FuelCellsWorks

The Company reports that the core design of the natural gas fuel cell system to be delivered
under the Supply Agreement, which incorporates IdaTech’s proprietary fuel reforming
technology, has been completed. Additionally, IdaTech has achieved a significant cost
reduction in this design through numerous technical achievements and by establishing a
highly competitive supply chain. However, the development timeline has taken longer than
originally planned, as it has taken longer for certain component development and to build
the supply chain which is more geographically spread than originally envisaged and now
spans India, China, North America and Europe. Accordingly the fuel cell system will not be
available for delivery to ACME in accordance with the time line specified in the Supply
Agreement. This delay means that a milestone in the product acceptance process is likely to
be missed in October of this year. The Supply Agreement provides for an extension of the
product acceptance process of up to 6 months if an acceptable remediation plan is submitted
by 16 November 2009. Furthermore, to date IdaTech has not been able to achieve the
challenging cost targets to a level that would be profitable at the price level specified in the
Supply Agreement.

Under the terms of the Supply Agreement, missing this particular milestone in the product
acceptance testing process may result in the termination of the Supply Agreement without
penalties to any party. If the Supply Agreement is terminated, this would mean significantly
lower sales for 2010, but the Directors believe it will have no material impact on the timing of
cash breakeven for the Company. A further update and the results for the six months ended
30 June 2009 will be published on 30 September 2009.

The development work on both the natural gas and direct hydrogen fuelled systems over the
past 11 months has brought major benefits to IdaTech with regard to the development of a
global supply chain, significant cost reduction initiatives, technological innovation and system
performance improvements. Many of these benefits will be applicable in the next generation
of methanol – water fuelled systems currently under development and due for launch in 2010.
In the event that the Supply Agreement is replaced by a more flexible agreement it will allow
the Company greater freedom in shifting resources to other programs such as the next
generation methanol systems, as well as modifying the product requirements to meet a
broader range of applications.

The Company believes that its work carried out to date has validated that there is a value
proposition for fuel cell systems in the fast growing Indian telecommunications backup
market, with higher efficiency and lower maintenance costs than the incumbent diesel
generators and battery banks. In addition, IdaTech launched the ElectraGenTM H2 in July;
these 300 systems are currently being built in IdaTech’s Mexican manufacturing facility and
are being shipped to ACME over the remainder of the year. Field trial data indicate these
systems are performing very well in difficult environments and hitting their performance
targets.

Commenting on the update, Hal Koyama, CEO said:
“IdaTech has made tremendous technical progress over the last year, driven by the focus of
the ACME Supply Agreement. Working with our partner Ballard, we have broken through a
significant number of the cost barriers once thought unachievable with current technology
and added core pieces of new technology to our portfolio, simultaneously moving the bar on
PEM fuel cell cost and performance in a very significant way. We can now see that the
Indian market is a key area for the initial mass application of fuel cell products and we have
one of the best partners in that market. This program has also added the natural gas
product to our portfolio, with market applications that go beyond telecommunications backup
power. We look forward to continue working with ACME to develop the Indian market for the
range of IdaTech products.”

Atul Sabharwal, Chief Operating Officer of ACME commented:
“ACME is also disappointed with this delay, but feels as strongly as ever that a substantial
market opportunity exists for fuel cells in wireless telecom backup and other applications in
India, where a reliable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution is greatly needed”

LOS ANGELES–Vision Industries Corp. (OTCBB: VIIC – News), is exhibiting its zero emission plug-in electric/hydrogen fuel cell hybrid TyranoT truck at the 4th annual Santa Monica Alternative Energy and Transportation Expo on Friday Oct. 2 & Saturday Oct. 3 from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM daily.

Location: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

Martin Schuermann, President & CEO of Vision stated, “The City of Santa Monica has a proven track record of promoting and implementing green technologies. We are pleased to be invited to this prestigious expo and welcome all visitors to drop by for a close-up with our Tyrano truck.”

About Vision Industries Corp.

Vision is a provider of hydrogen fuel cell/plug-in electric powered vehicles and turnkey hydrogen fueling systems. Vision’s proprietary hydrogen fuel cell/plug-in electric drive system combines the superior acceleration of a battery powered electric vehicle with the extended range provided by a hydrogen fuel cell. Vision uses major manufacturers as partners or sub contractors to produce its vehicles. This business approach avoids massive outlays of startup capital. Many regional, state and federal alternative energy programs in the form of grants, subsidies, tax credits and loans exist or are planned. For more information on Vision Industries Corp., please visit www.visionindustriescorp.com.

The exceptional feature of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid is its outstanding environmental friendliness. The bus emits absolutely no pollutants while in motion, and it’s also virtually silent, making it ideal for use in highly congested inner cities and metropolitan areas.

Daimler has received the F-Cell Award for innovative use of fuel cell technology in the Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid urban bus. Two employees accepted the award on behalf of Daimler last Monday during the F-Cell Conference in Stuttgart. “We are very delighted about this award as it once again highlights our innovative skill as the world’s largest bus manufacturer and also helps take us a big step toward our goal of zero-emission driving,” said Hartmut Schick, Head of Daimler Buses. “The award confirms that we also are the technology leader in the area of alternative drive technologies.”

The F-Cell Award was presented by Baden-Württemberg’s Environmental Ministry, Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH, and EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG for the ninth time. The innovation award established by the state of Baden-Württemberg honors application-oriented developments related to fuel cells.

Together with their teams, the Daimler employees Monika Kentzler and Wolfram Fleck from “E-Drive and Future Mobility” and Michael Edig from EvoBus GmbH were instrumental in the development of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid. “We are proud that these three employees, as well as the many others who were involved in the project, achieved such a great feat,” says Hartmut Schick. “It demonstrates how commitment and interdisciplinary cooperation can result in pioneering solutions.”

The Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid made its public debut last June at the UITP Congress in Vienna. The fuel cell hybrid bus is the first member of Daimler Buses’ new generation of fuel cell buses. It combines the advantages of the diesel-electric Citaro G BlueTec Hybrid, which had been unveiled a few months earlier, with those of the hydrogen-powered Citaro fuel cell buses.

The exceptional feature of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid is its outstanding environmental friendliness. The bus emits absolutely no pollutants while in motion, and it’s also virtually silent, making it ideal for use in highly congested inner cities and metropolitan areas.

Later this year Daimler Buses will produce a small batch of about 30 vehicles from this new generation of fuel cell buses and offer them to European mass transit companies. The Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid bus will undergo extensive testing in several cities throughout Europe. This test series will proceed along the lines of the successful CUTE fleet test conducted by the European Union between 2003 und 2006. Since 2003 a total of 36 Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses equipped with fuel cell drives have displayed top performance for 12 public transport agencies on three continents as part of the CUTE test and other related testing programs. In approximately 135,000 hours of operation, during which the buses covered a total of more than two million kilometers, the environmentally friendly fuel cell drive system impressively demonstrated its ability to function properly under everyday operating conditions.

The Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid was developed within the framework of Daimler’s global commercial vehicle initiative “Shaping Future Transportation.” The aim of this initiative is to use clean, efficient drive systems along with alternative fuels to realize zero-emission commercial vehicles for tomorrow’s transportation needs. The Shaping Future Transportation initiative includes using resources sparingly and reducing emissions of every kind while at the same time guaranteeing maximum traffic safety.

Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service

Taiwanese researchers have built a new mobile-phone recharger based on fuel cell technology they say will cost little once manufacturing partners are on board.

The handset rechargers, which contains the fuel cell, will cost around US$30, while the fuel itself will come in small blue plastic tubes for about US$0.30 each, said Jerry Ku, a researcher at the Industrial Technology Research Institute, a government funded lab in Taiwan.

“The fuel canisters are inexpensive and small. They could be sold at 7-Eleven,” he said.

The real innovation by ITRI is the fuel for the recharger, plasticized solid-state hydrogen. The plastic is soft enough that it can be shaped to suit the needs of different devices. It’s designed to react with water to release the hydrogen to a fuel cell to produce electricity.

Commonly, electricity is produced in a fuel cell when oxygen reacts with hydrogen, giving off water as a by-product. Fuel-cell technology is viewed as more environmentally friendly than traditional batteries because the chemicals used are typically more earth friendly than those in regular batteries.

ITRI has already created working prototypes of the mobile phone charger and the blue fuel tubes, which house the plasticized solid-state hydrogen and water. The research group has already started developing laptop battery chargers as well, but Ku was unable to say when prototypes might be ready.

People using the handset recharger will get a two-hour charge per $0.30 tube of fuel, then they’ll need to buy a new tube.

There are other kinds of fuel cells.

Toshiba has been promising a portable battery charger for electronic devices based on a DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell). In DMFCs, methanol, water and air react to produce electricity, giving off a small amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide as by-products. The methanol needed for the chargers will come in cartridges.

The company has said its first DMFC charger could be out within the next few months, though it was originally due out earlier this year.

TOKYO, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Nippon Oil Corp, Japan’s largest refiner, said on Wednesday it will make smaller fuel cells using ceramics from Kyocera Corp to power homes and meet growing demand for alternative energy sources.

Nippon Oil aims to make smaller and more efficient solid oxide fuel cells by the financial year ending March 2012 to target apartments, and could expand its lineup to fuel cells with more power for commercial use, a spokesman said.

The fuel cells produce electricity from hydrogen extracted from liquid petroleum gas, emitting water vapour instead of global warming emissions. The refiner will continue its existing venture with Sanyo Electric Co to make proton exchange fuel cells, which are less efficient than solid oxide fuel cells but can vary output quickly.

It hopes to expand its total sales of fuel cells to more than 40,000 units by March 2016, the spokesman said.

Kyocera also jointly develops solid oxide fuel cells for residential use with Osaka Gas, Toyota Motor Corp ( TM – news – people ) and Aisin Seiki Co.

Japanese makers of fuel cells also include Toshiba Corp ( TOSBF.PK – news – people ) , Panasonic Corp, Mitsubishi Materials ( MIMTF.PK – news – people ) Corp and Toto Ltd.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Joseph Radford)

A spoonful of herbicide helps the sugar break down in a most delightful way.

Researchers at Brigham Young University have developed a fuel cell – basically a battery with a gas tank – that harvests electricity from glucose and other sugars known as carbohydrates.

The human body’s preferred energy source could someday power our gadgets, cars or homes.

“Carbohydrates are very energy rich,” said BYU chemistry professor Gerald Watt. “What we needed was a catalyst that would extract the electrons from glucose and transfer them to an electrode.”

The surprising solution turned out to be a common weed killer, as reported by Watt and his colleagues in the October issue of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society. Watt shares his wonderfully appropriate last name with his great-great-uncle James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine.

The effectiveness of this cheap and abundant herbicide is a boon to carbohydrate-based fuel cells. By contrast, hydrogen-based fuel cells like those developed by General Motors require costly platinum as a catalyst.

The next step for the BYU team is to ramp up the power through design improvements.

The study reported experiments that yielded a 29 percent conversion rate, or the transfer of 7 of the 24 available electrons per glucose molecule.

“We showed you can get a lot more out of glucose than other people have done before,” said Dean Wheeler, lead faculty author of the paper and a chemical engineering professor in BYU’s Fulton College of Engineering and Technology. “Now we’re trying to get the power density higher so the technology will be more commercially attractive.”

Since they wrote the paper, the researchers’ prototype has achieved a doubling of power performance. And they’re pursuing an even stronger sugar high.

The hydrogen-producing green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Scientists have discovered how oxygen stops green algae from producing hydrogen. The findings could help those working towards ‘solar H2-farms’ in which microorganisms produce hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water.

An international team of scientists from Oxford University and universities in Germany report their results in two papers, one in the journal JACS and one in PNAS, published this week.

For years scientists have been interested in how we could, potentially, produce hydrogen from just sunlight and water to power vehicles and other devices. One option is to use photosynthetic microorganisms that are able to produce hydrogen as well as starch. Green algae are one of the microorganisms that many have suggested could be turned into living hydrogen factories.

‘The hydrogen-producing enzyme found in green algae, known as an iron-iron hydrogenase, has evolved a structure that makes it particularly susceptible to attacking oxygen molecules,’ said Professor Fraser Armstrong from Oxford University’s Department of Chemistry, an author of both papers. ‘Because oxygen is a major by-product of the hydrogen-making photosynthetic process in such organisms, the build-up of oxygen, which rapidly attacks the active site of the enzyme, quickly brings the hydrogen-making process to an irreversible halt. Our work has revealed the mechanism of this process.’

The team used electrochemical kinetic methods to determine the order of events in which oxygen attacks the active site of an iron-iron hydrogenase found in the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. They combined their observations with data obtained from X-ray absorption spectroscopy. By measuring ripples in the photoelectron energy spectrum of the enzyme under X-ray bombardment they were able to deduce the nature of the damage caused to the active site following attack by oxygen.

Yet while the research reported in PNAS shows just how destructive oxygen is to the enzyme powering green algae’s hydrogen-making process, the team’s research reported in JACS shows that similar hydrogenases produced by other microorganisms may possess greater tolerance to oxygen, sufficient perhaps to survive in the presence of oxygen released during photosynthetic hydrogen production.

Professor Armstrong said: ‘It shows that whilst we may have found a major obstacle along one route to the biological production of hydrogen, this knowledge could help us to identify new routes where nature could suggest an answer to the problem of oxygen’s destructive effect on hydrogen-producing enzymes.’

The team will shortly be publishing the results of similar research into nickel-iron hydrogenases, enzymes related to those that enable blue-green algae to produce hydrogen.

The research was carried out by an international team including Professor Fraser Armstrong, Gabrielle Goldet, Caterina Brandmayr, and Kylie Vincent from Oxford’s Department of Chemistry with researchers from Ruhr Universität Bochum (Germany), and Freie Universität Berlin (Germany).

Oakville, Calif. — The first demonstration of a renewable method for hydrogen production from wastewater using a microbial electrolysis system is underway at the Napa Wine Company in Oakville. The refrigerator-sized hydrogen generator will take winery wastewater, and using bacteria and a small amount of electrical energy, convert the organic material into hydrogen, according to a Penn State environmental engineer.

“This is a demonstration to prove we can continuously generate renewable hydrogen and to study the engineering factors affecting the system performance,” said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe professor of environmental engineering. “The hydrogen produced will be vented except for a small amount that will be used in a hydrogen fuel cell.” Eventually, Napa Wine Company would like to use the hydrogen to run vehicles and power systems.

Napa Wine Company’s wastewater comes from cleaning equipment, grape disposal, wine making and other processes. The company already has on-site wastewater treatment and recycling and the partially treated water from the microbial electrolysis system will join other water for further treatment and use in irrigation.

“It is nice that Napa Wine Company offered up their winery and facilities to test this new approach,” said Logan. “We chose a winery because it is a natural tourist attraction. People go there all the time to experience wine making and wine, and now they can also see a demonstration of how to make clean hydrogen gas from agricultural wastes.”

The demonstration microbial electrolysis plant is a continuous flow system that will process about 1,000 liters of wastewater a day. Microbial electrolysis cells consist of two electrodes immersed in liquid. Logan uses electrode pairs consisting of one carbon anode and one stainless steel cathode in his system rather than an electrode coated with a precious metal like platinum or gold. Replacing precious metals will keep down costs. The wastewater enters the cell where naturally occurring bacteria convert the organic material into electrical current. If the voltage produced by the bacteria is slightly increased, hydrogen gas is produced electrochemically on the stainless steel cathode.

The demonstration plant is made up of 24 modules. Each module has six pairs of electrodes.

“The composition of the wastewater will change throughout the year,” said Logan. “Now it is likely to be rather sugary, but later it may shift more toward the remnants of the fermentation process.”

The bacteria that work in the electrolysis cells will consume either of these organic materials.

The project is supported by Air Products & Chemicals, Inc., The Water Environmental Research Foundation Paul L. Busch Award and other donors. Brown & Caldwell, an environmental engineering consulting firm, was contracted to build the demonstration plant. The Napa Wine Company is donating its facilities and wastewater for the demonstration.

COLUMBUS, Ohio– Rolls-Royce’s announcement that it will expand its Ohio fuel cell research operations furthers the state’s reputation as a national advanced energy leader in fuel cell technology, according to the Ohio Business Development Coalition, the nonprofit organization that markets the state for capital investment. Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems will invest $3 million in processing and testing equipment to consolidate its research and development activities at its North American headquarters at Stark State College of Technology in North Canton.

“The partnership with Rolls-Royce, Stark State and the state of Ohio demonstrates a commitment to accelerating Ohio’s economy through continued growth in our high-growth industries and collaboration with our higher education institutions,” said Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. “This type of investment is exactly what we need to create and expand business opportunities for Ohio companies and position our state as a leader in innovation and technology.” Rolls-Royce’s expansion is expected to create about 60 jobs and sustain 32 existing fuel cell technology jobs in Ohio.

More Rolls-Royce investment into fuel cell research at Stark State is a return on investment for Ohio, which has awarded $3.5 million to the company and invested $7.5 million at the college to help establish its fuel cell prototyping center. Rolls-Royce is developing utility-scale fuel cells at the North Canton site, with potential to launch production in 2012.

Over $75 million in Ohio grants have been invested in fuel cell R&D and manufacturing process improvements, demonstrations and commercialization projects since 2003 with a continuing state commitment to additional funding support. The Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition, of which Rolls-Royce is a member, also supports the industry as a fuel cell commercialization advocate.

“Ohio’s unique assets are what makes it the hub of the global fuel cell technology economy,” said Ed Burghard, executive director of the Ohio Business Development Coalition. “It’s one of the few places in the world where all phases of fuel cell development take place. And beyond advantages in supply chain and skilled work force, it’s an ideal location for business investment with work:life balance for executives and their employees. Ohio’s low-cost, low-stress communities and combination of micropolitan and metropolitan cities provides executives and employees the resources and time to make any ambition achievable. Ohio truly is the state of perfect balance.”

About the Ohio Business Development Coalition

The Ohio Business Development Coalition is a nonprofit organization that markets the state for capital investment. The OBDC provides marketing strategy and implementation to support Ohio’s economic development efforts. For more information on business development or business relocation, visit www.ohiomeansbusiness.com.

In accordance with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued on August 26 a Federal Register Notice (FRN) on a section of the H-Prize for breakthrough advances in materials for hydrogen storage. The Hydrogen Education Foundation (HEF), as announced on September 23, 2008, is administering the H-Prize competition, which starts with the FRN.

A single amount of $1 million will be awarded for the development of an on-board hydrogen storage material that meets or exceeds a set of performance targets specified in the competition announcement. As authorized by legislation and recommended by the National Academies, inducement prizes complement the current federal research program by “incentivizing” the R&D community outside the conventional grant process. Prize mechanisms also complement DOE’s R&D portfolio, which has increased emphasis on technologies for near-term impact such as biofuels and plug-in hybrids. The success of this contest can help to accelerate the widespread commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cells in the long term and complement the near-term focus on fuel cells for early markets such as stationary and backup power, portable power, and forklifts auxiliary power.

Prospective participants must register by February 15, 2010, and submit material samples for testing by November 15, 2010 to be eligible. For more information, visit the H-Prize Web site.

Many energy experts predict that hydrogen will replace fossil fuel as the main source of energy supply in the near future as it is an ideal fuel that produces only water upon combustion. To enable the public to learn more about this technology, the Hong Kong Science Museum launches a new exhibition entitled “Bio-hydrogen production from wastewater” at its Science News Corner from today (September 23) to January 17, 2010. The exhibition, with information provided by Professor Herbert H P  Fang, Chair of Environmental Engineering of the Department of Civil Engineering at The University of Hong Kong, introduces the use of biological technology to produce hydrogen from wastewater.

Hydrogen is an ideal and environmentally friendly energy source. It has very high fuel value and produces only water upon combustion. Many economists and scientists believe that the economy of the 21st century will be powered by hydrogen, just as petroleum did in the 20th century and coal in the 19th century. Although petroleum had been used since the early 20th century for motor vehicles and airplanes, it took about 50 years for petroleum to overtake  coal as the main energy source for the world economy. Currently, using hydrogen is only at the embryonic stage. It is, however, believed that hydrogen will eventually replace petroleum as the main energy source for the world economy.

Hydrogen can be used directly as fuel for internal combustion engines. Hydrogen cars and buses are already in use in Europe and America. It can also be used for airplanes as demonstrated by the Russians in the 1960s. Furthermore, converting hydrogen into energy is a mature technology in which hydrogen reacts with oxygen producing electricity at an ambient temperature. The full scale application of hydrogen as fuel is presently hampered by the lack of technologies for its safe storage and an infrastructure for its convenient supply to users. Today, hydrogen is mostly produced by gasification of fossil fuel or by electrolysis of water.

Hydrogen can also be produced anaerobically by microorganisms under proper conditions. However, people can hardly detect hydrogen in the natural environment because the hydrogen produced is readily consumed by many hydrogen-consuming microorganisms which have developed the appetite. Researchers found that if engineers can control the anaerobic reactor condition to suppress the bioactivities of the hydrogen-consuming microorganisms, they should be able to harness hydrogen from wastewater.

Energy and environmental protection are two of the most significant issues for sustainable development today. Hydrogen-producing treatment technology is still in its infancy. Environmental microbiologists are looking for new microorganisms with substantially higher energy recovery efficiency. Meanwhile, many research teams are developing various hybrid two-stage processes – generating bio-hydrogen from wastewater at the first stage and using phototrophic bacteria for further hydrogen production or the well-established methanogenic process at the second stage. A lot of work remains to be done, which may take another 10 to 20 years, for bio-hydrogen production from wastewater to become a widely accepted treatment technology.

The Science Museum is located at 2 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East. It opens from 1pm to 9pm from Monday to Wednesday and on Fridays, and from 10am to 9pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. It is closed on Thursdays (except public holidays). Admission is $25 with half-price concession for full-time students, people with disabilities and senior citizens aged 60 or above. Admission is free on Wednesdays.

For enquiries, call 2732 3232 or visit the Science Museum’s website at (http://hk.science.museum).

LOS ANGELES–Vision Industries Corp. (OTCBB: VIIC), producers of the zero emission plug-in electric/hydrogen fuel cell Tyrano™ truck, announced today that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Los Angeles Freightliner and Velocity Vehicle Group. Los Angeles Freightliner is to be an authorized dealer of the Tyrano™ truck within the territory described as Southern California. Los Angeles Freightliner also agrees to administer all product warranties, services and repairs programs established by Vision.

Brad Fauvre, President of Los Angeles Freightliner stated, “We would like to commend Vision on its hydrogen hybrid truck and their commitment to the use of the cleanest available alternative fuel trucks to provide port drayage services. We understand the need for cleaner trucks to improve air quality and support any and all initiatives that help to achieve that goal, particularly in Southern California, which has some of the worst air quality in the nation. We look forward to providing Vision’s zero emission trucks to the Southern California market.”

Martin Schuermann, President & CEO of Vision stated, “The LA Freightliner team has significant experience in the deployment of new heavy-duty OEM alternative fuel trucks. The team was responsible for the nation’s largest single deployment of natural gas trucks with the implementation of the California Cartage LNG truck project in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Given the exemplary record of success in implementing similar projects, as well as the direct approach of working with large fleet operators that are ready to immediately purchase and deploy zero emission plug-in electric/hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks in their operations, LA Freightliner and Vision will make an extremely strong team in competing for thousands of potential alternative fuel truck orders in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.”

About Vision Industries Corp.

Vision is a provider of hydrogen fuel cell/plug-in electric powered vehicles and turnkey hydrogen fueling systems. Vision’s proprietary plug-in electric/ hydrogen fuel cell drive system combines the superior acceleration of a battery powered electric vehicle with the extended range provided by a hydrogen fuel cell. The Vision vehicles use plug-in electricity for the first portion of their journeys with the hydrogen fuel cell providing them with extended range. Vision uses major manufacturers as partners or sub contractors to produce its vehicles. This business approach avoids massive outlays of startup capital. Many regional, state and federal alternative energy programs in the form of grants, tax credits and loans exist or are planned for these types of projects. For more information on Vision Industries Corp., please visit www.visionindustriescorp.com

Commercial potential and technology recognised
by Global Cleantech 100 listing

ACAL Energy, the leading developer of innovative fuel cell technology, has been named in the ‘Global Cleantech 100’, published by Guardian News and Media and the Cleantech Group. This first ever Global Cleantech listing unveils the most promising clean technology companies on the planet: those which offer the potential for superior performance at lower costs while reducing negative ecological impact. One of only thirteen UK companies listed, ACAL Energy also headed the Guardian’s lead paragraph on UK innovation.

The panel chose companies that are currently regarded as having the potential and likelihood to achieve high growth and high market impact. Their thoughts were then combined with insights from the Cleantech Network™, the de facto industry association of international clean technology investors, entrepreneurs, large corporations and other industry insiders. Some 3,500 companies were considered for inclusion in the list.

“The first ever Global Cleantech 100 shines a spotlight on which companies and which technology areas the global innovation community is currently most excited about, from a commercial standpoint”, said Richard Youngman, Managing Partner at Cleantech Group.
“We are delighted and honored to be recognised as one of the most significant cleantech companies globally”, said Dr S B Cha, CEO of Acal Energy. “Our commercial potential has clearly been recognised as well as our ground-breaking Flowcath® technology.”

The Global Cleantech 100 list is supported by the Carbon Trust, and represents the collective opinion of hundreds of leading experts from cleantech innovation and venture capital companies in Europe, North America, Middle East, India and China, combined with the specific input of an expert panel.

Airbus has completed the latest stage in its civil aerospace fuel-cell programme by harnessing the by-products of water and heat for use within existing flight systems.

Claus Hoffjan, manager of Fuel Cell Development at Airbus, has been heading the research and development of a system which can generate up to 20KW of electrical power. The system, first flight tested in February 2008 to provide energy for backup hydraulic and electric power systems on an A320, works in a similar way to conventional fuel cells by combining hydrogen with oxygen in a cold- combustion process.

The innovation uses a separate condenser to collect the water generated as a result of the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. A further by-product, hot air, is collected in a humidifier and harnessed to heat the interior of the cabin. The process removes the need for an additional auxiliary power unit (APU), a fuel-tank inerting system, a ram air turbine or a water-storage system, which can claim up to 2.2 tonnes of weight on a typical A380.

Hoffjan said this approach will result in significant weight reductions and improve overall energy consumption: ‘In an aircraft, you have a separate system for everything… but we can combine this into one system using the same amount of energy,’ he said.

Over the past few years, companies such as Airbus and Boeing have increased their research activity in fuel-cell systems. While their application for commercial aircraft propulsion is currently unfeasible due to their low energy output, their use as auxiliary power units (APUs) could help the aviation industry reduce its CO₂ and NOx emissions.

Most research activity has centred around the use of fuel cells to power internal systems such as lights, air conditioning and cabin pressure. However, Airbus claims that it is the only company with an advanced model of a fuel cell able to integrate systems in this way.

To mark the development of the technology, Hoffjan and his team entered the EADS Hall of Fame in Bordeaux earlier this month after being presented with the ‘Great Inventors’ award for their work.

‘The next step is to bring this into an aircraft and we plan to begin flight tests in 2012′, said Hoffjan. ‘However, this is something we can also use in the automotive industry, which relies heavily on high-energy engines running on petrol. In the future, we won’t have enough oil to meet demand so we need to use something else and I believe if we find a good way of sourcing hydrogen, this will be the way forward.’

As well as sourcing hydrogen, Hoffjan believes a further obstacle to the use of fuel cells is availability and high cost. Currently, most fuel cells are assembled by hand, however, Airbus said that it plans to use an automated process that could bring the price down enough to undertake wide-scale production.

Ellie Zolfagharifard

EO-210-XLE are fully integrated and include all of the necessary sub-systems to provide reliable and efficient “turn-key” UAV propulsion power.

Montreal, Canada– EnergyOr Technologies Inc., a leading developer of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems, recently unveiled its latest generation of advanced fuel cell system technology for long endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications.

The EPOD EO-210-LE and EO-210-XLE are lightweight, rugged UAV propulsion systems designed specifically for extended flight endurance under the most demanding weather conditions. Their performance has been optimized over the last four years based on extensive flight testing in several different UAV platforms, including the EO-360-UAV Demonstrator designed and built by EnergyOr. The EO-210-LE and EO-210-XLE are fully integrated and include all of the necessary sub-systems to provide reliable and efficient “turn-key” UAV propulsion power.

These hybrid UAV power systems were designed to take full advantage of fuel cells for their high energy density and LiPo batteries to provide short bursts of power during take-off, climb and severe weather conditions. The outcome is that UAVs powered by EnergyOr’s fuel cell systems have a flight endurance that is two to three times longer than those powered by the best rechargeable batteries (LiPo).

The EO-210-LE and EO-210-XLE offer a proprietary power management system which includes in-flight battery charging to ensure high power levels are always available, a modular design for optimal UAV integration, low heat and noise signature, exceptional system efficiency, and a system level energy density of over 450 Wh/kg.

EnergyOr has achieved numerous successful flights with operational UAVs from two leading Israeli UAV manufacturers where 5 hours flight endurance was attained using the EO-210-LE. The EO-210-XLE provides 8 to 10 hour flights for similar sized UAVs.

About EnergyOr
EnergyOr Technologies, incorporated in 2002, was the first and only company to fly a fuel cell powered UAV in Canada (May 2007), and in December 2007, performed the first fuel cell flights ever in Israel. EnergyOr provides total system solutions which include hydrogen delivery systems, portable hydrogen filling stations and system integration services.

EnergyOr has also developed an advanced fuel cell Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) to replace the gasoline generator for UAV ground control stations and other electrical needs (computers, mobile phones, etc.).

EnergyOr recently displayed its fuel cell technology at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Inter-national (AUVSI) Exposition in Washington, D.C.

Contact Information:
Michel Bitton, President and CEO,
EnergyOr Technologies Inc.
Montréal, Québec, Canada H2G 1X7
(514) 744-6122
mb@energyor.com
www.energyor.com

Proton Power (AIM: PPS), a designer, developer and producer of fuel cells and fuel cell electric hybrid systems, announced that it has signed a Partnership and Exclusivity Agreement with L-3 Communications Combat Propulsion Systems (L-3 CPS). Under this agreement, L-3 CPS will market and sell Proton Power’s Fuel Cell Power Systems for use in propulsion systems, marine and Universal Power Supply (UPS) applications to the North American military and civilian applications market.

The PEM Fuel Cell runs on pure Hydrogen and is one of the most efficient methods of converting Hydrogen into electrical energy with an efficiency rating of close to 50%. Combined with thermal energy conversion for use in UPS applications, efficiencies reach over 90%. The combination and integration of this technology in modern propulsion systems offers an emission free and carbon neutral alternative to conventional international combustion engines plus with the added bonus that the systems are ultra quiet, and has a very low heat signature. The only by-product of this process is pure water.

Michael Soimar, President, L-3 CPS said, “Proton’s alternative energy fuel cell propulsion systems provide an environment-friendly method to our customers’ transportation and power products requirements.”

Thomas Melczer, CEO of Proton, commented:” We are delighted about the partnership with L-3 CPS. North America is a lead market for Fuel Cell Technology. Together with L-3 CPS, we plan to play a leading role in that market.”

Shanghai,  China’s largest automaker SAIC Motor Corp is planning to provide an unnamed amount of “Shanghai” brand fuel cell cars for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

A company executive taking charge of SAIC’s new energy vehicle division said the move marks the renaissance of an old Chinese brand and showcases SAIC’s progress in developing alternative fuel vehicles

Every major automaker is investing in development of ways to make cars move without petroleum or at least less of it. But there are also lots of smaller companies looking for breakthroughs that would allow us to keep driving without altering the climate and without propping up the world’s petrocracies.

One inventor working on the problem is Swedish engineer and entrepreneur Nils Kongmark, who with two physicist colleagues has designed a solar-powered device that extracts hydrogen and oxygen from superheated steam. The device would be small enough to fit on the roof of a gas station, producing hydrogen locally for cars powered by fuel cells. Carmakers including Daimler, Honda and Toyota still see hydrogen as ultimately the best way to replace oil.

The process developed by Kongmark’s Britain-based company, H2 Power Systems, sounds promising. Scientists have known how to separate the H2 from the O in water for a century. The problem is that existing methods use more energy to produce the hydrogen than the hydrogen gives back. There’s no net energy gain. Kongmark says that, with the help of materials not available until recently, he has solved this problem.

H2 Power System’s “solar water cracker” uses the sun to generate heat used to separate the hydrogen atoms in water from the oxygen atoms. But any source of heat can be used. Because the device can be made small and installed where it’s needed, it would avoid some of the transport and storage problems that have stood in the way of hydrogen becoming a widespread energy source.

An additional benefit of H2 Power’s process is that it also produces pure oxygen. Fuel cells need oxygen as well as hydrogen to produce electricity, and work much more efficiently with pure oxygen rather than drawing from the atmosphere. Kongmark says the solar water cracker potentially could produce energy from hydrogen that would be significantly cheaper than current power sources, helping to usher in the hydrogen economy that was much vaunted a decade ago but never lived up to the hype.

Kongmark, who’s raising money with the help of Convexity, a Frankfurt-based financial advisor, must still prove that his device will work. H2 Power Systems is six months from a working prototype, he says. Kongmark, a heat-exchange specialist who says he has founded more than 30 companies, concedes that, “Making a prototype is one thing, industrializing it is a much different thing.”

So whether H2 Power Systems has found the key to cheap, clean energy is impossible to say at the moment. The encouraging thing is that Kongmark and his colleagues are among thousands of scientists and inventors working on better ways to produce hydrogen or more efficient batteries and the other technologies we’ll need to stay on the road without destroying the planet.

Some are working out of their garages, others in big companies. Germany’s Linde, the world’s largest producer of industrial gases, has developed a technique to produce hydrogen from waste glycerine. With so many good minds attacking the energy problem, somebody is bound to succeed.

Professor John Zhu

A University of Queensland researcher has successfully completed a lab-scale test on a new technology which has the potential to revolutionise the way the world views and uses coal.

Chemical engineer Professor John Zhu from the School of Chemical Engineering is working on Direct Carbon Fuel Cells (DCFC) which will create twice as much power from coal as current methods and minimise greenhouse gas emissions.

Professor Zhu said that when coal reacts with air in the DCFC, it generated highly energy-efficient electricity.

“The very high energy efficiency of the new technology will effectively halve the amount of coal required to create electricity,” Professor Zhu said.

“When applied, it will provide industry with very significant cost and energy savings, which could then be passed on to the consumer.”

In addition to saving cost and energy, the DCFC will also provide clean power.

Professor Zhu expects the DCFC will enable the byproduct of coal-fired power – the harmful greenhouse gas carbon dioxide – to be trapped and stored easily and safely.

“One of the major challenges for coal-fired power is reducing its impact on the environment by developing ways to separate carbon dioxide from other gases produced in the power generation process, and ensuring it is not released into the atmosphere,” Professor Zhu said.

“The DCFC produces pure carbon dioxide as a byproduct, making it much easier to manage.”

The next stage in development will involve consulting with the energy sector and securing industry and government funding to scale up the DCFC technology.

Executive Dean of UQ’s Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, Professor Graham Schaffer said the new DCFC technology was one of a number of clean energy technologies being progressed by the University.

“UQ engineers are on the front lines in the battle to develop low emission coal technologies and deliver renewable energy sources such as hydrogen, geothermal and solar energy,” he said.

“Partnerships with industry and government have enabled our researchers to make significant progress towards these new technologies, which are vital if we are to meet the challenges of clean energy and climate change.”

With funding, the new DCFC technology is expected to be ready for implementation in about 10 years.

The Technology Strategy Board has invested £1.4m to help widen the use of the propulsion platform used in the first manned fuel-cell aircraft.

Loughborough-based Intelligent Energy plans to use the funding to boost a three-year programme aimed at repurposing its fuel-cell stack technology for cars and light commercial vehicles.

The group claims its design is more power-dense and compact than competitor systems, giving it the potential to be used commercially in the automotive industry, alongside parallel renewable-energy technologies.

Dennis Hayter, Intelligent Energy’s vice-president of business development, said: ‘We’ve already developed the first of our 10kW automotive systems with Peugeot. This project will move the technology into the wider automotive market. We will look at addressing the areas currently challenging all fuel-cell manufacturers: performance, lifetime, temperature range and reliability.’

The company hopes to move its fuel-cell system to a 30kW platform and extend its performance lifetime from 1,000 to 5,000 hours. It also plans to extend the temperature range from a -20°C unassisted cold start to -25°C and up to 45°C to meet the increased temperatures found in parts of its European market.

Hayter added that one of the programme’s cornerstones would be to undertake a systems engineering approach. ‘This will create five separate modules consisting of the control and health monitoring, the hydrogen supply side, air, water and stack,’ he said. ‘These can be constructed and maintained separately and so act as “plug and play” devices to minimise downtime and improve production efficiency.’

The project is due to begin next month with input from Ricardo Engineering, Dyson, TRW Conekt, Royal Mail, DHL and the Tata European Technical Centre.

Anyone interested in development of fuel cells in Southwestern Ohio is invited to attend a Monday, Sept. 28 session sponsored by the Edison Materials Technology Center (EMTEC), the Ohio Fuel Cells Coalition and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The event will take place at the Madison Lakes Park Learning and Conference Center, 581 Olive Road, Trotwood.

There’s no fee. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. that day, with the session scheduled for 9-11 a.m.

Frank Svet, EMTEC president and chief executive, Pat Valente, executive director of the Ohio Fuel Cells Coalition and others are scheduled to speak.

Reservations are appreciated. Those wishing to attend are asked to contact Kathleen Smith at (937) 253-0032 or ksmith@emtec.org.

This is not your father’s internal combustion engine. Students at Ponaganset High School helped reconfigure a replica 1923 Ford Model T Roadster to run on hydrogen fuel cells.

NORTH SCITUATE– It’s taken a few years, but the students at Ponaganset High School in Glocester have finally done it.

Lead by science teacher Ross McCurdy and taking advantage of technical help from pipe fitter Mike Lewis and computer whiz John Murphy, they recently completed the conversion of a replica 1923 Ford Model T Roadster into an electric car fueled by hydrogen fuel cells.

“It was a two-part program,” said McCurdy in a recent interview. “First to get the technology running in the lab, and then to integrate it into the car.”

McCurdy was surrounded by a number of past and present students who had worked on the project. They assembled at the home of Jim Sullivan, a hot rod enthusiast and electrical engineer who sold the team the Model T back in 2005.

Sullivan lets the team use his garage to work on the car; McCurdy said much of the work has been carried out after school hours.

The move to hydrogen fuel technology followed an earlier project to replace the car’s 350-cubic-inch Chevrolet engine with an electric engine powered by batteries. McCurdy and his students completed that project in mid-2006.

To fit the hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen tanks, they had to cut the car in half and lengthen it to a whopping 29 feet.

“It [now] has the turning radius of a sailing yacht,” said McCurdy.

In addition, Lewis developed a unique cooling system up front while Murphy designed a computer program to translate the hexadecimal language of the fuel cell and computer into comprehensible readings, including available electric power.

The guts of the system is a Hydrogenic HyPM 12 kilowatt fuel cell. The technology works by separating the electrons and protons in hydrogen and forcing the electrons through a circuit, which converts them into electricity. They are them recombined with the protons and an oxidizing agent to form water as the only emission apart from heat.

“That’s the beauty of fuel-cell [technology],” said McCurdy. “You can drink the emissions.”

The fuel cell is housed in a black metal container about the size and shape of a large suitcase. It is flanked by two bulbous 3,600-pound per square inch (psi) cylinders that give it a 100-mile range.

Fuel-cell technology is expensive and the car and related projects at the school are partly financed through federal grants and partly through donations. Praxair, for example, has long donated hydrogen to the school, McCurdy said.

McCurdy has been leading alternative fuel projects at Ponaganset High since 2001. The work has resulted in Sen. Jack Reed helping to get the Department of Energy to fund a new energy lab at the school.

“It’s been five years in the making,” McCurdy said, adding that the lab will have a large working area on the ground floor with doors big enough to allow vehicles in and out, in addition to technical and communications facilities. Groundbreaking is scheduled for December.

McCurdy, 47, married with three young children, has taught at Ponaganset High for 12 years and is currently the alternative energy coordinator as well as science teacher.

He moved into teaching following six years in the Air Force where he served as a Russian linguist and a number of years pursuing a career as a rock star with a cover rock ’n’ roll band, Dryver.

Indeed, his background in a rock band helped his first foray into fuel cells when he spearheaded a project to power a school rock ’n’ roll band with the technology.

That led to the decision to use it to power a vehicle.

At the same time, McCurdy and his team have not restricted themselves to exploring electric power as the only alternative source of energy.

Last year, he and three students drove a biodiesel-powered 1997 GM ZK350 pickup, that had been donated by ConEdison Solutions, from Bonnet Shores to Malibu Beach, Calif., and back again.

They took 270 gallons of fuel, which carried them across the country and restocked in California. The entire trip took two weeks.

“It was an unbelievable trip,” said Wylie Smith, 19, of Foster, adding that working with McCurdy had helped him decide what he wanted to do. He is currently in his first year in the Automotive Program at the New England Institute of Technology.

The team now uses the truck to haul the Model T in a trailer.

Zane Lewis, the 19-year old son of Mike Lewis who is currently studying engineering at CCRI in Warwick, also crossed the country in the truck.

After switching on the system, he worked through the computer to make sure the fuel cell was generating enough energy and then started the car.

A whirring whine ensued, reminiscent of the time machine in the TV show Doctor Who and the car silently set off.

Supplementing the fuel cell output were four 12-volt batteries. That compared to the 12 batteries in the battery electric version pumping out 144 volts.

Lewis said the limited battery power resulted in a lack of power, especially on hills where the battery electric version had more oomph.

McCurdy said that problem could be addressed through ultracapacitors, which combine capacitors’ ability to smooth the output of power supplies with an ability to store large amounts of electricity very quickly.

Chris Charest, 17, of Glocester said he had been involved in the project for three years.

What was the high point in the program?

He paused. “This is definitely a high point,” he said, looking over the car. “Seeing it finished.”

Written by Kimberly Donnelly

A town proposal to install a fuel cell that would power Weston schools is in a holding pattern while officials work out some details with Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P).

Weston First Selectman Woody Bliss said earlier this week he is still waiting for some satisfactory answers from CL&P about the necessity of combining electric meters at the high school and middle school. CL&P has told the town the meters must be combined before a fuel cell can be installed.

Earlier this month, the boards of selectmen and finance approved spending $9,052 for a study to determine the costs of combining the meters. The approval was made contingent on the need for making the change.

Mr. Bliss said he met with representatives from CL&P and was told the town needs to have a single meter in part because that’s the way the power company has always done it in the past.

“They can only do what their regulations allow them to do,” Mr. Bliss said. The town is arguing, however, that a joint meter is not specifically allowed nor prohibited in the regulations, he said.

Combining the two meters might be trickier in Weston’s case than in some other instances. When the schools were originally built, the decision was made to have the high school and the middle school powered by two different substations.

This is a good thing, Mr. Bliss said, because it means if there is a problem at one substation, both schools would not necessarily be without power at the same time.

“The problem is it creates more of an expense if you’re talking about putting the two schools on a single meter,” Mr. Bliss said.

Work on the study to determine the cost of combining the meters has been put on hold “until we get a few more answers to our questions,” Mr. Bliss said. “From my viewpoint, they have not given us a compelling answer as to why [a joint meter] is needed.”

The Viking Lady has been designed by Wärtsilä and is equipped with a complete, integrated Wärtsilä propulsion and power electronics system. Picture by Oddgeir Refvik.