Hydrogen News

European Buses

For two years 27 Mercedes-Benz fuel cell Citaro buses were in circulation in the daily traffic of nine European cities. On 10. and 11. May the 26 project partners presented their results in Hamburg. „CUTE made clear that the question is no longer whether or not this technology works, but when will it be competitive“, said Alfonso González Finat, director of the European Commission for energy and transport. „CUTE was the most important project of this kind world wide. The partners received European funding of 18,5 M€“. The total volume was 78 M€.

The partners were very happy about the high acceptance of the buses by the customers all over Europe. The only complaints generally was that not more of these beautiful buses were available. Some passengers of the bus lines in question were even observed to let one bus after the other pass - until a fuel cell vehicle approached.

While the filling stations worked basically well, there is still work to do. „Filling took too much time, and the installation in many cities proved to be not customer friendly enough“, reported Oliver Weinmann of Vattenfall Europe. In future projects the local support will be enhanced.

Berlin Buses

The European Commission has launched a few new projects based on CUTE and some other initiatives. One new thing is a fleet of 14 MAN buses with internal combustion engine which will run in Berlin. Two of the buses were given to the Berlin Transport Utility (BVG) during a public event on 1. July, the others will follow until summer 2007. During the football world championship the first two buses served as shuttle for journalists and related jobs; they were also painted accordingly. Filling was done at the station which had been opened in March not far from the Olympic Stadium (see „Berlin Number two“ in No. 2/06). Since this station was built by TOTAL the Secretary of State in the federal transport ministry joked that in his eyes this development was „TOTALly good“. He further stated that the important thing for the federal government was to get reliable operational data soon to be able to decide about the further development.

Munich

Since 1998 the hydrogen filling station on the airport of Munich supplies apron buses, city buses, and cars with liquid or gaseous hydrogen. Early next year by the latest the funds for the project will be exhausted, according to a statement from the Bavarian ministry of economy. The plant has reached its technological limit anyway. The funds were from a state high tech initiative and came mainly from selling shares. This money being used up the state can now support only individual industrial projects from the current budget. How much this exactly will be is being negotiated. (Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 26. May 2006)

Car maker BMW and fuel supplier TOTAL made an agreement in late May according to which TOTAL will build and operate three hydrogen filling stations in Europe to support the use of BMW hydrogen cars. One of them will open for the public before the end of this year in Munich not far from the BMW research and innovation centre. (Fuel Cell Works, 31. May 2006)

Already now Linde is running another hydrogen station in Lohhof (Unterschleissheim near Munich). According to project manager Joachim Wolf it is meant to serve as „Show-Room“ to demonstrate how safely and easily vehicles can be filled up. This installation as well is public. (Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 31. May 2006)

World conference

From 13. to 16. June the hydrogen specialists of the world were invited to Lyon for the World Hydrogen Energy Conference (WHEC). Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for science and research, referred to the success of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technology Platform and announced more support from Brussels (see „EU“). EHA Chairman Lars Sjunnesson said during the opening ceremony that 300 oral presentations and the same number of posters had been submitted.

China is a country which is in real need of environmentally friendly transport solutions. Prof. Gang Wan, head of the Tongji university, presented the Chinese activities and plans. Ambitious demonstration projects are planned for the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing and for the World Exhibition 2010 in Shanghai. 1000 taxis or buses will run in Shanghai, and they will be supplied at 15 to 20 filling stations.

Renault studies the on board reformation of fuels of all kind. On the WHEC they showed a multi fuel reformer and a fuel cell with 3M technology. The Air Liquide subsidiary Axane presented a small fuel cell generator running on hydrogen. Other exhibitors came also from the periphery of the field, such as tank or valve makers.

Algeria

The Algerian Hydrogen Association was founded one year ago with support of the government. Algeria, like other countries in a similar situation, thinks a lot about the day after the natural gas or the oil. There is of course a lot of sun. So most or the project ideas of the association have to do with converting solar energy to hydrogen or using hydrogen in the conversion of solar energy to electricity.

(Die Welt, 26. March 2006)

Master course

Beginning in autumn the Dresden International University offers a master course on hydrogen technology. It will take two years and can be done beside the job. Nine modules will cover the field from the scientific basics over various applications to national or international activities. 29 teachers will be involved. Applications are possible after 15. July.

Filling station in China

The British gas company BOC, Shell Hydrogen, and the Tongji university will build China's first hydrogen filling station at Shanghai. Starting in late 2006 it will supply up to 20 cars and three buses.

(Fuel Cell Works, 11.Mai 2006)

Fuel Cells

Fuel cell bikes

On 28. May the state minister for transport of North Rhine-Westphalia, Oliver Wittke, and the mayor of the city of Herten, Dr. Uli Paetzel, mounted a bicycle each and made a little ride. This was the opening of the Herten bicycle station Hybike which will offer ten fuel cell bikes of the Gelsenkirchen company Masterflex AG. The bikes have an electrical auxiliary motor which is supplied from the integrated fuel cell. 45 g of hydrogen, stored in metal hydrides, provide a range to the bike which is five times that of former battery solutions at the same weight.

(Masterflex press release of 28. May 2006)

Stable ceramics

Oxide ceramic high temperature fuel cells were considered so far as suitable large stationary applications like small power stations (compare the HotModule by MTU). Due to the high operating temperature they have a reputation of being thermally inert, difficult to handle and short lifetime. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) in Dresden want to change this. They have developed low-cost and long-lasting stacks and think that they have so created the basis for commercial use. „Ceramic high temperature fuel cells will soon be a mass market“, is the prognosis of institute head Alexander Michaelis. „They are suitable as mobile power generators for camping vehicles, boats, trucks, or cars, but also for stationary applications for generating power, heat, and cold or for converting biogas to power for agricultural purposes.“

(Fraunhofer Society press release of 15. June 2006)

Energy and Climate

IPCC

In February 2007 the UNO will publish the next IPCC report on climate change. According to a draft which became known the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are the highest since at least 650.000 years. No temperature rise as fast as in the last century has been observed for 20.000 years. Five years ago the IPCC scientists stated only that the earth might heat up by between 1.4 and 5.8 °C during the 21st century. Now the expert committee has narrowed the span to 2 to 4.5 °C. „Most likely is an increase by about 3 °C“, states the draft and thus gives a hard figure for the first time.

(DER SPIEGEL online, 26. May 2006)

Chocolate

Bacteria as well like chocolate. If necessary they will even digest the waste produced by the confectionery industry. And they even generate hydrogen by doing so. This was recently tried at the university of Birmingham on the basis of the high-sugar waste of the confectionery and beverage company Cadbury Schweppes. An analysis showed that the process would be economical also in a greater scale. And the companies were, at least partly, rid of the problem where to put their waste. A lot of it is used for landfill. The researchers now try to obtain a clear picture of the economical potential of the process.

(New Scientist, 1. June 2006)

Politics

Parliamentary Evening

The Fuel Cell Alliance Germany invited to a Parliamentary Evening on 8. May in Berlin. 170 participants came to the representation of the state of Lower Saxony. Speeches and discussions were mainly about the recently published program of the Federal Government to invest 500 M€ over ten years and the joint paper about this by the federal ministries for economy, transport, and environment.

Lower Saxony's prime minister Christian Wulff mentioned the considerable influence which hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are expected to have on great fields of economy like energy and transport. All three federal ministries involved were represented by secretaries of state. Ulrich Kasparick for transport and city development, Thomas Rachel for education and research, and Dagmar Woehrl for economy and technology commented on the great chances of the technology as well as on the problems still to solve. Industry representatives were confident that they will be able to cope with the latter.

EU

During the opening of the World Hydrogen Energy Conference in Lyon EU science and research commissioner Janez Potočnik underlined the plans of the Commission to enhance the support for hydrogen and fuel cells together with that for other environmentally friendly energy processes more than now. Funding will be enhanced in the 7. framework program. The success of the European Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Platform will be important for this. The platform will be further developed into a Joint Technology Initiative (JTI). The latter is to promote the field even further by stronger bundling of the forces and more funds from Brussels. Hydrogen can both provide intermediate solutions with immediate effect and help realizing long term objectives. (Press release of the European Commission of 13. June 2006)

On 15. June the European Parliament demanded to spend three times as much money for research and development in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency as now. The parliament thus demands for the first time an independent budget for renewables. (Press release of the Information Campaign for Renewable Energies of 15. June 2006)

Norway

Battery cars in Norway are exempt from the registration tax as well as the yearly road tax for years. The same holds for hydrogen cars running on fuel cells. Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen now announced that hydrogen cars with a combustion engine will be exempted from taxation in the same way. This technology reduces emissions by 95 to 99,99 %, so that they will now be treaded equal to the electrical cars.

(Fuel Cell Works, 28. April 200)

Award

Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle

chairman of Linde AG, received the „Rudolph Erren Award“ from the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) during the 16. World Hydrogen Conference in Lyon. The award is presented every other year for special achievements in the promotion of hydrogen technology.

What else we have found ...

Dangerous

The British parcel service Parcelforce does not carry certain goods like flammable or toxic substances. Among the latter you found until recently Hydrogen Solenoid. What might this be? Have you ever tried to send a hydrogen solenoid by parcel? If you succeeded please let us know which company accepted this dangerous good.

Remark: Since this question was raised in New Scientist of 10. June the list appears to have been changed. Now you find there Hydrogen Selenide. Looks much more reasonable — SeH₂ is an aggressive and very toxic gas.

Fast track

What did US president George Bush say in April: „I believe that today's children will one day take a driver's test in a hydrogen-powered, pollution-free car.“ Well, dear Mr. President, it appears that future has come quicker than expected. A group of Californians recently completed their driver's test in a fuel-cell powered Mercedes F-Cell running on hydrogen without emissions. „It was an experience to see the look on the evaluator's face at the DMV. I'm sure it made his day“, reported one of the candidates later.

Remark: Usually we are the people who can not wait for the future. But maybe we are in for a few big surprises. Though they should not be that big after all; even now many parents need advice from their children to understand their computer.