News Archive
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April 2005, No. 43 During the one week of the Hannover Fair, several news in the fuel cells and hydrogen business were presented. IdaTech showed a 250 W system fuelled with methanol. The system includes a reformer to supply the fuel cell with hydrogen. Masterflex and Hawk Bikes E&M are working on a Cargobike concept, also with a 250 W system. For more information see www.fair-pr.com, www.idatech.de, www.masterflex-bz.de March 2005, No. 42 The Japanese company NTT has developed a micro fuel cell based on PEMFC technology for portable applications. A prototype for a mobile phone using hydrogen as fuel has already been presented and tested. For more information see www.ntt.co.jp March 2005, No. 41 Intelligent Energy has presented a fuel cell motorbike with a top speed of 80 km/h. The motorbike called "ENV-Emission Neutral Vehicle" is equipped with a 1 kW PEMFC and weighs only 80 kg. Hydrogen is stored in a high pressure tank. For more information see www.intelligent-energy.com March 2005, No. 40 GM has signed two agreements supporting their fuel cell activities. First, DOE agrees to support GMs development of fuel cell automobiles with USD 44 million over the next five years. GM will additionally invest the same amount. Secondly, GM is going to cooperate with Sandia National Laboratory on the development of hydrogen storage tanks. The target is to achieve an equivalent driving range to a tank of petrol. For more information see www.gm.com February 2005, No. 39 With around 40 hydrogen refueling stations, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart and Cologne will be linked to one of the longest hydrogen highways. A total length of about 1800 km with hydrogen refueling stations at each 50 km is planned, and the total costs are estimated to Euro 30 million. For more information see www.linde.de February 2005, No. 38 The fuel cell company Medis Technologies has announced that it will be able to mass produce its “Power Packs” fuel cell systems already in 2006. Instead of methanol or hydrogen as fuel, a mixture of borohydride - alkaline and alcohols is used. The “Power Packs” are portable auxiliary power sources providing power to operate and charge cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs, MP3 players, hand-held video games and other devices with similar power requirements. For more information see www.medistechnologies.com February 2005, No. 37 The Long Island Power Authority (New
York State, USA) has launched a request for a 10 MW fuel cell generation
project. Already by the end of June 2006 the power plant has to be ready
for operation. For more information see www.lipower.org/papers/RFP/fuelcell.html February 2005, No. 36 Researchers at the Dutch university Delft have suggested to store hydrogen as magnesium hydrides (MgH2) for fuel cell powered automobiles. Due to the light weight of magnesium, a gravimetric hydrogen storage capacity up to 6.5 wt% is possible. One problem is the high temperature of 300-400°C required to release the hydrogen from the hydride. For more information see www.initiative-brennstoffzelle.de and www.dct.tudelft.nl/ac/ January 2005, No. 35 The EU has launched a project with the aim of coordinating the fuel cell and hydrogen research in Europe, "Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Co-ordination HY-CO". 18 countries and regions are participating in this project, which is connected to the European Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technology Platform. For more information see www.hy-co-era.net January 2005, No. 34 By the end of this year, Honda will lease its fuel cell cars to the general public. This is a further step towards the commercialisation of fuel cell products. The possible geographical areas will be limited by the available hydrogen infrastructure. For more information see www.initiative-brennstoffzelle.de/de/ibz/live/nachrichten/detail/149.html January 2005, No. 33 General Motors has revealed their new generation fuel cell car, called the Sequel. Compared to the Hy-Wire concept it is more conventional and with an improved performance and operating range to the previous cars. For more information see www.fuelcelltoday.com January 2005, No. 32 The German company Smart Fuel Cell AG has presented its second fuel cell product, the SFC A50. Based on a direct methanol fuel cell, the 50W output power system can deliver 100 Ah per day. For more information see www.smartfuelcell.com
December 2004, No. 31 20 of the major German fuel cell organisations have joined forces as a reaction to the increasing international competition in this field. The new organisation, called "Brennstoffzellen-Bündnis Deutschland (BZB)", will work on both the political and the industrial level to promote the fuel cell activities in Germany. For more information see www.brennstoffzelle-nds.de/BZ_Buendnis_Deutschland.html December 2004, No. 30 NASA has received a 5 kW PEMFC stack from the Hydrogenics Corporation for potential use in space applications. The first stack will be tested to investigate the suitability in a closed hydrogen-oxygen cycle, as a part of a regenerative energy storage system. For more information see www.hydrogenics.com/ir_newsdetail.asp?RELEASEID=148245 December 2004, No. 29 The 2005 fuel cell education program of the WBZU (Germany) is available. In addition to workshops and seminars, presentations and exhibitions are also offered. A full overview of the activities can be found on their website. For more information see www.wbzu.de December 2004, No. 28 Fuel cell buses from the Hydrogenics Enkat GmbH (in the Canadian Hydrogenics Corporation) will operate in three German cities during the soccer world cup in 2006. Each bus has the capacity to carry about 30 persons, and they will be operating in Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund and Cologne. For more information see www.brennstoffzelle-nrw.de November 2004, No. 27 BP/Aral opened the worlds largest hydrogen filling station in Berlin on November 12. With both liquid and gaseous hydrogen, it has the capacity to refuel 100 cars per day. Liquid hydrogen is transported to the station, while gaseous hydrogen is produced on the site by electrolysis. The tank station is part of the European "Clean Energy Partnership" project. For more information see www.cep-berlin.de November 2004, No. 26 Shell Hydrogen presented the first combined hydrogen and gasoline station in North America. Together with GM, they are demonstrating the use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and refueling infrastructure. Both gaseous and liquid hydrogen are available at the station in northeast Washington, D.C., where 6 of GMs fuel cell vehicles are operating. For more information see www.shell.com/hydrogen November 2004, No. 25 IdaTech presented a 150 W portable fuel cell system at the Fuel Cell Seminar in San Antonio, Texas, USA. It includes an onboard reformer for the liquid methanol-water fuel. The prototype was developed for the US Army, but will also be available for non-military applications. For more information see www.idatech.com/media October 2004, No. 24 The German company Masterflex and the E-Bike manufacturer Swizzbee from Switzerland have signed an agreement on development of fuel cells for electric bikes. The first step is to develop a special fuel cell system for the swizzbee 50c, which already next year is to be built in a small fleet for testing. For more information see www.masterflex-bz.de October 2004, No. 23 Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has developed headsets which are powered with 66 mW direct methanol fuel cells. At the moment these are being tested by the company's own employees. Instead of the 4 hours talk-time with a battery, up to 10 hours are possible before methanol has to be refilled. For more information see www.nokia.com October 2004, No. 22 Based on the Ballard fuel cells, Ford is to build around 30 new fuel cell powered cars. These test vehicles will be operated for 3 years under normal driving conditions in Canada, Germany and USA. For more information see www.fuelcelltoday.com September 2004, No. 21 Next to conventional petrol it is now possible to fill hydrogen at a public BP station in Singapore. The 70 kg of hydrogen available per day is sufficient to supply 20 cars and 2 busses. The pump is delivered by Air Products. For more information see www.airproducts.de September 2004, No. 20 HDW (Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG) launched the first fuel cell powered submarine, U33. U33 is a class 212 A submarine, and the major advantages compared to standard submarines are considerably longer runtime under water and more silent operation. The Italian, Greek and Portuguese navy have all shown interest in this type of submarine. For more information see www.hdw.de August 2004, No. 19 Italy's largest electricity producer, Enel SpA, announced that they are planning a 20 MW hydrogen power plant by 2007. The hydrogen will be produced as an industrial by-product at plants which are to be built next to the power plant and from a coal gasification plant. Approximately 4500 - 5000 tons of hydrogen fuel will be needed per year. For more information see www.energie.de August 2004, No. 18 The German company Smart Fuel Cell will present its second fuel cell product on the Caravan Salon in Düsseldorf, Germany, in August. This time a 50 W DMFC system guarantees 100 ampere hours per day, a significant improvement from the first SFC A25. The complete system is about the size of a suit case and weights around 7 kg. For more information see www.smartfuelcell.de July 2004, No. 17 From the beginning of July, the ten households of the island Utsira in Norway will become independent of the electricity from the mainland. Two windmills are sufficient to produce enough power to the inhabitants and to produce hydrogen at the same time. While the excess electricity is transferred to the net, the hydrogen is stored to be used later in a fuel cell or a generator in case of periods with less wind. For more information see www.hydro.com July 2004, No. 16 The German developer of the HotModule Fuel Cell, MTU CFC Solutions, announced that they will begin mass production of the 250 kW systems in 2006. From 2007 around 100 units per year are expected to be sold. For more information see www.mtu-online.com/cfc/de/cfcs/cfcs.htm July 2004, No. 15 An improved version of the portable power unit VE100 has been presented by Voller Energy Ltd. The total system with an average power of 100 watts has a volume of only 16 liters and weights 6 kg. Included is also a LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) reformer which makes it possible to use propane and butane as well as hydrogen as fuel. For more information see www.voller-energy.com June 2004, No. 14
June 2004, No. 13 The German company Aral AG plans to open the worlds first public integrated hydrogen filling station in Berlin. In addition to its hydrogen filling stations on the Munich airport, it will be possible to fill hydrogen at an existing diesel and gasoline filling station in the capitol by the end of this year. For more information see www.aral.de June 2004, No. 12 On May 22nd U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Einar Steensnæs signed a Mutual Agreement of Understanding (MOU) on energy. Among the topics mentioned are carbon sequestration, hydrogen and fuel cells. The intention of the MOU is to advance energy research and development projects. For more information see www.usnewswire.com June 2004, No. 11 HyNet (The European Thematic Network on Hydrogen) has now finished its report "Towards a European Hydrogen Energy Roadmap". The report covers all issues on the introduction of hydrogen energy in Europe, hydrogen production and infrastructure, hydrogen end-use and storage, hydrogen codes, standards and regulations, socio-economic and policy in building the hydrogen supply and infrastructure and dissemination and public outreach. Two of the major findings was the urgent need for public education and the large investments required for the hydrogen infrastructure. For the complete report see www.hynet.info June 2004, No. 10 The intention is to place up to 30 fuel cell powered cars in the region Sacramento, Orlando and Detriot, and build a hydrogen fueling station network to support them. BP will evaluate several technologies for hydrogen production, both near-term commercial feasible and future possibilities. Already by the end of this year the assembly of the fuel cell vehicles by Ford will begin. For more information see www.fuelcelltoday.com May 2004, No.
9 On May 3rd the Fuel Cell Marathon arranged by GM Europe (Opel) starts in Hammerfest, Norway. During this summer the fuel cell car, a HydroGen 3 (Opel Zaphira), will drive 10000 kilometers all the way to Portugal. On its way through Europe 14 exhibitions will be arranged to give information about fuel cell propulsion and the use of hydrogen as a source of hydrogen. For more information see www.gmeurope.com/marathon May 2004, No. 8 From April 19th to 24th the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Group Exhibit took place for the tenth time in Hannover. The over 100 exhibitors showed their latest developments in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells. Representatives from all application categories were present, showing portable, mobile as well as stationary systems and components. For more information see www.fair-pr.com and www.h2expo.de March 2004, No. 7 The European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin presented current and future key EU initiatives for a transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a hydrogen-based one at a conference in Brussels. In addition to the €500 million invested through the 6th EU Research Framework Program (FP6 2002-2006), an indicative €2.8 bn public and private funding is earmarked to the so called "Quick Start" initiative over the next ten years. For more information see www.forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/rtd/eurhydrofuelcellplat/library March 2004, No. 6 At the CeBIT in Hannover new portable fuel cells for longer operation of small electronic devices are presented. Both Toshiba and Smart Fuel Cell have further developed their prototype direct methanol fuel cell systems and are promising commercialisation in the near future. For more information see www.cebit.de and www.smartfuelcell.de March 2004, No. 5 200 hydrogen filling stations will be needed in order to fulfill the campaign promises of governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in California. The total costs for one station every 20 miles are estimated to 100 million dollars. At the same time President Bush has requested 227 million dollars for the Energy Department's hydrogen program for the year 2005. For more information see www.hfcletter.com March 2004, No. 4 Combined with the introduction of fuel cell buses in many countries, an acceptance study of the general public perception of hydrogen buses in public transport is performed. The selected cities are London, Luxembourg, Berlin, Perth and Oakland. In a preliminary report the need for more information about hydrogen and fuel cells is revealed. For more information see www.accepth2.com February 2004, No. 3 The German heating appliance manufacturer Vaillant has, together with Plug Power, started the testing of a virtual fuel cell power plant consisting of 31 units. Each unit supply 4.6 kW electrical power and 11 kW heat and are developed for residental and small commercial use. For more information see www.energie.de/bsznewsletterdokumente/Testing_Starts_for_31_Linked.pdf February 2004, No. 2 Both PolyFuel and Fujitsu Laboratories have announced a breakthrough in the membrane development for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). The main problem has been the crossover of methanol through the membrane, which leads to loss in cell voltage and loss of fuel. New membrane materials with improved properties will make it possible to operate portable DMFCs on a more concentrated methanol concentration. For more information see www.polyfuel.com/press_pr_011904.shtml and www.labs.fujitsu.com/en January 2004, No. 1 The German fuel cell company Smart Fuel Cell has received another 12 Mio Euro from investors to continue their work on portable DMFC systems. Their first commersially available system was introduced spring 2003. With this new funding Smart Fuel Cell will be able to focus even more on market introduction of portable DMFC technology For more information see www.smartfuelcell.de
December 2003, No. 5 The first European Portable Fuel Cell Study includes an overview of research and development activities in all European countries, a review of the portable fuel cell technology as well as information about financial support within the EU. The report can be ordered at service@freesen-partner.de. December 2003, No. 4 An agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and Ministers from the European Union about an international hydrogen partnership has been signed. The main goal is to coordinate hydrogen research and hydrogen technology development across the boarders. At the same time a collaboration between american, european and japanese fuel cell organisations whas been annonced. For more information see www.energy.gov and www.usfcc.com/Pressrelease.htm October 2003, No. 3 DaimlerChrysler delivered this month the first two hydrogen fuel cell buses within the frames of the European ECTOS project in Reykjavik. They will operate in daily city traffic for two years to demonstrate the use of fuel cells in public transportation system. The hydrogen filling station developed by Hydro Electrolysers in co-operation with Shell Hydrogen will supply the fuel. For more information see www.newenergy.is. October 2003, No. 2 Just after US-president Bush announcing a multi million dollar fuel cell program, the Canadian government strengthen their own hydrogen and fuel cell industry. Canada is recognized as one of the world leading countries in fuel cell technology, and with this new investment the government is focusing on more demonstrating units, cost reduction and to establish a hydrogen infrastructure. For more information see Fuel Cell Today. September 2003, No. 1 Swedens first hydrogen fuelling station was unveiled on September 11th in Malmö. The electrolyser unit was supplied by Stuart Energy Systems (Canada) to Sydkraft AB, and is powered by wind generated power. With a capacity of about 80 kg hydrogen per day, it will mainly provide hydrogen/natural gas to the city bus fleet. For more information see HyWeb.
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