
Technology Center 12/14/2006. The Wind to Hydrogen Project will examine
the systems intergration issues with wind-hydrogen production,
compression, storage and use. Shown l-r: NREL scientist Ben Kroposki, NREL
Director Dan Arvizu, Xcel Chairman Dick Kelly and Project Leader Frank
Novachek. Credit: Jack Dempsey
Wind-to-Hydrogen Project Video
This video features the wind-to-hydrogen project, which uses electricity
from wind turbines to produce hydrogen at NREL's National Wind Technology
Center.
"Converting wind energy to
hydrogen
means that it doesn't matter
when the wind blows since its energy can be stored
on-site in the form of hydrogen." Dick Kelly, CEO of Xcel Energy
Clean Energy Blowin' in the Wind
Steve Raabe Denver Post
December 14, 2006
The facility links two wind turbines
to devices called electrolyzers, which pass the wind-generated electricity
through water to split the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen
can be stored and used later to generate electricity from either an
internal combustion engine turning a generator or from a fuel cell. In
either case, there are no harmful emissions, and the only by-product from
using the hydrogen fuel is water.
On site is a new building that houses the electrolyzers and a device to
compress the hydrogen for storage; four large, high-tech tanks to store
the hydrogen; a generator run by an engine that burns hydrogen; and
a control room building, where computers monitor all the steps of the
process. Xcel and NREL are each paying part of the $2 million budget for
the two-year project.
DENMARK'S FIRST HYDROGEN PLANT OPENS The Copenhagen Post (DK)
May
24, 2007
Backers are promoting the facility as a way to solve
the problems
with excess energy produced from windmills.
"The large investors in California
need locally based facilities where they can test new environmental
technologies at full scale, in order to see whether it is possible to
bring them the critical way from the desk to the market. Lolland has
arranged itself in a way which is perfect to become such a test area." Californian Assemblyman Fred Keeley
"The Americans are very interested
in how to integrate large amounts of renewable energy into the existing
net. Denmark has gained experience in this over many years, and Lolland is
now offering the opportunity to test it in practice." Peter Winarsky of Innovation Center Denmark,
Silicon Valley
California Shows Interest in Lolland Testing Facility for Renewables Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
May 24, 2007
"Our goal is to use
fuel cells to produce heat and electricity right at people's homes," said
Nakskov's mayor, Flemming Bonne Hansen according to Borsen, adding that he
hoped the investment in the region by fuel cell developers would also
bring jobs to the local economy.
Lolland Community Testing Facilities Director Gunnhild Utkvitne, Baltic Sea Solutions
Project Director Leo Christensen, Municipality of Lolland, Denmark
February 1, 2007
Southern California Edison Unveils Hydrogen DemonstrationKevin Smith San Gabriel
Valley Tribune
May 23, 2007
Southern California Edison and Chevron Technology Ventures LLC unveiled a
hydrogen energy station evaluation and demonstration program Monday at SCE's
Rosemead headquarters. ...The SCE facility includes a state-of-the-art alkaline
electrolyzer that generates up to 40 kilograms of hydrogen a day, a
power-analyzing system that gathers energy-impact data on the hydrogen
production process, advanced and redundant safety systems and a fleet of up to
nine zero-emission Hyundai fuel-cell cars, which will be evaluated.
Mike Strizki:
The Zero-Energy Solution Mark Svenvold
The New York Times
May 20, 2007
The implications of the solar-hydrogen
house are immense. Eventually, it seems, for the price of a home-improvement
loan, millions of homeowners could install solar-hydrogen systems, with zero
emissions, generating 100-percent clean renewable energy.
BREAKTHROUGH
(A) Low-magnification SEM image of a
platinum tetrahexahedral nanocrystal and its geometrical model. (B)
High-resolution transmission electron microscopy image recorded from a
platinum tetrahexahedral nanocrystal to reveal surface atomic steps in the
areas made of (210) and (310) sub-facets.
Depending on conditions, the
new nanocrystals can be as much as four times more catalytically active
per unit area than existing commercial catalysts. But since the new
structures tested are more than 20 times larger than existing platinum
catalysts, they require more of the metal – and hence are less active per
unit weight.
In a recent study, scientists have
demonstrated that a hybrid system of hydrogen and carbon can produce a
sufficient amount of liquid hydrocarbon fuels to power the entire U.S.
transportation sector. Using biomass to produce the carbon, and solar
energy to produce hydrogen, the process requires only a fraction of the
land area needed by other proposed methods.
Hydrogen
Pioneer and European Leader
Linde
Presents 3 Excellent New Hydrogen Fuel Videos
April 16, 2007
Requires
Flash Player
Due to EU popularity, these files
can take a long time to download
There are no electric
transmission lines to transport wind-generated electricity from the
Plains, and building enough lines wouldn't be feasible. Leighty's proposed
solution is to use the wind to produce hydrogen and ship it to population
centers through pipelines. At the end of the pipes, the hydrogen could be
burned as a motor fuel, converted back into electricity to power homes and
businesses, or used to manufacture ammonia or other chemicals. His
proposal has one more element - 15,000 salt caverns on the Plains to store
hydrogen underground, to assure a steady supply would be available when
the wind isn't blowing.
In order to manufacture
hydrogen, the LVVWD’s fueling station uses solar panels to collect energy
from the sun. Then, through electrolysis, hydrogen is removed from water
that is then stored and used as fuel.
The project is part of a
multi-faceted research project that received $12 million in research and
development funding from the Department of Energy. An additional $4
million was contributed in matching funds. Other components of the project
include a hydrogen safety workshop; a hydrogen road-mapping exercise for
Nevada; research into the production of hydrogen using photoelectric
chemistry; and improvements on membrane and electrolyzer performance and
efficiency.
"Our technology is designed to help
make wind power a more reliable, affordable and scalable power generating
solution and thereby expand the penetration of wind power in energy
markets." Dr. Tapan Bose, President HEC
By integrating HEC Oxx Power™
generator systems with wind-sourced power, customers can bring on line a
sustainable solution that extends the capacity and value of wind energy,
while reducing customers' dependence on petroleum and gas burning
technology.
Solar-Powered Hydrogen Generation
Rust-based solar panels could make
hydrogen cheap and efficient Kevin Bullis
Technology Review
December 12, 2006
Researchers in Switzerland have
demonstrated more-efficient water-splitting solar cells based on a cheap,
abundant, and long-lasting material: rust. The advance could lead to a
cheap and energy-efficient way to generate hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles
using solar energy. ...The findings suggest several strategies that could
help the iron-oxide-based panel reach the 10 percent efficiency level that
would make the technology competitive with current ways of creating
hydrogen...
Hydrogen
Pioneer and European Leader
Linde
Presents 3 Excellent New Hydrogen Fuel Videos
April 16, 2007
Requires
Flash Player
Due to EU popularity, these files
can take a long time to download
"Converting wind energy to
hydrogen
means that it doesn't matter
when the wind blows since its energy can be stored
on-site in the form of hydrogen." Dick Kelly, CEO of Xcel Energy
Clean Energy Blowin' in the Wind
Steve Raabe Denver Post
December 14, 2006
The facility links two wind turbines
to devices called electrolyzers, which pass the wind-generated electricity
through water to split the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen
can be stored and used later to generate electricity from either an
internal combustion engine turning a generator or from a fuel cell. In
either case, there are no harmful emissions, and the only by-product from
using the hydrogen fuel is water.
On site is a new building that houses the electrolyzers and a device to
compress the hydrogen for storage; four large, high-tech tanks to store
the hydrogen; a generator run by an engine that burns hydrogen; and
a control room building, where computers monitor all the steps of the
process. Xcel and NREL are each paying part of the $2 million budget for
the two-year project.
Imagine the future of
energy. The future might look like a new power plant on the edge of
town—an inconspicuous bioreactor that takes in yard waste and
locally-grown crops like corn and wood chips and churns out electricity to
area homes and businesses. Or the future may take the form of a
stylish-looking car that refills its tank at hydrogen stations. Maybe the
future of energy looks like a device on the roof of your own home – a
small appliance, connected to the household electric system, that uses
sunlight and water to produce the electricity that warms your home, cooks
your food, powers your television, and washes your clothes.
All these futuristic energy technologies may become reality
some day, thanks to the work of the smallest living creatures on earth:
microorganisms. “Microbial energy conversion” is the shorthand term for
technologies like these. In
microbial energy technologies,microorganisms make fuels out of
raw organic materials, thereby converting the chemical energy in the
biomass into chemical energy in the form of ethanol or hydrogen, for
example. In addition, microbes can convert solar energy to hydrogen.
Those fuels are then burned to make electrical energy or, in the case of
internal combustion engines, kinetic energy to power a car.
Another technology that falls
under the heading of microbial energy conversion is the microbial fuel
cell, a bioreactor in which bacteria transform the chemical energy in
biomass directly into electrical energy.
The world faces a potentially crippling energy crisis in the
next 30 to 50 years. ...The
means of preventing the twin catastrophes of energy scarcity and
environmental ruin is not clear, but one part of the solution may lie in
microbial energy conversion.
An Answer to the World's Energy Problems?
Bacteria Could Be the Source of an Unlimited
Supply of Power Lee Dye ABC
NewsDecember 1,
2006
The smallest creatures on the
planet may help solve one of the world's biggest problems, according to
a new report from a distinguished panel of scientists.
VIDEO: Tasios Melis discusses
his groundbreaking discovery of
genetically modified hydrogen-producing bacteria. Click on image to view movie.
RealPlayer required
Do deep subterranean bacteria create
the hydrogen that makes oil and natural gas - and someday promise humanity
unlimited clean power?
Hydrogen in Rocks:
An Energy Source for Deep Microbial
Communities
FRIEDEMANN FREUND, J. THOMAS DICKINSON, and
MICHELE CASH Recent estimates suggest the mass
of the subsurface biosphere may exceed the mass of all other life forms on
Earth.
Scientists have combined two
molecules that occur naturally in blood to engineer a molecular complex
that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
...This molecular complex can use energy from the sun to create hydrogen
gas, providing an alternative to electrolysis, the method typically used
to split water into its constituent parts. The breakthrough may pave the
way for the development of novel ways of creating hydrogen gas for use as
fuel in the future.
When Kitchen Waste Isn't Wasted Upscale Bay Area restaurants helping
feed machine
that turns scraps into electricity, vehicle fuel Glen Martin
San Francisco Chronicle
October 25, 2006
About 10:41 p.m. eastern daylight time on Friday, October 20, 2006,
Norfolk Southern Railway Company train 68QB119, en route from the
Chicago, Illinois, area to Sewaren, New Jersey, derailed while
crossing the Beaver River railroad bridge in New Brighton,
Pennsylvania. The train consisted of a three-unit locomotive pulling 3
empty freight cars followed by 83 tank cars loaded with denatured
ethanol, a flammable liquid. Twenty-three of the tank cars derailed
near the east end of the bridge, with several of the cars falling into
the Beaver River. Of the 23
derailed tank cars, about 20 released ethanol, which subsequently
ignited and burned for about 48 hours. Some of the unburned
ethanol liquid was released into the river and the surrounding soil.
Homes and businesses within a seven-block area of New Brighton and in
an area adjacent to the accident were evacuated for 2 days. No
injuries or fatalities resulted from the accident. The Norfolk
Southern Railway Company estimated total damages to be $5.8 million.
Popular Mechanics Magazine Awards GE Researchers
for Electrolysis Breakthrough The Business Review (NY)
October 6, 2006
The GE design uses a special plastic to replace
expensive metal parts. Metal coating techniques borrowed from aircraft engine
and power turbine products were used to make high performance electrodes at
low processing costs.
The board of the New York Power Authority approved the
"hydropower-to-hydrogen" plan Tuesday, and Pataki is expected to formally
announce it today. Transit buses and state fleet vehicles are among the
possible hydrogen-consuming vehicles.
"It puts New York State in the cutting edge of this
clean-fuel technology," Power Authority spokesman Michael Saltzman said.
Details of the plan released Tuesday envision two fueling
stations at undetermined locations, potentially at Niagara Falls State
Park and at locations operated by the Niagara Frontier Transportation
Authority.
more
Wind farm operator Wind Hydrogen Ltd has bought the rights to
Australia's most powerful wind farm a week after announcing plans to raise
new capital and float on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The renewable energy company said it had entered into an
asset purchase agreement for the 232-megawatt Mount Gellibrand project at
Colac in Victoria, which it estimates to be worth $460 million on
completion.
"Wind Hydrogen will acquire the project for an undisclosed
sum from German development group Pro Ventum International GmbH, which
will continue to have an advisory role on the project's development and
will retain a minority interest," WHL said in a statement.
more
"It could well be that the
first country to seriously address the issues of creating a market
for renewables would become the central location for a major new
international business sector - with all the positive consequences
that carries in terms of
economic activity and employment." ------------- Rodney Chase
CEO BP
Several consultants and researchers note recent interest in another
potential use for geothermal resources: Producing alternative fuels.
Several of New Mexico’s resource areas (including Radium Springs and
Rincon) are nearby both rail lines and major interstate highways that can
transport alternative fuels to emerging markets in California. Alternative
fuel production is notoriously energy intensive to develop and an ethanol,
bio-fuel, or hydrogen development plant could utilize small-scale
geothermal electric units (5-10 MW).
"Researchers
at Iowa State University and elsewhere are looking at using wind-generated
electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then storing and
transporting the hydrogen for use as motor fuel. As those efforts show,
one of the best ways for the Iowa Legislature to support development of
wind energy is through funding university research. Iowa has wind in
abundance; why not make Iowa the center of wind-energy research?"
Research Will Propel Iowa's Wind Power
DesMoines Register Editorial Board (IA)
July 31, 2006
THE ENEMY WITHIN commentary by Richard D. Masters, ICHC June 17, 2006
The primary enemy of wind power is the U.S.
military. Abundant, inexpensive, distributed domestic energy from wind
would negate much of the military's global mission which revolves around
the secure flow of oil from the Middle East's feudal dictatorships to
America's shores. Unless the wind power revolution is stopped dead in its
tracks, an inevitable cornucopia of excess stranded electricity is
destined to be turned into cheap hydrogen fuel, changing our world and our
lives in ways we can scarcely imagine.
Today, we see the American military actively engaged in halting
domestic renewable energy. You would think this would be more of a
priority of those who keep America chained to imported oil, draining her
wealth and heralding that grim, grim day when oil is the only alternative
that remains, but others refuse to share it so we turn to our military to
save us. The military in the white hats who stopped renewable energy so
they could fight another day...
Or has this already happened?
This is more evidence that the mission of our armed forces is no
longer to defend our citizens from external threats but now, apparently,
it is to
serve the agenda of some new corporate and foreign masters who see
financial ruin in the wind if America should suddenly turn to limitless,
cheap, clean energy.
The greatest beneficiary of the largest transfer of wealth in
history is the draconian House of Saud. U.S. forces diligently protect the
Saudi ruler's northern flank as these tyrants feverishly drain the Arabian
oil fields at record rates, stuffing vast fortunes away in secret accounts
as private fleets of lavishly outfitted 747s stand ready to evacuate them
to their magnificent foreign refuges at the moment the horizontal drill
pipes begin sucking saltwater and their teetering, outraged welfare state
collapses into chaos and destitution.
Vast oil profits, estimated to exceed 200 million U.S.
dollars every day, fall to the iron-fisted, terrorist-funding Islamic
dictators of Iran, who have now sworn to destroy the only real democracy
in the Middle East in a blaze of nuclear destruction, likely beginning a
sudden, growing and uncontrollable cycle of retaliation. This is a result
of "peaceful" nuclear power - nuclear weapons proliferation - which future
generations will view as the most tragic and expensive corporate
enterprise ever conceived by man.
Those of us who understand the peaceful promise and potential
of renewable energy realize now that none of this was necessary. This
growing tragedy was created by the rampant commercialization of foreign
energy resources made possible by the collusion of Big Oil with the
military-industrial complex that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us
strongly against.
"In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger
our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for
granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper
meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with
our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper
together." Public Papers of the Presidents, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, 1960
Today the Commander in Chief is busily
engaged as a nuclear industry salesman attempting to spread nuclear power
throughout the world. Under his command, the U.S. is occupying Middle
Eastern oil fields (supposedly to foster an
incomprehensible form of "democracy" based on Sharia Law,
while the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee deviously drafts
legislation based on subterfuge to cripple the expansion of
domestic renewable energy.
As Eisenhower predicted, the U.S. military creates a secure
environment for its own funding and expansion by ensuring global tension,
conflict and scarcity - while placing the citizens it is sworn to protect at
great risk. Meanwhile, Europe and other forward-thinking nations are
powering ahead, expanding renewable domestic energy at a breakneck pace,
enhancing their energy security and removing themselves from the need to
employ their armed forces to support expensive, unethical and unnecessary
foreign corporate adventures.
The War on Renewable Energy has become the modern
version of David vs. Goliath.
David won with a lucky blow.
Will we be as fortunate?
Or is it too late? Will the
four sorrows of empire - loss of liberty, endless warfare, habitual official lying
and financial ruin - be the only legacy a once great nation passes on to
its bankrupt children?
Synthetic Energy will produce
hydrogen with proton exchange membranes (PEMs). Also known as
hydrolysers, the PEMs are supplied by Proton Energy Systems Inc.,
based in Wallingford, Conn. When the facility is fully operational,
Griffith says the company will serve Norco, a regional commercial gas
distributor in Boise, Idaho.
..."We have capacity to add more hydrolysers and expand the
renewable source by incorporating more wind turbines and/or solar
panels," he says. "Once we have documented our performance, we hope to
provide more hydrogen to other users, including silicon chip
manufacturers and the emerging fuel cell market."
Griffith and Edmark would also like to add a mobile,
containerized vessel to the company's operations. "We would ultimately
like to able to come up with a containerized version of our production
plant," Griffith explains.
GOODBYE OIL WARS!
GOODBYE FILTHY COAL!
GOODBYE DEADLY NUCLEAR! A
REVOLUTION IS BREWING MINNESOTA WIND INTEGRATION STUDY FINDS
WIND POWER
COST IS ALMOST INSIGNIFICANT
AT ONE-HALF CENT PER KWH!
NATIONAL AVERAGE = 9.26 CENTS/KWH MN Wind
Integration Study Final Report - Vol l
MN Wind Integration Study Final Report - Vol ll
THE FORCES FUNDING THE WAR AGAINST RENEWABLE ENERGY - HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED
AND COSTLY NUCLEAR, OIL AND COAL - DON'T STAND A SNOWBALL'S CHANCE IN HELL
WITHOUT BUYING EXTREME GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN THE FREE-MARKET
EXPANSION OF WIND POWER.
IS YOUR CONGRESSMAN FOR SALE?
-- RDM
WILL THE NEW
CONGRESS FREE TAXPAYERS
FROM FOSSIL FUEL AND NUCLEAR SLAVERY, AND A DISMAL FUTURE OF OIL WARS AND
TERRORISM?
“Maximizing energy efficiency and renewable energy is the domestic
epicenter in the war on terror, and it is imperative that we maximize the
partnerships between the public and private sectors in new and creative
ways with a sense of seriousness, national purpose, and the urgency the
situation merits.”
Alexander Karsner
Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy
Wind Power Today
US Department of Energy
May 2006
SUPPLEMENTAL DETAILS ON RECOMMENDED INCREASES IN
FEDERAL RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAMS
AND PROPOSED OFFSETS
GEOTHERMAL RESEARCH PROGRAM While the President's FY07 Budget proposed to
terminate the DOE Geothermal Research Program, both the House and Senate
supported restoration of funding but at different levels. DOE research
could produce significant breakthroughs and provide much needed
improvements in technology, information, and efficiencies.
Restoration of the DOE Geothermal
Research Program should be a policy priority for the 110th Congress.
The Department's own internal planning has shown that
increasing the DOE Geothermal Research Program would produce substantial
benefits. According to DOE
reports, a geothermal program funded at $50 million annually "would
produce...a substantial acceleration in the adoption of geothermal energy"
achieving 40,000 MW of economical resource availability by 2020. By
achieving this level of production some 20 years earlier than would be
possible under a business-as-usual approach, cumulative program costs
would be reduced by $100 million! The increased program funding
would also "allow new technologies to be adopted even more quickly and
enable the Program to pursue a wider range of technology options."
(Geothermal Technologies Program, Strategic Plan, August 2004).
Geothermal research was specifically authorized by the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 in Subtitle C, Section 931(a)(C), and is authorized by
the Geothermal Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Act at 30
USC 24, Section 1101 et seq.
Increased funding for geothermal research has been recommended by both the
National Research Council's review of DOE's
renewable energy programs and the recent report of the Geothermal Task
Force of the Western Governor's Association's Clean and Diversified Energy
Advisory Committee.
Historically, the program has been funded at an average of
$27.7 million annually (between 2002 and 2005). We strongly recommend that
DOE's geothermal research program be restored in FY2007 to this level or
higher.
For More Information: Karl Gawell, Geothermal Energy
Association
202-454-5264; karl "at" geo-energy.org
ADVANCED AND INCREMENTAL HYDROPOWER PROGRAM Background: Hydropower is a domestic, clean,
renewable energy resource that is a solution to reducing U.S. dependence
on foreign energy sources and national greenhouse gas emissions.
Hydropower R&D also promotes U.S. competitiveness in the global market for
these new technologies. In order for hydropower to
achieve its full potential, support is needed to encourage the development
and deployment of new emerging hydropower technologies - ocean wave, tidal
and in-stream hydrokinetic, and to increase capacity at existing
facilities through the development and installation of the "next
generation" of hydropower equipment.
Congress recognized the need for research, development and
deployment of new advanced technologies when it included Title IX, Section
931 in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 directing the Secretary of Energy to:
"conduct a program of research, development, demonstration and commercial
application for cost competitive technologies that enable the development
of new and incremental hydropower capacity, adding diversity of the energy
supply of the United States, including: (i) Fish-friendly large turbines.
(ii) Advanced technologies to enhance environmental performance and yield
greater energy efficiencies. (...) The Secretary shall conduct research,
development, demonstration, and commercial application programs for - (i)
ocean energy, including wave energy (...) and (iv) kinetic hydro
turbines."
Hydropower R&D provides a benefit, not only for the industry,
but for the federal hydropower system (which accounts for half of the
hydropower generation in the U.S. and where new advancements could also be
deployed), as well as for the American electric consumer.
Request: $5 million for the purposes of funding a program to
promote research and development of new advanced hydropower technologies
and incremental hydropower capacity.
Proposed Language: For inclusion in any FY '07 Energy & Water
Appropriations bill, omnibus appropriations bill or continuing resolution:
"A sum of $5,000,000 for FY 2007 is appropriated under Title IX, Section
931 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to fund research and development of
new advanced hydropower technologies, such as wave and tidal and conduit
power and in-stream hydrokinetic, and to increase incremental hydropower
capacity through new technology advancements."
For More Information: Linda Church Ciocci, National
Hydropower Association
202-682-1700, ext.22; linda "at" hydro.org
SOLAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES PROGRAM The Department of Energy's own studies have found
that, with federal R&D investment, solar power could be broadly
competitive on a simple economic basis with fossil fuels by 2015. However,
the federal solar R&D budget has steadily declined over the past decade,
from $120 million in FY 1995 to $84 million in FY 2006. In particular, the
solar water heating budget has sustained heavy cuts and received less than
$3 million in funding in FY 2006. The loss of funding
for America's world-class research facilities and cost-sharing initiatives
has set back our nation's competitiveness in the global marketplace for
clean energy. In 1998, the US lost market leadership of the solar industry
to Europe and Japan, and now manufactures just 8% of global demand. Japan
funds solar research at levels four to five times higher than does the US,
while Germany more than triples US funding.
To reverse this trend and position the US as the global
leader in solar energy development, the House and Senate both passed FY
2007 appropriations bills that would have increased the DOE Solar Energy
Technologies program budget to $148 million. We strongly urge the 110th
Congress to adopt this level of funding for federal solar research.
For More Information: Rhone Resch, Solar Energy
Industries Association
202-682-0556, ext.4; rresch "at" seia.org
OTHER RENEWABLE ENERGY PROGRAM RECOMMENDATIONS
Biomass: For BioPower, maintain programmatic areas for Biopower RD&D
which includes modular electric and thermal systems, co-firing technology
validation, and resource mapping. For Biofuels, retain focus on cellulosic
conversion and process technologies for alcohols and biodiesels.
Wind:Insure that the
small wind RD&D program is retained in the overall Wind RD&D Program and
honor commitments on cost-shared RD&D with industry.
For More Information: Scott Sklar, The Stella Group,
Ltd.
202-347-2214; solarsklar "at" aol.com
DISTRIBUTED ENERGY Clean, efficient Distributed Energy and Combined Heat and
Power (DE/CHP) mitigate climate change and foster energy independence. Our
request is simple: restore and
maintain policy, research, development and demonstration funding for the
Department of Energy's Distributed Energy program at the FY 2006 level of
$60 million.
$35 M to be appropriated for the Distributed Energy Technology
Research program. The Distributed Energy Technology Research program
improves the energy and environmental performance of distributed
technologies (turbines, microturbines, engines, desiccants, chillers,
and heat exchangers) so that the Nation can have more energy choices
to achieve a more flexible and smarter energy system.
$25 M to be appropriated for the System Integration and Cooling,
Heating and Power (CHP) program. The System Integration and Cooling,
Heating, Power (CHP) activity develops highly-efficient integrated
energy systems that can be replicated across end-use sectors which
will help demonstrate an R&D objective or address a technical barrier.
The activities integrate power producing prime movers that generate
heat and utilize it for domestic hot water, steam, and/or thermally
activated technologies that drive absorption chillers and/or desiccant
units. These systems will reduce energy costs and emissions by using
energy resources more efficiently. Funding also supports the growing
network of regional application centers and national research
deployment activities.
In addition, advanced interconnection equipment
needs to be validated that can receive inputs from a set of DG devices
separately or in aggregate to feed into the electric grid.
These appropriations do not represent new program
initiatives. They represent important demand side DE/CHP applications that
are not present in the current FY 2007 budget. It must be noted that they
cannot be effective if they are subject to diversion or reprogramming for
other priorities, so they should be made with adequate specific directions
by Congress to insure they remain targeted at the DE programs specified in
the FY 2006 budget. Note, too, that the Distributed Energy Program moved
from EERE to OEDER in 2006.
For More Information: Paul Bautista, U.S. Combined Heat
& Power Association
301-320-2505; paul.bautista "at" comcast.net
STATE ENERGY PROGRAM The State Energy Program (SEP) is one of the few
connections between the states and the federal government on energy
matters. SEP provides funds to state energy offices to support energy
efficiency and renewable energy projects in all sectors of the economy.
A recent study by Oak
Ridge National Laboratory concluded that for every federal dollar invested
in SEP, over $7 is saved in energy costs and almost $11 in non-federal
funds are leveraged.
The President's request for FY'07 was $49.5 million, which
was the level provided in the Senate Energy & Water Bill. The House-passed
funding level was $25 million. The FY'06 funding level was $36 million. We
support funding at the Senate level of $49.5 million for FY'07.
For More Information: Jeff Genzer, National Association
of State Energy Officials
JCG "at" dwgp.com
OTHER ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAM RECOMMENDATIONS Given the slow attrition over the past several years in
the energy efficiency areas such as Buildings, Transportation and
Industrial R&D, we believe that the FY'06 levels (or the higher levels
recommended elsewhere) should be the starting point for the 2008 budget
for EERE.
The Buildings, Industrial and Transportation areas are,
generally, in good stead with a continuing resolution at the FY06 level;
however, there are some subprogram areas that are jeopardized. In Building
Technologies, we recommend an additional $8.5 million specifically for
building and appliance standards, building codes and standards and Energy
Star. In Industrial Programs, we recommend an additional $13 million split
evenly between Industries of the Future crosscutting and Industries of the
Future Specific. In Transportation, we continue to be concerned about cuts
in materials technology and Clean Cities, and urge an additional $13
million.
For More Information: Jennifer Schafer, Cascade
Associates
202-554-5828; jasca "at" ellatlantic.net
RECOMMENDED OPTIONS FOR BUDGETARY OFFSETS
ADVANCED FUEL CYCLE INITIATIVE The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is the DOE's
program to restart reprocessing in the United States. Despite first
introducing this program ten months ago, DOE has yet to provide Congress
with a coherent program plan and a comprehensive lifecycle analysis.
In its FY2007 Energy and Water
Appropriations report, the House accurately stated that "the Department of
Energy has failed to provide sufficient detailed information to enable
Congress to understand fully all aspects of this initiative, including
cost, schedule, technology development plan, and waste streams from GNEP."
Under the guise of a reprocessing research and development program, DOE
received $80 million for the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative in FY2006.
Since FY 2001, reprocessing research has already received $466 million,
with no appreciable results. In FY2007, DOE requested $250 million for AFCI
to start the process for building demonstration reprocessing, fuel
fabrication, and fast reactor facilities. DOE now wants to build a
full-scale reprocessing plant and fast reactor instead.
NUCLEAR POWER 2010 This is DOE's program to subsidize half the cost
of new reactor license applications. Nuclear Power 2010 has received $186
million since FY2001, and the expenditure of these funds is highly
questionable. In its FY2007 Energy
and Water Appropriations report, the Senate expressed "significant
concerns with the financial conduct of the industry consortium [NuStart]"
and chided DOE "to instill fiscal discipline." NuStart,
which had a combined profit of more than $26.1 billion in 2005, received
$260 million from DOE for only two applications, neither of which has been
submitted to the NRC at this time. In comparison, the total budget for the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the premier renewable research
laboratory in the U.S., was only $209.6 million in FY2006. The DOE
received $66 million for the Nuclear Power 2010 in FY2006, and the Bush
Administration requested $54 million in FY2007.
GENERATION IV This is the DOE's program to subsidize half the
cost of developing new reactor designs. A single design, depending on the
type of reactor, is estimated to range from $610 million to $1 billion.
None of the new commercial
reactors currently being proposed in the United States are Generation IV
technologies. The DOE received $55 million for the Generation IV in
FY2006, and President Bush requested $31.4 million in FY2007. Of the $48
million appropriated in the Senate FY2007 bill, $40 million were earmarked
for the research and design of a single nuclear power plant that is
supposed to produce hydrogen to be constructed in Idaho. This program has
received $147 million since FY2001.
NUCLEAR HYDROGEN INITIATIVE This is the DOE's program to develop the
technologies for producing hydrogen using nuclear energy.
Hydrogen may have a long-term
potential to help reduce the country's reliance on foreign oil, but using
nuclear power or fossil fuel to produce hydrogen makes a mockery of these
clean energy goals. The DOE received $25 million for the Nuclear
Power 2010 in FY2006, and President Bush requested $18.7 million in
FY2007. This program has received $42.1 million since FY2003.
For More Information: Michele Boyd, Public Citizen
202-454-5134; mboyd "at" itizen.org Michael Mariotte, Nuclear Information
& Resource Service 301-270-6477; nirsnet "at" nirs.org
CLEAN COAL INITIATIVE + FUTUREGEN PROGRAM Since 1984, the Department of Energy has been invested
more than $2 billion in so called "clean coal" technology research and
development. The program
subsidizes private industry in its effort to develop cleaner burning coal
technologies by providing matching federal funds for research and
development. The so-called "clean coal" projects waste millions of
taxpayer dollars each year on duplicative research that the coal industry
should conduct with private sector funding or that has already been done.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released at least seven
reports documenting waste and mismanagement in the Clean Coal Technology
Program. The fiscal year 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill
contained $50 million for the presidents Clean Coal Initiative and $18
million for the FutureGen program. OIL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM The oil and gas industry received an estimated $65
million in fiscal year 2006 through the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Oil Technology Research and Development Program.[1]
The program focuses on the
exploration and production of crude oil in the United States with the
goals including the promotion and enhancement of oil drilling in the
Alaskan Arctic and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. ExxonMobil alone
spent $600 million in research and development in 2004. Section 965
of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 contains
additional authorizations for the program.
ULTRA-DEEPWATER DRILLING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUND This provision
was added to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 conference report after the
conference committee was gaveled closed. It creates a $1.5 billion oil
research and development program for ultra-deepwater drilling, $500
million of which comes from oil royalties, to fund new drilling techniques
for oil and gas companies over the next ten years.
For More Information: Erich Pica, Friends of the Earth
877-843-8687 EPica "at" foe.org
The
European Wind Energy Association presents a spectacular argument for
powering Europe with wind.
No Fuel
Wind. Power Without Fuel Europe's Energy Crisis
The No Fuel Solution EWEA Briefing February 2006
Europe is wealthy in wind
resources – enough wind blows across Europe to power the entire continent.
Today, tomorrow and forever.
Wind energy can meet more than one fifth of Europe’s
power demand by 2030, even with a predicted 50% increase in consumption.
Europe is facing an energy crisis. Wind energy can serve as a leading
solution – to security of supply, energy independence, rising demand, and
mitigation of climate change.
Mutant Algae Is Hydrogen Factory Sam Jaffe Wired News
February 23, 2006 The work, led by plant physiologist Tasios Melis,
is so far unpublished. Click
image to download
realplayer video.
Yakashima Island:
Driving the car of the future Jonathan Head BBC
(UK) February
22, 2006
...the local electricity company has built turbines
to harness the enormous hydro-electric potential on Yakushima - and it has done
that so successfully that it produces far more electricity than the island's
15,000 inhabitants can use. Hiroshi Ishii, the president of the electricity
company, has grander dreams, of an island entirely powered by renewable energy.
Surplus electricity cannot be stored, so the company has joined forces with
Kagoshima University and Honda, to make hydrogen for the fuel-cell FCX.
Under this contract, Quantum will evaluate different hydrogen fuel system
configurations, considering the feasibility of bi-fuel (switchable between
gasoline and hydrogen) and dedicated hydrogen systems. Quantum will
develop an advanced hydrogen storage system, fuel injection system, and
electronic controls required for the Hydrogen Escape Hybrid. ...This
Hydrogen Escape Hybrid contract complements the Mobile Hydrogen
Infrastructure program, which is funded in the FY 06 Department of Defense
budget. The overall objective of the MHI program is to demonstrate the
capability of Quantum's HyHauler PlusTM
transportable hydrogen refueling stations to meet emerging hydrogen fuel
demand as hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are deployed throughout the
military as part of the 21st Century Base initiative. This demonstration
program includes supporting the deployment of hydrogen internal combustion
engine administrative vehicles, including the Hydrogen Escape Hybrid, as
well as fuel cell vehicles.
Gas Natural will use a Hydrogenics' HySTATTM
- A Hydrogen Station at the Sotavento Galicia wind farm to produce up to
60 Nm3/hr of hydrogen. The hydrogen will be used to fuel an internal
combustion engine generator, which in turn will supply electricity to the
electric grid.
Presently, the Sotavento Galicia wind farm produces more
electricity than can be delivered to the grid and the excess "green"
electricity cannot be stored or delivered to the electrical grid,
resulting in lost revenue. By powering the HySTAT Hydrogen Station with
the excess wind energy, Gas Natural will now provide the means to capture
high value electricity that otherwise would have been lost and utilize it
to make more electricity for the grid than was achievable in the past.
Ladymoor will have an electrolysis plant on-site and
will use this excess power to turn water into hydrogen and oxygen. The
hydrogen can be liquefied and stored in pressurised tanks.
"There will be
tens of thousands of hydrogen stations, so the market will be pretty
good at equipping them with electrolysis units and maintaining them. We
see this as a very good business. But it won't be tomorrow, unless a
breakthrough happens in fuel cells or in
storage materials." John K. Reinker, GE Global
Research Center
Pipeline Break, Explosion, and Fire
Bergenfield, New Jersey Public Service Electric and Gas
Company
National Transportation Safety Board
December 13, 2005
On December 13, 2005, at 9:26 a.m., an apartment building exploded in
Bergenfield, New Jersey, after natural gas migrated into the building from a
damaged pipeline. Investigators found a break in an underground 1 1/4-inch
steel natural gas distribution service line that was operating at 11 1/2
pounds per square inch, gauge. The break occurred at an underground threaded
tee connection downstream from where excavators were removing an oil tank
that was buried under the asphalt parking lot adjacent to the building. The
break occurred, under the parking lot, about 7 feet 4 inches from the
building’s wall. Three residents of the apartment building were killed. Four
residents and a tank removal worker were injured and transported to
hospitals. The property damage consisted of the apartment building, which
was a complete loss. According to Bergen County tax records, the assessed
value of the apartment building was $863,300.
Many years of research are paying off for
researchers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory. Laboratory teams have achieved a major advancement in the
production of hydrogen from water using high-temperature electrolysis.
Instead of conventional electrolysis, which uses only electric
current to separate hydrogen from water, high-temperature electrolysis
enhances the efficiency of the process by adding substantial external heat
- such as high-temperature steam from an advanced nuclear reactor system.
Such a high-temperature system has the potential to achieve overall
conversion efficiencies in the 45 percent to 50 percent range, compared to
approximately 30 percent for conventional electrolysis. Added benefits
include the avoidance of both greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel
consumption.
“We’ve shown that hydrogen can be produced at
temperatures and pressures suitable for a Generation IV reactor,” said
lead INEEL researcher Steve Herring. “The simple and modular approach
we’ve taken with our research partners produces either hydrogen or
electricity, and most notable of all - achieves the highest-known
production rate of hydrogen by high-temperature electrolysis.”
This development is viewed as a crucial first step
toward large-scale production of hydrogen from water, rather than fossil
fuels.
more
“To understand nuclear
power’s prospects, just follow the money. Private investors have flatly rejected
nuclear power but enthusiastically bought its main supply-side competitors –
decentralized cogeneration and renewables.” Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
For Clean Energy, No Nuclear Option Clint Wilder Clean Edge
December 5, 2005
A new partnership between Xcel Energy and the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden raises an intriguing possibility about
America's energy future. ...Today, the ultimate goal of much global energy research is how
to make affordable hydrogen fuel from "green" sources like wind. Thus much more
could be at stake in the Xcel-NREL partnership than whether one company can make its wind
farms more profitable. At stake may be part of the answer to America's energy supply
woes. more
NEW WIND DATA
HERALDS HYDROGEN ECONOMY.
NUCLEAR POWER, OIL, COAL IN BIG, BIG TROUBLE!
LIES: Big energy's
disinformation campaign backfires!
"The weather data was not reliable..." UN: GLOBAL WIND WAS GREATLY UNDERESTIMATED ENDLESS RESOURCES EXIST
Much More of 3rd World Is Fit for Wind Power
Alister Doyle Reuters (UK)
December 4, 2005
Windmills have far bigger than expected potential for
generating electricity in the Third World, according to new U.N. wind maps
of countries from China to Nicaragua. ...In Nicaragua, for instance, the
government in the 1980s estimated the nation's wind power potential at
just 200 megawatts. The U.N. map estimates its potential at 40,000
megawatts, a rough equivalent of 40 nuclear power plants.
"The
next century will be shaped by how effectively and smoothly the world
introduces hydrogen as a transportation fuel - we must introduce a
renewable energy source in order for world economies to grow, for the
growing middle class in emerging markets to have increased wealth, and for
people who have dreamed all their lives of owning a vehicle to finally
realize that dream." Dr. Mohsen Shabana (an Egyptian-born scientist who is one of
GM's chief engineers,
at the Middle East Forum on Fuel Cells & Hydrogen Economy)
General Motors Chief Engineer: Hydrogen as
Transportation Fuel Will Shape the Rest of the Century
United Arab Emirates December 6,
2005
GOT RADIOACTIVE
FUEL? GOT EXXON VALDEZ? GOT OSAMA?
GOT IMPORTED OIL? GOT ASTHMA? GOT
MERCURY TRADING?
GOT ETHANOL FOR CALIFORNIA IN YOUR DIESEL TANKER?
ENERGY STUPIDITY IS
ABOUT TO GO OUT OF STYLE
STUDY FINDS ALL MANKIND'S ENERGY NEEDS COULD BE
MET BY 20% OF GLOBAL WIND
STANFORD STUDY PLACES COST OF HYDROGEN FROM WIND AT
$2.16 GAL EQUIVALENT NOTE: THE PRICE OF WIND-HYDROGEN DOES NOT FLUCTUATE WITH THE MARKET PRICE OF OIL.
AND MONEY SPENT ON WIND-HYDROGEN STAYS IN THE COUNTRY WHERE IT IS PRODUCED,
GENERATING JOBS AS WELL AS ENERGY - AND STIMULATING THE ECONOMY.
"With the
current fuel prices, wind is the most cost-effective energy source out there, and it's a
clean, domestic, renewable resource that can wean the United States from its dependence on
foreign fuel sources. There's enough wind energy resources on- and offshore to more than
meet the electrical energy needs of the country." Bob Thresher, Director National Wind Technology Center
Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory
WASHINGTON - A new global wind power map has quantified global wind power
and may help planners place turbines in locations that can maximize power from the winds
and provide widely available low-cost energy. After analyzing more than 8,000 wind speed
measurements in an effort to identify the world's wind power potential for the first time,
Cristina Archer and Mark Jacobson of Stanford University suggest that wind captured at
specific locations, if even partially harnessed, can generate more than enough power to
satisfy the world's energy demands. Their report will be published in May in the Journal
of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
The researchers collected wind speed measurements from approximately
7,500 surface stations and another 500 balloon-launch stations to determine global wind
speeds at 80 meters [300 feet] above the ground surface, which is the hub height of modern
wind turbines. Using a new interpolation technique to estimate the wind speed at that
elevation, the authors report that nearly 13 percent of the stations they reviewed
experience winds with an average annual speed strong enough for power generation. They
note that, based on their expectations of other global areas, an even greater percentage
of locations would likely reach the 6.9 meters per second [15 miles per hour] wind speed
considered strong enough to be economically feasible.
Such wind speeds at 80 meters, referred to as wind power Class 3, were
found in every region of the world, although North America was found to have the greatest
wind power potential. The researchers also found that some of the strongest winds were
observed in Northern Europe, along the North Sea, while the southern tip of South America
and the Australian island of Tasmania also recorded significant and sustained strong winds
at the turbine blade height. In North America, the most consistent winds were found in the
Great Lakes region and from ocean breezes along the eastern, western and southern coasts.
Overall, the researchers calculated winds at 80 meters [300 feet] traveled over the ocean
at approximately 8.6 meters per second and at nearly 4.5 meters per second over land [20
and 10 miles per hour, respectively].
"The main implication of this study is that wind, for low-cost
wind energy, is more widely available than was previously recognized," Archer said.
"The methodology in the paper can be utilized for several applications, such as
determining elevated wind speeds in remote areas or to evaluate the benefits of
distributed wind power."
The study also estimated the amount of global wind power that could be
harvested at locations with suitably strong winds.
The authors found that the locations with sustainable Class 3 winds could
produce approximately 72 terawatts and that capturing even a fraction of that energy could
provide the 1.6-1.8 terawatts that made up the world's electricity usage in the year 2000.
A terawatt is 1 trillion watts, a quantity of energy that would otherwise require more
than 500 nuclear reactors or thousands of coal-burning plants.
Converting as little as 20 percent of potential wind energy to electricity could
satisfy the entirety of the world's energy demands, but the researchers caution that there
are considerable practical barriers to reaping the wind's potential energy.
Chief among those barriers is creating and maintaining a dense array of
modern turbines that would be needed to harness the wind power. Some sources have
suggested that millions of turbines would be needed to produce an acceptable level of
energy and that alternative energy sources would still be necessary to produce power when
the wind speeds fall below a certain threshold. Creating a large field of turbines could
also be hazardous to birds and may produce unacceptable noise levels.
The current research, however, indicates that several of those
limitations can be overcome with better placement of wind turbines. The researchers report
that their study can assist in locating wind farms in regions known for strong and
consistent winds, which may help avoid some of the problems with intermittent winds. In
addition, they suggest that the inland locations of many existing wind farms may explain
their inefficiency.
"It is our hope that this study will foster more research in areas
that were not covered by our data, or economic analyses of the barriers to the
implementation of a wind-based global energy scenario," Archer concluded.
The research was supported by NASA and by Stanford University’s
Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP).
"Because wind HFCVs [hydrogen fuel cell vehicles]
resulted in the greatest health-plus-climate benefit among all cases, examining the cost
to the U.S. economy of producing hydrogen from wind is warranted."
Converting all U.S. onroad vehicles to hydrogen fuel-cell
vehicles (HFCVs) may improve air quality, health, and climate significantly, whether the
hydrogen is produced by steam reforming of natural gas, wind electrolysis, or coal
gasification. Most benefits would result from eliminating current vehicle exhaust. Wind
and natural gas HFCVs offer the greatest potential health benefits and could save 3700 to 6400 U.S. lives annually. Wind HFCVs
should benefit climate most. An all-HFCV fleet would hardly affect tropospheric water
vapor concentrations. Conversion to coal HFCVs may improve health but would damage climate
more than fossil/electric hybrids. The real cost of hydrogen
from wind electrolysis may be below that of U.S. gasoline.
...The unsubsidized
near-term (<10 years) cost of producing hydrogen from wind is estimated as follows
[direct electricity from modern wind turbines in the presence of annual winds at speeds of
96.9 m/s, present over >20% of the United States]: cost, $0.03 to $0.05 per
kilowatt-hour (kWh)
transmission cost, $3.45 x 10-6 to $1.38 x 10-5
per kWh/km; transmission distances, 20 to 1500 km
internal combustion engine efficiency, 0.16
HFCV efficiency, 0.43 to 0.46
electrolyzer cost, $400 to $1000/kW
interest rate, 6 to 8%
electrolyzer energy requirement, 53.4 kWh/kg of H2
fraction of time wind is available to electrolyzer, 0.5 to
0.95
compressor cost, $0.7 to $1.34/kg of H2
storage cost, $0.31/kg of H2
The total is $3.0 to $7.4/kg of H2, or
$1.12 to $3.20/gallon of displaced gasoline/diesel, which compares with the actual costs
of U.S. gasoline and diesel in mid-March 2005 of $2.06 and $2.19, respectively. Adding the
reduction in health and mortality costs from wind HFCVs of $0.29 to $1.80/gallon, which is
the externality cost of gasoline, gives a direct cost plus externality cost of U.S.
gasoline/ diesel of $2.35 to $3.99/gallon, which exceeds the mean cost of hydrogen from
wind ($2.16/gallon) even if retail hydrogen is marked up. more
HYDROGEN FROM WASTE: Microbe Power! Environmental Health Perspectives
November 2005
"We confirmed that
nitride semiconductor
can produce hydrogen from water." Kazuhiro Ohkawa, associate professor of
Tokyo University Gallium Nitride
Helps Scientists Generate Hydrogen from Water
By using a solar battery for longer wavelength light,
Ohkawa expects efficiency to reach 40 percent. Yoshiko Hara EE
Times October 28, 2005
The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute of Daejeon,
Republic of Korea, the Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd. of Changwon,
Republic of Korea, and General Atomics of San Diego, California today announced a joint
research and development program for the large-scale production of hydrogen using nuclear
energy.
Meeting in San Diego today, the three parties outlined plans to
establish a Nuclear Hydrogen Joint Development Center (NHJDC) located in Daejeon and San
Diego which will cooperate in the development of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor
and nuclear hydrogen production technologies for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The parties noted that the Republic of Korea has embarked on
accelerated development of hydrogen production technology using gas-cooled reactors, and
that the program will cooperate with General Atomics in both the generation of
high-temperature process heat from gas-cooled nuclear reactors, and the sulfur-iodine
(S-I) technology for hydrogen production.
A significant "hydrogen economy" is predicted to reduce
future dependence on petroleum and limit pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen
is an environmentally attractive fuel, but current hydrogen production is based primarily
on fossil fuels.
"There's all different options to
make hydrogen --
nuclear, hydro, wind and solar, as well as reforming natural gas. Almost any
community can make it,
based on what their natural resources are." Matthew Fronk, GM's chief engineer for fuel cell systems GM
Pushes Fuel Cell Technology Fred O. Williams
Buffalo News August 28,
2005
Giant wind turbines will be used to power a
new breed of environmentally friendly cars that run on hydrogen gas under a pioneering
scheme by Scots scientists. ScottishPower plans to harness surplus electricity generated
by turbines during high winds and convert it to hydrogen gas, which can be stored and used
as fuel.
It envisages that urban refuelling stations — selling compressed
hydrogen generated by rooftop turbines instead of petrol — could become commonplace
across Britain, with the first appearing as early as 2010.
...The plan by ScottishPower scientists to harness renewable energy to
make hydrogen gas is believed to be a world first. A pilot project will start next year
using a half megawatt turbine on one of its wind farms, possibly at Black Law or Hagshaw
Hill in south Lanarkshire. It hopes to be awarded £1m to fund the project.
Innovative solar technology that may offer a 'green'
solution to the production of hydrogen fuel has been successfully tested on a large scale
at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. The technology also promises to facilitate
the storage and transportation of hydrogen. The chemical process behind the technology was
originally developed at Weizmann, and it has been scaled up in collaboration with European
scientists. Results of the experiments will be reported in August at the 2005 Solar World
Congress of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) in Orlando, Florida.
The solar project is the result of collaboration between scientists
from the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Paul
Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, Institut de Science et de Genie des Materiaux et
Procedes - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, and the ScanArc Plasma
Technologies AB in Sweden. The project is supported by the European Union's FP5 program.
Hydrogen, the most plentiful element in the universe, is an attractive
candidate for becoming a pollution-free fuel of the future. However, nearly all hydrogen
used today is produced by means of expensive processes that require combustion of
polluting fossil fuels. Moreover, storing and transporting hydrogen is extremely difficult
and costly.
The new solar technology tackles these problems by creating an easily
storable intermediate energy source form from metal ore, such as zinc oxide. With the help
of concentrated sunlight, the ore is heated to about 1,200°C in a solar reactor in the
presence of wood charcoal. The process splits the ore, releasing oxygen and creating
gaseous zinc, which is then condensed to a powder. Zinc powder can later be reacted with
water, yielding hydrogen, to be used as fuel, and zinc oxide, which is recycled back to
zinc in the solar plant. In recent experiments, the 300-kilowatt installation produced 45
kilograms of zinc powder from zinc oxide in one hour, exceeding projected goals.
The process generates no pollution, and the resultant zinc can be
easily stored and transported, and converted to hydrogen on demand. In addition, the zinc
can be used directly, for example, in zinc-air batteries, which serve as efficient
converters of chemical to electrical energy. Thus, the method offers a way of storing
solar energy in chemical form and releasing it as needed. more
At Inkster and West 11 Mile roads
next to a Detroit Edison substation, the new power park is a demonstration facility that
is capable of producing hydrogen gas from tap water. During off-peak hours, electricity
from the power grid and solar panels at the station is used to produce hydrogen. The gas
is then compressed and stored in tanks on site. The stored hydrogen is then delivered to
10 fuel cells at the station. Enough electricity is generated to power 20 homes and refuel
three hydrogen-powered vehicles a day.
Hydrogen Station Opens at DTE Energy Hydrogen Technology Park Stuart Energy Systems October
19, 2004 This SES-f is capable of producing and delivering 30
Nm3h (65 kg/day) of hydrogen at 6000 psi to vehicles. This system is designed to meet the
California Fuel Cell Partnership Fueling Protocol Rev. 6.1.
"We expect concentrator
solar cell performance to reach or exceed 40 percent by 2006 and anticipate continued
enhancement in performance and reliability."
Dr. Nasser Karam, VP Advanced Technology Products,
Spectrolab Cost-Competitive
Solar Called "Imminent" Renewable Energy Access July 21, 2005
The town gets more than
half of its electricity from four windmills, two of which began operating three weeks ago.
Last month, a small village nearby was designated as one of five places in the world that
would be powered solely by alternative fuels as part of a U.N. pilot project. And in June,
Pico Truncado plans a grand opening for the first wind-powered hydrogen production plant
in Latin America.
Officials Unveil Solar
Electrolysis Hydrogen Plant Terry Witt Citrus County
Chronicle June 24, 2005
Contrary to common belief, Masiello said hydrogen power is safer than gasoline when used
in vehicles. He said in a collision involving a gas-powered car, the gasoline tank
sometimes ruptures and the driver finds himself or herself sitting in gas. But hydrogen is
lighter than air, and dissipates quickly.
RELEASED This report summarizes comments from the Peer
Review Panel at the FY 2005 DOE Hydrogen Program Annual Merit Review, held
on May 23-26, 2005, in Arlington, Virginia. The projects evaluated support
the Department of Energy and President Bush's Hydrogen Initiative. The
results of this merit review and peer evaluation are major inputs used by
DOE to make funding decisions. Project areas include hydrogen production
and delivery; hydrogen storage; fuel cells; technology validation; safety,
codes and standards; education; and systems analysis.
"If we can take the efficiency we saw with
ultraviolet light and move it into the visible, it would be a really good thing for
society. A 10 percent conversion efficiency is basically the threshold where hydrogen
becomes a very tenable idea with respect to cost." Materieals Scientist Craig Grimes, Penn State
Grimes and colleagues have created titanium-dioxide
cylinders that are 224 nanometers long with 34-nanometer-thick walls. The nanotubes are 85
percent efficient at harvesting the ultraviolet portion of sunlight and 12.8 percent
efficient at extracting hydrogen from water. They also are easy to make, inexpensive and
stable after repeated use, Grimes said. "The nanotube architecture is perfect."
more
Ethanol Grows as
Gas Alternative John Gartner
Wired News May 4, 2005
The Gas Technology Institute is testing an ethanol reformer
that produces 110 pounds of hydrogen per day.
"It could well be that the first country to
seriously address the issues of creating a market for renewables would
become the central location for a major new international business
sector - with all the positive consequences that carries in terms of
economic activity and employment." ------------- Rodney Chase
CEO BP
--------------
"We all share the responsibility for carrying out this project, for the
assumption of responsibility is part of the dignity of human beings."
------------
Juergen Shrempp
Chairman
DaimlerChrysler
-----------
"Energy sources like coal and oil once overcame an economy based on
horsepower. So, I suspect, our carbon-based economy may itself pass from
the scene to be replaced, perhaps, by hydrogen."
-------------
Spencer Abraham
Secretary,
US Dept of Energy
-------------
"General Motors absolutely sees the long-term future of the world being
based on a hydrogen economy.” ------------
Larry Burns
Director of R&D
General Motors
-------------
