Hydrogen Economy
News and information about the emerging hydrogen economy covering topics of fuel cells and the production of hydrogen on which they run.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Angstrom Power Breaks Record for Energy Density in Micro Hydrogen Fuel Cells
"Angstrom Power, a leader in micro hydrogen™ systems for portable power, announced today that it has achieved a record in energy density and power for a micro hydrogen™ fuel cell. Angstrom has demonstrated a fuel cell system that provides 3 Watts peak power and 1 Watt average power with an energy density of over 300Whr/l in a 25cc form factor. This all-inclusive system includes fuel cell, fuel storage, power conditioning and peak power energy storage. The Angstrom micro hydrogen™ fuel cell system operates passively and requires no pumps, valves or heaters. Startup is instant, requiring no assistance from any auxiliary battery. The system can operate as a complete standalone power source for portable electronics and is suitable for integration into a variety of portable devices, including two-way radios, handheld scanners and lighting." Source: fuelcellsworks.com
posted by Frank @ 8:43 PM 0 comments
$7.4M NASA grant extends hydrogen research at UCF
"NASA has approved a $7.4 million grant to continue funding another year of a hydrogen research project in which the University of Central Florida and other state universities are developing new ways to use the valuable fuel source. The grant pushes total funding for the four-year project to more than $30 million. State university researchers have conducted more than 70 research projects on hydrogen production, safety, storage, cryogenics, fuel cells and other related areas of study." Source: orlando.bizjournals.com
posted by Frank @ 8:42 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Air Liquide Hydrogen Plant in Bayport, Texas Dedicated to Clean Fuels
"The increasing demand for hydrogen is largely driven by the need for refiners to comply with the new environmental regulations being progressively introduced in the US and Europe. Reducing the sulfur content in automotive fuels and thus in engine polluting emissions requires large amounts of hydrogen. In this context, the new hydrogen-producing steam methane reformer (SMR) currently under construction in Bayport, Texas (announced in January 2005) will support the increasing need for hydrogen used to produce cleaner fuels by customers located along Air Liquide's Gulf Coast Pipeline System and to supply steam to customers from its steam system in Bayport, Texas. The 100 million standard cubic feet per day SMR will be the largest of the Group's global hydrogen producing assets." Source: chron.com
posted by Frank @ 7:18 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Lighter and longer lasting batteries for your gadgets
"Toshiba has created the world smallest fuel cell and developed a prototype of a flash-based MP3 player measuring 1.4 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches which can run up to 35 hours with a single charge of 3.5ml of highly concentrated methanol. The hard drive-based version measures 2.6 x 4.9 x 1.1 inches and can run up to 60 hours on a single 10ml charge. The players were in exhibit at CEATEC in Japan. Engineers at California Institute of Technology have also been able to create fuel cell based button-sized battery for devices like MP3 players." Source: stararticle.com
posted by Frank @ 7:19 AM 0 comments
The case for hydrogen as an industry transformer
"The potential long term answer to the high fuel price dilemma is the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Burns plans to have an 'automotive competitive’ FCV ready by 2010, meaning a running vehicle that could be put into production on an equal footing - in terms of costs, performance and durability - with a conventional automobile. To hydrogen skeptics out there, this goal - the most aggressive of any the major automakers engaged in FCV development - seems optimistic, to put it mildly. But Burns points to dramatic progress at GM on improving the FCV hardware; for instance, the fuel stack power density (a measure of output versus size) has improved by a factor of 14 in the last seven years. Today, GM’s fuel cell team has not reached its objective of $50 per kilowatt output for the hydrogen fueled powertrain, a figure that would make it cost competitive with a conventional internal combustion engine. But Burns is more confident than ever before that this competitive target can be met over the next five years." Source: detnews.com
posted by Frank @ 7:18 AM 0 comments
Green Hydrogen Fuel from PBRs
"Generation of hydrogen has been the biggest stumbling block to it adoption as a clean fuel. Hydrogen, found primarily in water, is expensive to extract as a gas. While the technical problems of handling, storage and use as fuel are largely solved, the high energy cost to produce hydrogen has made it an energy transport medium, not a source.
New Pebble Bed Modular Reactors run at high temperatures which are perfect for cracking abundant water or helium gas into hydrogen which can then be used as a green fuel – burning hydrogen just produces water vapor. PBRs could produce cheap hydrogen that could be piped to areas of need or used in the local communities." Source: physorg.com
posted by Frank @ 7:13 AM 0 comments
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Air Products to double hydrogen investment
"Gas and equipment supplier Air Products and Chemicals has announced that it is to increase its investment in hydrogen over the coming decade. According to the company's chief financial officer Paul Huck, will invest $10 billion over the coming ten years in "on-purpose" hydrogen, which is made by itself rather than as a by-product of other processes. That will be a major increase from the $5 billion Air Products has spent on the gas in the last decade, highlighting the importance of hydrogen today through its use as an alternative fuel source in fuel cells." Source: matthey.com
posted by Frank @ 11:26 PM 0 comments
NPPD to participate in Hydrogen Utility Group
"Looking ahead on how to generate more electricity, as well as revenue - while being environmentally friendly - Nebraska Public Power District's board of directors discussed several alternative fuel strategies. Approval was given Friday for NPPD to participate in the Hydrogen Utility Group, which shares ideas on producing and using hydrogen. “This is an opportunity,” said Bill Fehrman, NPPD president and CEO. Researchers are saying hydrogen-based fuel could some day be inexpensive enough that commercial buildings or homes might have their own power supplies. The most common methods currently used to produce hydrogen-powered fuel cells are expensive - separating it from steam, extracting it from methanol or biomass such as corn, or splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen." Source: columbustelegram.com
posted by Frank @ 11:26 PM 0 comments
Friday, December 09, 2005
First responders get hydrogen car safety facts
"As the auto industry races ahead with technology to run vehicles on hydrogen gas, what happens when one of these cars rolls on the road? Will the vehicle explode like the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg in 1937? What will emergency responders such as firefighters do at the scene? A conference Wednesday in Torrance brought about 200 emergency responders, building safety personnel, public officials and others from across the state to discuss hydrogen car safety. "Hydrogen is not the threat or terror people associate with it when they think of the Hindenburg," said Ruben Grijalva, California state fire marshal, who delivered the keynote speech. "A key thing here is identifying what are the public safety issues, and that includes getting rid of the myths." For example, if hydrogen escapes from a vehicle tank, the gas usually disappears into the atmosphere in a harmless manner. However, gasoline tends to pool on the ground, posing a fire risk, Grijalva said." Source: dailybreeze.com
posted by Frank @ 5:34 AM 0 comments
ARSC Hydra Unit to Ship Hydrogen Fuel Cells in January
"American Security Resources Corporation (OTCBB:ARSC) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Hydra Fuel Corporation, plans to ship beta units of its proprietary hydrogen fuel cells to select customers immediately after the holidays in January, 2006. ARSC is a holding company actively seeking to acquire companies and technologies that will advance the development of alternative energies. ARSC, through its Hydra subsidiary, is developing high volume mass producible hydrogen fuel cells. For more information, please see: www.americansecurityresources.com" Source: tmcnet.com
posted by Frank @ 5:33 AM 0 comments
Thursday, December 08, 2005
S. Korea-US Joint Nuclear Hydrogen Research Center Opens
"A South Korea-U.S. joint research center opened Wednesday to study ways of using atomic power to produce hydrogen gas, officials said Wednesday. The center, tentatively dubbed the South Korea-U.S. Nuclear Hydrogen Joint Development Center, is located in Daejeon, South Korea's science mecca, about 164 kilometers south of Seoul. The research center will be jointly run by the state-run Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, U.S. nuclear technology company General Atomics and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., a South Korean manufacturer of power-generation equipment, according to the officials at the Ministry of Science and Technology. The joint project is expected to help South Korea to prepare for a time when hydrogen will become a significant energy source, they said." Source: fuelcellsworks.com
posted by Frank @ 4:57 AM 0 comments
Research Advances Hydrogen Fuel Production
"Oxygen may be necessary for life, but it sure gets in the way of making hydrogen fuel cheaply and abundantly from a family of enzymes present in many microorganisms. Blocking oxygen's path to an enzyme's production machinery could lead to a renewable energy source that would generate only water as its waste product. Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have opened a window by way of computer simulation that lets them see how and where hydrogen and oxygen travel to reach and exit an enzyme's catalyst site -- the H cluster -- where the hydrogen is converted into energy." Source: renewableenergyaccess.com
posted by Frank @ 4:56 AM 0 comments
BOC Foundation Supports Hydrogen Fuel Cell Urban Concept Car
"The BOC Foundation has awarded OSCar Automotive a grant to develop a powertrain for a two-seat urban vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The grant will help fund the two year Hyrban project which aims to prove that practical hydrogen fuel cell urban vehicles are readily engineered using existing fuel cell technology. The Hyrban concept car will have an electric motor in each wheel powered primarily by a fuel cell. The motors will become generators under braking and will charge ultra-capacitors, which will provide most of the power for acceleration. This allows the vehicle to have the acceleration of a Smart Car, despite the fuel cell only having an output of around 6kW (less power than that required to run 4 electric kettles) and the energy consumption of a moped. The car could cruise at around 50mph." Source: fuelcellsworks.com
posted by Frank @ 4:55 AM 0 comments
IEA: Hydrogen, fuel cells for transport face hurdles
"Hydrogen fuel and fuel cell technologies remain costly ways to mitigate emissions of carbon dioxide and bolster energy security, according to a new report the International Energy Agency. Current prospects for the substantial cost reductions needed to bring about a significant hydrogen and fuel cell advantage over existing technologies are unlikely without decisive government policies and technology breakthroughs, the report said." Source: ogj.pennnet.com
posted by Frank @ 4:54 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
US invests $1 million in fuel cell research
"The US government has announced a $1 million federal grant for the development of fuel cell technology. Engenuity, an umbrella group working in Columbia, will invest the money in the creation of the National Institute of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Commercialisation. The company is looking to bring fuel cells into the mainstream and provide more information on the use of fuel cells for the public in an effort to establish the technology as a viable alternative to traditional power sources. The not-for-profit organisation will look at commercial opportunities and investment potential for state research institutions that are looking into the development of fuel cells, in a bid to give fuel cell technology a more mainstream presence." Source: matthey.com
posted by Frank @ 10:00 PM 0 comments
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Poison + Water = Hydrogen
"Take a pot of scalding water, remove all the oxygen, mix in a bit of poisonous carbon monoxide, and add a pinch of hydrogen gas. It sounds like a recipe for a witch’s brew. It may be, but it is also the preferred environment for a microbe known as Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans. In a paper published in the November 27th issue of PLoS Genetics, a research team led by scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) report the determination and analysis of the complete genome sequence of this organism. Isolated from a hot spring on the Russian volcanic island of Kunashir, this microbe lives almost entirely on carbon monoxide. While consuming this normally poisonous gas, the microbe mixes it with water, producing hydrogen gas as waste." Source: newswise.com
posted by Frank @ 6:07 PM 0 comments
Hydrogen to halve global CO2 emissions
"Aggressively expanding the use of hydrogen and other cleaner energies could halve emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, by 2050, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said. In a report coinciding with a key UN conference on global warming, the IEA said yesterday that if conditions were right, hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells could play key roles in weaning energy users away from oil, gas and coal." Source: financialexpress.com
posted by Frank @ 6:06 PM 0 comments
Hydrogen Powers Dubai Conference
"Fuel efficiency, more efficient energy use and pioneering hydrogen fuel cell technology will form the basis for the first ever Middle East Forum on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Economy (MEFH), to be held in at the Dubai Police Academy, UAE, on December 6 – 7, 2005. Public and private sector heavyweights, such as General Motors, Ballard, Hydrogenics, Plug Power, Fuel Cell Markets, UTC, and the World Fuel Cell Council have thrown their backing behind the event, which is held in association with the Zayed International Prize for the Environment. The use of hydrogen, which powers a fuel cell through a chemical reaction that creates electricity, enables far more efficient use of fossil fuels and existing energy sources, and provides zero emissions." Source: carbonfree.co.uk
posted by Frank @ 6:05 PM 0 comments
Nano-cages 'fill up' with hydrogen
"A "cagey" strategy to stack more hydrogen in nanoscale scaffoldings made of zinc-based boxes may yield a viable approach to storing hydrogen and, ultimately, replacing fossil fuels in future automobiles, according to new results from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers. Using beams of neutrons as probes, NIST scientists determined where hydrogen latches onto the lattice-like arrangement of zinc and oxygen clusters in a custom-made material known as a metal-organic framework, or MOF. Called MOF5, the particular nanoscale material studied by Taner Yildirim and Michael Hartman has four types of docking sites, including a "surprising" three-dimensional network of "nano-cages" that appears to form after other sites load up with hydrogen." Source: eurekalert.org
posted by Frank @ 6:04 PM 0 comments
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Test-driving the hydrogen future
"The stubby Honda two-door cut through Manhattan traffic like a skateboard. It accelerated smoothly, braked quietly, and-best of all-consumed no gasoline and generated no greenhouse gases. Sticker price: upwards of $1 million. The car I was driving was the Honda FCX, and it may be the automobile of the future-one especially attractive to business owners hit by rising fuel prices. The FCX is powered by a fuel cell that converts hydrogen gas into electricity. (Fossil fuels are used on a smaller scale to refine and transport the hydrogen.) Unlike clunky, earlier versions, this one drives like a regular production model. Behind the wheel, the technology is almost transparent. All the controls-accelerator, brake, accessory switches-are identical to those in a typical car. The FCX makes hardly any noise and accelerates smoothly, with none of the gearshifting that you feel in a gas-powered car." Source: cnn.com
posted by Frank @ 6:00 PM 0 comments