Hydrogen News

Bus ride on the NRW Hydrogen HyWay

The green light for the „NRW Hydrogen HyWay“ was given by Dr. Jens Baganz, secretary of state for the economy of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, on 20. November during the 8th annual meeting of the competence network Fuel Cell and Hydrogen NRW of the state agency EnergieAgentur.NRW. This new lead project in the framework of the climate protection strategy of the state government comprises numerous individual projects for development and demonstration of the fuel cell and hydrogen technology. Among them is infrastructure work, vehicle fleets, stationary installations, and many special applications. More than 50 M€ will be provided during the years to come from state funds and the European fund for regional development. The first HyWay project was presented during the annual meeting: It is joint project of partners from North Rhine-Westphalia and The Netherlands about the development of a city bus with fuel cell propulsion. The articulated buses of 18 m length will operate in Amsterdam and the Cologne region after a development time of about one year. Tow vehicles each will be provided for both sites. Partners from North Rhine-Westphalia are Vossloh Kiepe GmbH from Duesseldorf and Hoppecke Batterien GmbH & Co. KG from Brilon. They are supported scientifically by FH Cologne and RWTH Aachen. With 18 m the bus is longer than any earlier prototype; these had a maximum length of 13.5 m.

Opel presents hydrogen cars in Berlin

On 26. November Carl-Peter Forster, president of GM Europe (Opel) announced the European part of the greatest GM test program for fuel cells so far in the presence of Wolfgang Tiefensee, federal minister for transport. „Independent from the current crises, which hit the car industry in particular, GM and Opel are convinced that the mobile future belongs to the electric propulsion“, Forster opened his speech.

Nine companies will use the zero emission vehicles HydroGen4 by General Motors/Opel in the region of Berlin for the everyday business: ADAC, Allianz, Axel Springer, Coca Cola, Hilton, Linde, Schindler, Total, and Veolia. This practical road test is performed in the framework of the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP), a project for the demonstration of everyday usefulness of hydrogen as road transport fuel supported by the federal ministry for transport, building, and city development.

The HydroGen4 has made a lot of progress in terms of everyday use, driving performance, and sustainability in comparison to his predecessor. More than 100 vehicles of this type will be used globally in the „Project Driveway“ by General Motors in USA, Japan, Korea, China, and Germany. The fleet has meanwhile covered a distance of almost 700 000 km.

HydroGen4 starts and runs without problems at temperatures below 0 °C and has special safety features for the hydrogen system. The Berlin fleet will be serviced by a normal Opel dealer who has been equipped for the maintenance of fuel cell vehicles.

(Press release of Clean Energy Partnership Berlin of 26. November 2008)

Heliocentris delivers electrolyser to Barth

Heliocentris Fuel Cells AG from Berlin has received an order by the city of Barth (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) to deliver a hydrogen electrolyser for the filling of a hybrid midi bus belonging to the city and for the optimisation of the city sewage plant. The new contract is a follow-up to the successful integration of a 32 kW fuel cell system into the midi bus last spring. The electrolyser by Hydrogenics delivers 10 m³ hydrogen/hour and will produce the hydrogen for fuelling the fuel cell bus. The great advantage for the city of Barth is the parallel generation of 5 m³ oxygen/ hour to enhance the capacity of the local sewage plant.

(Press release of 4. November 2008)

Hydrogen in capillaries

A novel concept for the storage of hydrogen especially for mobile applications is pursued by the Swiss based company C.En Ltd. The idea is to store hydrogen under very high pressure in glass capillaries which can be opened on demand. Glass is much lighter than steel or other metals, and the smaller the capillary is the stronger it is. A single capillary can not store much gas, but they can be bundled.

The company says that the storage objectives of the US DoE for 2010 have been already met in terms of volumetric capacity and clearly exceeded in gravimetric terms; here the aim set for 2015 is said to be in reach. At this time the process is still in the laboratory stadium. Independent investigations are being performed in Berlin by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). The institute communicated that a gravimetric storage capacity of 33 % under 400 bar was found. But this is not yet the full extend of the potential of the process. If the expectations will be met further the development of capillary cartridges is planned. Each of them will have a volume of 32 l and a weight of 6 kg, with 1.4 kg for hydrogen under 1200 bar. One arrangement of these cartridges with a volume of 160 l would fit in a tank with 30 kg mass, with 7 kg of the mass hydrogen; this would be enough for a range of the car of 500 km. The idea can be applied not only to vehicles but also to portable electronics and applications of all kinds.

Fuel Cells

Federal government promotes electro mobility

The German federal government is developing a ten year National Development plan for Electro Mobility which will soon be presented to the federal cabinet. One million electric vehicles which are charged from the grid and so-called plug-in hybrid vehicles will circulate on German roads by 2020. This and other central elements of the plan were presented to the public in Berlin on 25. and 26. November during a National Strategy Conference on Electromobility.

Transport minister Tiefensee said on occasion of the meeting: „Cars running on fossil fuels only are to be phased out in the long term. The future belongs to electric vehicles with battery and fuel cell. They have the greatest potential for a long term reduction of CO₂ emissions. But electromobility is also a central element of our ‚beyond oil’ strategy“. An electrical drive train demands efficient vehicle concepts as well as new components for the management of energy and power. Considerable research and development is necessary in the fields of energy storage, vehicle technology, and grid integration. Standards, regulations, recycling and education are other fields which demand action.

Remark: Battery and fuel cell complement each other. The pure battery car will certainly have its role in the traffic and tomorrow, but mainly for short trips in a limited time. It can not be the private all-purpose vehicle or for commercial customers in overland service. Just like the pure battery car the pure fuel cell car can not be the solution either. All fuel cell cars running or being developed now have a buffer battery. No car maker pretends today to be able to do entirely without hybridisation. In a nutshell: The car of tomorrow will have an electric motor and a battery. And many cars of tomorrow, probably the majority, will also have a hydrogen tank and a fuel cell.

Silver instead of platinum as catalyst?

Chinese researchers have developed a fuel cell which does not need expensive platinum or other metals from the platinum group. This might make the production of these energy converters cheaper. Instead they use silver and nickel which are much less costly. While the membrane of conventional fuel cells is made from a polymer which is permeable for hydrogen ions the Chinese scientists use a polymer which is permeable for hydroxide ions – particles with a negative charge comprising hydrogen and oxygen. They say that their platinum-free fuel cell system does not yet offer the performance of conventional installations, but it is step in the right direction.

(S. Lu et al., published in advance in PNAS on 15. December 2008, doi: 10.1073/ pnas.0810041106)

Dalkia develops hybrid power station

The energy company Dalkia Energie Service GmbH from Neu-Isenburg (Germany) will receive 1.8 M€ from the National Innovation Program Hydrogen and Fuel Cells (NIP) of the federal transport ministry for the installation, operation, and control of a hybrid plant comprising a fuel cell and a gas motor. The nucleus of the project is a compact hybrid installation comprising a stationary HotModule system (MCFC fuel cell) and a gas motor as well as an integrated system solution for the control of both modules newly developed by MTU Onsite Energy GmbH. The project aims at using MCFC fuel cell modules in biogas plants. A central element is to integrate the fuel cell into the local energy supply. The site of the hybrid plant will be a ground of the city utility of Barth in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The duration of the project will be 3 years.

(Press release of 1. December 2008)

Energy and Climate

VDE study: transport and power network to merge

The intention of the German federal government is to enhance the share of renewable energy to up to 40 % in 2020. In order to guarantee the stability of the grid in spite of the fluctuations of the generation of renewable power sufficient storage capacities are necessary, according to experts from VDE (German Association for Electrical, Electronic, and Information Technologies). Stationary hydrogen storages in particular have an enormous potential for storing excess power. The hydrogen can be reconverted into power or used in hybrid electric vehicles to enhance the range. Power grid and transport sector would meet each other, wind and other regenerative power would be used efficiently, and the CO₂ emissions would be reduced, according to a recent VDE study called „Energy storage in power systems: Trends, Perspectives, Chances“.

The best means for a fast market introduction according to the study are so-called plug-in hybrid vehicles with Lithium-Ion battery and additional combustion engine. But the long term favourite is the „fuel cell hybrid vehicle“ (combination of battery and hydrogen fuel cell). This option is more efficient, can be filled up at every plug, and enhances the range in an ecological way. While central large storages (pump storages, pressurized air, hydrogen) require considerable investments, electrochemical storage (batteries) can be provided quickly and flexibly and therefore presents a good solution for increasing storage demand.

VDE says that a concerted action by energy and fuel suppliers, vehicle industry, and the public sector is necessary to create a comprehensive infrastructure for the supply of fuel cell hybrid vehicles. Quick Investment is necessary as well into research and development and the industrial basis of storage systems. In international comparison Germany and Europe lag behind North America, Japan, and Australia.

(VDE press release of 18. December 2008)

Arctic climate already beyond point of no return?

The climate change in the Arctic happens much faster than global climate models predict. Increasing greenhouse gas emissions alone can not explain this behaviour. A new study says that the atmospheric circulation in high northern latitudes has undergone a fundemantal change at the beginning of this decade. In the past the dominant high and low pressure areas in the Atlantic and Pacific were arranged in such a way that a flow around the pole resulted which shielded the Arctic from southern air. Now they have shifted such that the dominant air currents run from south to north and carry a lot of heat. The climate of the north pole region may already be beyond a first tipping point so that there is no way back. Under these conditions the sea ice in the summer could vanish 40 years earlier than under the influence of the general heating of the atmosphere alone. The researchers think that the „drastic changes“ in the Arctic may well have started a „new era of warming related climate change“.

(X. Zhang et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 35 (2008) L22701)

Politics

Obama sets signs for new US energy policy

Elected US president Barack Obama has nominated a man as energy minister who has a name as protagonist for enhanced use of renewable energy: physics Nobel laureate Steven Chu. Chu is expert for climate protection and renewable energy. During his presentation in Chicago the 60 year old, whose parents immigrated to the USA from China, promised to do his share so that the world is able to cope the challenge of climate change.

Obama thus sets a clear sign for a reversal of the energy policy of his predecessor George Bush. At the same occasion Obama said that America must develop new forms of energy and learn a new handling of resources. He called this a challenge not only for the government, but for the whole society. A new position for the coordination of energy, climate, and environmental policy will be created in the White House. For this Obama nominated the former head of the US environment agency EPA, Carol Browner. Commerce secretary in the new cabinet will be William Blaine („Bill“) Richardson, who was energy secretary from 1998 to 2000 during the Clinton administration and who supported renewable energy after 2002 during his term as governor or the state of New Mexico.

What else we have found ...

Diesel from the woods

Plant researchers from the Montana State University (USA) have discovered a fungus in the rain forests of South America which as rather particular properties. Gliocladium roseum was found to produce gases und low oxygen concentrations which comprise quite number of hydrocarbons: alkanes, alkenes, ester compounds, alcohols, and fatty acids. And all these are also main components of Diesel. The fungus can also cope with quite different nutrients, including cellulose. While the option to produce Diesel from cellulose is certainly exciting, the natural fungus is not suitable for technical fuel production for a number of reasons. But if the responsible genes and enzymes could be identified and transferred to more productive microorganisms like bacteria or yeast the prospects would be interesting.

Remark: Fungi produce antibiotics (penicillin), fungi produce hydrocarbon mixtures which are similar to Diesel … these inconspicuous and sometimes cumbersome beings may even hide more surprises for us.