Hydrogen News

German Unity Day

The central celebration for this year's German Unity Day (October 3^rd) were held in Kiel. DWV was represented in the „knowledge country “. We presented ourselves in the „New energies “ region together with the utility eon hanse, Husum airport and the universities for applies sciences from Luebeck and Stralsund. The latter showed a 12 V demonstration power supply with metal hydride storage and a 40 W PEM cell which supplied a radio and a charging station. The latter was there for a remotely controlled toy lorry with supercaps; this was a real magnet for the engineers of the distant future.

BMW

BMW is the first car maker in the world to present a hydrogen car which went through the serial development process. The BMW Hydrogen 7 utilizes the future potential of sustainable mobility even today. The series 7 car is driven by twelve cylinders making 191 kW and accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 9,5 s. The top speed is electronically limited to 230 km/h. As long as a comprehensive hydrogen supply is not guaranteed the bivalent motor can be switched to normal super fuel by a simple switch. The new car will have its world premiere in late November on the Autoshow in Los Angeles.

Platform

The third meeting of the European Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technology Platform was held in Brussels on October 5 and 6. More than 100 experts discussed the result of their work which was presented in the shape of an ambitious and convincing Implementation Plan. This will be the basis for hydrogen research and development in Europe between 2007 and 2015. The Implementation Plan collects previous strategic papers and makes proposals for substantial, feasible, and measurable actions in the domains of research, technology development, and financial demand. Examples for innovation and development are mentioned. Together with the support from the industry side as announced this could amount to an investment volume of more than 5 G€ over the next ten years. The partners assume that after 2016 the industrial investments will increase. The European Commission is expected to significantly increase the research budget in the next research framework program over the 75 M€ from the 6^th framework program depending on the present negotiations and the development of the research budget as a whole.

The Implementation Plan assumes the total budget from public and private sources from 2007 to 2015 to be about 6,7 G€, based on the extent of the current investments for hydrogen and fuel cell technology. This includes the current expenses of the member states (200 M€ per year), new additional programs (like Germany with 50 M€ per year) and many regional initiatives (like Amsterdam, Aragon, Berlin, Lombardy, London, North Rhine-Westphalia, Teeside and others).

But the plan can only become active if the JTI comes — the Joint Technological Initiative. Such initiatives will be created for six theme fields. They will play an important role in the channelling of research funds, and they will advise the Commission in the formulation of the future research policy. Such a JTI will be a legal body and is expected to continue beyond the end of the 7^th framework program. Parliament and Council are expected to decide over the whole framework program, including the JTI, by late November.

Coast bus

In the small Baltic city of Barth (North West Pomerania) the preparations for the local hydrogen / oxygen project were completed on September 4 by handing over a hybrid midi bus (40 kW PEM cell, 40 kW battery) by the producer (Proton Motor GmbH, Starnberg). The hydrogen is made by an electrolyser producing oxygen for the local sewage plant. A hydrogen filling station has been set up with the bus as first customer. The latter will be used for tourist transport in a nearby national park. Now it is in a test phase.

Northern Atlantic

A transnational North Atlantic Hydrogen Association (NAHA) was founded in August in Nuuk, capital of Greenland. The founder members from Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands will use the many existing ties to promote the field. The NAHA creation was strongly supported from Norway. Other participants of the foundation meeting came from Denmark, the Scottish Orkney and Shetland islands as well as from Nunavut (Canada). The latter comprises a great part of the Canadian arctic region.

Liquefied

Liquid hydrogen is nice, but it costs a lot of energy to make the gas liquid. Scientists from the Refrigeration and Cryotechnics Institute of the Technical University of Dresden have succeeded to reduce the amount of energy for liquefaction by more than one half. The deciding factor was the use of a Helium / Neon mixture as cooling agent.

And what if you need only small amounts of the cryogenic liquid, but these frequently? At this time there are only three liquefiers in Central Europe: one each in France, the Netherlands, and near Ingolstadt in Germany. Getting individual tank fillings for test vehicles or development work may be difficult. The Dresden scientists have therefore developed a mobile hydrogen liquefier which makes it possible to supply test vehicles or research projects on a mobile basis.

(Press release of 29. August 2006)

Linde Center

The start of a new era for the car and energy industry was marked by the opening of the Linde Hydrogen Center in Unterschleißssheim near Munich on 9. Oktober 2006 in the presence of Federal Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, the company says. Company head Wolfgang Reitzle said that almost all liquid hydrogen filling stations in the world are running on Linde technology. „Nevertheless the Linde Hydrogen Center is not just another filling station, but something quite special “, he underlined. „We want to make a visible and obvious progress in the building of the hydrogen infrastructure. At the same time we strive for political support of the hydrogen economy, we stand by our commitment for sustainable hydrogen generation, and we see us as part of a coalition of responsibility with important partner companies“.

The Center supplies both liquid (LH₂) and compressed gaseous hydrogen (CGH₂) to a test fleet comprising cars and buses. It is also suitable as conference and presentation platform or as learning and training site for engineers or customers or as test site for hydrogen innovations.

(Linde press release of 9. Oktober 2006)

To smell

Following an initiative from Toyota Linde and the company Symrise have tried to develop a hydrogen odorant in order to further enhance hydrogen safety. Sulfur and nitrogen were forbidden in the product, as well as other catalyst poisons. Compatibility with fuel cells as well as stability in hydrogen even under high pressures were conditions. And the product should not be corrosive or cause embrittlement.

The result was an additive which according to a company statement has almost no negative effect on fuel cells. It is very stable even under enhanced pressure and between -30 and +80 °C; handling is easy.

Joint position

How to go on with the creation of a hydrogen car infrastructure in Europe? BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, Shell, Total, and Volkswagen have presented a joint paper with their positions. They see three phases for the development:

• Until 2010: technology development and cost reduction;
• Until 2015: pre-commercial refinement of technology and market preparation;
• From 2015: commercialisation.

Some of the phases can happen sooner depending on the local conditions. Cars should be introduced in one selected pilot region, buses in a few suitable cities. Berlin was proposed as pilot region for cars and buses. Buses alone could come to Hamburg, Brussels/Rotterdam, Madrid/Barcelona, South Tyrol, London, or North Rhine-Westphalia.

Fuel Cells

f-cell

The international fuel cell meeting f-cell was held for the sixth time in Stuttgart late September. More than 600 experts and deciders from the fuel cell and hybrid business were there, among them guests from the USA, Canada, Australia, and Asia. Two thirds of the participants were from companies. 53 speakers from eight countries discussed the wide field fuel cell and hydrogen. All experts agreed: „The fuel cell must come. We create the political boundary conditions for it.“

In an interview with dpa DWV board member Werner Tillmetz said the decisive point for the further development would be that the suppliers follow the way, that the products become more reliable and the life expectancy increase. The production volume has to rise, and the everyday suitability has to be improved. He sees the car industry as main application field for the fuel cell technology. Meanwhile a few hundred vehicles are on the road. „Large scale commercialisation will start 2012 or 2015.“ Another possibility is to use it in mobile homes or sailing yachts.

One of the topics of the meeting was the stationary home fuel cell. The producers of home heating appliances on fuel cell basis intend to supply 250.000 homes. This is the market potential, according to Thomas Winkelmann, marketing manager of european fuel cell GmbH (efc) in Hamburg. Around 2010 the company plans pre-serial production. Other manufacturers as well will make the transition to serial production around this time.

Honda

In order to leapfrog the competitors the Japanese car makers announce in late September that they will present a fuel cell driven sports car by 2009. The car will have a range of 570 km with a top speed of 160 km/h. The fuel cell device has been reduced in size by 40 % and will not need more space than a six cylinder motor; due to a re-designed water management the car will start even at -30 °C.

Megawatt

EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG and Siemens Power Generation intend to build a highly efficient fuel cell hybrid power station. It will be a demonstration project of the megawatt class. They aim at an efficiency clearly higher, with up to 70 % of the fuel input converted into electricity. The foundations will be worked out until 2008 so that a pilot plant can be built. The plant itself will follow from 2012, according to the companies. The higher efficiency will be achieved by combining a high temperature fuel cell with a gas turbine. In case of success the hybrid technology would be available about one decade earlier than experts expect today.

(Press release of 13. October 2006)

Energy and Climate

Final storage

Can carbon dioxide which has been sequestrated in power stations stored in the deep ocean in an environmentally friendly way? How does it affect marine life? This can be studied at a natural CO₂ site off the coast of Taiwan in a depth of about 1400 m. Methane and CO₂ are formed in a hydro thermal field. The gases rise until they form gas hydrates with the sea water shortly under the surface. These are covered by a sediment layer just a few centimeters thick. Researchers found the sea bottom there grey, with neither fishes nor crustaceans present. Only a few micro organisms apparently can prevail in the hostile environment. The sea water over the gas lake is much more acidic than normal because of the CO₂ bubbles which keep rising. The shells of microbes and other animals dissolve. Just 50 m away from the site there is much more life.

(F. Inagaki et al., PNAS 103 (2006) 14164-9)

Politics

North Rhine-Westphalia

The state of North Rhine-Westfalia will fuse Energieagentur NRW and Landesinitiative Zukunftsenergien NRW in the new EnergieAgentur.NRW. The transition will become effective at 1. Januar 2007

Climate report

Is climate protection bad for the economy because it costs money? In July 2005 the British government asked for a study about this by Sir Nicholas Stern. Stern is a former professor for economy, world bank economist, and since 2003 advisor of the British treasury. Prime minister Blair called the report which was finished in late October the most important paper during his term. The results are clear: yes, climate protection does cost money. But the alternative can not be paid at all. If nothing is done against climate change the world will see the worst recession of recent history, worse than both world wars together, great parts of the world will no longer be inhabitable, and hundreds of millions will become refugees. A strict global action and investment program could reduce these effects significantly. There are two ways: either a quick global offensive against global pollution, which would cost about 350 G$ – or a global recession with costs of almost 7000 G$. The costs for doing nothing could be avoided for a fraction of the sum mentioned above, about one percent of the global gross national product. Such a program would even offer growth potential.