Hydrogen News

Filling Station Berlin

A second hydrogen filling station was opened on 12. November in Berlin. A fleet of 16 experimental cars is waiting for the clean fuel. The filling station belongs to an existing Aral station near the fair ground and is part of the project CEP Berlin („Clean Energy Partnership“). Partners of the latter are the Federal government and the industrial companies Aral, BMW, Berlin Transport Utility (BVG), DaimlerChrysler, Ford, GM/Opel, Hydro/GHW, Linde, and Vattenfall Europe. Vattenfall provides green electricity for producing hydrogen. Gaseous hydrogen (GH₂) is made on site by means of a Norsk Hydro water electrolyser and compressed to 350 bar by a Linde compressor. DaimlerChrysler and Ford vehicles can then be filled up with compressed hydrogen gas (CGH₂). Liquid hydrogen (LH₂) is available at the dispensers as well. It is produced and liquefied by Linde (-253 °C) and delivered to the filling station by truck. LH₂ fuel is for BMW cars with a converted Otto engine and for the Opel fuel cell cars.

Federal Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe and the secretaries of state Margareta Wolf (environment) and Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch (economy) were present for the opening ceremony. Stolpe said: „What makes the CEP project significant is ... in particular the common committment of federal government and industry for a future oriented mobility". The federation supports innovative sustainable transport technology and the market introduction of vehicles which do not emit carbon dioxide as well as the installation of a hydrogen infrastructure, he said. „This demonstration project shows that it is possible today to use hydrogen driven vehicles in normal road traffic and to fuel them safely and quickly." And the initiative already develops a gravitational effect: before the end of 2004 TOTAL Germany is expected to join, and 2005 a second public station of this kind will be opened in Berlin.

With some technical help the joint group of cabinet members even succeeded to fill up a gas vehicle provided by Ford as well as a liquid hydrogen BMW.

Filling Station Washington

The USA as well have now a hydrogen filling station forming a part of a normal public filling station. It is in Washington (D. C.) at a Shell station at Benning Road in the northeast of the city. The site was of course selected due to the presence of parliament, government, and authorities the members of which can be invited to a little trip if they can not be persuaded otherwise. A total of six cars is available.

The station is a joint project of Shell and General Motors. Jeremy Bentham (apart from being head of Shell Hydrogen he is also an important person in the European hydrogen and fuel cell technology platform) underlined the PR function of the station and showed himself optimistic for the future. Starting in 2015 the mass market could be conquered, by 2020 there could be 5 to 10 millions of such cars on the road, and 50 million by 2030. The potential exists, even if the beginnings appear to be rather modest. But hydrogen is now about where cell phones were around 1980: the infrastructure was not quite right and the cell phones were big. But look at it now.

General Motors vize president Larry Burns said during the opening that his company hopes to develop a hydrogen-fueled vehicle to compete with a gasoline-fueled vehicle by 2010. Adding enough hydrogen pumps for low-pollution fuel-cell cars and trucks at U.S. gasoline stations would cost about 12 G$ (9 G€). That amount might be needed to place pumps at 12,000 stations in U.S. cities and along major highways.

Stuttgart

Just one year after the start of the three hydrogen buses in the framework of the CUTE project the he Stuttgart transport utility announced a very positive intermediate result. Every bus was used for 16 hours on five days a week, resulting in 1350 operating hours. The reliability was better than expected. Trips happened only in the start phase, and they had to do with the classical electrical installation, not with hydrogen and fuel cells. Maintenance of the buses is done in a quite normal workshop where nobody is excited about them any more. Fuel supply works very well also. Initially the responsibles had expected some problems because the hilly topography of Stuttgart with its many slopes is considered as difficult place for buses. Since everything went so well, however, the expectations are enhanced. Since mid-December the buses operate on a line more than twice as long with slopes of up to 8,5 % (earlier: 6 %).

Safety

Are hydrogen cars bombs on wheels, or can you enter them with a good conscience? The german motor club ADAC made experiments with natural gas cars; the results can be transferred to hydrogen very well. The natural gas version of an Opel Zafira was subjected to a frontal crash at 64 km/h. The gas tanks remained undamaged as well as the lines. The same result was found in case of a side impact. Afterwards the car was set on fire, even though such a case is very uncommon in real life. This experiment as well yielded posivite results: after a few minutes the melting fuses reacted, and the gas simply burnt. The judgement of the testers: there is no explosion danger with such a car either, and it is not more dangerous than a gas or Diesel model.

Endurance test

Fuel cell cars underwent an endurance test over 24 hours for the first time. Three F-Cell by DaimlerChrysler paced a Spanish test course and stopped only for refilling. An average speed of 120 km/h resulted in a total of 8500 km. No problems were reported.

Takeover

Hydrogenics Corporation from Mississauga (Ontario) has presented a takeover offer to the shareholders of Stuart Energy Systems Corporation in agreement with the board of the latter. Hydrogenics works generally in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells while Stuart has a leading position in the development of electrolyzers. The deal has a volume of about 100 M€. Both partners are active internationally, also in Germany.

Fuel Cells

New Home

A new building for the Fuel Cell Education Center Ulm (WBZU) was opened on 8. November in Ulm. Members of professions which have a close relationship to the fuel cell technology can attend courses here. This happens with a lot of committment, just look up the WBZU announcements in our event calendar. The new house comprises a laboratory wing with seven laboratories as well as two lecture rooms for up to 150 persons. There is also a workshop, room for the administration, and a library.

Alliance

The German Fuel Cell Alliance („Brennstoffzellenbündnis Deutschland“, BZB) went public on 14. Dezember in Berlin. 20 leading associations and initiatives from the fuel cell field work together. Among them are the working group BERTA at the federal ministry for economy and employment, headed by Prof. Juergen Garche (ZSW / WBZU / DWV), the hydrogen strategy circle from the same ministry, and the state fuel cell initiatives from Lower Saxony, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westfalia, Bavaria, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Baden-Wuerttemberg.

During a press conference the alliance made an appeal to politics to support them in the competition in the fuel cell field with stronger industrial and political support. The german fuel cell activities need political help, and soon. Only improved coordination and effective, time limited, and degressive market introduction instruments can push innovations forward and realize cost drops. At the same time the budgets for research, development, and field tests must be enhanced, and the presence of Germany in EU projects must be improved.

Japan and the USA invest massively in research, development, and market introduction. Stationary plants with a total power of 2.1 GW are to be installed in Japan by 2010, as well as 50.000 vehicles. South Korea and Canada as well have strategies and work on realizing them to be at the front of this key technology of the 21. century.

German companies have a good starting position for a successful market introduction of fuel cells in all application fields. Professor Juergen Garche, DWV board member, declared: „Producers, suppliers, and research institutes from Germany are pioneers in all fields: from the industrial application over home energy stations and transport to portable applications. Market introduction strategies must be realized with targeted instruments to prevail in international competition. A fuel cell offensive in Germany sets a politival sign for producers, suppliers, and appliers to invest further in this future technology.“

Buses for the championship

Three cities in North Rhine-Westfalia will see matches of the football world championship 2006, namely Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund, and Cologne. Fuel cell buses will operate at all three places. The buses for 30 passengers will be developed by Hydrogenics Enkat GmbH from Gelsenkirchen, a subsidiary of Hydrogenics Corporation from Canada. 566 k€ are funded by the state.

(Press release of the ministry for transport, energy, and land planning of 19. November 2004)

Award

On 7. December PEMEAS Fuel Cell Technologies, producer of high temperature MEAs for PEM fuel cells, received the „Red Herring Top 100 Innovators Award 2004" as one of the internationally leading and innovative technology companies. PEMEAS, which traces its history back to the former Hoechst company, is one of only five european companies which received the award. The new membranes permit operating PEM fuel cells in a much broader range of temperatures than before. This makes them cheaper and more reliable than conventional systems.

(PEMEAS press release of 7. December 2004)

Energy and Climate

Arctic

Yes, we know that the arctic area is warming up and that the ice recedes. But what is alarming are the recent results just how fast this happens. 250 scientists from eight countries found that the arctic area warms up twice as fast as the rest of the world. The ice cap around the pole has receded by 15 to 20 % during the last 30 years. If the process continues like this the arctic land areas could be completely free of ice during the summer at the end of the century. In 1000 years the arctic ice could have vanished completely, rising the sea level by 7 m. There would be no more permafrost; buildings and roads would sink in the ground. The existence of the ice bear would probably be impossible. Wide coast areas all over the world would be flooded.

(Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Report, in the web under www.acia.uaf.edu)

Partly guilty

Nobody is really surprised to learn that man bears a good part of the responsibility for extreme weather events like the heat wave of the summer 2003. But so far it appeared to be more or less impossible to nail down the share of man at an individual event. British climatologists say that they have achieved just this. They report in Nature that there be a probability of more that 90 % that the hot summer of 2003 was not by chance but that man contributed more than 50 % to it by the anthropogenic green house effect. Additionally the environmental pollution by green house gases has more then doubled the risk of extreme heat waves.

Politics

Low expectations

The Federal Transport Ministry has reduced its expectations for the market share of natural gas as fuel. Its share of the total fuel consumption is unlikely to be more than 4 % in 2020, compared with 0.08 % now. The target of the European Commission of 10 % in 2020 is not realistic either. Natural gas has a chance in certain niche markets, like taxis, but not as fuel for the broad mass. One reason against it is the „low vehicle efficiency“. And natural gas does not solve the CO₂ problem. The environment ministry shares the view that the EU target of 10 % market share in 2020 is „very ambitious“. The potential be „rather in a range between two and ten percent“, said a spokesman. The federal government bases the new figures on a future scenario made by an expert group „Fuel Matrix “.

(Der Tagesspiegel, 15. November 2004)

Cooperation

North Rhine-Westfalia and California will cooperate closely for climate protection. Axel Horstmann, state minister for energy and transport, and Dr. Alan Lloyd, charged with climate protection by Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed an agreement on technical and economical cooperation for the reduction of climate effective exhaust gases on 17. November in Sacramento. The focus is on cooperation for the development of the fuel cell and the improved use of hydrogen.

Further reading

European Portable Fuel Cell Study

This Study was made by Fraunhoferinstitut fuer Solare Energiesysteme (Freiburg), Freesen & Partner, and VDI/VDE-IT. It gives an overview over the research and development activities in portable fuel cell technology in Europe. It can be obtained on CD in German or English. More under www.freesen.de/study or Tel. (+49-2802) 948484-0.

What else we have found ...

Canned Energy

Where can I buy a fuel cell? People ask us this occasionally. Answer, if you live in Canada: in many supermarkets and at filling stations. The US company World Wrestling Entertainment sells a product under the name „Raw Energy Fuel Cell“, which might raise wrong expectations in energy experts. The description underlines the guarana content and the refreshing taste. Yes, it is a refreshing drink with enhanced coffein content. Normal people know this under the name „Energy Drink“.

Remark: Yes, when you gulp this down quite a lot of electrochemistry will start working in your guts. Has anybody ever obtained the rights for the name „fuel cell “?