Hydrogen News

Hydrogen Congress

The International German Hydrogen Energy Congress was held for the third time on 15. and 16. February in Essen. More than 200 experts discussed development and market chances, including the topic of using hydrogen in conjunction with fuel cells. The background of the current discussion on oil and natural gas imports as well as coal and nuclear energy and more renewable sources lend a greater importance to hydrogen technology for the medium and long term energy supply in Europe.

Conference chairman Prof. Bernd Hoehlein from the State Initiative Future Energies North Rhine-Westphalia said about the prospects: „Hydrogen will be an important element of the future energy markets. First supply clusters with the infrastructure for generation, distribution, and filling stations will appear soon and can be interconnected later. Introducing hydrogen into the energy market with fuel cells as key technology is possible only if early markets can be found. First small fuel cell car series on hydrogen basis are already in the customer test stage all over the world; a first market could exist by 2010. In the field of stationary and portable fuel cell application numerous demonstration plants and field tests reflect the state of development of the fuel cell systems. The field for more investment is hydrogen infrastructure and the development and production technology for the fuel cell, in particular with longer lifetimes and lower costs in view.“

Cargo bike

Masterflex AG from Gelsenkirchen will supply at least 40 cargo bicycles running on hydrogen to the European project HyChain MINITRANS. This project is meant to demonstrate alternatives to the transport system based on oil. This is done by running 150 small and light vehicles running on fuel cells as well as generation, storage, and distribution of hydrogen. One of the European test regions is the Ruhr area in Germany. Others are the region of Grenoble (France), Modena (Italy) and Castilla y Leon (Spain).

(Masterflex press release of 31. January 2006)

Hydrogen and wind power

Hydrogen as buffer for wind farms could be an early market niche for the clean energy carrier. Various projects about this are running. Hydrogenics from Canada has now delivered a hydrogen generator to Gas Natural SDG, an energy company from Spain with activities as well in Italy, France, and Latin America. The station makes hydrogen with a rate of 60 m³/h; the gas feeds a motor generator which produces power for the grid. This is a way to bridge the gaps between wind offer and demand from the grid.

(Hydrogenics press release of 31. January 2006)

Staying in touch

Germany has a good position in many fields of fuel cell technology. But there are deficits in some, for example the production of fuel cells. Competing countries like USA and Japan make enormous efforts to become the top, and they encourage the market introduction of fuel cells and hydrogen fuel. Germany may lose its leadership. This is the conclusion of a study of the Fraunhofer Institute for System and Innovation Research (ISI) from Karlsruhe in the frame of the EU project HyWays. ISI expects a loss of 250000 jobs if foreign fuel cell cars would replace 20 % of the German production. German companies would lose not only the drive train of the vehicles but also the production of the conventional part of the car. The latter amounts for two thirds of the added value created during production. Nobody knows for sure when and how hydrogen economy will come, and so research and demonstration projects are associated with certain risks. „But the risk to lose contact to the top when fuel cell cars come in a large scale is much greater", warns ISI project manager Martin Wietschel.

(ISI press release of 22. February 2006)

Honda

Honda builds hydrogen cars and delivers them together with a fuelling station. In three or four years the next generation of the Honda FCX running on hydrogen will be produced in Japan. The car will have a very flat fuel cell in the floor delivering 100 kW. Drive will be provided by a 80 kW motor in front and two wheel motors at 25 kW each in each rear wheel. A new material in the tank doubles the latter's capacity. 5 kg hydrogen can be stored under 345 bar for a range of more than 550 km.

The Home Energy Station (HES) will care for infrastructure problems. The station which runs on natural gas generates hydrogen for fuelling fuel cell cars and delivers hot water and electrical power.

(Honda press release of 18. January 2006)

Fuel Cells

Next chapter

Originally the end of the year 2005 was meant to mark the end for the Swiss company Sulzer Hexis which had distinguished itself by developing a small home solid oxide fuel cell with great success, technically. But the mother company cut off the money flow. Now the story goes on after all, somehow. The Swiss newspaper Nachrichten reported in late December that the Sulzer Hexis fuel cell business will be continued by a foundation which will finance the further development work. The foundation, which is located in Switzerland, will buy 100 % of the Sulzer Hexis AG shares effective 1. January and will continue the work for at least one year at the original place, which is Winterthur. Nothing was published about the price. 12 of the 53 Hexis employees can now go on with the work to develop fuel cell heating appliances for homes. Most of the others have found other jobs. Very soon the new company will be renamed to Hexis AG. But it is still unknown who is the person behind the new money.

Peugeot

A new fuel cell research centre was opened by the French car maker on 12. January near Paris. 50 researchers and technical staff will be employed there. Research minister Gilles de Robien announced at the opening ceremony that 190 M€ will be provided in 2006 for the development of a car without vent gases; in 2005 there were 80-85 M€ and only 40 M€ in 2002. The sale of a fuel cell car is expected in 10 years at the earliest.

(Le Figaro, 12. January 2006)

End of a record

The molten carbonate fuel cell of the MTU type „Hot Module“ in the Michelin tire factory at Karlsruhe went off the grid after almost 24000 operating hours. It delivered more than 4 million kWh power and steam for the tire production. This is the greatest amount of energy ever produced by a plant of this type in the world. But now the stack was found to degradate. The project consortium now considers installing a replacement stack.

(IWR press release of 2. January 2006)

Cooperation

Vaillant Group, maker of heating appliances, and Webasto AG, delivering systems for the car industry, will work jointly in the development of fuel cells. Since 2002 Webasto works on the on-board power supply for cars, so-called Auxiliary Power Units (APU). Now there is an interesting second market for the solid oxide fuel cells developed by Webasto: running on natural gas or oil they can be used for stationary use in home energy supply. Vaillant, on its side, develops fuel cell heating appliances for homes and commercial buildings since 1998 and has extensive experience with practical use and prototype tests in the field. With the cooperation the company extends its fuel cell development activity towards the small home field.

Under the cooperation Webasto will do the development of the core module (SOFC, afterburner, reformer). Vaillant will develop these and other components to a fuel cell heating appliance and integrate this into the heating system of a home. The challenges of climate protection and rising energy costs make this new segment of the cogeneration market particularly interesting.

Laptop

The Japanese electronics company Panasonic has presented a laptop powered by a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC). It is not much greater than a conventional battery and can provide power for 20 hours with one tank filling. New MEAs allow the use of higher methanol concentrations which has the effect of higher power density and more operating time per tank filling. Fuel supply is adapted to the demands of a laptop and assures safe operation widely varying demand conditions. This is done by a Lithium Ion buffer battery. The maximum output of the 450 g system is 20 W, the continuous output is 13 W. The filling is done with 0,2 l of liquid methanol. Panasonic did not tell when the first systems will be introduced in the market and how the methanol distribution will be organized.

(Press release of Initiative Brennstoffzelle of 27. January 2006)

Energy and Climate

Oil price

Matthew Simmons, former energy advisor of US president George W. Bush, said in an interview with Capital: „In the years to come we must face oil prices of 200 to 250 $ per barrel“. He treats the official data about existing reserves with great skepticism. And 2005 there were as few new sources discovered as in no other time after World War II. New production technologies or the Canadian oil sand deposits can provide very little relief on the global market. As a whole Simmons thinks that in the years to come we will see the oil production drop significantly. By 2012 the daily production will go down to 65 million barrel from 75 today. at the same time the demand increases rapidly. Even if China and India would consume as much energy per capita as Mexico the daily production would have to be increased by 45 million barrel — otherwise the demand can not be covered.

(Capital 2/06)

Record temperatures

NASA said that the temperatures of last year were the highest since the start of records more than hundred years ago. 2005 may even have been the warmest year for a few thousand years. So the five warmest years are all in the very recent past: 2005 followed by 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2004. A global temperature rise of 3 ... 5 °C is expected for the 21. century. Conditions like this have not prevailed on earth for a million years.

Mixed

German car makers will provide the technical possibilities to add more biofuel to the fuel based on oil. DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen, and Ford presented their ideas for alternative fuels and drives on 17. February. The „short term“ objective is an addition of 10 %. The medium term objective is the general use of the fuel cell. This would make it possible to substitute up to 50 % of the fossil fuels used in Europe, according to Franz-Josef Paefgen, head of company research at VW.

Keeping the price low

Once upon a time it was said that renewable energies drive the power prices up. Now a Vattenfall spokeswoman explaining the latest rise in electricity prices told the astonished public that the rise would have been even higher without the growing share of wind, hydro, and sun. Natural gas is the main driver of rising costs. The ecopower costs rise by only 2.8 %, conventional power by up to 8 %.

(Der Tagesspiegel, 1. February 2006)

Politics

Bush

In his State of the Union speech on 31. January US president George Bush mentioned again energy as one of the key matters for the future of the country. In a list of measures to keep the USA competitive he mentioned the problem of the „addiction“ to oil imported mainly from unstable world regions. To counteract this he announced that the budget for clean energy will be increased by 22 %. Under this title we find not only wind and hydro energy but also clean coal and safe nuclear energy. Bush said also: „We must also change how we power our automobiles. We will increase our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars, and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen.“ Another alternative to oil he mentioned is ethanol from biomass.

Oil import from the Middle East is to be reduced by 75 % until 2025. The USA should use the talents and their technology to overcome the economy based on oil. He does not favor new rules for economic and efficient use of energy, referring this to the market powers. So independent experts are at a loss to explain where the 75 % to be substituted (referring to a total consumption which will be greater in 2025) are to come from; they consider the announcement rather as political rhetoric. OPEC on the other hand in thinking about deleting the investment for renewing old production plants or to stretch them in time.

Letter

While the research and development programs of the European Union are very useful the bureaucratic efforts associated with them are enormous. They appear to grow from one framework program to the next. The load is particularly heavy for small and medium enterprises, while the political objective is to encourage them in particular.

In a letter to four members of the European Commission (vice president Guenter Verheugen - enterprise and industry, Andris Piebalgs- energy, Jacques Barrot - transport, and Janez Potocnik - science and research) DWV has demanded attention to this contradiction. The letter mentions also the payment behavior of the commission which is marked by delays which may cause problems. An annex lists a selection of actual problems. As a whole this condition is not suitable to enhance the competitivity of Europe.