H2T Inc. from Québec intends to export liquid hydrogen made by means of hydropower at "low prices". During a conference at St. Petersburg Joachim Gretz, chairman of the Hamburg Hydrogen Society, said that he has received a quotation for liquid hydrogen to Hamburg at 5.500 Can$/t, which corresponds to a bit less than 1 Euro/l Diesel equivalent. H2T gave no comment to this specific figure. Details were promised for the beginning of August, but hat not yet arrived at the deadline for this text.

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Storage factors between 14 and 20 % per weight have been found in graphite nanostructures (carbon nanotubes) at the university of Singapore at atmospheric pressure and temperatures between 200 and 400 °C (P. Chen u. a., Science 285 (1999) 91-3). These results exceed those for hydrides and cryoadsorption as well as those reported for other graphite nanostructures (except those from Rodriguez and Baker, which are still not reproduced), and they have been found for the first time at temperatures which are not cryogenic (compare No. 2/99 "Graphite Fiber Storage" for measurements at 80 K). With storage densities of 112 and 160 kg H₂/m³, resp., they even exceed liquid hydrogen (71 kg/m³). The structures contain Potassium and Lithium atoms in the carbon lattice. The authors ascribe the high storage capacity partly to their catalytic effect. Another cause is suspected to be related to the specific shape of the structures, which resemble a stack of ice-cream cones.

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The government of the German state Schleswig-Holstein investigates whether the railway line Kiel-Luebeck could be electrified with hydrogen and fuel cells instead of the conventional wiring (see No. 5/98 "Railway"). A study to this effect is being done by the Wuppertal-Institut. It will be finished at the beginning of 2000.

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The latest start of NASA's space shuttle "Columbia" on 23. July might have been its last. During the launch a loose metal pin damaged three tubes through which a part of the liquid hydrogen from the big tank flows through the walls of the combustion chamber for cooling. If the leaks would have been somewhat larger, the engine would have switched off because of overheating, and the shuttle would have been forced to make an emergency landing in Florida or West Africa. This maneuver is considered to be extremely dangerous. In the event, however, the loss of fuel merely caused the burnout to occur one second too early so that the orbit height was missed by 11 km. The further mission and the landing were not affected.

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Air Liquide and Air Products take over the British gas producer BOC for 11,2 G$. (We use the usual prefixes k (1000), M (10⁶), G (10⁹) for money as well.) BOC had left the gas business in Germany and Benelux to Air Liquide already at the turn of the year (see No. 1/99 "Take-over"). World market leader Air Liquide would increase its share of the industrial gas market from 17% to 24%. Air Products would rise from 8% to 15% and come on rank two together with Praxair.

Linde will take over the Swedish AGA AB for 3,45 GEuro and thus form the second greatest gas company of Europe and the fourth greatest of the world. This was announced on 16. August. At the same time Linde still intends to take over Messer Griesheim GmbH.

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DaimlerChryslers Nebus made a test run on one of the most important bus routes in Oslo in August. The Oslo transport company has already announced that they would be interested to use the vehicles as soon as they are commercially available.

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On the Hanover Fair next year there will not only be the joint presentation "Hydrogen Technologies and Fuel Cells" on the research market in Hall 18. On the international Energy Technology Fair in Hall 7 there will be a presentation under the headline "Future Energy Conversions: Applications of mobile / stationary fuel cells, electrolysers, and reformers" and another about "New Energy Systems". These will pronounce the commercial aspects of the matter.

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The proceedings of a meeting of the European Integrated Hydrogen Project (EIHP) held in Brussels in March are now available in the HyWeb. This industrial joint project is to harmonize regulations and approval procedures for hydrogen vehicles in Europe to create a basis for the approval of serial vehicles.

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Almost 200 hydrogen and fuel cell projects were done during the last ten years in Germany alone, or they are still running. L-B-Systemtechnik has compiled descriptions of them. The list is available in the HyWeb.

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Four major projects with solid oxide fuel cells are being planned.

RWE Energie will combine a 300 kW_el fuel cell with a gas turbine. The first plant will be ready by 2000 at RWE Energie, the second until 2002. The electrical efficiency is about 60%, and with the heat utilization 80 to 90% will be achieved. Estimated costs are 10 MEuro. RWE Energie expects that the plants will be ready for the market in ten years and that until 2010 20 to 40% of the electricity produced in Germany from natural gas will be produced decentrally, for example by a home fuel cell.

EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG plans a fuel cell hybrid power plant using micro gas turbines with a so far unparalleled output of 1 MW. Less expensive materials and optimized integration of the components are expected to bring costs down considerably.

A third plant of this kind is made together with Shell Hydrogen. Here the CO₂ generated during the processing of the fuel will be separated by means of a technology developed by Shell, so that it can be stored in empty oil or natural gas deposits.

The National Fuel Cell Research Center in Irvine (California) will operate a 250 kW plant with micro turbines beginning in October. The efficiency will be 60%, the costs 1000 to 1500 $/kW for a commercial plant. (Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter, August 1999)

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ZeTek Power Ltd. in New York has developed a new catalyst based on Cobalt which can considerably reduce the costs for PEM cells by replacing platinium. Researchers from France and USA participated in the development. It was funded by ZeTek Power and the European Commission. The demand of the noble metal platinium is seen as one of the most important bottlenecks on the way to the mass utilization of PEM cells. This is the first time that a non-noble metal is used for this purpose. ZeTek expects the metal costs to drop by about one half.

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The government of Northrhine-Westphalia has registered the fuel cell project of Gas-, Elektrizitaets- und Wasserwerke Koeln AG (GEW) in Cologne as applicant for the title "National Worldwide Expo Project". A sewage plant at Rodenkirchen will be equipped with an ONSI cell and produce its own heat and electricity from sewage gas. (Ruhr Nachrichten 30./31. July 1999; see No. 5/98 "Cologne")

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Police cars in North and West Germany will be equipped with fuel cells, but not for driving. The cell is the key element of a new device which measures the alcohol content of the breathing air. The new method saves time for all involved parties, money for the state budget, and a blood sample needs not be taken as long as the result is below 1,1‰. Driving with more is considered as a crime, and in this case the suspect has to see the doctor in any case. (Neue Westfaelische Zeitung, 23. July 1999; Rheinische Post, 7./8. August)

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The project of a 540 km long power line between Hamburg and Norway has apparently failed. Starting in 2004 it was planned that 1200 MW of Norwegian hydropower were to be supplied to the German utilities HEW and RWE. The reason for the possible failure of the 450 MEuro project is that the price was agreed to be 0.05 Euro/kWh for 25 years, which according to HEW is no longer feasible considering the current price development on the electricity market.

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