FuelCellsWorks

• A cooperative project of the companies OMV, Linde, and Daimler subsidized by the State of Baden-Württemberg
• A hydrogen filling station with new filling technology for enhanced user-friendliness and extended operating range
• Use of hydrogen in fuel cell technology for environment-friendly vehicle generations

Stuttgart – On the site of the OMV service station at Stuttgart Airport, OMV in cooperation with Linde AG and Daimler AG will be opening Baden-Württemberg’s first publicly accessible hydrogen filling station on June 17, 2009. This successful cooperation between the participating companies is subsidized by the State of Baden-Württemberg. The project is centered on the use of hydrogen as an environment-friendly energy medium. Hydrogen filling stations represent an important step toward reducing dependence on fossil fuels in the long term and coming a step closer to emission-free sustainable mobility. The innovative hydrogen filling station will serve fuel cell vehicles of the latest generation, such as the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL, with 700-bar high-pressure technology. Small-series production of this vehicle is to commence later this year in Germany.

The proximity of the OMV service station to Stuttgart Airport – a major transport hub – and to Daimler AG’s research and development centers, together with the cooperative contact between the two companies, is providing the basis for the establishment of Baden-Württemberg’s first publicly accessible hydrogen filling station. Within the framework of a public-private partnership, the hydrogen station will provide an important impulse for a future supply network for this state, thus supporting the operation of locally emission-free electric vehicles on the basis of fuel cell technology.

“The development of new drive technologies is crucial to Baden-Württemberg’s automotive industry and will ensure that it can emerge with renewed strength from the current crisis and participate in the race for international technological leadership. Hydrogen technology plays a decisive role here. By entering the field of hydrogen technology we are protecting natural resources, while at the same time reducing our dependence on the import of fossil fuels. This initiative is a key component of Baden-Württemberg’s sustainability strategy: Through future-proof energy utilization we are promoting environment-friendly and thus sustainable mobility,” said Baden-Württemberg’s Minister-President Günther H. Oettinger of the joint project. The state was therefore supporting this project with the sum of 800,000 euros from the program “Zukunftsoffensive Baden-Württemberg” (Baden-Württemberg’s Campaign for the Future), Oettinger continued.

As a leading gas supplier and the world’s largest manufacturer of hydrogen facilities, Linde has a wealth of expertise throughout the hydrogen value creation chain – from hydrogen production to filling technology. This company, the world’s pre-eminent outfitter of hydrogen filling stations, distributes filling technology in 15 countries. The new hydrogen station at Stuttgart Airport incorporates ion-compressor technology developed by Linde. With this new compression process, cars and electric buses powered by fuel cells can be refueled within a matter of minutes – just like vehicles powered by conventional internal combustion engines – with hydrogen at a pressure of either 350 or 700 bar. The gaseous hydrogen is also supplied by Linde AG. Operation with hydrogen produces only electrical energy along with water vapor. No hydrocarbons or sulfur oxides are generated – and not even carbon dioxide (CO2), which arises during combustion of fossil fuels. Hydrogen as a fuel for automotive drive technologies is free of emissions detrimental to the climate and to the environment in both its production from regenerative energy media and in its transformation into electricity. “As the pioneer of hydrogen technology we have a particular responsibility to press ahead toward hydrogen-based sustainable mobility,” said Dr. Aldo Belloni, member of the Board of Management of Linde AG. “Establishing the infrastructure for this future-oriented energy medium calls for a concerted effort among the partners involved. We are delighted to have realized a filling station concept of the latest generation together with OMV. With our newly developed 700-bar technology, vehicles can be refueled rapidly, safely, and in a user-friendly manner.”

“Our fuel cell vehicles have already demonstrated their suitability for everyday operation. To turn emission-free driving into reality, we now need a comprehensive network of hydrogen filling stations,” said Dr. Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG with responsibility for Group research and Mercedes-Benz Cars development. “We therefore wholeheartedly welcome and support the initiative of OMV.” Daimler already presented the first fuel cell vehicle in 1994; the Group has since invested more than a billion euros in fuel cell development. With more than 100 test vehicles and around 4.4 million kilometers covered, the Stuttgart carmaker has one of the largest fuel cell fleets in the world. The start of small-series production of the B-Class F-CELL, planned for 2009, is now continuing the success story of this drive concept.

OMV operates around 400 filling stations in Germany, with a clear focus on the south of the country with the two states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, along with further filling stations in the states of Thuringia and Saxony. The hydrogen filling station project at Stuttgart Airport is the first of its kind in Germany for OMV. “OMV is already intensively dealing today with the mobility of tomorrow. In our function as energy providers we have a responsibility with regard to the fuels of the future. Hydrogen, currently in the development and testing phase, is one of the possible alternatives for the mobility of the future,” said Dr. Gerhard Roiss, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of OMV Aktiengesellschaft. “We are therefore very happy to be able to support Daimler’s research and development activities with our new hydrogen filling station, together with the State of Baden-Württemberg.” The project is being supported by the OMV Future Energy Fund, established in June 2006 as an independent organization for the financial support of projects for renewable energy forms, with a contribution of more than 100 million euros. With HyCentA (Hydrogen Center Austria), a further project of OMV with headquarters on the campus of the Technical University of Graz, the energy supplier has long since been gathering invaluable experience in the future-oriented field of research and development with hydrogen technology.

Further background information
Hydrogen production:
The hydrogen required for the filling station is generated in the so-called steam reforming process: In the steam reformer hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide are initially produced at high temperatures from natural gas and water vapor in a reactor. In the following stage, steam is added to convert the carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

The hydrogen fuel derived by this means already leads to CO2 savings of up to 30 percent, as compared with modern diesel vehicles (basis of comparison 120 g CO2/km). Nevertheless, in the medium to long term, there will be no substitute for hydrogen production from renewable energy sources. The Linde Group is currently carrying out intensive work on innovative solutions for sustainable hydrogen production. An important step towards the marketable production of regenerative hydrogen has been reached with a new process for deriving hydrogen from biogenic raw materials. For this purpose Hydromotive GmbH, a subsidiary of the Linde Group, will establish a demonstration unit for the production of hydrogen from glycerin in the chemical town of Leuna in the middle of this year. Glycerin, a byproduct arising in the manufacture of biodiesel, can thereby be put to practical use. The hydrogen generated by this means makes for carbon dioxide savings of up to 90 percent as compared with a conventional drive unit.

Further approaches to regenerative production, such as hydrogen production from wind and solar energy through electrolysis, or biochemical and thermochemical generation from algae, are also being pursued by the Linde Group; these are promising prospects as long as the local conditions are appropriate.

In a project not connected with Linde, the State of Baden-Württemberg has also promoted the development of gasification technology and will be subsidizing a demonstration unit near Geislingen as of 2010. In this unit, biomass – for example scrap wood – is gasified in the AER (absorption-enhanced reforming) process to yield a gas with a very high hydrogen content.

Fuel cell operation:
The B-Class F-CELL is fitted with a fuel cell drive unit of the latest generation and is thus both far more compact and more powerful than previous fuel cell systems. The newly devised stack, although around 40 percent smaller, has a 30 percent higher output; with a 16 percent lower consumption, this unit is highly efficient. The B-Class F-CELL also has favorable cold-starting ability. This is made possible by innovations such as the electric turbocharger for air supply and the new moisturizing and demoisturizing systems. The electric motor develops a peak output of 100 kW/136 hp and a maximum torque of 320 newton-meters. The B-Class F-CELL thus fulfills high driving dynamic requirements that exceed the level of a two-liter gasoline car, and attains an operating range of up to 400 kilometers.

The functional principle of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC):
The fuel cell is a galvanic cell that converts the reaction energy of an introduced fuel (e.g. hydrogen) and an oxidant (e.g. atmospheric oxygen) into electrical energy. A fuel cell is not an energy storage medium like an accumulator battery, but an energy converter. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell normally uses hydrogen as an energy medium and attains an efficiency factor of around 60 percent. The key element of the PEMFC is a polymer membrane that is permeable only to protons (H+ ions), the so-called proton exchange membrane (PEM). The oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, is thus spatially separated from the reducing agent, hydrogen. The fuel, in this case hydrogen, is catalytically oxidized at the anode and releases electrons to form hydrogen ions (protons), which pass through the ion exchange membrane into the chamber with the oxidant. The electrons flow out of the fuel cell via an electrical consumer, e.g. an electric motor, to the cathode. At the cathode the oxidant, in this case oxygen, on binding the electrons is reduced to anions, which react directly with the hydrogen ions (protons) to produce water. Along with electrical energy this reaction also generates heat, which can be used for example to heat the vehicle.

The hydrogen filling station structure in Germany:
The establishment of a public hydrogen infrastructure is crucial to the successful introduction of hydrogen-powered vehicles. The first centers (“clusters”), such as those in Berlin and Hamburg, have already been established. Of the currently almost 30 hydrogen stations in Germany, six are integrated into public filling station operations. Germany is thus the European pioneer. The cooperative project being carried out at Stuttgart Airport’s OMV filling station is now Germany’s seventh publicly accessible hydrogen station and the first in the State of Baden-Württemberg.

Operation of public hydrogen filling stations will only become economically viable once a sufficient number of hydrogen-powered vehicles are on the roads. Achieving a broad-based market introduction and establishing a public infrastructure will require a coordinated, cooperative, and long-term three-stage approach involving all interest groups.

First: Focused cluster formation – demand-based grouping in urban areas for technically and economically appropriate capacity utilization. Five to ten filling stations are already sufficient to cover the initial requirements of a large city.

Second: Corridors – connecting the urban clusters by means of corridors along the main arteries. Here too, initial plans have been drawn up, e.g. for linking the Berlin and Hamburg H2 clusters along the autobahn.

Third: Comprehensive area coverage.

The corporations
OMV Aktiengesellschaft
With Group sales of EUR 25.54 bn and a workforce of 41,282 employees in 2008, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. As the leading energy group in the European growth belt, OMV is active in Refining and Marketing (R&M) in 13 countries. In Exploration and Production (EP) OMV is active in 17 countries on four continents. In Gas & Power (GP) OMV sells approximately 13 bcm gas per year. Via Baumgarten, one of the most important turntables for gas in Europe, approximately 66 bcm gas is transported annually. OMV’s Central European Gas Hub is amongst the three largest hubs in Continental Europe.

OMV is the leading energy group in the European growth beltwith oil and gas reserves of approximately. 1.2 bn boe, daily production of around 308,000 boe and an annual refining capacity of approximately. 26 mn t. OMV now has 2,477 filling stations in 13 countries. The market share of the group in the R&M business segment in the Danube Region is now 20%.

OMV further strengthened its leading position in the European growth belt through the acquisition of 41.58% of Petrol Ofisi, Turkey’s leading company in the retail and commercial business.

In June 2006, OMV has established the OMV Future Energy Fund, a wholly owned subsidiary to support projects in renewable energy with more than EUR 100 mn to initiate the change from a pure oil and gas group to an energy group with renewable energy in its portfolio.

Daimler AG
Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler AG, with its businesses Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks, Daimler Financial Services, Mercedes-Benz Vans and Daimler Buses, is a globally leading producer of premium passenger cars and is the global market leader for heavy- and medium-duty trucks and buses. The Daimler Financial Services division has a broad offering of financial services, including vehicle financing, leasing, insurance and fleet management. Daimler sells its products in nearly every country and has production facilities on five continents. Founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, continued to make automotive history following their invention of the automobile in 1886. As an automotive pioneer, Daimler and its employees willingly accept an obligation to act responsibly towards society and the environment and to shape the future of safe and sustainable mobility with groundbreaking technologies and high-quality products. The current brand portfolio includes the world’s most valuable automobile brand, Mercedes-Benz, as well as smart, AMG, Maybach, Freightliner, Western Star, Mitsubishi Fuso, Setra, Orion and Thomas Built Buses. The company is listed on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt, New Yorkand Stuttgart(stock exchange abbreviation DAI). In 2008, the Group sold 2.1 million vehicles and employed a workforce of over 270,000 people; revenue totaled €95.9 billion and EBIT amounted to €2.7 billion. Daimler is an automotive Group with a commitment to excellence, and aims to achieve sustainable growth and industry-leading profitability.

For more information, see Daimler online at www.media.daimler.com
Linde Group
The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with almost 52,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2008 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.7 billion. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards sustainable earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services. Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development. For more information, see The Linde Group online at http://www.linde.com

The high cost of manufacturing fuel cells makes their large-scale production for power generation next to impossible, but researchers at Arizona State University are working to change that so cars, electricity and much more can run on the “green” technology.

Engineering technology professor Arunachalanadar Madakannan (Kannan) has been studying the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) for more than eight years. The fuel cells Kannan and his graduate students are focusing on employ carbon nanotube-based catalysts and electrodes.

Fuels cells, which cleanly and quietly generate electric power by passing fuels like hydrogen over one electrode while passing air over a second electrode, have been around for more than 100 years. But their development has long been dogged by costs of the technology as well as safety concerns.

Kannan said PEMFC fuel cells have layers of electrode and electrolyte components. In a PEMFC, the cell is made up of an hydrogen-based anode (positive) terminal and oxygen-based cathode (negative) terminal, with carbon-particle supported platinum acting as a catalyst (electrode) to produce power. While fuel cells produce electrical energy, the only waste generated is water, so it’s considered a very clean energy conversion system.

Scientists have been honing fuel cell technology since its inception, but, even after more than a century, the cost of producing fuel cells remains high because of the platinum-based catalysts.

“Platinum is the most effective electrocatalyst and a good conductor of electricity in fuel cells, but the cost is so prohibitive that we have not yet been able to use fuel cells widely,” says Kannan, an associate professor in the College of Technology and Innovation at ASU’s Polytechnic campus.

Kannan is working to create lower cost PEMFCs by directly growing carbon nanotubes on carbon paper substrates, otherwise known as the gas diffusion layer, rather than spherical carbon particles and then deposit platinum nanoparticles onto the surface of the nanotubes. This innovative approach allows for the use of less platinum, without impacting energy efficiency.

“This modified process saves about 10 to 15 percent of the cost compared to what exists today, without sacrificing any power output,” says Kannan.

During his research, Kannan was evaluating the performance of several different materials, measuring power output and efficiency along the way.

“The carbon nanotube-based electrode is more efficient because it has a greater surface area,” says Kannan, “which allows for less platinum to be needed. In addition, the electrodes also perform extremely well under lower relative humidity, which will ultimately reduce the fuel cell system complexity.”

Kannan co-authored three papers on the topic, which were all recently published in the Journal of Power Sources as well as the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

In addition, ASU and Helsinki University of Technology along with VTT in Finland have entered into a project regarding an advanced material solution for PEMFCs. Currently ASU graduate student Chad Mason is in Finland testing and improving the performance of the gas diffusion layer materials, while lowering costs and increasing manufacturability.

“The next step is to make the development of the gas diffusion layer continuous, rather than a batch process, so that it can be commercially viable,” says Kannan. “Chad’s work overseas will allow us to move in this direction. We believe that PEM fuel cells will become commercially viable in a decade or so and help us move toward a hydrogen economy.”

Jadoo Power Systems Inc. has received a patent for a “forced air fuel cell power system,” the company announced Tuesday.

The patent extends the company’s existing patent protection on the system, which generates electricity for longer periods of time than conventional batteries.

The Folsom company makes fuel cells for emergency backup power supplies and defense equipment.

“The patent is one of many power system design configurations we have made over the years to provide real world operational advantages to meet our customers’ needs,” Mack Knobbe, Jadoo Power’s vice president of engineering, said in a news release. “We continue to make innovations to our power system technology as advancements in the industry deliver new materials to reduce size, improve efficiencies and provide paths for cost reduction.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has recently published a second report on its evaluation of a fuel cell bus in service at CTTRANSIT in Hartford, Connecticut.  This report provides an update to the previous report (October 2008) and includes results from January 2008 through February 2009.

This report is focused on performance results for CTTRANSIT’s prototype fuel cell bus since the installation of a new fuel cell power system.  This version incorporates lessons learned from the early phase of the demonstration.  Data are included from three new diesel buses operating from the same bus depot as a baseline comparison.  During this 14-month data collection period, CTTRANSIT operated the fuel cell bus over 24,000 miles in service with an overall fuel economy of 4.7 miles per kg (13.14 kg/100km), which equates to 5.3 miles per diesel equivalent gallon.  For comparison, CTTRANSIT’s diesel buses had an average fuel economy of 3.66 miles per gallon during that same timeframe.

To download the document, go to:
http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/pdfs/45670-1.pdf for the evaluation results
and
http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/pdfs/45670-2.pdf for the Appendices.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A hydrogen fuel plant being built at Yeager Airport should be open this summer.

Members of the Kanawha County Commission are expected to get an update on the hydrogen fuel generation plant at a regular meeting Thursday. Officials for the federal Department of Energy are developing the plant to create hydrogen fuel by passing electricity through water.

“When I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke,” said Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper. “But that’s what’s going to happen.”

Terry Sayre, assistant director of Yeager Airport, said airport officials have been talking with U.S. Department of Energy officials about the fuel plant for about a year. The plant is being built on a quarter-acre of land near the Federal Aviation Authority building on Eagle Mountain Road.

Sayre said the federal government is footing the bill for the plant, which will use coal-fired electricity from the John Amos power plant to create hydrogen from water supplied by West Virginia American Water Co. The hydrogen fuel will be used to power several vehicles used at the airport, and others used by the nearby West Virginia Air National Guard.

“This is one of their pilot projects for the eastern part of the United States,” Sayre said. “We’re pretty excited about getting it going.”

Sayre said airport officials will talk with officials for the Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority about getting a hydrogen-powered bus to take advantage of the fuel plant, and to officials in the county and city of Charleston about operating hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

Eventually, federal officials plan to turn the plant over to a private business owner and make hydrogen fuel available to the public. Federal officials believe the plant can produce hydrogen fuel for the equivalent of about $2.10 per gallon for conventional gasoline.

Sayre said construction should be finished on the plant by the end of August.

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