Hydrogen News

NHA

Expectations were high concerning the annual meeting of the National Hydrogen Association, or US partner organization, from 4. to 6. March in Washington. Participants say that they were exceeded. The number of participants was twice that two years ago. The rising interest was of course mainly sparked by president Bush's statements concerning hydrogen in his address about the state of the union and at later occasions (see No. 1/03 „Bush“). So is was no surprise that many top politicians could be seen, most remarkable among them DoE head Spencer Abraham.

Hannover Fair 2003

The 9. joint presentation on "Hydrogen and Fuel Cells" in the energy hall was one of the few places on this year's Hannover Fair where the generally unpleasant state of the economy was felt less strongly. 88 exhibitors from 19 countries were there. This means that the presentation achieved the level of last year in terms of area and number of exhibitors. This is certainly a success before the background of the unfavorable development of the economy as a whole.

The exhibitors were very satisfied with their success; some said that they had come with some skepticism, but were favorably surprised. This holds both for the contact with the fair visitors and with other exhibitors. It was said repeatedly that the level of the discussions with the visitors was very high.

There were VIP guests from the political area, among them two state prime ministers (Wulff / Lower Saxony and Teufel / Baden-Wuerttemberg), seven other members of state governments and guests from Switzerland and Canada. Hesse's environment minister Dietzel had little problem to find quite a number of members of the state hydrogen and fuel cell initiative, which has recently been founded as a legal association. And Baden-Wuerttemberg's Erwin Teufel was drawn to DaimlerChrysler and to the state fuel cell research alliance.

In terms of public interest the car makers were again in front. Which is little wonder when the car looks as futuristic as General Motors' design study „AUTOnomy“ which was shown for the first time in Germany. Less conspicuous, but much more suitable for everyday use is DaimlerChrysler's prototype „F-Cell“. The company will test it in field experiments of various size in different parts of the world before the serial production will start around 2010.

By no means less important are the stationary applications, for example as heating device which makes also electrical power. The players from this segment were also present and reported about the state of the development. Sulzer Hexis said that 100 systems are ready, and 80 of them are installed in various countries. The tests run with support of partners from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and The Netherlands. More than 90 % of the systems perform without problems. The next objective will be to improve the endurance of the membranes and the general reliability of the systems.

On the website of the company FAIR-PR (www.fair-pr.com) you can download a great lot of information (text, pictures, videos) about the fair. This is almost something like a virtual fair. 

In 2004 the exhibition will again be held at the same place. This will be a jubilee, the 10. time. For an event in such a young field this is an almost biblical age, but if the signs are not entirely wrong it may be expected that a number of years will be added even after 2004.

Iceland

Iceland's first hydrogen filling station was opened on 24. April in the capital Reykjavik. It will be used to service three fuel cell city buses; their arrival at Reykjavik is scheduled for August. Their operation has to do with an EU funded project in which DaimlerChrysler is an important partner and which aims at running three buses each there and in nine other European cities, all of them matched with different ways to produce and distribute the hydrogen.

What makes Iceland something particular is the political background. Nowhere else, not even in Japan, the transition to renewable energies in transportation is so prominent on the political agenda. (The other energy of Iceland comes from geothermal and hydropower anyway, and there is still a lot of it unused.) Valgerdur Sverrisdóttir, minister for industry and commerce, said at the opening ceremony: „The opening is a major step towards a hydrogen society and in full keeping with the Icelandic Government’s policy of encouraging and supporting the increased utilization of renewable energy resources in harmony with the environment.“

The station belongs to Skeljungur Ltd (Shell in Iceland) and Icelandic New Energy Ltd, a consortium comprising the Icelandic energy company VistOrka and DaimlerChrysler, Norsk Hydro, and Shell Hydrogen. Apart from the government and the partner companies the project company Icelandic New Energy (INE) was also present at the opening ceremony.

The station is part of a Shell station at Reykjavik. The operators hope that not only the three buses will be customers, but private cars as well. Hydrogen is made right there by means of electrolysis, of course by means of electricity from renewable sources.

700 bar

General Motors has for the first time tested a hydrogen gas storage system with a maximum operating pressure of 700 bar on board of a vehicle. This increases the range by 60 to 70 % in comparison with a 350 bar system. The gas is kept in two TUEV approved composite vessels made by Quantum. GM vice president Larry Burns said that the company makes good progress towards extending the range to more than 550 km. Filling up the gas tanks takes now less than five minutes. (Press release of 12. February 2003)

The world's first filling station for 700 bar gas tanks was opened on Opel's test center at Dudenhofen (near Offenbach, Frankfurt area). The storage is kept in a liquid tank for 10 m3. The flow of the filling system is 40 m3/min, which makes it possible to fill up the vehicle completely in only 3.5 minutes. A novel compression method has the effect that 300 bar cylinder bundles can be used as high pressure intermediate storage. (Linde press release of 11. March 2003)

To see is to believe

Shell and General Motors will build a hydrogen filling station within the city area of Washington (D. C.). It is not yet clear how exactly the hydrogen will be offered, but it will certainly be together with conventional fuels. The station will be operational in October. Already in May General Motors will provide two cars for test rides, and six as soon as the station works. GM expects 10.000 passengers within two years, mainly politicians. Donald Huberts said for Shell Hydrogen that experience will be gathered about building and running a filling station in a densely built area.

(Joint press release of 5. March 2003)

Buses for China

On 27. March China started a 32 M$ project for the reduction of the costs of fuel cell buses. Buses and filling stations will be tested in Beijing and Shanghai. The transport utilities of both cities will by six buses each and let them run for about 1.6 million km. Beijing's vice mayor said that the government hopes that during the Olympic Games 2008 many of these buses will be running to improve the air quality.

(China Daily, 28. March 2003)

GM and BMW

During the Hannover Fair General Motors and BMW announced that they will jointly work on the technology for filling cars running on liquid hydrogen. Christoph Huss said for BMW that this work must begin now in order to avoid the customer later being confronted with different systems. Prime importance is the standardization of the connector. In the long term there will be 10.000 filling stations only in Germany.

(BMW press release of 9. April 2003)

Correction

of No. 1/03 „Munich“: During the second quarter of this year Dynetek Europe will deliver to MAN the gas storage system for the new apron buses. The start of the bus operation will have to wait a good while after this.

Fuel Cells

Mobile office

During the CeBIT computer fair at Hannover in March two companies presented an energy supply for portable systems based on fuel cells. The company Consel from Hesse showed a supply unit called „Marathon case“ using methanol tank cartridges at 125 cm3 each. This is enough for at least seven hours of continuous operation. If necessary the cartridge can be exchanged for a new one without closing down the device. First "Marathon cases" will be delivered by Consel before the end of this year, and the start of serial production is planned for 2004. (Consel press release of 6. March 2003)

Toshiba showed the prototype of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) supplying energy to a laptop. It provides an average of 12 and a peak of 20 W at 11 V for five hours with one cartridge of methanol at 50 cm3. The prototype is half as large as a letter sheet and weighs 900 g. Next year such devices, in smaller size, will be offered as regular accessory. (Toshiba press release of 5. March 2003)

Island System

Electricité de France (EdF) will soon supply some remote customers in southern France by means of an island solution comprising photovoltaics and a fuel cell system. The latter consists of two multi fuel reformers made by the US company IdaTech each, and Nexa generators made by Ballard. It serves for backup purposes.

(IdaTech press release of 3. April 2003)

Japan

On 11. March DaimlerChrysler opened the first testing facility for fuel cell vehicles at Tokyo. It is part of the „Japan Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Demonstration Project“ (JHFC) in which five car makers and other energy companies will jointly test fuel cell vehicles and their fuel infrastructure under everyday operating conditions. The project, funded by the Japanese government, aims at further advancing the technology to the market by close cooperation. There are already five hydrogen filling stations in the Tokyo area.

(DaimlerChrysler press release of 11. March 2003)

Energy and Climate

Not convinced

Volkswagen chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder does not think that the fuel cell is an alternative to the present gasoline motor. What we need in his eyes are other fuels: „I mean synthetic fuels which do not need an exhaust gas treatment by catalysts or soot filters“. Liquid „Synfuel“ is already being produced together with DaimlerChrysler, either as gasoline or Diesel. „Theoretically they could be introduced next year as substitute for gasoline. It is all a matter of costs and taxation“, Pischetsrieder said.

(stern press release of 26. February 2003)

Remark: Unfortunately he did not explain why non-fossil fuels and fuel cells are contradictory. By the way: the optimum synthetic fuel is called „Hydrogen“.

Hybrid

In March the well-known Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a study comparing cars with hydrogen and fuel cells on the one hand with hybrid vehicles (combustion engine plus electro motor) on the other. Result: the fuel cell will not take the lead in energetic and ecological terms before 2020. Closer reading shows that it was assumed that hydrogen be made by reforming natural gas, gasoline, or other hydrocarbons. Other generation fuels were not considered. But after 2020 the MIT researchers see the hydrogen car in front even on this basis. „If auto systems with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions are required in, say, 30 to 50 years, hydrogen is the only major fuel option identified to date,“ one of the authors said.

(MIT press release of 14. March 2003)

Politics

Cooperation

The USA look for partners in the field of hydrogen. DoE head Spencer Abraham and EU research commissioner Philippe Busquin discussed climate and energy matters in March. They signed an agreement on cooperation concerning hydrogen, fuel cells, and separation and storage of carbon dioxide. The agreement on cooperation on non-nuclear energy will be enhanced by an improved annex on hydrogen.

Also during a ministerial meeting of the International Energy Agency in Paris late April Abraham made PR for an international partnership for hydrogen energy. He said that hydrogen was the single most important issue in improving the security of energy supply to Western economies. British Energy Minister Brian Wilson, who was chairing the IEA meeting, welcomed the initiative.

Money allocation

Hydrogen and fuel cells are the big winners in the DoE draft for the US federal budget 2004. The government proposal demands 165.5 M$ (+ 69.9 %!). 157.6 M$ (+ 2.6 %) for the car program are yet on top. The greatest increase if for „Safety, Codes & Standards and Utilization“, which almost quadrupled from 4.8 M$ to 16 M$. The largest single item is storage with 30 M$, about three times of the 11.3 M$ last time. Production and Delivery requests more than doubled, from 11.8 last year to 23 M$.

Canada

The country under the maple leaf intends to keep its good position in the fuel cell sector. Under the title „The Canadian Fuel Cell Commercialization Roadmap” the federal government in Ottawa presented a program for higher quality, lower costs and easier access to capital for developers. More than 45 industrial companies were involved, also public agencies from a number of provinces. People from the industry said that the roadmap is very necessary, because the technology will never enter the market without a clear political support.

Further readings

Handbook of Fuel Cells

Fundamentals, Technology, Applications, W. Vielstich, H. Gasteiger, A. Lamm (Editors), 4 volumes, 2690 p. hardcover, ISBN 0-471-49926-9, ca. 1225 $; John Wiley & Sons, 2003.