FuelCellsWorks

The SME Education Foundation expanded their introduction to science and technology for 6th and 7th graders attending their Gateway Academy by allowing them to experience an advanced energy initiative – the development and installation of a fuel cell.

DEARBORN, Mich., —  The basics of fuel cell engineering now complements a summer technology camp offering robotics, aeronautics and computer design for 6th and 7th graders attending the Gateway Academy offered by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation being held this summer at Ballston Spa High School in Latham, N.Y.

This education outreach initiative is part of a major program recently announced by Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG), a leader in providing clean, reliable energy solutions, and National Grid an international natural gas and electric utility, in their selection of Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. as the host site for the first field-trial of Plug Power’s residential fuel cell, GenSys. Plug  Power’

StableFlow Technology Key to Maximizing Efficiency in Large Power Generators

WALLINGFORD, Conn. — Wallingford hydrogen-technology producer Proton Energy Systems (www.protonenergy.com) said today it earned a patent for its proprietary control system for regulating the purity and pressure of the hydrogen gas used to cool large electric power generators. Proton’s StableFlow system is a breakthrough product for electric power generators that actively controls purity and dew point, monitors pressure and, enables more efficient power production while also enhancing capacity and generator life.

“We are pleased that the U.S. Patent office has recognized the critical importance of the StableFlow hydrogen control system, which provides utilities the opportunity to improve the operating efficiency of their plants, creating major savings in fuel consumption and reduced CO2 emissions,” said Rob Friedland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Proton Energy Systems. “Our mission at Proton Energy is to apply our advanced hydrogen technology in creative and practical ways to deliver the most reliability, durability and savings for our customers. With this patent, we are committed to sharing this value with additional partners throughout the world.”

With this latest achievement, Proton Energy continues to lead the market in hydrogen innovation. Proton Energy is the world’s leading supplier of onsite hydrogen generators utilizing proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology, and combining Proton’s HOGEN generators with the StableFlow system provides a utility with full control over its hydrogen generating system – maximizing efficiency, cost and safety. Proton’s StableFlow system can save most plants an average of one megawatt per hour in windage losses per generator. A megawatt of power production is equivalent to $50-$100 an hour in electricity revenue to the average power plant and is equivalent to one ton of CO2 reduction per hour in stack emissions. StableFlow provides efficiency improvements to a plant’s power generators that effects both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions providing the plant with a very attractive return on investment.

The issuance of this recent patent adds to Proton’s growing strength in the power industry and demonstrates its commitment to remaining a key industry supplier of innovative solutions. Proton Energy’s commitment to innovation has also been recognized with several recent Department of Defense projects, developing Regenerative Fuel Cell Systems for backup power and creating advanced fueling systems capable of sustaining a military fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles.

For more information on Proton Energy Systems, visit www.ProtonEnergy.com.

About Proton Energy Systems

Proton Energy Systems designs and manufactures proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrochemical systems to make hydrogen from water in a zero pollution process producing safe, pure, reliable onsite hydrogen to meet today’s global hydrogen requirements. Proton Energy Systems has been developing and manufacturing world-class electrolysis systems since 1996, with more than 1500 units deployed world-wide, on every continent. With a reputation for building robust, reliable, and safe systems, federal, state, and commercial partners repeatedly seek the creative solutions that Proton Energy Systems has proven it is capable of delivering.

Website: http://www.protonenergy.com

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory have created a reversible route to generate aluminum hydride, a high capacity hydrogen storage material. This achievement is not only expected to accelerate the development of a whole class of storage materials, but also has far reaching applications in areas spanning energy technology and synthetic chemistry.

“We believe our research has provided a feasible route to regenerate aluminum hydride, a high capacity hydrogen storage material,” says Dr. Ragaiy Zidan of SRNL, lead researcher on the project. The SRNL team, supported by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, has developed a novel closed cycle for producing aluminum hydride (AlH3), also known as alane, that potentially offers a cost-effective method of regenerating the hydrogen storing material in a way that allows it to repeatedly release and recharge its hydrogen. In this process, the hydride is made via an electrochemical method, and the starting material is regenerated directly with hydrogen. Although many attempts have been made in the past to make alane electrochemically, none of these previous attempts were totally successful.

For years, one of the major obstacles to the realization of the hydrogen economy is hydrogen storage. Solid-state storage, using solid materials such as metals that absorb hydrogen and release it as needed, has many safety and practicality advantages over storing hydrogen as a liquid or gas, and many storage materials have been examined trying to meet DOE’s goals. Several materials have been discovered that have met or exceeded the DOE gravimetric and/or volumetric performance targets. Of those, however, the majority do not have the required thermodynamic and kinetic properties that allow them to release their hydrogen when needed, and be efficiently and economically reloaded with hydrogen when spent.

Alane possesses the desired qualities, but had been considered impractical because of the high pressures required to combine hydrogen and aluminum to reform the hydride material. Alternate methods of production using chemical synthesis have typically produced stable metal chloride byproducts that make it practically impossible to regenerate the alane. The electrochemical cycle demonstrated by Dr. Zidan and the SRNL team for production of alane avoids both of these issues.

In conjunction with this research, the SRNL team discovered novel ways to facilitate separation and formation of aluminum hydride that also apply to the formation of other complex metal hydrides and have the potential to cost-effectively regenerate other high capacity hydrogen storage materials. The SRNL results are expected to accelerate the development of a whole class of similar materials needed for hydrogen, batteries and other energy storage applications.

In addition, this work will significantly impact other fields including those of thin films, adduct based syntheses, and the recycling and regeneration of other materials.

The research is reported in an article published in Chem. Commun., 2009, 3717�, a publication of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The work was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

SRNL has a long history of successful research and development in the field of hydrogen storage methods, an outgrowth of the Laboratory’s decades of support for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium mission. Tritium is the radioactive form of hydrogen used in national defense.

SRNL is DOE’s applied research and development national laboratory at the Savannah River Site (SRS). SRNL puts science to work to support DOE and the nation in the areas of environmental management, national and homeland security, and energy security. The management and operating contractor for SRS and SRNL is Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC.

Next month a Volvo Penta subsidiary will hire around 60 people in an entirely new plant in Gothenburg, Sweden to manufacturer an environmentally friendly electrical power generator for powerboats and over-the-road trucks. The new system will use hydrogen and it will replace diesel generating systems putting out from 5 kw to 15 kw. That means it will be applicable to powerboats from about 25’ to 45’ – the heart of the diesel and gas generator market for companies such as Onan, Westerbeke and Kohler. The new system appears to have few, if any, moving parts and will therefore eliminate the annoying noise and vibration that current diesel-powered generators produce. Volvo says the emissions are a big improvement over current diesel generation technology. The big news here is that the new Volvo system does not have to wait for hydrogen “stations” to be set up around the country, as its new unit will simply make its own hydrogen gas out of conventional fuels, including ethanol, biomass, alcohol, biodiesel.

Volvo Penta’s new system “reforms” hydrocarbons creating hydrogen which creates electrical current in a “fuel cell stack.” No noise, vibration, CO, or worries–

For now, we will have to be content with using this new technology as a replacement for a boat’s generator, not its primary engines. That day is still a long way off. Nevertheless, the silent creation of on-board electricity is compelling. Typically generators in the 5 kw to 15 kw range cost from about $8k to $20k depending on the mark-ups of your boat yard.

The new system is a technological leap forward for the marine industry.

Benefits of the New Generator

So long as the price is competitive, this new Volvo Penta product should get a warm reception from all boaters using generators in this range, particularly from yachtsmen that are used to having a second generator as a back up to the first.

Further, the difficult problem of matching the load to the generator will be eliminated by this new system obviating the need for both a large generator and a small one, the second one often called a “night” generator. Boats now carrying an artificial loading device will no longer need that.

The new system is lighter, smaller, can use the nooks and crannies in an engine room or lazarette. Moreover, since diesel fuel will not be sent through injectors the worry about filtration is eliminated. In addition the unit will have zero CO emissions and other emissions will be less than current SOTA diesel generators.

Hydrogen fuel cell stacks have been around for years.

Even though the new device can burn ecologically friendly substances, it is expected that most people will simply to use the same diesel fuel for the new hydrogen system as they do for their main engines. The company has not yet announced when products will be commercially available or even weather they will be sold to the aftermarket in the beginning.

According to the company the first fully operational APUs (auxiliary power units) will be shipped in 2012. Separate sales of fuel cells will begin in 2010.

Drawing of a reformer.

From the Press Release, Swedish Powercell Website, and other sources–

Sweden’s Volvo Group has teamed up with the Swedish Energy Agency, Midroc New Technology and OCAS to invest SEK 200m ($26.2 million) in the development of Volvo’s fuel cell technology. Powercell Sweden AB has two patented components: a fuel converter (reformer) and a PEM fuel cell – the type of fuel cell most often used in transport applications

Who’s Owns Who?

Midroc New Technology, a part of Midroc Europe, develops and invests in future technologies within Clean Tech and BioMed. Midroc is owned by Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi who among other companies owns Preem Petroleum, Swedish Petroleum Exploration and Västra Hamnen Funds. OCAS is an advanced market-driven material research center based in Belgium. OCAS’ part in the investment is taken up by its sister company, the investment fund Finindus.

Volvo Penta will be a minority owner of the new company.

“We are immediately going to start hiring qualified people for production, product development, marketing and sales”, says Per Wassén, CEO pf Powercell Sweden.

How it Works

The company says that its new fuel cell resembles a small battery. It is charged with hydrogen gas and converts this into electricity, water and carbon dioxide through a chemical reaction. The areas of use can be power supply units for households, trucks, boats, radio masts in remote locations and electric hybrid vehicles. Compared with normal diesel or gas-powered engines, fuel cells produce significantly less carbon dioxide and no emissions at all of particulates and nitrogen oxides. In addition, they are more efficient, smaller and lighter.

Company Intentions

Fuel cell products have an enormous potential to be a main source of electrical power, replacing several existing technologies. Powercell´s mission is to provide the market with environmentally friendly fuel cell based systems that provide electrical power (www.powercell.se).

System Offering

The core behind Powercell´s product is the system solution around an exclusively patented fuel cell technology and fuel reforming technology.

An Environmental Friendly Power Generator

In order to resolve the issue of hydrogen accessibility, the electrical power generator from Powercell operates on commercial fuels and is based on two main sub-systems; the Fuel Processor and the Fuel Cell stack.

Fuel Processor – the Hydrogen Generator

Powercell has developed a Fuel Processor, protected by patents, which converts, ethanol, biogas, DME, methanol, propane standard grade diesel or gasoline into hydrogen used to fuel the fuel cell system.

Fuel Cell Stack – Produces Electrical Power

The patented Fuel Cell stack from Powercell is a PEM -based fuel cell– which is today the most common technology used in automotive applications. The core of our technology is the unique cell design which allows for the production of highly robust fuel cell’s. The cell can work on reformate as well as clean H2.

System – The Power Generator

The generator from Powercell is superior to existing automotive and marine APU (auxiliary power unit) based generators with respect to emission, noise, cycle efficiency, size and weight. Main characteristics are: – Emission levels – generates electricity with zero emissions of CO, NOx and particulates. – High fuel efficiency and reliability, with a lighter and smaller system. – Fuel flexibility – diesel, ethanol, biogas, DME, methanol, propane, gasoline and others – Increased customer comfort level – reduced noise, smell and emission levels.

The Two Primary Markets

For the APU two main market segments in the transport industry are focused, the Marine leisure segment and the Truck market.

For the Marine leisure market segment the customer need electrical power and the existing solution, diesel engine based generators, has a lot of negative characteristics as un-healthy emissions, high sound levels, vibrations and smells. Features of a fuel cell generator handles and effecting the perception of all the negative aspects of the existing product.

The Truck APU market segment is driven by the need of environmental friendly power generators (APUs), mainly by anti-idling legislation in North America. All sleeper cab trucks need power during rest for comfort loads as air condition, TV and to the kitchen.

Product Development and Sales

Initially sales of separate fuel cell packages to other applications will take place. Substantial contracts for such applications are under negotiations.

Powercell is now focusing to meet the following main milestones;

- Separate sales of fuel cell will start 2010.
- First complete APU product to market in 2012.

The US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development approved Fiscal Year 2010 funding legislation that, among other elements, would provide $27.398 billion for the Department of Energy—$1.109 billion below the President’s budget request—including $190 million for the continuation of the Hydrogen R&D program, which the administration had terminated.

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