Green Car Congress

Nanomaterials for Solar Hydrogen Production and Storage

Nanostructured materials are the basis for two research projects investigating the solar production of hydrogen and hydrogen storage.

Researchers from UC Santa Cruz, the University of Georgia and Nomadics are developing a device that integrates two kinds of solar cells—a photovoltaic cell to produce electricity and a photoelectrochemical cell to produce hydrogen from the electrolysis of water.

Both will use specially designed materials based on arrays of nanowires with uniform orientation. The main focus of the project will be on developing these nanostructured materials to optimize the efficiency of both the photovoltaic cell and the photoelectrochemical cell.

The researchers will use a technique called glancing angle deposition (GLAD) to fabricate the nanowire arrays.

Instead of requiring complex lithographic processing, GLAD uses computer-controlled substrate motion in conjunction with glancing incidence flux from physical vapour deposition to precisely tailor the structure of thin films. The geometry and porosity can be engineered to specific needs.

The goal is to produce clean energy. The idea of using solar energy and water as a source of hydrogen is very attractive, and we believe nanostructured materials can be used to do this efficiently.

We want to build a device that you can put in the sun, fill it with water, and get hydrogen without using any outside source of energy.

—Jin Zhang, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSC and project lead

The hydrogen storage project, also involving UCSC and U of Georgia, with the addition of the Washington State University,  will also use the GLAD technique. One solution for hydrogen storage is to store it in  a solid form as a metal hydride compound. The researchers plan to find the optimum conditions for fabricating metal hydride nanostructures to achieve highly efficient hydrogen storage.

Both projects have received funding from the DOE.

Ford Product Development VP on Powertrain Futures

all4engineers runs an interesting, albeit short,  interview with Richard Parry-Jones, Ford’s Executive Vice-President for product development, on Ford’s views and activities around different powertrains.

Parry-Jones touches on electric vehicles (“very, very limited”); hybrids (significant, but not taking over); hydrogen and diesel.

A few snippets:

[On Hydrogen Internal Combustion engines] A second reason is that there is no guarantee that fuel cells will work. I think they will, but I would not swear my daughter’s life on it. And hydrogen/internal combustion provides a back-up. If we get into an energy crunch, we have another way to go. It’s not as efficient as fuel cells, but it’s not a bad idea.

[On hydrogen fuel] There are no easy wins. If you reduce natural gas to create hydrogen, the cost of fuel is approximately five times higher than using oil. The cost of oil will rise to the point where that becomes viable. But longer term, to really address CO2, we need to find a sequestering technology to sequester the carbon after we liberate the hydrogen, and if we go even longer term, we have to find renewable sources of energy.The oil crunch I talk about is not just around the corner. It will be 40 years at least to work this out. But we have to find a replacement for the energy, not just the oil.

[On Diesel] I believe clean diesels can play a role in this [North American] market, not starting with passenger cars in my opinion, but coming down from pickups.

[On the 2.7-liter diesel shown in the Mercury MetaOne concept diesel hybrid (post)] No [we can’t bring that engine to North America]. There is a new regime coming along, Euro V, and probably an Euro VI after that, which have increasingly stringent levels for particulate and NOx emissions. The North American legislation, after low-sulphur fuel becomes available in 2006, is going to be Tier 2 Bin 5, which is more stringent than Euro V. Although we could sell that engine today in North America, we won't be able to keep it. We and anyone else who wants to sell in North America is going to have to invent some new technology. I tell our engineers, don't moan about it, fix it.

Delta to Use Ford Hydrogen-Fueled Tow Tractors

Ford Motor Company, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), TUG Technologies Corporation, Delta Airlines and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) announced a partnership that will put two hydrogen-fueled airport tow tractors into service at the Orlando airport.

The M1A tow tractor uses a Ford Power Products 4.2-liter, V-6 industrial engine converted and calibrated to operate on gaseous hydrogen. The naturally-aspirated H₂ICE tractor will deliver approximately 80 hp (60 kW).

This engine has previously been a key power source to the airport ground support equipment (GSE) market in gasoline, natural gas and LPG configurations.

Ford 4.2-liter V-6 Engine
	Gasoline	LPG	Natural Gas	Hydrogen
Power hp (kW)	125 (93)	114 (85)	102 (76)	80 (60)
Torque lb-ft (Nm)	206 (279)	201 (272)	182 (246)	n/a

The near-zero operational emissions from the hydrogen engine makes it attractive for airport environments, where emissions levels are strictly regulated.

Delta will put two of these TUG hydrogen tractors into service as baggage carriers at the Orlando International Airport later this summer.

Ford is also producing eight V-10, E-450 H₂ICE shuttle buses for operation in the Orlando area (including the Orlando airport) upon delivery in 2006.

Millennium Cell Awarded $3M by DOE for Work on Hydrogen Generation and Storage

Millennium Cell has been awarded a five-year, $3 million contract from the DOE to further its work with sodium borohydride-based hydrogen generation and storage. (Earlier post.) 

Sodium borohydride (short for sodium tetrahydridoborate: NaBH₄) is a chemical compound with high hydrogen content. When NaBH₄ is suspended in an aqueous solution and then passed over a catalyst, the reaction produces hydrogen, along with a benign byproduct—sodium metaborate—that can be recycled back into sodium borohydride.

NaBH₄ + 2H₂O→ 4H₂ + NaBO₂ + heat

One of the disadvantages to sodium borohydride as a hydrogen source is the cost and availability of the compound.

As part of the contact, Millennium Cell is working with Los Alamos National Lab, Rohm and Haas and others to evaluate lower-cost sodium borohydride manufacturing methods.

Up until recently, Millennium Cell had been vocal about targeting automotive applications for its technology, and provided the hydrogen source for a 2001 DaimlerChrysler fuel cell concept, the Natrium. Recently, however, Millennium Cell has been focusing on more immediate markets: portable electronic devices (consumer, military and industrial, such as laptops and DVD players; and portable and standby power.

The funding from DOE may give the company a boost back toward transportation.

New On-Board Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Delivers 50% Efficiency

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new small solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that converts iso-octane (C₈H₁₈), a highly-pure hydrocarbon compound that is a component of gasoline, to hydrogen, The hydrogen is then used by the fuel cell to produce electrical energy with an overall fuel efficiency of up to 50%.

Their paper, published online by the journal Science, describes the combination of a special thin-film catalyst layer, through which the iso-octane flows, with a conventional anode. That porous layer, which contains stabilized zirconia and small amounts of the metals ruthenium and cerium, chemically and cleanly converts the fuel to hydrogen.

This approach is potentially the basis of a simple low-cost system that can provide significantly higher fuel efficiency by using excess fuel cell heat for the endothermic reforming reaction.

—An Octane-Fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cell [DOI: 10.1126/science.1109213]

Current internal combustion engines have a “well-to-wheels“ efficiency of only 10%–15%. Current PEM fuel cells using hydrogen from the steam reforming of natural gas offer 29% overall efficiency, while current gas/electric hybrids have achieved up to 32%.

(The different efficiencies are estimated here, in the supporting online material for the paper.)

The advent of hybrid vehicles has shaken up the fuel cell community and made researchers rethink hydrogen as a fuel. We need to look at the solid oxide fuel cell—the one kind of fuel cell that can work with other fuels beside hydrogen—as an option.

—Scott A. Barnett, professor of materials science and engineering, NU

Although conceptually similar (hydrogen in, electricity out) the solid oxide fuel cell is different than the PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cells most often discussed as power plants for transportation. PEM fuel cells tend to be smaller, run at lower temperatures, produce less power and require an external supply of hydrogen.

Solid oxide fuel cells use a hard, ceramic compound of metal (like calcium or zirconium) oxides as an electrolyte, rather than the thin, permeable polymer electrolyte sheet in a PEM. SOFCs tend to be more efficient, and run at a higher temperature. It is that higher temperature that the Northwestern team is using for the chemical reforming of the iso-octane.

A major drawback of using solid oxide fuel cells is that carbon from the fuel is deposited all over the anode because of the high temperatures. But our thin film catalyst, plus the addition of a small amount of oxygen, eliminates those deposits, making it a viable technology to pursue with further research. We have shown that the fuel cell is much more stable with the catalyst and air than without.

—Scott Barnett

With its higher efficiency, such an SOFC approach would reduce our distillate usage compared to straight ICE vehicles or current hybrids, and would reduce the need for the supporting hydrogen infrastructure required by PEM cells. Of course, you still need a ready supply of iso-octane.

GM to Build 40-Vehicle Fuel Cell Demonstration Fleet

GM and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have entered into a five-year, $88-million agreement to build a 40-vehicle hydrogen fuel cell demonstration and testing fleet.

Under the program, GM will spend $44-million to deploy fuel cell vehicle fleets in Washington D.C., New York , California and Michigan. The DOE will contribute the other $44 million under an agreement that expires in September 2009.

Through a separate, commercial agreement, Shell Hydrogen will set up five hydrogen refueling stations in Washington, DC., metropolitan New York City, between Washington D.C. and New York, and in California to support the demo fleet.

Other program partners include the U.S. Army at Ft. Belvoir, Va. and Quantum Technologies in Lake Forest, Calif. – providing facilities for GM to store and maintain fuel cell vehicles; NextEnergy in Detroit, Mich. for codes and standards development; and Viewpoint Systems in Rochester, New York for collecting and retrieving data remotely.

GM also will announced details of a collaboration with the  U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) later this week.

Danish Towns Fund Hydrogen Train

The Engineer reports that three Danish towns in Ringkøbing Amt (county) in Western Jutland—Vemb, Lemvig and Thyborøn—will put up funding for a hydrogen-fueled train running along the 59 km railway line connecting them.

The line is operated by the Vemb-Lemvig-Thyborøn Jernbane (VLTJ) railway (Lemvigbanen).

The county of Ringkøbing is home to a number of renewable energy projects. Ringkøbing Amt faces westward to the North Sea, and has some of the best wind resources in Denmark. Wind power provides approximately 35% of the electricity for the county. Currently, a fourth of the Danish production of biogas is from this region and plans are underway to build one of the biggest biogas plants in the world. A new test center for wave energy has been developed to the north.

The county is also the seat of Denmark’s Hydrogen Innovation and Research Center (HIRC).

HIRC has proposed a number of hydrogen projects in the area, the train being but one.

HIRC has proposed two phases to the project. The first phase would use a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine (natural gas engine). The second would be to move to a fuel-cell system.

The center estimates that a single 1 MW windmill could produce the hydrogen required for two train sets.

According to the CEO of HIRC, Jens-Chr. Møller: “Our goal is to get Europe’s first commercially viable hydrogen train in Europe. There are many international projects on using hydrogen in cars and buses, but plans on hydrogen trains are very few and mostly centred in the US and Japan.”

With money at hand, HIRC now hopes to attract the attention of train manufacturers interested in participating in the project.

DaimlerChrysler Targets 2012 for Sales of H2 Fuel Cell Cars

Reuters. DaimlerChrysler’s first hydrogen-powered car using fuel cell technology will be on sale from 2012, according to a company executive.

“It (commercialization) will start in 2012,” Herbert Kohler, Vice President of the Body and Powertrain research unit at DaimlerChrysler told reporters in Brussels, on the margins of a hydrogen car technology exhibition.

But there are still technical obstacles to overcome such as extending fuel cells’ reliability and durability; ensuring that they start at sub-freezing temperatures; reducing costs, and storing enough hydrogen in a small enough space to be workable.

New DOE Hydrogen Portal

The DOE has launched a new Hydrogen Program website. The new site links the four DOE Offices ( Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE), Fossil Energy (FE), Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE), and Science (SC))  that participate in the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative (HFI) and serves as an integrated portal for information on DOE’s HFI efforts.

The Offices and Programs page provides a useful matrix detailing which office is working in which technology area.

Dynetek Providing 700-bar H2 Storage to Nissan

Dynetek is providing the new 700-bar (10,000 psi) high-pressure hydrogen storage system to Nissan for use in its X-TRAIL fuel cell vehicle.

Nissan  announced the transition to the higher-pressure storage system when it unveiled its in-house developed fuel cell stack. (Earlier post.)

The 700-bar storage cylinder increases hydrogen storage capacity by approximately 70% compared to the previous 350-bar (5, 000 psi) storage cylinder, thereby extending the driving range for the vehicle.

Florida Begins Work on First H2 Station

Florida Governor Jeb Bush broke ground for the state’s first hydrogen fueling station on Friday. BP is providing the fueling support.

As part of Florida’s hydrogen initiatives, Ford is providing eight Ford V-10, E-450 H₂ICE shuttle buses (earlier post) and a small fleet of Ford Focus fuel cell vehicles (earlier post) as part of a DOE-sponsored demonstration project. 

$2 Billion for H2 Infrastructure Required by 2012

A new market research study from ABI Research concludes that some $2 billion—whether from government or industry—must be invested in creating a hydrogen fuelling station infrastructure by 2012 if market expectations are to be met.

The study, Hydrogen Infrastructure, also evaluates the production and distribution pathways that will be essential for any major fuel cell vehicle introduction, and reviews potential fuel sources for hydrogen generation.

Natural gas, coal, ethanol and methanol, biomass gasification, electrolysis, solar and wind energy, even nuclear reactions are all potential sources for the hydrogen needed to run fuel cells, and the study analyzes each in detail, with particular emphasis on natural gas, the most likely candidate.

Green Light in Japan for Honda FCX

Japanese Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure has certified the Honda FCX (earlier post) for use on public roads. Equipped with Honda's own fuel cell stack, the FCX can start in sub-freezing temperatures.  Honda plans to offer the new FCX for lease in various regions in Japan starting in 2005, including those with cold winter climates.

Honda has been leasing the earlier version of the FCX in the United States and Japan since December 2002. Honda has been testing the second-generation FCX in cold weather since last year, demonstrating its  capacity to start and operate at sub-zero temperatures.

CA H2 Highway Meeting to be Webcast

The final meeting of the California Hydrogen Highway Advisory Panel for the discussion of the blueprint plan is scheduled for 8 Dec from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, Pacific Time.  It is open to the public, and will be webcast.

Questions for the Panel members may be submitted in advance (by noon on 12/7) to  [email protected]. Webcast viewers may submit questions during the session to [email protected]. Meeting attendees can submit questions in writing on site.

Webcast info here.

H2 Generation and Fueling at Home: Honda’s Home Energy System II

Honda R&D Americas and Plug Power have began successful operation of their 2^nd-generation prototype home hydrogen system, the Home Energy Station II (HES II). HES II is the latest evolution of a joint development effort by Honda and Plug Power to produce a home system that generates hydrogen from natural gas for use in fuel cell vehicles while supplying electricity and hot water to the home. Testing of the HES II system will be done in conjunction with demonstration of Honda’s 2005 FCX fuel cell car on public roads in the Northeastern U.S.

The HES II system contains the following elements:

• A reformer to extract hydrogen from natural gas

• A fuel cell unit that utilizes some of the extracted hydrogen to provide power for the system

• A refiner to purify the hydrogen

• A compressor for pressurizing the extracted hydrogen

• A high-pressure tank unit to store the pressurized hydrogen

HES II incorporates several subsystems which utilize Plug Power’s proprietary technology and allow for a reduction in the space required for the system. Originally two separate units, the HES now combines all the elements into one smaller package that includes the natural gas reformer, hydrogen purifier, fuel cell stack, compressor, fuel storage and delivery system.

The initial version of the HES, shown in October 2003, produced hydrogen at a maximum rate of 2 normal cubic meters per hour (2Nm³/hour) with a purity of 99.99% or higher. The system had a storage capacity of 400 liters @ 420 atmospheres (425.6 bar or 6,172 psi).

Honda and Plug Power are not the first to demonstrate or to explore small-scale generation of hydrogen. Shell Hydrogen, for example, has been working with Stuart Systems on home-scale electrolyser technology. Honda, however, is establishing a pattern of developing home alternative fuel systems that tie directly to their vehicle development. Earlier this year, Honda introduced Phill, a home natural gas fueling system for CNG vehicles in conjunction with announcing its plans to begin retail sales of the Civic GX natural gas vehicle beginning in California in spring 2005. (Earlier post.)

Supporting the distributed (and presumably low-cost) generation of alternative fuels makes enormous sense for an automaker. There should be more of it. I’m eager to see further performance and cost figures on the HES II work, and to see which other automakers pick up on the idea.

Toro Evaluating Nuvera Fuel Cell

Toro—the lawnmower and powered yard equipment company—is evaluating Nuvera’s H2e hydrogen fuel cell module for potential use in its professional grounds and turf care equipment.

The H2e (“hydrogen to electricity”) is Nuvera’s small-scale product line of hydrogen power modules. This line of PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell stacks provides between 1 to 6 kW of electric power.

Nuvera is coupling the H2e with power electronics, a peaking battery, and hydrogen storage capability to create a compact fuel cell engine for many types of industrial vehicles.

Nuvera has a strategic partnership with Renault—which owns 10% of Nuvera—on automotive fuel cell R&D. This partnership is an extension of an earlier agreement between Nuvera and Renault for the development of an on-board reformer to convert gasoline to hydrogen. A prototype of the reformer is due this year.

Honda H2 FCX to Chula Vista

Honda has delivered a Honda FCX hydrogen fuel cell car to the city of Chula Vista, CA. This brings the total of FCX vehicles in service in California to 10.  The city will lease the vehicle for two years and operate the FCX on a regular daily basis. Refueling will be at a publicly accessible hydrogen station already operated by the city on their property.

The FCX is the only fuel cell car certified by the U.S. EPA (Tier-2 Bin 1) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) (Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV)).

In 2004, the city of San Francisco leased two cars, joining the City of Los  Angeles (five cars) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (two cars) as FCX customers.

An earlier post on the specifications of the 2^nd-generation 2005 FCX is here. Honda significantly boosted the performance in this new model by using its own fuel cell stack.

Ethanol→Hydrogen

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) has developed a two-step steam reforming-shift fuel processor that can efficiently convert ethanol into hydrogen. For the past six months, GTI engineers have been performing internal research to demonstrate the potential of its fuel processor technology to generate hydrogen from a variety of renewable fuels.

We were able to produce a high-quality hydrogen gas from ethanol—similar to results using natural gas—and demonstrated our process to representatives of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA).

—Gerry Runte, Executive Director of GTI’s Hydrogen Systems Center

One GTI goal is to utilize ethanol as the primary fuel to produce hydrogen in a hydrogen fueling station platform similar to the natural gas-to-hydrogen station being developed by GTI under a United States Department of Energy sponsored program.

Probably too soon for anyone to have done an energy and emissions Lifecycle Analysis on this approach...

Hydrogen HUMMER for the Governor—But It’s ICE

California Gov. Schwarzenegger opened a hydrogen fueling station at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) on Friday, rolling into the station in a prototype H₂ICE Hummer prototype—the H2H—loaned by GM.

The H2H is an internal combustion engine (ICE) HUMMER H2 SUT (Sport Utility Truck) converted to burn gaseous hydrogen fuel. The truck uses a supercharged version of the truck’s original Vortec 6000 (6.0-liter V-8).

“The H2H was created for two purposes,” said Elizabeth Lowery, GM vice president, Environment & Energy. “It brings focus and attention to the journey to a hydrogen economy, and it will provide GM with key learnings on hydrogen storage, hydrogen delivery systems, and hydrogen refueling infrastructure development.”

Even as an avowed non-production prototype, this is a bit of a major departure for GM, which has been one of the automakers the most insistent on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as the future. As a result, the automaker has never publicly emphasized an H₂ICE prototype, preferring instead to seed the growing number of hydrogen trials around the globe with fuel cell vehicles such as its HydroGen3.

By contrast, Ford, which also has a robust hydrogen fuel cell program, of late has been putting emphasis on its prototype H₂ICE vehicles as a way to gain more experience with hydrogen—exactly the reasoning GM outlined above. (Earlier posts here, here, and here.)

As an aside, the H2H also provides an example of a big truck that doesn’t depend on oil and is more friendly (leaving the source of the hydrogen out of the discussion of perception) to the environment. Of course, if that was the only concern, they could just trot out a biodiesel version.

GM produced the H2H in conjunction with its partner Quantum Technologies, a leader in hydrogen fuel systems and storage for both ICE and fuel cell vehicles.

In March 2004, California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) awarded a $2.3 million contract to Quantum to convert a fleet of 30 Toyota Priuses to hydrogen-burning hybrids.

For that project, Quantum is developing the complete OEM-level hydrogen internal combustion engine fuel system, including both the injection system and hydrogen storage system. Included in the fuel systems will be the company’s patented fuel injectors, fuel rails, electronic control system and software, hydrogen storage and a customized turbocharger.

Presumably, Quantum did not need to play such a complete role in the converison of H2 to H2H.

It will be interesting to see if GM follows up with any other H₂ICE prototypes. If they do, then it may be an indication that they are beginning to hedge their fuel cell bet, at least in terms of how soon they can build the FCV market.

(Thanks to Autoblog for the tip on the Gov.)

New Methods for BioHydrogen

One of the major challenges to be met in a transition to a hydrogen energy and transportation economy is actually producing the H₂ in an energy-efficient and emissions-limited manner. If we end up relying on coal-generated electricity to produce hydrogen from a natural gas feedstock (currently the predominant approach in the US), that still leaves us with a sizable emissions hurdle to overcome as well as continuing reliance on a limited fossil fuel (natural gas).

Accordingly, researchers are increasing efforts to discover viable methods for producing hydrogen from renewable feedstocks (biohydrogen). At the 228^th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia this week, scientists are highlighting some of that new biohydrogen work.

Charring Biowaste for Hydrogen. A scientist from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is working with the inventor of a patent-pending process to turn agricultural biomass-wastes like peanut shells into hydrogen fuel and charcoal fertilizer. The inventor is also working with DOE scientists who hold a patent on a related technology.

Volatiles and steam released by charring biomass produce hydrogen. The charring turns the biomass into charcoal pieces. This charcoal becomes a nitrogen-enriched fertilizer with the addition of ammonia formed by combining a third of the hydrogen with nitrogen. The remaining hydrogen can be sold as fuel, both for a hydrogen-based, clean diesel and to run fuel cells.

One of the additional benefits of this approach is that the technique returns a large portion of harvested carbon to the soil, since plants are not completely burned.

Sunflower Oil to Hydrogen. Researchers at Leeds University in England described a process that mixes sunflower oil with steam and puts the result through a catalytic process to produce hydrogen. An earlier paper on this work is here.

As with biodiesel, a variety of oil stocks could in theory be used as the feedstock for this process: rapeseed oil, soybean oil, etc. Furthermore, the ongoing buildout of a biodiesel production infrastructure would support this deployment of this process, enabling more decentralized production of hydrogen.

Hydrogen from Biomass. Another approach to converting biomass to hydrogen comes from two scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who are developing a new reforming technique. The technique (aqueous phase reforming with new catalysts) allows them to include sugars and sugar alcohols as potential feedstocks. An earlier presentation of their work is here.

Hydrogen from Ethanol. Researchers from Waseda University, the University of Tokyo and Nissan described a new low-energy, ambient-pressure, room-temperature technique for reforming ethanol into hydrogen.

Biohydrogen from Wastewater. Researchers from Penn State University describe a new bioreactor that uses dark fermentation to process wastewater into hydrogen. This is one of many papers in a program track that described hydrogen production as a useful byproduct of wastewater processing: BioEnergy Production: BioHydrogen and Electricity Generation Using Microbial Fuel Cells.

Hydrogen from Water. Generating hydrogen from water using sunlight is one of the long-term goals for renewable energy. Researchers at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology have created a new mixed metal oxide semiconductor photocatalyst that shows significant activity for photochemical hydrogen production from water under illumination with either UV or visible light.

And a group at Virginia Tech has created supramolecular complexes that could enable the photochemical production of hydrogen from water.

I’m sure I missed some of the biohydrogen papers; there were well more than 100 on different aspects of hydrogen production alone. Some of the processes may be able to scale and to lead to actual solutions in the market, others will not. The global knowledge gained through this research process is critical, however, and thus the increasing research focus on hydrogen—including biohydrogen—is very encouraging.

H2 Benz to S’pore

The Straits Times. DaimlerChrysler delivered the first of its fuel cell cars to Singapore’s National Environmental Agency as part of a larger two-year trial that will see 60 such cars in Singapore, Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Berlin.

DaimlerChrysler maintains that the earliest full commercial roll-out will be in 2010 or after.

BP also opened its first Singaporean hydrogen refueling station, which will receive the gas by truck from BP refineries. It also announced that it would develop of second station by the first quarter of 2005 that produces its own hydrogen through electrolysis (using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.)

BP is partnering with Ford on similar demonstrations in the US, and has said that it will build out fueling stations using a variety of hydrogen production technologies.

SHEC Labs Extracts H2 from H2O with Solar Energy

PhysOrg.com. Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation (SHEC Labs) reports that it has demonstrated the production of Hydrogen from water using its proprietary Solar Thermal Chemical Process.

Utilizing the hot Arizona sun and a new Solar Concentrator developed by the Lab, the research team was able to extract Hydrogen from water at a temperature of 850 degrees Celsius (1,562° Fahrenheit).

This successful test was the second for SHEC-Labs. In Late May of this year the team produced Hydrogen from Natural Gas using a similar technology. SHEC-Labs is planning additional tests in the next few weeks, using a variety of catalysts and temperatures.

SHEC is developing Thermo Chemical and Solar Electric Hydrogen Processes to extract hydrogen from water using the sun’s energy. This has the potential for becoming an economical method for the commercial scale production of clean renewable hydrogen. The process relies on a thermal-catalytic cycle which requires heat as an input. Instead of burning fossil fuels to create the necessary process heat (and generating greenhouse gases in the process), SHEC labs intends to employ the heat of the sun by using mirrors to focus sunlight onto a chemical reactor.

Independent engineering companies have verified that SHEC’s process can produce hydrogen from water at temperatures significantly lower than 1000 degrees Celsius. Direct thermal water splitting in comparison normally requires temperatures of 2,000 degrees Celsius to begin the reaction and 5,000 degrees Celsius to optimize the reaction.

If reproducible, verifiable and scalable, this would be of great benefit. One of the challenges of hydrogen is how to create it without expending great amounts of energy. Direct solar would do very nicely. I wonder about the the nature of the chemical reactor and the possible throughput for this process. How easily might it be distributed?

H2 Buses for Beijing

The Chinese Ministry of Science and technology (MST) announced at HYFORUM in Beijing that China is buying three DaimlerChrysler hydrogen fuel cell Citaro buses by next September, according to Xinhuanet.

“China is formulating its energy strategy for the next two decades and hydrogen energy -- as a kind of clean, efficient, safe and sustainable energy resource -- has been put on the nation’s energy development priority list,” Shi [Dinghuan, MST’s secretary general] said. “...hydrogen energy is in the direction of future development in that China has abundant hydrogen production with an annual production capacity reaching 8 million tons,” he added.

Shi was echoed by Professor Mao Zongqiang, of Beijing's Tsinghua University, who said that, with the daily decrease of oil resources and surging prices, the advantages of hydrogen energy will stand out in the future when the high cost of pollution is taken into consideration.

DaimlerChrysler has been promoting the Mercedes-Benz Citaro, powered by a Ballard fuel cell, in a variety of trials in Europe.

DaimlerChrysler is introducing the first hydrogen-powered buses in Europe. Some 30 city buses based on the Mercedes-Benz Citaro are operating in ten major European cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Reykjavik, Stockholm and Stuttgart.

Twelve metres long, the Citaro has a range of approximately 200 kilometres, a top speed of 80 km/h and a capacity for up to 70 passengers, depending on individual customer specifications. The 200 kilowatt fuel cell unit and the pressure cylinders containing hydrogen compressed to 350 bar, are located on the roof of the Citaro bus. The electric motor and the automatic transmission are located in the rear of the bus.

First-Hand Reports from Euro H2 Marathon

This GM website provides a great overview of a 10,000 km (6,000 m) Norway to Portugal run by a GM/Opel H₂ fuel cell vehicle that started on 3 May. Journalists and celebrities are part of the driving team for the HydroGen 3, and are reporting on their experiences. Some samples...

But on the very first day we start to have problems; fortunately they turn out to be harmless. Suddenly an alarm pipes up and the red “check” lamp flashes up on the right of the dashboard. But my co-pilot, Opel fuel cell engineer Alexander von Kropff, stays calm. He takes an unconcerned look at the display which continuously monitors the state of the fuel cells. “A voltage problem with the air compressor” is his professional opinion. We pull up. In a flash he plugs his laptop into a socket between the front seats, taps a few keys and downloads some new software into the Zafira’s motronic. And we’re ready to roll again. Welcome to the brave new automobile world. Brilliant: a bit of fancy computer work and the fault is repaired.

But this happy state does not last for very long. A mere 160 kilometres after our last refuelling stop there’s hardly any hydrogen left. We slow down and make it until the clock says 182.3 kilometres. Alex von Kropff pulls out his laptop again and heats the tank up at a mouseclick. “That will increase the pressure in the hydrogen tank.” And we do indeed manage another two kilometres. But that really is the end of the line. Eight kilometres to the next scheduled refuelling stop and we are stuck.

Shell Hydrogen and Linde AG are handling the fueling by providing trucks of hydrogen.

Another 175 kilometres to the next refuelling stop, this one in Hammering. And the weather is still not really to our liking. The Opel only wants to take 70 percent of its liquid hydrogen on board. Reason? the wind is too strong. Is our fuel station easily upset by the weather? “In a manner of speaking, yes” says Dr. Gerd Arnold, head of the department for hydrogen storage and infrastructure at Opel. “When refuelling, gaseous hydrogen is released from the Zafira tank. If the wind is blowing the wrong way, sensors register the hydrogen escaping and immediately interrupt the process.” Safety first. If there were a network of hydrogen stations this would not be a problem, because the gas would be drawn off and locked in airtight tanks, Arnold explains.

The demonstrations and trials that are part of the recent DOE investment are important -- practical experience will yield very useful data and insight, even into areas such as controls and interface.

$170M for H2 Storage

When Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced $575 M in funding for hydrogen research last week, he outlined four primary research areas: storage, demonstrations, fuel cell research and education.

The Department of Energy has made hydrogen storage a “Grand Challenge” -- a call to the research and technical community for a specific scientific or technological innovation that would remove a critical barrier to solving an important problem.

That problem, in the case of the H₂ economy and transportation, is storing enough hydrogen to enable a greater than 300-mile driving range without impacting cargo or passenger space. $170 Million of the funding is going toward this Grand Challenge over the next 5 years.

There are three primary centers for the work, each exploring a different technical path. Each has a lead National Laboratory and different combinations of university, research and industry partners. These are outlined in the chart at the right. (Click to enlarge.)

In addition there are 15 individual projects in this area researching:

• new materials for storage

• carbon

• chemical hydrides for storage

• new processes

• off-board storage

• life cycle and cost analysis

Broken out, it doesn’t seem like an awful lot of money. This represents, however, a big jump from the budget for 2002 in which the DOE had only $31 Million for its hydrogen energy programs.

The leads and the partners in these projects are listed in the chart to the right. (Click on image to enlarge.)