The cooperation of both cities in the field of hydrogen technology was the topic of a symposium held on 28. July at Pallanza (Lago Maggiore, Italy). Among the participants were Joachim Gretz (Hamburg Hydrogen Society), Herbert Flohr (Hamburg Chamber of Commerce), Corrado Clini (Italian Ministry for the Environment), Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia (ENEA) and Rolf Ewald (European Hydrogen Association). BMW had supplied a vehicle from the LH₂ fleet. The demonstration use of such cars is planned in Hamburg and Milan. Other projects are under discussion. Munich might join the partnership.

Two hydrogen filling stations will be operative in Japan in autumn 2001 as part of the WE-NET-Program, and they will work until 2003. One of them will be in Osaka and will have a natural gas reformer for hydrogen generation. The other will be built at Takamatsu and be supplied with hydrogen by a PEM electrolyzer. Both will have filling connections for pressurized hydrogen and for metal hydride tanks. The latter will allow a fast filling within 10 minutes. Both hydrogen generators will have a production capacity of 30 Std. m³/h. Fuel cell vehicles with an approval by the ministry of transportation can take part in a demonstration run.

(Hyweb, 18. July 2000; Y. Matsuoka et al., Proc. WHEC XIII, 744-8)

The Japanese government plans the standardization of filling equipment until the fiscal year 2002 in order to prevent the development of different and incompatible systems. Car manufacturers like DaimlerChrysler and General Motors are said to have submitted data to the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).

(Calstart, 25. April 2000)

A filling station for different alternative vehicles will be built at Las Vegas (Nevada, USA). It will generate electricity, hydrogen, and hydrogen enriched natural gas from natural gas. The US Department of Energy (DoE) and the gas and chemicals company Air Products and Chemicals share the investment of 11,8 M$ . The DoE supports also the conversion of vehicles. A DoE spokeswoman said that the project is a model for the introduction of a hydrogen as fuel at reasonable costs. Nevada's senator Harry Reid applauded the project as a commercial demonstration of hydrogen as a safe and clean energy alternative.

(Electric Net, 28. July 2000)

In early July the transport utility of Vancouver finished successfully the project in the frame of which they used three fuel cell buses for two years in scheduled service. The parallel project in Chicago had already ended in March. While the buses were essentially equal, the difference was in the filling stations. In Chicago the tanks were filled within half an hour with hydrogen gas gained from evaporation of the liquid phase. In Vancouver this was done overnight by means of a unit from Stuart Energy which comprised an electrolyzer.

Just as in Chicago all participants were very satisfied with the results. The buses ran 67.000 km and carried 110.000 passengers without incident. Ballard and XCELLSIS now plan for the next projects to be made in California. 25 buses will be delivered during the next 25 years, the first to Palm Springs and Oakland.

(Press releases by Ballard and Stuart Energy Systems Corp. of 6. July 2000; see No. 2/00 „Buses“)

The drivers of modern trucks frequently have to let the engine run idle to provide electrical energy while the vehicle is standing. This creates noise and exhaust fumes. Freightliner LLC, a US daughter of DaimlerChrysler, has presented a vehicle which uses a fuel cell for such situations. The cell is fed from a liquid hydrogen tank for 200 l. Its output is more than 4 kW at 12 V DC or 120 V AC. The system developed by XCELLSIS is to enter the market in three to five years.

(Freightliner press release of 18. July 2000)

The California Fuel Cell Partnership has two new members: The US Department of Transport (DoT) and the fuel cell manufacturer IFC. This company aims at the mobile market and cooperates with BMW as well as with the Korean car manufacturer Hyundai. The latter company as well has joined the California Fuel Cell Partnership recently.

(DoT press release of 15. June 2000; IFC press release of 30. June 2000)

The French natural gas giant and the Californian Hydrogen Burner Technology (HBT) have made an agreement under which GdF will distribute the hydrogen generation system based on hydrocarbons developed by HBT in Europe. GdF has also acquired a share in HBT and supports the company in other ways. The new hydrogen generator is to be offered to customers who can get the gas in the usual way only at high costs. GdF also aims at the equipment of filling stations and thus at a share in the mobile hydrogen business.

A number of public transportation utilities in Germany consider the introduction of hydrogen fuel in their investment programs. Among these are major companies like BVG (Berlin) and HHA (Hamburg), but also smaller ones like Personenverkehrs-Gesellschaft (PVG) Apolda (Thuringia). In 1999 a diesel electric low-floor bus had been bought with support from the state government, a first for Thuringia. The experiences are positive indeed. Nevertheless PVG will not buy a second bus of this type at this time. „We wait for the drive technology to shift to hydrogen fuel“, said manager Jonas Herrmann.

(Thüringer Allgemeine, 18. July 2000)

The bus maker Neoplan presents now a new trolley bus which is supplied alternatively from the grid or a diesel electric engine. Within a few years the fuel cell will substitute the diesel engine, and the bus will run without any emissions, according to the conviction of the Neoplan development staff.

(Stuttgarter Nachrichten, 4. August 2000)

The Czech-US fuel cell maker Astris has submitted a generator based on an alkaline fuel cell to the Czech Ministry of Defense. It is supplied from a pressure vessel with 5 l under 200 bar (1 Std. m³) and delivers 12 V DC at 1.5 kW. The total electrical efficiency is 50 %. The reason for the selection of an alkaline fuel cell is that this type can start and operate easily at low temperatures. The membranes of PEM cells need humidity, which causes problems at temperatures below zero.

(Astris press release of 22. August 2000)

A new type of fuel cell power station will be built at Little Barford near Cambridge in conjunction with an existing gas power station. It is based on a reversible PEM electrolyzer/fuel cell unit. It can store electricity during off-peak hours as hydrogen and electrical power during peak hours. The storage capacity of the plant will be 120 MWh, and its nominal output of 15 MW can be achieved quickly. The project is run by Innogy, so far a part of National Power. The investment is 30 MEuro. A similar plant will soon exist in North America. An agreement to this effect was made with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

(Sunday Telegraph, 20. August 2000; Hyweb-Gazette, 23. August 2000)

Air Liquide USA has increased the price for merchant hydrogen delivered as gas or liquid by truck by 0,20 $ per 100 cg (about 0,075 Euro/Nm³). The reason given was that the natural gas prices have almost doubled since the beginning of this year. Hydrogen is mainly produced from natural gas.

(Press release of Air Liquide USA of 24. August 2000)

By end of July Nuvera Fuel Cells announced that the first reformer systems of the world running completely on gasoline will be shipped to four car makers in the US, Europe, and Japan. It was not said which these are. They will investigate applications of fuel cells in transportation and test the system on performance, functionality, and dynamics under variable driving conditions. The problem of sulfur in the gasoline is said to have been solved.

(Press release of 19. July 2000)

The US company Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) expects before long the use of direct methanol fuel cells for portable electronic devices like phones. A new study says that by 2002 already 50,000 of them could be in the market. This could increase to 200 million per year until 2007. The expanding market for mobile telephones, notebooks etc. and the fast technical progress of them favor this development. Telephones are seen as key component because the batteries are meanwhile their weak point. Changing the methanol cartridge would not be more complicated than the change of an ink cartridge for a fountain pen, and the operating times would quadruple.

(Press release of 16. August 2000)

Ballard's first PEM power station is running since June in Berlin. A second will be installed before the end of this year at Basle. A total of eight such demonstration units is planned for the next two years in Europe. One is for the Belgian consortium Promocell, another for the Dutch utility Nuon. The names of the other customers were not given. More and more utilities consider this technology, not only because it is clean, but also due to the foreseeable increase of the importance of decentral energy generation in the future.

(Reuters, 20. July 2000; see No. 3/00 „Berlin“)

The city of King County (Washington, USA) will soon generate energy from the gases emanating from its waste. FuelCell Energy got the order to deliver a molten carbonate fuel cell with 1 MW output. This will happen next year. The work is part of a project supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the evaluation of ways to reduce the emissions of methane and CO₂ from waste.

(Press release by FuelCell Energy of 18. July 2000)

A specter haunts OPEC — the specter of the fuel cell. This is the view of Ahmed Yamani, former oil minister of Saudi Arabia. He told a newspaper that for the moment the oil price would remain high, but in about five years it would drop considerably and crash finally. The reasons he gave are important new resources and progress in the production technology, but also new technologies which reduce the demand. The fuel cell in particular will have a dramatic impact. „This is coming before the end of the decade and will cut gasoline consumption by almost 100 per cent. Imagine a country like the United States, the largest consuming nation, where more than 50 per cent of their consumption is gasoline. If you eliminate that, what will happen? ... Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil - and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil.“

(Sunday Telegraph, 25. June 2000)

The British-US oil company has changed its appearance. This is reflected in the return to the simple name BP. And there is a new logo: in the traditional colors there is a symbol which is meant to be a sun and to stand for all kinds of energy, from oil to photovoltaic. The abbreviation BP now stands among other things for: „beyond petroleum“.

(Press release of 24. July 2000)

The hibernation of chipmunks in the Rocky Mountains is today between 11 and 26 days longer than it was 25 years ago. That of marmots, however, has become 38 days shorter during the last 23 years. Both trends have the same reason, namely climate change: the duration of the hibernation of marmots depends on the temperature outside. This having increased, they awake earlier. Chipmunks, however, judge their awakening time according to the height of the snow over their hide. Since the snowfall in the Rocky Mountains increased, these rodents make a longer hibernation.

(D. W. Inouye et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97 (2000) 1630-3)

The national conference of the Green party on 23. and 24. June at Munster made also a decision on transport policy. It confirms the positions from an initially controversial paper which was written in May in the party group in the federal parliament (see No. 3/00 "Green Car"). The zero emission (or at least low emission) car was said to be a topic with the German car makers, and politics should support this movement.

The state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will keep all options for the future energy supply open, including nuclear fusion. This was said by Rolf Eggert, minister for economical affairs, on 19. July at the conclusion of the 2. energy conference at Greifswald. Eggert announced the creation of a future technology fund of 10 MEuro before the end of this year. Beginning in 2001 the work on the energy carrier hydrogen will be among the things supported from it.

On 26. July the federal government approved the "Interim report on the national climate protection program" submitted by environment minister Trittin. The national objectives (-25% CO₂ from 1990 to 2005) and from the Kyoto agreements remain unchanged. The means to achieve this will be CHP, improvement of the heat insulations of buildings, a new decree on energy saving (in late summer) as well as measures in the field of transportation. Among these are the promotion of improved lubricants and tires, but also the initiative „Transport Energy Strategy“.

The ultimate achievement in fuel cells is the „Microbial Fuel Cell“ (MFC). Its nucleus is a bacteria culture which converts chemical to electrical energy. At the University of South Florida a "dog" has been built which serves as a study for an autonomous robot, according to the New Scientist of 22. July; it may or may not listen to the name "Chew-Chew" and gets its power from food. The latter is sugar at this time, because it can be digested almost without waste. Some may start dreaming of a lawn mower which feeds on the cut grass. Unfortunately, vegetation is not too nutritious. An interesting application, however, would be robot which guards beaches against sharks and feeds on fish.