Mobile applications

HyFLEET:CUTE closing conference in Hamburg

From 2003 to 2009 the EU funded projects CUTE and HyFLEET:CUTE were the flagships of demonstration of everyday use of city buses running on hydrogen and fuel cells. Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses travelled 2.5 million km in 140.000 service hours in twelve cities on three continents and proved that they were suitable for normal use. More than 8.5 million passengers were carried, and 550 t of hydrogen were consumed. The final conference of the project was held on November 17 and 18 in Hamburg. The participants agreed that the market entry of the technology is at hand. Buses can be operated today efficiently and cleanly with hydrogen. Production, supply and distribution of the hydrogen are no problem. The technical support by the existing facilities of the operators demands little extra work. During a press conference the representatives of the industry said that they would have answered in a very evasive way if they had been asked for the market chances of the technology at the start of the project five years ago. Now they are certain, they said: this is the future.

And how to go on from here? The next challenges for the participants are these:

• A harmonized set of regulations is necessary.
• Operators need a clear idea about the costs over the whole lifetime.
• In the long term hydrogen must be supplied from renewable sources in the vicinity of the consumer.
• The price for the buses has to drop significantly.
• The transition from demonstration at individual places to large scale fleet use is necessary.

Daimler used the end of the project to present the new generation of fuel cell buses. The whole drive train has been re-designed and is now modular. The hydrogen tanks fit 35 kg under 350 bar, two fuel cells stacks with 396 cells each deliver 60 kW, plus a Lithium-ion battery with a weight of 330 kg and a capacity of 26 kWh and two hub motors at 80 kW each. The range with a full tank load is about 240 km.

The fuel consumption could be reduced by one half. 10 to 14 kg hydrogen is now necessary for 100 km. The weight was reduced by one ton to now 13.2 t. The effect is that the 11.95 m long city bus is now allowed to carry 76 passengers instead of 72 previously.

Japan: Fuel cells the better solution

In a press conference during the Tokyo Motor Show in October the new Honda head Takanobu Ito explained the plans of his company. He said that hydrogen fuel cells are still the best long term strategy for vehicles. The only reason Honda is developing a plug-in vehicle right now is to meet California zero-emission vehicle mandates coming up in about five years. This would not be so easy with hydrogen because there appears to be little movement on establishing additional hydrogen filling stations in the U.S. right now. Thus a small urban commuter BEV is the best option for the short term. He went on to say that while batteries are evolving, he didn't believe they would ever get to a stage where their performance would be acceptable as the primary energy carrier. Instead he said that "people would become more aware of the limits of BEVs" and come back to hydrogen fuel cells.

Similar comments were heard during the same show by leading representatives of Toyota. The company will introduce a fuel cell car into the market in 2015. It is applying its hybrid technology to the vehicles. „We can't concentrate on just one technology“, said Takeshi Uchiyamada, the chief engineer of the first-generation Prius hybrid. Toyota president Akio Toyoda says he expects that eventually electric cars will be used for short distances and fuel-cell hybrids for long journeys.

Hydrogen car parade across the Oresund

During the climate summit the European Hydrogen Association organized a parade of 14 cars running on hydrogen and fuel cells from Malmoe (Sweden) over the Oresund bridge to the Danish parliament in Copenhagen. Participating vehicles were of the types Fiat Panda, Honda FCX Clarity, Mercedes Benz (B und A class), Opel HydroGen4, and TH!NK Hydrogen. During the days of the summit the vehicles were available for participants as shuttle. They could also make test drives.

(EHA press releases of 30. November 2009)

New fleet for Iceland

The Icelandic hydrogen program goes on, in spite of the economical crisis. Icelandic New Energy and Brimborg, Ford retailer in Iceland, have announced the extension of the fleet by ten hydrogen cars. Hydrogen is made from water and renewable power from local resources. Ten Ford Focus FCV were integrated into the traffic in Reykjavik in December 2009. These are all used fuel cell vehicles and the goal of this project step is to further test customer acceptance and endurance of the fuel cell technology.

Stationary applications

Fuel cell goes aboard the „Rickmer Rickmers“

„Rickmer Rickmers“ is the name of a historic freight sailer which today serves as museum in the port of Hamburg. On board of this ship the first of 100 home fuel cells in and around Hamburg for the cogeneration of power and heat was installed on 12. November 2009. In the framework of the Callux field test some 800 devices will operate in Germany. The device on board of the „Rickmer Rickmers“ was made by baxi Innotech and is of the type Gamma 1.0. The output is 1 kW_el and 1,7 kW_th. An integrated natural gas burner makes it a full value substitute for an „old“ heating appliance. The device has a height of 1,60 m and covers a surface of (60 cm)².

Hamburg's environment senator Axel Gedaschko was present at the installation of the device and is enthusiastic about the new technology. „I am a confessing fuel cell fan“, he said. „We want the new technology, because innovations create jobs.“

(Press release by baxi Innotech, 12. November 2009).

Portable applications

Now available: Fuel cell charger

In October Toshiba after several premature announcements started marketing its charging device for mobile electronics based on a fuel cell. The device under the type name „Dynario“ is offered initially in Japan only, and in a series of only 3000. Whether the company will offer more products of this kind will be decided on the basis of the customer echo.

Filling up with a load of methanol from a special bottle also offered takes 20 s and delivers enough energy to charge two normal phones. An integrated microcomputer and the hybridisation with a Lithium-ion battery make sure that the device gets the power it needs.

The device is not really cheap: 29.800 ¥ (almost 230 €), five bottles with 50 cm³ methanol each come for 3150 ¥ (24 €).

Infrastructure

Copenhagen's first hydrogen filling station

Until 2025 the city of Copenhagen wants to be CO₂ neutral. One step towards this goal was made on 13. November when the first hydrogen filling station of the city was opened right in time for the climate summit.

The fuelling station and some vehicles were demonstrated to the press and other interested parties. The eight new hydrogen vehicles owned by the city (two utility vehicles, six cars) were filled up and went on a small city tour with some of the guests.

(Hydrogen Link, 12. November 2009)

First czech hydrogen filling station

The first hydrogen filling station in the Czech Republic went into service on 5. November in Neratovice, some 20 km N of Prague. Three years of preparation by the nuclear research institute ÚJV and some 3 M€ were necessary. 75 % of the costs are from funds of the country of the EU. The station is operated in partnership with Linde Gas. Hydrogen gas is available under 300 bar. A bus can be filled up in some 10 minutes. Some 72000 m³ of hydrogen (6 t) can be produced at the filling station per year.

The only customer so far is a bus prototype under the name TriHyBus, a development by Škoda Plzen Electric. It is a hybrid using three power sources: fuel cells, capacitors, and batteries.

Research news

Better batteries using algae cellulose

Holiday makers on the beaches of the Baltic Sea probably recognize the algae Cladophora mainly as a nuisance. But researchers of the Ångström Laboratory at the Uppsala University have investigated the structure of the cellulose of these algae and try to create improved batteries on the basis of the results. The cellulose is distinguished by its large surface (80 m²/g). By covering it with a conductive polymer a battery of very low weight could be generated which scored a new record of charging time and capacity in its class. Charging currents of 200 mA/cm² were measured, and the loss after 100 cycles is only 6 %.

(G. Nyström et al., Nano Lett 10 (2009) 3635–9)

Energy and Climate

New kind of development aid

One of the greatest wind parks of the USA will built until 2011 in Texas with 250 turbines on 150 km². The output of the plant will be 600 MW. The total costs are estimated to be about 1,5 G$. Both the technology and a great part of the capital come from China according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The project will also receive funding from the stimulus program of the US government. The 250 turbines will be built in Shenyang in China. The US partners are happy about the cooperation with China: venture capital for wind power has become scarce in the USA due to the international economical crisis. The lack of investors' money and the drop of the oil price had devastating effects for the companies.

Greenhouse gases harmful - even in the USA

EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) has declared carbon dioxide, methane, and four other greenhouse gases to be harmful for health. This is the basis on which the government can set limits for the emission of these gases. EPA declared the step to be a result of sound reasoning, without burdening the economy unduly. EPA made a step which had been expected and demanded for a long time, but in particular during the Bush administration it had repeatedly been forbidden to do so.

The effect will be mainly in the internal politics of the USA. It will increase pressure on the negotiation between Congress and president on a climate protection law. And it provides more means to enforce the limitation of emissions by the industry. But how quickly new limits will really become effective remains questionable. There is little doubt that they would be brought to court which would delay them for years.

Battery cars bad for climate?

Greenpeace is against the enhanced support of battery cars by the federal government because of climate reasons. Wolfgang Lohbeck, car expert of the organisation, said in a newspaper interview: „I think that this whole electro mobility hype is a big nonsense.“ The battery car would in effect eliminate the car „because the user can not simply travel from A to B but has to make an elaborate plan for his mobility. With an electric car he has to be foreseeable. If he wants to do something on a whim his car may be hanging at the plug, or the grid operator has just sucked his batteries empty.“ He further mentioned that in „in a test extending over five months it was found that an electro Mini by BMW consumes not 15 kWh per 100 km, as promised, but 30. On the basis of the German power mix this corresponds to a CO₂ emission of 180 g/km. This is the value for a medium class limousine, and the value even includes a share of 25 % of nuclear power in the mix. Otherwise we would have 240 g of carbon dioxide. A normal Mini generates only half as much of greenhouse gas.“ He said the battery car would make sense in ecological terms only when at least 70 % of the charging current come from renewable sources. This would not happen before 2040.

(Berliner Zeitung, 17. December 2009.

What else we have found ...

Save the noise!

One important benefit of electric cars (no matter whether with battery only or with fuel cells) is that they generate no or only little motor noise. But is this really desirable at the end of the day? Experts say: no, the sound of the car contains important information both for the driver and for pedestrians and other parties in the road traffic. There are serious considerations to provide artificial motor sound to electric cars both for emotional reasons and to make them perceptible for others. Sound designers think about different noises the car can make during starting, driving, and charging. A warning noise for turning off is also discussed. But the sound must not create a misleading impression. There was an experiment with a sound which was similar to the noise of a mobile phone. None of the test persons paid attention to the direction the sound was coming from, but all started rummaging in their pockets in search of the phone.

Remark: This is an urgent problem not only for the traffic of tomorrow. Can we accept that bicycles are fitted with a simple mechanical bell which can be operated by the biker at his free will? Immediate action is imperative. And then we would have to turn our attention to one of the most annoying and dangerous phenomena in the street: the pedestrian ...