A company with the name EAT-Systemtechnik GmbH was registered on 9. December 1982. Later the name was changed to Ludwig-Boelkow-Systemtechnik GmbH. During the last 20 years LBST has developed from a non-profit „Think Tank“ with three members to a commercial strategy and technology advisor for sustainable energy and transport systems. In 1998 this was formally shown by transferring the company members and commercial tasks from the non-profit Ludwig-Boelkow-Systemtechnik to the commercial L-B-Systemtechnik. LBST has acquired a name as advisor for industry, politics, and non-government organizations all over the world. Hydrogen was an important element of the LBST work from the very beginning, fuel cells became one at the beginning of the 90s. Little surprise, therefore, that Ludwig Boelkow and L-B-Systemtechnik were among the DWV founders in 1996.

The first Italian fair and conference dedicated to hydrogen, IDROGENO & FUEL CELLS 2003, will be held from 19. to 23. February 2003 in the Italian commercial center of Milan. The project enjoys the support of the Italian ministry for the environment and the regional government of Lombardy. 

On 2. December 2002 the Japanese car makers Toyota and Honda gave the first hydrogen cars in the hands us users who are not technical specialists. Toyota chairman Hiroshi Okuda and Honda chairman Hiroyuki Yoshino each presented a symbolic golden key for the new official cars to Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in his office. Koizumi said: „When I took office last year, I promised that in three years we would replace all cars used by the government with low-emission vehicles, even if it costs a little more.“ As a matter of fact, the two cars are not quite cheap. The Toyota five-seater costs a leasing fee of almost 10 k€ per month, the somewhat smaller Honda is still a matter of 6500 €. The Honda remains with the office of the Prime Minister, while the Toyota and three more will be used by the METI (Ministry for economy, trade, and industry). The ministry has installed a filling station on its premises. The contract has a duration of 30 months.

Koizumi drove a test round each and then gave his judgment: „The sound of the engines is quieter than expected, and the driving does not feel any different from that of gasoline-powered vehicles. I want both Toyota and Honda to mass-produce the vehicles.“

Immediately afterwards Honda chairman Yoshino went to Los Angeles where the two companies gave more cars to the first customers in USA. Six Toyotas were leased to the University of California, five Hondas to the City of Los Angeles. The idea of the project is to make the technology known to the public; the vehicles will be used in daily service just like the whole other car park, according to Jim Hahn, mayor of Los Angeles. 

During the next two or three years Honda will bring a total of 30 cars of this kind on the road in Japan and the USA.

On 15. November Air Products and Plug Power together with the city of Las Vegas and the US Department of Energy opened the world's first filling station where hydrogen is used not only for the supply of vehicles but also for energy generation. The private-public project will show ways how to install a commercial infrastructure for the distribution of safe and clean hydrogen fuel. A natural gas reformer on site produces the hydrogen which is compressed and stored as gas. Cars can tank hydrogen, natural gas, and a special hydrogen/natural gas blend at special dispensing points. Power generation is done by a PEM fuel cell with 50 kW output. The energy is fed into the city grid of Las Vegas. 

The US Department of Energy (DoE) supports the conversion of city vehicles to hydrogen or natural gas enriched with hydrogen. The project has a volume of 10,8 M$ and a duration of five years.

(Air Products press release of 15. November 2002)

On 12. November US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham published a „Roadmap“ paper about the way to fitting fuel cells into the US cars and utility vehicles. The paper is the result of one year of work of the department (DoE) and the leading car and energy companies of the country. „Creating the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle of the future presents complex technical challenges“, Abraham said during a conference. „Overcoming them will take an intensive and equally complex effort - but it will be worth it because the stakes really are so high.“

(AP, 12. November 2002)

From 12. to 14. November the former coal mine „Zollverein“ in Essen (Germany), now a conference center, was the background of the first German Hydrogen Energy Day. High-ranking persons from research, industry, and politics discussed technology, infrastructure, and markets. 60 papers about recent developments were presented. There was also a one-day basics seminary for pupils and students. 

The patron of the meeting was Wolfgang Clement who just a few days before changed from the office of Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia to that of a member of the Federal Government in Berlin. Deputy minister in his opening speech stressed the country's role in the field of energy, but also the prospects to sustainable jobs by means of hydrogen and fuel cells. Prof. Carl-Jochen Winter, spiritual father and chairman of the conference demanded an active introduction of hydrogen energy. In his opinion the meeting was a means to let the conviction of experts find a broad basis in the public. Speaking for the Forum for Future Energies Fritz Vahrenholt pointed out that hydrogen makes use of domestic energies as well, making us less dependent from imported oil or gas.

The Canadian pressure vessel maker Dynetek Industries Ltd. has founded a valve department. Dynetek's tanks from composite material make an important contribution to the work of car makers to store hydrogen gas under 700 bar in cars. This being considerably above the normal gas cylinder operating conditions, there is also a need for new operating elements like valve and pressure regulators. About 1.5 M$ were necessary to create the new department.

(Press release of 12. November 2002)

The Canadian company Powertech Labs announced the start of operation of the first fast filling station for pressure vessels which permits filling of 700 bar tanks in minutes or even seconds. The storage is generated by an electrolyzer and stored under 875 bar. The work is part of a project of 2,3 M€ which is to prove feasibility, economical sense, and safety of pressurized hydrogen gas as fuel. So far the station runs on the company ground. As soon as the necessary approvals are there a commercial type can be developed.

(Powertech Labs press release of 1. November 2002)

Japan's state owned railway investigates hydrogen as alternative to diesel fuel for locomotives. The Japanese government supports a project which is done by the Railway Technology Research Institute and the gas and plant supplier Suzuki Shokan. The US company H Power delivered four fuel cells of 7kW each for prototypes. 

(H Power press release of 8. October 2002)

The German chemical company BASF has announced to have developed a new hydrogen storage medium called „Nanocubes“. This are cubes with a size of about 1 µm made from terephthalic acid and zinc oxide. 1 g of the cubes has a surface of 3000 m². Under moderate pressure (up to 10 bar) the hydrogen is loosely attached in a one-molecular layer (physisorption, no chemisorption). The release of the gas happens correspondingly easily when the pressure is lowered. Present figures for the loading factor per unit mass are around 1,85 % at 10 bar; cubes being developed are expected to double this. The aim is the value of 6.5 % given by the US DoE as the threshold for the economical use of hydrogen as car fuel. 

(Chemical Week, 21. November 2002; Neue Zuercher Zeitung, 4. December 2002)

Lithium nitride is the latest member in the club of chemical compounds which might be useful as hydrogen storage medium. A group at the University of Singapore found that Li₃N can absorb more than 9 % hydrogen, albeit at a temperature of 255 °C. The new compound releases the hydrogen depending on ambient pressure and temperature. Of course the working temperature of 255 °C is too high for most practical purposes. The researchers try to improve the material so that it can be used at moderate temperatures. (P. Chen et al., Nature 420 (2002) 302-4)

In 1999 the same group had reported storage factors of up to 20 % in carbon nanostructures. Later control experiments had shown that the weight increase was mainly due to the uptake of atmospheric humidity. 

(See No. 4/99 “Graphite storage” and No. 2/00 „Hydro storage“)

The US fuel cell maker Plug Power Inc. takes over the equally US H Power Corp. for about 51 M$. Both companies think that the joint company can cope much better with the economical conditions which are anything but friendly.

(Press release of 12. November 2002)

UTC Fuel Cells, a subsidiary of United Technologies, intends to cease the production of the type P25 based on a phosphoric acid fuel cell. UTC chairman William Miller announced that the company will adopt the PEM type for cost reasons. This and next year will still see the delivery of P25C plants, but work at the new PEM model called PC35 delivering about 150 kW_el is under way. In early 2004 the costs are expected to have reached 1500 $/kW.

(VDI-Nachrichten, 22. November 2002)

„DeTeImmoblien“, a real estate administration subsidiary of German telecommunications giant Telekom, has started operation of a molten carbonate fuel cell by MTU just in front of the company building in Munich. They expect that the plant will avoid the emission of 600 t CO₂ per year. If the prototype is successful Telekom intends to replace about hundred of their emergency power units distributed all over Germany and running almost exclusively on Diesel by fuel cells. The project costs 5 M€ of which one half is paid by federal funds. 

(Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 25. November 2002; see No. 2/02 „Power for the network“)

TechnologieStiftung Hessen GmbH has published a „Competence Atlas Fuel Cell Hessen“. This is one result of the work of the „Hydrogen and fuel cell initiative Hessen“ which was founded on 30. April of this year and to which the DWV contributes a lot. Dieter Posch, state minister for economy, points out in a foreword that there are high expectations associated with the field, both ecologically as well as economically. 

Environment experts estimate that Germany will miss the aim to reduce the CO₂ emissions by 25 % from 1990 to 2005. The Federal Statistical Office announced that CO₂ emissions dropped only by 1.3 % per year annually between 1990 and 2000. The reduction would have to be increased drastically to 3.6 % per year to reach the goal of a total of 25 % until 2005. Considering the slowdown of the CO₂ emission reduction in the last years experts do not think that this is very realistic.

(Berliner Zeitung, 6. November 2002)

The idea sounds just fine: plants feed on carbon dioxide, so woods and tree plantations should be a good tool against the greenhouse effect. But reality shows once more that there is a limit to everything. Canadian researchers exposed exposed Populus tremuloides trees to CO₂, Ozone (O₃) or both for a period of four years. They determined the plant growth and the extent of damage by certain kinds of fungi, butterfly larvae, and lice. Result: high CO₂ concentrations did indeed favor the growth, but are not good for the pest defense of the trees. The frequent damage by fungi or insects on the other hand is not good for growth, so that considering all the trees remove less greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and deposit them as biomass. This is probably a result of changes of the leaf quality.  

(K. E. Percy et al., Nature 420 (2002) 403-7; see No. 2/02 "No carbon sink", 3/01 "No solution either", No. 5/99 "No excuse")