Ecotality Engages Airboss Enterprises for Work on Hydratus On-Board Hydrogen Generation System and Bus
10 January 2007
Ecotality, Inc.—formerly known as Alchemy Enterprises (earlier post)—has engaged Airboss Aerospace to act as consulting engineers on its Hydratus bus. Airboss will work in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology to continue the development of the Hydratus, an on-board system for the generation of hydrogen from magnesium and salt water.
Airboss Aerospace is a specialist engineering firm in high-tech aerospace programs, with particular expertise in designing, testing and building several cutting-edge aircraft. Airboss will work with JPL to continue the development of the Hydratus through Phase I and Phase II.
In August 2006, Alchemy announced that it had successfully operated a proof-of-concept Hydratus integrated with a hydrogen fuel cell for the first time in a series of tests at JPL.
In November 2006, Ecotality (then Alchemy Enterprises) acquired a hydrogen fuel cell bus from Hydrogenics and is in the process of converting it from compressed hydrogen storage to the use of the Hydratus hydrogen generating apparatus in conjunction with the fuel cell.
Concepts like this have been around for a while. Hydrogen on demand from boron, magnesium, aluminum etc... For the following link ignore the tripe about running on a tank of water ... you know where the energy really comes from.
http://www.cleanenergypartnership.org/news/article_detail.cfm?id=218
Posted by: Neil | 10 January 2007 at 10:17 AM
I like the name "Alchemy Enterprises." Turns Press Releases into money.
Posted by: DS | 10 January 2007 at 10:53 AM
Niche player at best.
Posted by: allen_Z | 10 January 2007 at 12:05 PM
allen Z: what you just did is one of the most annoying things about the comments on this site. You dismissed this with a terse comment and no frigging detail. "niche player at best". I have no idea if I agree with you or not. You don't provide any justification or information at all. I can see why you wouldn't care whether I agree or not but if you don't, then why comment at all?
So, why, allen, are these jokers doomed to niche status?
Posted by: d | 10 January 2007 at 01:13 PM
"Niche player at best" if that much.
I agree with allen.
Posted by: DS | 10 January 2007 at 02:53 PM
It is a niche because it is small, out of the mainstream and nothing new. You have to have recharge stations where metal emulsion slurry is pumped every few hundred miles and on and on...it could be good for delivery trucks or fork lifts or a few other applications, but that is about it.
Posted by: SJC | 10 January 2007 at 04:08 PM
And on top of that, the efficiency of the magnesium cycle is a small fraction of batteries. The only place this fits is where high energy density is worth the efficiency penalties. This relegates it to a small niche that will shrink as other tech gets better.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 10 January 2007 at 09:07 PM
Well, I agree that it's not ready for our daily commutes, but my understanding is that Ecotality is going precisely for the delivery truck market, and JPL is interested in it for some of its applications. What's wrong with that? Sometimes, it takes success in a niche market to build the infrastructure (fueling stations, etc.). So for delivery fleets, where the trucks come back to central locations, it's a possibility, and as the refueling stations get cheaper and more vehicles can use them, there could be growth of the stations, just as there are now one or two diesel and biodiesel pumpts at various consumer stations now. The point is, the specialized app helps to pave the way for the more mainstream markets. That's a very common way that new tech gets adopted and supported.
Lisa Hart
Posted by: Lisa Hart | 15 January 2007 at 06:37 PM
I am hopeful that Ecotality and thier Hydratus is about to lift a heavy burden off our backs.
Posted by: Elmer Oswald | 05 February 2007 at 12:06 PM
If this is so good where is the patent on it? I for one, would like to read the Patent? any numbers out there?
Thanks eb
Posted by: elaine | 10 October 2007 at 01:42 PM