[Graeme]

Global Market for Hydrogen Energy, Fuel Cells, and Related Nanotechnology Expects to Reach $14 Billion by 2014

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he lure of fuel cells is the promise to be one of the most ubiquitous products of the 21st century. Fuel cells can compete with batteries, the internal combustion engine and the power grid. Hydrogen can compete with any fuel now produced and cause no pollution but its price is higher than gasoline or natural gas because it is difficult to transport and store. Nanotechnologies will provide the technological keys that enable fuel cells and hydrogen as a fuel to become competitive and commonplace.

According to a newly released report from iRAP, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Energy and Related Nanotechnology—A Global Industry and Market Analysis, the fuel cell and hydrogen energy industry is highly fragmented. Worldwide about 3870 organizations are involved in fuel cells, hydrogen energy and related nanotechnology and spent an estimated $8.4 billion in 2008. This market is estimated at $8.8 billion in 2009 and expected to increase to $14 billion by 2014, with a compound average growth rate of 9.6%.

[anador]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') like storing surplus wind (during gusty periods), wave (during rough seas etc.), and solar (in the daylight) power as hydrogen for slack times (windless days, calm seas, night time, etc.). That makes sense.

But there are so many reasons why hydrogen fuel cell vehicles don't fly (or drive ).
--hydrogen atoms are tiny and thus a distribution system will leak gas at too many opportunities,
--h2 must be stored at 10,000 psi in auto gas talks--very dangerous
--electrolysis reformers and compressors to make h2 are expensive.
--natural gas->h2 is not a good solution--leave it as gas and use it directly
--fuel cells are not the way to go--expensive, use rare materials (titanium etc.)

[anador]

Good Point.

[Graeme]

Hydrogen fuel-cell motorcycles, no gas required

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')mart energy produces the world’s first, purpose-built fuel-cell motorcycle,
while the oil companies in the United States are digging deep down into the pockets of every motorist, including those of us on two wheels. A British firm unveiled production plans for the world’s first production, Fuel Cell Motorcycle.

The ENV (Emissions Neutral Vehicle) motorcycle was designed by award winning designers, SeymourPowell, who happen to be two of the six designers who have conceived this alternative fuel vehicle.

The fuel cell technology is fully detachable from the motorcycle being powered by it. This new, compact fuel cell can power anything from the motorcycle you ride to the residential house you live in.

According to intelligent energy CEO Harry Bradbury, people will be able to leave work on their motorcycle or car, arrive at their county-side location, remove the small fuel cell and re-attach it to their home and power a domestic house with the same fuel cell.
After use, the same fuel cell can be fully re-charged from a mini-hydrogen creator that is the size of a shoe box!

[Graeme]

Reversible Generation Of High Capacity Hydrogen Storage Material Demonstrated

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')esearchers 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.

[Graeme]

PATHways – New Report Assessing Progress in the Global Hydrogen Industry

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')any countries around the world are working to build a clean and secure energy future. Stakeholders of a global hydrogen economy need to understand the developments related to hydrogen energy and current events that are shaping the process. The Partnership for Advancing the Transition to Hydrogen (PATH) has begun to facilitate such an understanding by producing "PATHways: Assessing Progress in the Global Hydrogen Industry."

The report incorporates the perspectives of leaders in the worldwide hydrogen and fuel cell industry, as well as views from leaders in government, education, and related business sectors.

By establishing a broad base of knowledge, this report will accomplish two main objectives:

(1) help existing and emerging leaders expand the commercialisation of hydrogen locally and globally; and

(2) educate outside leaders and the public about present and future opportunities for hydrogen energy. The full report is scheduled for release by late 2009.

[Graeme]

Congress to Restore Hydrogen Car Funding

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ongress appears close to restoring the $100 million in funding for hydrogen research that Steven Chu, the energy secretary, had cut from his budget in May.

The House of Representatives voted 320-97 last Friday to approve $26.9 billion for the Department of Energy, including $153 million for hydrogen and fuel cells in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program, plus $40.45 million for hydrogen from coal.

[Graeme]

Automakers Issue Joint Statement in Support of Commercial Introduction of Fuel Cell Vehicles from 2015 Onward

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')eading vehicle manufacturers in fuel cell technology—Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation/Opel, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation, the alliance Renault SA and Nissan Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation—issued a joint a Letter of Understanding (LoU) regarding the development and market introduction of fuel cell electric vehicles.

The signing automobile manufacturers strongly anticipate that from 2015 onwards, a “quite significant” number—a “few hundred thousand units” over the initial products’ lifecycles—of fuel cell electric vehicles could be commercialized. These companies have built up extensive expertise in fuel cell technology; the signing marks a major industry step towards the serial production of such locally emission-free vehicles.

[Graeme]

Toyota Aims to Reduce Fuel Cell Vehicle Cost to 1/10 of Current By Commercialization in 2015; Reduction to Another 1/10 With Scale

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n a news conference at the Japan National Press Club on Friday, Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda said that the company plans to begin mass production of electric vehicles in the US in 2012, followed by US production of fuel cell vehicles in 2015. Toyoda positioned EVs for short-distance travel and fuel cell cars for longer ranges. The 2015 date for fuel cell vehicles reinforced remarks made in June by vice president Masatami Takimoto about commercialization prospects.

[SeaGypsy]

Graeme, has any progress been made regarding metals like platinum being required in fuel cells? I remember someone posted a while back about nano particle platinim wafers as catalytic converters for fuel cells. While this is a step in the right direction, surely the magic moment will be when/if a cell using regular metals emerges?

[Graeme]

I'm certainly not a fuel-cell engineer and I'm not aware of all the latest research on fuel cells. However, I did a quick google search and found this:

Smaller Isn't Always Better: Catalyst Simulations Could Lower Fuel Cell Cost

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')o maximize platinum use, researchers use catalysts made with platinum particles as small as two nanometers, which are approximately 10 atoms across. These tiny structures have a large surface area on which the fuel cell reaction occurs. However, platinum catalysts this small degrade very quickly.

Morgan and Holby, who are working in collaboration with Professor Yang Shao-Horn from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have found a possible solution to the rapid degradation problem: When it comes to catalyst particle size, sometimes smaller isn't better.

Their modeling work, which is funded by 3M and the U.S. Department of Energy, shows that if the particle size of a platinum catalyst is increased to four or five nanometers, which is approximately 20 atoms across, the level of degradation significantly decreases. This means the catalyst and the fuel cell as a whole can continue to function for much longer than if the particle size was only two or three nanometers.

[Graeme]

Hydrogen Economy Report Outlines Opportunities of Hydrogen-Based Transportation

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s the debate on hydrogen continues, Energy Business Reports (http://energybusinessreports.com), introduces a new report addressing the main issues involved in the shift to hydrogen economy. “Hydrogen Economy: Challenges and Potential,” examines the technological, political and environmental factors affecting the shift to a hydrogen economy. View details: http://www.energybusinessreports.com/sh ... .asp?itemi ...

According to the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), hydrogen, “the simplest, most abundant element in the universe” has the potential to transform US transportation and ultimately entire energy system. It and can be produced from fossil fuels or biomass and even by electrolyzing water. Hydrogen is a cleaner source of transportation energy, and when produced from a process such as electrolysis of water powered by solar energy it does not release greenhouse gasses.

[Graeme]

A Private Plan for a Hydrogen Highway

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')any alternative-fuel companies are cash-poor, which means they spend a lot of their time chasing government loans and private capital. SunHydro, a start-up founded by Tom Sullivan to establish a solar-powered fuel-cell car refueling network on the East Coast, doesn’t have that immediate challenge. In 1993, Mr. Sullivan founded Lumber Liquidators, a hardwood flooring retailer that now boasts more than 200 stores and, according to Reuters, had $544 million in net sales last year.

Hydrogen and hardwood floors? What’s the connection? In an interview, Mr. Sullivan said his $15 million to $20 million backing of a network of hydrogen stations from Maine to Florida began in 2008, when he started to research the next generation of car fuels. “It seemed ridiculous we were spending $1 billion a day on imported oil when we could make our own zero-emission hydrogen,” Mr. Sullivan said. “If we can make hydrogen from wind or solar, that’s as good as it gets.”

[Graeme]

“Game-Changing” Hydrogen Storage System from French Firm Unveiled

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')cPhy Energy expects to start commercial production of its hydrogen storage systems in late July. First, however, to test two of its storage tanks at an industrial scale, it signed a research contract with CEA Liten, the French Laboratory of Innovation for New Energy, this week.

A 1kg tank was delivered last month and a 15kg tank will be delivered to CEA Liten for testing later in the year.

This “game-changing technology”, as McPhy calls it, can store energy at a low pressure and in a short space of time.

“It said that the tank could be connected to a hydrogen production system that could be powered using electricity from a wind farm or solar power plant to be stored. Once stored, the hydrogen could either be converted back to electricity using a fuel cell, or used to supply the growing market for hydrogen,” Jessica Shankleman of BusinessGreen reports.

[Graeme]

Hydrogen vehicles: Fuel of the future?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hen on 9 September in Stuttgart, Germany, nine major car manufacturers — Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Nissan and Toyota — signed a joint statement suggesting that fuel-cell vehicles could hit dealerships by 2015. In a coordinated announcement the next day in Berlin, a group of energy companies including Shell and the Swedish firm Vattenfall joined Daimler in an agreement to begin setting up the necessary hydrogen infrastructure in Germany.

This push for rapid deployment has left many people shaking their heads. "I just don't see it," says Don Hillebrand, director of the Center for Transportation Research at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. "It doesn't make sense."

Yet the proponents of hydrogen vehicles are brimming with confidence. "This memorandum of understanding marks the will of the industry to move forward," says Klaus Bonhoff, who heads the National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NOW), a Berlin-based organization created by the German government in 2008 to spearhead that country's hydrogen programme.

Here Nature assesses the four major challenges facing hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and finds that both sides have a point: some of the challenges are close to being met — but others have a long way to go.

[Graeme]

Mazda's Receives Award for Hydrogen Rotary Engine Initiatives

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')azda Motor Corporation recently announced it received the IAHE Sir William Grove Award from the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) at a presentation ceremony in Essen, Germany.

The IAHE is an international organization that promotes academic and technological advancements in the field of hydrogen energy. Every two years, the IAHE presents five awards to researchers or organizations that have made significant contributions in areas related to hydrogen energy. The awards are presented during the World Hydrogen Energy Conference (WHEC), the world's largest international conference on hydrogen energy, which the IAHE hosts.

The 2010 IAHE Sir William Grove Award recognizes Mazda's initiatives to advance hydrogen energy, which include the commercialization of the world's first hydrogen rotary engine vehicles, and participation in Norway's national HyNor hydrogen project. This is the first time Mazda has won an IAHE award.

[copious.abundance]

Regarding the "hydrogen isn't a fuel" issue . . .

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole point of burning hydrocarbons (hydrogen + carbon) to get the energy stored/carried in the hydrogen, and then the carbon is released as a waste product? If so, wouldn't it be at least as efficient, ultimately, to directly get the energy from pure hydrogen and skip the whole burning-a-hydrocarbon-and-the-carbon-becomes-waste process?

I realize hydrogen does not come in a pure form in nature, but it seems to me that, theoretically at least, the process of extracting hydrogren from water and using it directly as energy should be no more or less efficient, when all steps are taken into account, than the process of extracting some hydrocarbons from the earth, possibly refining them, and then burning them to get the energy stored in the hydrogen with the carbon as a waste product.

[aflurry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', '
')I realize hydrogen does not come in a pure form in nature, but it seems to me that, theoretically at least, the process of extracting hydrogren from water and using it directly as energy should be no more or less efficient, when all steps are taken into account, than the process of extracting some hydrocarbons from the earth, possibly refining them, and then burning them to get the energy stored in the hydrogen with the carbon as a waste product.

[ian807]

Hydrogen is only a carrier of energy and not a particularly efficient one at that.

That being said, we could afford to use it in the transportation sector if electricity was cheap enough and ubiquitous enough. That could be done if we ramped up hydro-power in a big way, building dammed side ponds on every sizeable river in the USA and installing generating equipment. As an added aside, we get additional flood control, land for aquaculture, an increase in arable land if we use some of the water for irrigation,.

Beyond that, the barriers are those of engineering. Hydrogen is hell on metals of all sorts. This too is non trivial.