FuelCellsWorks

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games got a little greener today with the launch of the zero emission Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell demonstration fleet that will operate in Vancouver until the end of the Games.

Four Equinox fuel cell vehicles are on the ground today and ready for test drives, with another four expected in the coming weeks. The fleet will transport a wide array of people, including the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) representatives, media, athletes, government representatives and everyday Vancouver drivers, to experience the benefits of hydrogen fuel cells and to see just how far GM’s fuel cell research has advanced.

“With the only emissions being wisps of water vapour, these vehicles are a perfect match for VANOC’s sustainability goals and they nicely complement the broad range of fuel efficient technologies featured in the vehicle fleet we have supplied for the 2010 Games.” said Matt Crossley, GM Canada’s director of engineering. “We are genuinely excited to allow the people of British Columbia experience this viable green technology first-hand.”

“We are fortunate to have found a partner in GM Canada who shares in our values of sustainability, creativity and excellence,” said John Furlong, VANOC CEO. “VANOC is very proud to use the spotlight of the Games to highlight the cutting edge “clean” technology of these impressive hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.”

The Chevrolet Fuel Cell Equinox is Canadian engineered and manufactured and became part of the world’s largest consumer fuel cell demonstration fleet. Launched in November of 2007 in three U.S. cities, the fleet is comprised of 115 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles. More than 5,000 consumer drives have occurred since the launch, racking up over 1.7 million kilometres of gasoline and tailpipe pollution-free driving, saving more than 189,000 litres of gasoline.

As a National Partner, GM Canada’s commitment to the 2010 Winter Games includes the contribution of an extensive fleet of environmentally friendly vehicles. The fleet will include over 4,600 fuel efficient sedans, passenger vans, SUVs and trucks from Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac and more than 30 percent of these will have advanced green technologies.

These include on-road technologies like hybrid systems, flex fuel capability and active fuel management systems that make GM vehicles serious contributors to reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and ultimately, a perfect fit for use by Games’ organizers and volunteers leading up to and during the 2010 Winter Games.

GM’s commitment will also include the addition of two Chevrolet Volts in February. The Volt is Chevrolet’s extended range electric vehicle that can travel up to 65km on a single charge before its range extending generator kicks in providing energy to power the car.

GM Canada has a longstanding history of supporting amateur athletics and developing athletes of all levels across the country. GM Canada is a National Partner of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and Official Sponsor of the Canadian Olympic Team competing through 2012, providing over 4,600 vehicles to the Games. Over 30% of the fleet have advanced technologies that reduce fuel consumption and emissions, including a fleet of eight Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell vehicles. GM’s efforts to promote zero emission vehicles and the hydrogen highway has resulted in VANOC awarding GM Canada with a sustainability star as part of the sustainability recognition program associated with the 2010 Winter Games.

Brunnthal- SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG, technology and market leader for mobile and off-grid power solutions based on fuel cells, presents the new EFOY Pro 2200 fuel cell – the highest-power energy solution for professional users of off-grid industrial applications.

The EFOY Pro 2200 provides reliable, maintenance-free power generation for off-grid industrial systems: from security cameras, measurement and early warning sensors to traffic control systems. With 38 percent more power than the EFOY Pro 1600 and a charging capacity of 2200 Wh per day, the EFOY Pro 2200 provides the highest degree of efficiency and autonomy for professional applications far from the power grid. The increased output of the EFOY Pro 2200 enhances the range of EFOY Pro Fuel Cell applications, even allowing operation of devices that require a higher degree of output. Like all other products in the EFOY Pro Series, the EFOY Pro 2200 offers maximum flexibility and can be installed in numerous off-grid applications. The fuel cells can also be seamlessly combined with other energy sources, such as solar panels. Power supply can be managed remotely through text messaging or via computer.

“By launching our EFOY Pro 2200, we are responding to strong demand in remote power applications. The EFOY Pro 2200 fuel cell generator offers 38 % more power in exactly the same package as before. By offering this high-performance power solution, users get even higher autonomy for demanding off-grid devices – at more attractive energy cost”, says Dr. Peter Podesser, CEO of SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG.

The EFOY Pro Series is available immediately throughout Europe in four different models: EFOY Pro 600, EFOY Pro 1200, EFOY Pro 1600 and EFOY Pro 2200, with a charging capacity from 600 to 2200 watt hours per day, that are used depending on the energy requirements of the application. EFOY Pro Series Fuel Cells obtain their fuel from EFOY fuel cartridges, which deliver week-long autonomous energy, depending on their size (5, 10, 28 liters). The fuel cartridges are available at more than 1,400 sales points in Europe.

Visit www.sfc.com and www.efoy.com for more information.

About SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG

SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG (www.sfc.com) is market leader in fuel cell technologies for mobile and off-grid power applications serving the leisure, industrial and defense markets.  As one of Germany’s technology pioneers, SFC has won numerous innovation awards.  SFC has alliances with leading companies in a wide range of industries.  Unlike most other fuel cell manufacturers, who are in the research and development phase or run subsidized demonstration projects, SFC has shipped more than 15,000 fully commercial products to industrial and private end users for more than five years, and has created a convenient fuel cartridge supply infrastructure. SFC is DIN ISO 9001:2000 certified. SFC is based in Brunnthal, Germany, and has a sales and technical service office in the U.S.

Achievement of major milestone towards commercializing clean alternative to engine generators

ACAL Energy has achieved record levels of power output from its kilowatt-scale fuel cell system using its patented liquid cathode technology, FlowCath®. Peak power levels of 1.5kW have been achieved from the hydrogen-fuelled laboratory-scale system. Fuel cell systems utilizing FlowCath ultimately will be a clean and economically sensible alternative to diesel and gasoline engines in stationary power generation and transport applications.

The kilowatt-scale demonstrator will be the basis for a technology evaluation kit for supply to OEM partners during 2010 to enable them to design Flowcath® into their products. ACAL Energy’s business strategy is to provide FlowCath® to fuel cell system manufacturers in the form of a stack and supporting mechanical elements, as well as the proprietary chemical solutions.

Commenting on the latest achievement, Dr S B Cha, Chief Executive Officer of ACAL Energy said: “We are very pleased with the performance of our kilowatt-scale demonstration system. It is achieving significantly higher levels of power output than originally designed. This is further credit to our very talented team of engineers and scientists. We remain confident that Flowcath® will enable clean fuel cells to succeed internal combustion engines in many applications”.

WASHINGTON – Soldiers carry a heavy load, with basic body armor alone weighing about 45 pounds, not to mention firearms, ammunition, radio equipment, food and other tools they may need for a mission.

The Army Research Laboratory’s Electrochemistry Branch in the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate is working to lighten their load by creating fuel cells that are lighter and more efficient and durable than existing batteries.

Cynthia Lundgren, chief of the directorate at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., described the benefits of fuel cell technology during an Oct. 21 webcast of “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military” on Pentagon Web radio.

The new fuel cells will help soldiers by lessening the number of batteries they carry for missions lasting longer than 24 hours, Lundgren explained.

Depending on their role in the battalion, some soldiers may carry up to 35 pounds of batteries with them for a 72-hour mission, she said. She’d like to see that weight reduced to 12 pounds.

“We’d like to reduce the weight a soldier carries by a third to a half,” she said.

Fuel cells use a chemical reaction between air and a fuel to create energy, which in turn is harnessed as electricity. Hydrogen is the most commonly used chemical fuel, but because it’s very reactive, it can be dangerous to carry around. It’s also difficult to create and make available for soldiers’ use.

“Hydrogen is a pretty energy-dense fuel, but it’s a gas, so it has to be condensed … and it’s not very convenient,” Lundgren said. “Logistically, it’s not a very friendly fuel. And carrying hydrogen-gas bottles around isn’t exactly something soldiers want to do.”

Lundgren is trying to find fuel chemicals that will have an efficient electrochemical reaction with as few safety issues as possible for its carriers.

“If a lithium-ion battery is punctured, lithium is incredibly reactive and will react with moisture in the air,” she said. “Anybody who’s seen or heard of battery fires from laptops will appreciate that. We’re trying to make those batteries last longer, be lighter and be safer.”

Lundgren’s team has been testing fuel cells using propane and simple alcohols like methanol to act as power sources for mobile, portable equipment. Fuel cells are being built and designed to handle power usage as high as megawatts — the kind of power needed for a large vehicle like a submarine or aircraft carrier — and as low as microwatts.

Their primary focus with higher wattage cells right now is allowing for “silent watch,” when a vehicle can be turned off but the electronics can still run at full power. Fuel cells providing this capability generally run from 10 to 40 kilowatts, but the Army requires JP8, a jet fuel, to be used to reduce the logistics burden to supply the fuel.

“Small, portable fuel cells … run pretty much like a battery [the fuel is prepackaged and can be exchanged like a battery],” she said. “But once you get over a kilowatt, it becomes harder to sustain logistically.

“Part of our reformation research is how to convert JP8 into a fuel that a fuel cell can use,” she continued. “This is mostly geared for auxiliary power units …. The efficiency of [a fuel cell] is much higher than the vehicle using its own fuel in an internal combustion engine, and it allows for silent watch.”

Soldiers and researchers are testing new ideas, ideally giving warfighters a lighter load to carry and greater operational capacity in the field, whether it’s powering a small navigational tool or allowing them to silently run unmanned vehicles.

An abundant greenhouse gas could someday help clean up the earth.

Converting methane to liquid methanol could produce clean, low-cost fuel and prevent the potent greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere. Exploiting methane in this way could also produce a hydrogen source for fuel cells and yield other industrial applications. The key to taming methane, and synthesizing it in the laboratory, rests in identifying the starter link in methane’s armor chain of hydrocarbons.

A National Science Foundation grant is supporting a novel approach using laser light to convert methane into methanol. Roger Dube, research professor at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, won the $79,000 exploratory research award to apply optical catalytic conversion to the problem. Dube will use finely tuned laser light, not heat, to reduce the barrier to reaction in methane and to create longer chain molecules or fuels. The process works without the need for heat or a catalytic surface. This is important because heat consumes some of the fuel stock and decreases overall conversion efficient. Catalysts get dirty and have to be replaced or cleaned, both expensive and time-consuming propositions.

“Successful photo-catalysis of methane would theoretically produce clean fuels and remove methane gas that otherwise would simply be released into the atmosphere,” Dube says. “If successful, the technology could have broad impact in other fields of chemistry.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methane—the odorless component of natural gas—remains in the atmosphere for approximately nine to 15 years. To make matters worse, methane beats carbon dioxide in efficiently trapping heat in the atmosphere. Sources of the gas range from the expected—such as cattle, coal mining and natural gas and petroleum production—to the somewhat unexpected practice of rice cultivation. Methane has ample natural and human-caused sources and is a byproduct of wetlands, wildfires, permafrost, landfills, agricultural applications, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment and certain industrial processes.

“Unfortunately, almost half of the proven reserve of methane is ‘stranded,’” Dube says. “Access to the natural gas is effectively blocked by terrain and the economies of converting natural gas to liquid for efficient transport. A compact, high-gain process is needed that would convert methane gas to a room temperature liquid, such as diesel, and be sufficiently portable to enable access to stranded gas.”

with other types of alternative energy, such as solar and bio-mass? “Lots of other near-term technologies are great because they reduce pollution and petroleum dependence but they don’t fully eliminate either. Renewables, such as wind and biomass, coupled with hydrogen fuel cells are a sustainable combination.