Hydrogen News

Platform

The hydrogen research platform of the European Commission was started on 20. and 21. January in Brussels. Commission president Romano Prodi was present, as was Maria da Graça Carvalho, Portuguese minister for science and higher education.

According to Prodi the event marks a milestone for hydrogen and fuel-cell stakeholders in Europe. It will be highly influential in bringing forward a radically new approach to the way we produce and use energy. The goal is for sustainable and clean energy to be the inheritance of all the world’s people by the middle of this century. And in order to achieve it we must move into higher gear now.

Minister da Graça Carvalho quoted a long series of research programs in Europe, but the European Union research on hydrogen is still perceived as fragmented, under funded and lagging behind the United States and Japan. The platform is to change this. The ten new member states are not only an expanded potential market, but contribute a very well educated population and a high research potential.

Conference

All parties agree that the First International German Hydrogen Energy Conference held in Essen on 11. and 12. February 2004 was a great success. The number of participants of almost 400 was above the expectations. All relevant aspects of a future hydrogen energy technology were discussed during the two conference days, from hydrogen production, transport, distribution, and storage to stationary, mobile, and portable applications. North Rhine-Westphalia's prime minister Steinbrueck and und Wolfgang Clement, federal minister for economy and employment, were patrons. North Rhine-Westphalia's energy minister Axel Horstmann, addressed the participants at the opening. An extra program for schools caused such a demand that not all could be invited.

This was the first time that such a meeting was held in conjunction with a conventional energy fair (e-world). Persons interested in existing energy technology had an easy access to future hydrogen applications. At the same time a signal was set that hydrogen is already a part of our energy technology.

California

Hydrogen fuelling stations every 20 miles on every California Interstate Highway was among the things Arnold Schwarzenegger promised during his campaign for the office of governor of California. Before the middle of this year specific plans how to do this will be presented. The head of the California Environmental Protection Agency, new appointed by Schwarzenegger, said that this would mean a network of 200 stations, causing total costs of the order of 100 M$ on the basis of estimates of 300 ... 500 k$ per station. 28 stations are already existing or being planned. The state hopes also for support from federal funds. The 20 mile grid would put at least one station in easy reach for the major part of the population. Other solutions would have to be found for the rural areas. (The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter, January 2004)

While Schwarzenegger's forced introduction of hydrogen fuel does well agree with the ideas of his party friend in the White House, this is by no means the case concerning hydrogen generation. Bush intends to use coal, natural gas, and nuclear power to generate hydrogen, Schwarzenegger favors renewable energies.

Reformers

The company WS Reformer GmbH located in Renningen near Stuttgart has developed small plants generating hydrogen from natural or biogas. This brought the company under the 15 best of more than 300 applicants at the election for the Innovation Award of the German Economy 2003; this is organized annually by Wirtschaftswoche, an influential publication, and the Wirtschaftsclub Rhein-Main. The company was rated as one of the five most innovative start-ups. The reformers permit a distributed hydrogen production, be it in the basement of a home or at a filling station. WS Reformer has already equipped bus filling stations at Madrid and the Munich airport with devices. The Federal Research Institute for Agriculture at Brunswick is running reformer which converts biogas to hydrogen.

(Press release of 22. January 2004)

Merger

The French industrial gas company Air Liquide acquires the German company Messer Griesheim. The transaction has a volume of about 2.7 G€ and concerns Messer's business in Germany, Great Britain, and USA. The business will be finalized until the middle of 2004 as soon as the anti-trust authorities have approved it. It is likely that due to demands from this side Air Liquide will have to sell some parts of Messer Griesheim again.
n der Wettbewerbsbehörden wohl wieder verkaufen müssen.

Boats

Since 1998 the Institute for Energy and Energy Systems of the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland develops fuel cell boats running on hydrogen fuel. Participating in the work are the Paul-Scherrer-Institute and the boatyard MW-Lind. The latest fruit of this work can now take four to six passengers on board and ferry them across Lake Neuchâtel. The boat is 7 m long and weighs 1500 kg. The two electro motors deliver 3 kW. This is enough for 12 km/h continuously and 18 km/h top speed. The intended application is for leisure trips on lakes and channels.

Filling Station

During the International German Hydrogen Energy Congress in Essen Air Products presented a mobile hydrogen filling station. Companies or research institutes developing or running fuel cell cars in pilot projects can so bridge hydrogen infrastructure problems in a flexible and economic way. The „Minifueler 100“ is a complete turnkey filling system with compact dimensions (1,2 x 1 x 2,3 m) which can be fed from any source. It is designed to serve between two and five vehicles per day. The type 200 has the double capacity.

Ethanol

Chemists from the University of Minnesota have presented an ethanol reformer with high efficiency. It is very small and portable, and the design is very simple. A catalyst based on Rhodium und Cerium is the key component. More than 95 % of the ethanol input are converted to hydrogen. For the operation of a vehicle this would mean an efficiency of 60 %. Large amounts of hydrogen can be produced easily because a contact time with the catalyst of 50 ms is enough. The only problem is that the reaction produces also carbon monoxide, known as catalyst poison.

(G. A. Deluga et al., Science 303 (2004) 993-7)

Fuel Cells

Sewage Gas

A molten carbonate fuel cell producing electricity from sewage gas started its operation in December in the sewage plant Kohlfurth near Wuppertal (Germany). It is a test device producing 1 kWel. The project is run by the UMSICHT Institute of the Fraunhofer society. Gas purification is a central issue. Sewage gas contains traces of sulphur, halogens, hydrocarbons, and siloxans, of which small amount could destroy the fuel cell, even though a molten carbonate cell by its very nature is not as demanding in terms of gas purity as other types. „If the process works will and economically, we will transform it to higher outputs and develop it to serial production“, said project head Ralf Hiller.

(Press release of UMSICHT Institute of 12. December 2003)

LPG

Sulzer Hexis AG and the German LPG Association (DVFG) have signed an agreement about clarifying the technical feasibility of a fuel cell heating device running on LPG. Market chances and economical aspects of such a system will be investigated as well. The contribution of DVFG will be its market experience and knowledge of system technology.

Energy and Climate

Quite normal record summers

A Swiss study tells us to expect not only generally higher temperatures, but also stronger variations of them. Greenhouse gas emissions do not make the global mean temperature rise in a smooth way, but they oscillate stronger. This may mean that around the end of this century every second or third summer could become as warm and dry as the last, with rainy years in-between. The summer of 2003 could be a first indication of such a development, because the authors say that it fits in none of the usual explanations schemes.

(Ch. Schaer et al., Nature 427 (2004) 332-6)

Overestimated

At the beginning of the year Shell announced that the oil reserves of the company have been overestimated, even considerable in parts. The reserves in the books on the 31. December 2002 were reduced by 3,9 billion barrel, about 20 % of the total secure reserves of the company. „At this time the company uses more reserves than it discovers“, stated a comment by the German bank Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz. The trend can be expected to persist because no great discoveries were announced last year. It will lead to higher production and development costs. (DER SPIEGEL online, 9. January 2003)

A study published in the January issue of Petroleum Review says that supply problems with oil would be possible in three or four years. At this time there are not enough large-scale projects in the development pipeline right now to offset declining production in mature areas and meet global demand growth beyond 2007. Even major discoveries now would hardly have an effect within this decade — even if they were there. But the rate of major new oil field discoveries has fallen dramatically in recent years. In 2000 there were 13 discoveries of more than 500 Million bl, six in 2001, two in 2002 and none at all so far in 2003. The world may be entering an era of permanently declining oil supplies in the coming decade. (Press release of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre of 29. January 2004)

Climate Wars

Four months ago the US department of defense made a study about the strategic effects of fundamental climate changes. Reports about it were printed in Fortune and Observer (Fortune, 26. January 2004), but the government has so far neither published nor commented it. Little wonder: the paper makes appear Mr. bin Laden almost harmless. The possibility of a breakdown of the Gulf Stream is in the center of the discussion. This could happen at any time within a few years, and it did happen repeatedly in the past. It would cause an Ice age in Europe, causing a climate similar to that of Labrador for the continent.

And how would be the effect on our modern world? Approximately like this: oil becomes scarce, alliances securing peace erode, the continents are devastated by wars about food and raw materials. Europe and North America are under siege by climate refugees from north and south and ward them off by means including nuclear weapons. Countries like Pakistan or Russia might be tempted to use their nuclear weapons to get food or raw materials. Huge storms and the rising sea level make countries like The Netherlands or Bangladesh partly unlivable, California's water supply collapses, and many great coastal cities are on the verge of their existence.

The authors' advice for the government is to treat climate change as a serious threat to national security. Military means are not suitable to oppose it, because where exactly is the enemy that could be attacked? Not least the USA are adding to the problem.

Politics

Olympic

On 12. January in Beijing China and the USA signed a protocol about the joint development of clear energy technology on the occasion of the Olympic Games. The fuel cell is among the eleven fields mentioned. For the games and quite generally China will advance clean energy technology, in particular for road traffic, and cooperates to this end with partners in East Asia, Europe, and the USA.

Further readings

New publishing house

The first publishing house we know specialized on hydrogen and fuel cells has been founded by Mr. Sven Geitmann in Kremmen (Brandenburg, near Berlin). He has been working in this field for a number of years as author, journalist, and consultant. A new book about renewable fuels will be published this spring, and another about economical aspects is planned for the summer. (Contact: Tel. (+49-33055) 21322, Internet: www.hydrogeit.de)

And what else we have found...

Not quite the same

Remarkable things are happening in Amsterdam according to a news distributed by the internet service „Expatica“. It says that there are now buses in Amsterdam using water as fuel. It is stored in nine tanks on the roof, with one of them holding enough fuel for a distance of 250 km. Fears of people living nearby that something might explode have been overcome by comprehensive information.

Remark: This should have been easy, because water is not even flammable, let alone explosive. By the way: the news is about the hydrogen (!) buses now circulating in the framework of the CUTE project. There are still journalists who can not distinguish water from hydrogen. Or the report was written by the sports reporter.