Hydrogen H2 News
Hydrogen H2 News
1.0 : World Fuel Cell Challenge [WFCC]
FCIA is now working towards a World event involving fuel cell technologies. This will take the form of fuel cells being used in transport as propulsion systems for racing. It will also involve hybrid fuel cell power supply systems. The world event/s will may eventually involve a race across Australia [Sydney to Perth].
1.In the future maybe from Sydney to Perth -[~4,000kls by road].
2.All teams must produce and supply their own hydrogen using only renewable wind and or solar energy.
3.The vehicles can be hybrid fuel cell vehicles [includes battery/capacitor] incorporating regenerative braking, computer simulations, power management and electronics, aerodynamics, enviro-materials, brushless motors, and innovative designs.
4.All vehicles will be fully built by entrants. Entrants will invariably include teams from colleges and universities.
5.Program is designed to result in superior zero emission fuel cell and or hybrid fuel cell vehicles for the mass market by year 2015.
CONTACT:
Stephen V
Zorbas
FCIA@hydrogen.id.au
2.0 : Ethanol:
Ethanol has been talked about for years in Australia as a means to progress a renewable fuel which can be manufactured here, and can be easily added as a percentage to petrol. Ethanol blended with petrol burns cleaner and reduces our dependence on foreign crude oil.
Ethanol is currently used by certain South American countries, as a sustainable renewable fuel which is used in their cars at a 100% level. This has allowed the very large local sugar growers to produce equally large quantities of ethanol, for their local populations and as well save billions of dollars annually in the foreign debt associated with crude oil importation; The economic factors are sure to be multiplied overtime. Australian researchers have recently discovered new ways of fermenting the sugar cane waste sugars, by evolving new yeasts for the job. This now allows for the first time much more Ethanol production from sugar cane waste, and can as well apply to other bio-wastesAustralia produces sugar and is thus capable of producing ethanol. We of course need cars that can operate safely on ethanol blends of 10% and more. Can the new Holden or Ford cars operate on Ethanol? Ethanol can now be used as a fuel in an Ethanol based Fuel Cell. This amazing breakthrough in year 2005, allows ethanol at room temperature to be consumed in a dedicated fuel cell producing “clean” electricity, without combustion. The Ethanol Fuel Cell [EFC] is being co-developed by Italy and the UK, and it is hoped by ~yr 2010 that power and performance with rival the PEM fuel cells of today.
What this can mean is that Ethanol can be used for combustion today and non-combustion tomorrow. Ethanol can thus have its own “Bridge” plan being able to be used today in combustion engines and co-exist with futuristic fuel cells running on Ethanol. The risk associated with Ethanol is thus reduced significantly, as a technology led approach towards future sustainability will embrace it not exclude it.
3.0 : LPG as an option-Australia ?
“LPG is substantially cheaper than petrol today, and if you can afford ~A$3,000 then you have saved better than most other Australians over the last five [5] years. A rebate will help to assist after ~A$3,000 has been spent on the installation of the LPG system. With the high costs of living today it is ”Rubbish” as a solution, that has no environmental pathways and contradicts a new technology led direction to sustain future low to zero emissions in the energy sector via the government’s own “White Paper” on energy. Compressed natural gas [CNG] has been advocated by the Australian Greenhouse Office [AGO] for a number of years now with financial incentives. Now options are provided for LPG which directly indicates the failing of the CNG program which should have developed many more options by now being made available to motorists.
More consistent with a technology led approach for sustainable low emissions in the transport sector, was the ninety [90] hydrogen fuel cell powered bus and hydrogen depots program put forward by Senator Campbell in October 2004.This program is directly compatible with CNG transport technology as “Bridge” plans and programs can be developed between CNG and hydrogen. Where we are today [CNG] and where we are going in the future [zero emission via hydrogen fuel cell technologies] must be integrated together [“Bridge” or “Steps”].The International Partnership for The Hydrogen Economy [IPHE] has as its main objective to make hydrogen as available as petrol by year 2020, and Australia is a party to the IPHE. The “Australian Hydrogen Activity” -May 2005 book produced by The D.I.T.R., depicts on page “1” a peak in global oil as soon as year 2006.
To make LPG as a major option here depicts a very poor record of performance in this area, and really provides no real solutions to the current price of petrol experienced by the vast majority of Australians. Still there are no plans to deal with the future peak in global oil expected before year 2015, with some experts saying year 2010, and a main agency of our own government indicating before year 2010!
Malcolm Frazer in early 1980’s stated, “Diesel will never be more expensive than petrol”. Well diesel as far as I am aware has been more expensive than petrol for some time now, so what will stop the price of LPG going higher than petrol in the future, under a government with the same mentality? “ Article: by Fuel Cell Institute of Australia .
5.0 :HYPERMEC™ Fuel Cell - No platinum & runs on ethanol.
Can practical, efficient micro fuel cells be made without using costly platinum as the catalyst? Yes, says Italian-UK start-up Acta, which has just demonstrated room-temperature micro fuel cells based around its HYPERMEC catalyst, a mixture of cobalt, iron and nickel with no platinum in sight. What's more, the HYPERMEC fuel cells are compatible with a wide range of fuels - hydrogen, methanol, ethylene glycol and, most importantly, ethanol - in contrast with traditional, platinum-based micro fuels cells that only process hydrogen and methanol.Acta uses a patented templating polymer to manufacture its platinum-free catalysts. This means that tiny metal particles can be fixed onto a substrate in such a way that they produce a very active catalyst without using noble metals. Fuel-cell manufacturers have always thought that platinum was a prerequisite for portable fuel cells because it is reactive enough to activate both sides of the fuel-cell reaction at ambient temperatures. If Acta's technology shapes up, it could one day turn this preconception on its head. The new technique also allows for enormous flexibility in the range and ratios of metals used: "In our core iron-cobalt-nickel catalyst, each one of the metals plays a different role," said Toby Woolrych, the company's chief operating officer."In terms of performance," he added, "Acta has demonstrated room-temperature HYPERMEC fuel cells running on liquid fuels, such as ethanol and methanol, rated at more than 55 mW/cm2. This is almost unheard of for a room-temperature self-breathing cell."
Tokyo (dpa) - The Japanese manufacturer Honda is close to winning the race in becoming the first mass car producer to offer a hydrogen- powered fuel cell car. The company recently announced at the Detroit Motor Show that the Honda FCX Concept vehicle resembled the car it would produce in three to four years time. Other major car makers have said that it will take between 10 and 15 years to mass produce the first fuel cell vehicle running on hydrogen. But the FCX Concept, first unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show and also presented in Detroit this month, indicates that Honda has taken a big step forward in the evolution of the technology. The FCX boasts a design with a low centre of gravity with a roomy interior and a unique low-floor fuel cell platform A major barrier to mass production of fuel cell vehicles has been the lightweight storage of compact hydrogren. Honda has however expanded the storage capacity with a newly developed hydrogen absorption material in the tank doubling capacity to five kilogrammes of hydrogen at 5000 PSI, extending the range to about 560 kilometres. Another problem confronting fuel cell cars has apparently been solved by the Honda engineers regarding the cold-weather starts. A V- Flow fuel cell stack takes advantage of gravity discharging water formed during electricity generation, achieving low-temperature starts comparable to petrol engines.
The FCX Concept features three electric motors one 80 kW engine in the front and a 25 kW motor in each of the rear wheels, leaving plenty of space for a spacious cabin. Honda is however also working on infrastructure for the hydrogen society with its Home Energy Station (HES), a system designed to supply energy needs for the home and car. The system is equipped with fuel cells that produce electricity for the home and recovering heat produced during power generation for water heating.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Steve Zorbas the author of over twenty(20)
reports and proposals on hydrogen and related topics in Australia over the last
five(5) years ,and creator of "The Parallel of Significance" commented, " I
am confident Honda Japan will do this on time, as the credibility of Honda
and Japan are now at stake. GM and the Unites States of American are now
seriously challenged , and I believe they now know what they must do".
Global manufacturers of micro-fuel cells have been waiting for the international aviation authorities to give the all clear for cartridges to be allowed on aircraft. Recently in Canada such authority was issued for butane , methanol and hydrogen within hydride storage systems, for micro-fuel cells in the cabins of aircraft. Micro-fuel cells will thus be commercially available from Jan. 1 2007 to the global consumer. Will our students in year 2007 pick up micro-fuel cells and think they are batteries ,due to ignorance ?
Originally Published:20050601.
"You've seen a revolution in communications in the last 25 years," said Arnold Miller, president of Denver-based Vehicle Projects LLC, a research and development company, "but transportation hasn't improved too much." But fuel cells, Miller says, are about to do "for transportation what a computer chip did to communications." Miller believes hydrogen fuel cells will make an impact on the railroad and mining industries long before a corresponding revolution hits the automotive industry, a stated goal of President George W. Bush. Miller said hydrogen could replace petroleum-based fuel in the rail and mining markets as soon as 2010. The railroad industry's 20,000 locomotives are almost exclusively powered with diesel fuel; Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. alone spends $1 billion a year on diesel.
It follows that Vehicle Projects' latest undertaking is a fuel-cell powered railroad locomotive. In May 2003. the company brought together a consortium that includes federal agencies, railroad companies, and other entities to build a prototype. Funded by the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to the tune of $4 million, the prototype will cost another $10 million to build in a few years. The DOD's involvement falls under the same dual-use strategy that yielded the Internet and GPS.
But other Vehicle Projects have already graduated from the drawing board. The company's first initiative was building a fuel-cell powered mine-locomotive, which it successfully tested in Nevada in 2002. And in 2001, work began on a $4.5 million mine loader - both projects funded by the DOE. The loader prototype was recently completed at a Caterpillar facility in Peoria, III., and will likely be demonstrated by year's end. Because the only emission from hydrogen-powered vehicles is water that's pure enough to drink, fuel-cell vehicles are ideal for mines. The mine-transportation technology currently in place is split among relatively dirty diesel power, the limited energy drawn from batteries, or the limited range of a tethered vehicle. "The fuel-cell vehicle has the potential of being the best of all of those different worlds," Miller said.
His interest in fuel cells goes back to high school: He built one before graduation day and continued working with the technology in college and beyond. A career in academic and military research landed him at Colorado School of Mines in 1993, and the next year he helped launch the Joint Centre for Fuel Cell Vehicles in partnership with the School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, also in Golden. "What I wanted to do is facilitate commercialization of fuel-cell vehicles," said Miller. "A state agency - which is what the school is - is not the perfect platform for doing that. The university is quite enlightened, and they actually helped spin it (the technology) off as the Fuel Cell Propulsion Institute" in 1996. But because the non-profit Institute has national laboratories as members, it cannot lobby the federal government, making necessary the start up of the for-profit Vehicle Projects in 1998. Under the same umbrella is the Fuel Cell Transport Political Action Committee, which was established last year but is not yet active.
Vehicle Projects isn't likely to get involved in the R&D of a hydrogen-powered car. Ship and submarine propulsion are applications that pique Miller's interest, as are military vehicles. (Tanks typically use two or three gallons of fuel to the mile.) Miller said it's just a matter of time before hydrogen is just as cost-efficient as oil. "The price of oil is approaching $60 a barrel and it could go to $100," he noted. "If it does, then there will be a really strong impetus to bring (fuel cells) to market."
DUBLIN, Ireland, Jun 13, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c19097) has announced the addition of 2005 Hydrogen Market, Hydrogen R&D and Commercial Implication in The U.S. and E.U. to their offering. Hydrogen has great potential as an energy carrier. This report contains in-depth survey of hydrogen business in US and European region. The overall US hydrogen market is estimated at $798.1 million in 2005 and is expected to rise to $1,605.3 million in 2010. This report details the current hydrogen industry structure, various hydrogen pathways for hydrogen production, distribution and storage. It covers the R&D activities in Government laboratories, Universities & academic institutions and Private organizations in US. It contains a list of commercial organizations active in hydrogen technology research in EU and US. This research details market development and scenarios for the next 15 years & beyond and the application trends of portable, micro, transportation, residential, industrial and distributed generation systems. The overall European hydrogen market is estimated to be about $368 million in 2005 and is expected to grow at an average annual growth rate of 15 percent to $740 million in 2010. European community is funding various projects on hydrogen production, storage and hydrogen refueling stations. This report contains company profiles of key players in hydrogen research and development in European community.
Jenny Brown
Contact nhia@hydrogen.asn.au
Hydrogen News - ED. 21
Sustainable Living in Australia Environment Australia - strategy
"Green Consumerism" Global Energy Risk Appliances self powered by year 2020
Hydrogen News was sponsored by: The National Hydrogen Institute of Australia: Many thanks to Jenny Brown - Editor
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