Avalence receives Maine, DOE contracts for high-pressure H2

Avalence receives Maine, DOE contracts for high-pressure H2

NEWS These products are being evaluated within the operations of several large potential end-users, who are looking for more efficient, lower-maintena...

91KB Sizes 0 Downloads 138 Views

NEWS These products are being evaluated within the operations of several large potential end-users, who are looking for more efficient, lower-maintenance alternatives to battery power. ‘By incorporating ultracapacitors into our systems to provide ‘burst’ power, we are able to optimize system efficiency and response time and reduce overall system cost,’ says Dr Craig Greenhill, General Hydrogen’s chief operating officer. ‘Customers want power pack systems that require minimal maintenance and operate reliably for many years.’ Maxwell is also supplying its Boostcap ultracapacitors to Toronto-based Hydrogenics for integration into its fuel cell power systems [FCB, April], and as far back as 2001 was selected to supply its PowerCache® ultracapacitors to Avista Labs (now ReliOn). Contact: General Hydrogen Corporation, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Tel: +1 604 878 9009, www.generalhydrogen.com Or contact: Maxwell Technologies Inc, San Diego, California, USA. Tel: +1 858 503 3300, www.maxwell.com

Lynntech secures spinoff investment, moving to Massachusetts

T

exas-based fuel cell testing firm Lynntech Industries has secured $5.5 million in series A equity financing. The investment was led by venture capitalists Chrysalix Energy of Vancouver, BC and NY-based Braemar Energy Ventures, with co-investor Altira of Denver, Colorado. The capital increase will be used to expand the company’s development capabilities and service/sales operations. The company will now be spun out from its parent organization, Lynntech Inc, to become an independent operation in which Lynntech Inc becomes a minority shareholder, with no role in operations or corporate governance. This will position it as a leading independent provider of fuel cell test solutions. A critical component to success in commercializing fuel cells will be innovation in testing and analysis of sophisticated data, says Jeff Bentley, CEO of Lynntech Industries. The investment will allow the company to continue providing customers with innovative testing solutions that reduce time and costs, and to provide additional related services like confidential, independent fuel cell testing. Lynntech offers test stations from <1 We to >100 kWe, including PEM, DMFCs, SOFCs and MCFCs. 6

Fuel Cells Bulletin

As a further result of the spinoff, Lynntech Industries is in the process of setting up facilities in Lowell, Massachusetts (about 20 miles northwest of Boston), to serve as its new corporate HQ. The company’s manufacturing and new product development operations will remain in College Station, Texas. Lynntech’s CEO Jeff Bentley has close links with Massachusetts, as the former COO of Cambridge-based Nuvera Fuel Cells, which began life as Epyx Corporation when he founded it as a spinoff from Arthur D. Little. Contact: Lynntech Industries, College Station, Texas, USA. Tel: +1 979 694 5255, www.lynntechindustries.com Or contact: Lynntech Industries, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. Tel: +1 978 454 0770. Or contact: Chrysalix Energy Limited Partnership, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Tel: +1 604 659 5499, www.chrysalix.com

Penn State improves cost, power output of microbial fuel cell

E

ngineers at Pennsylvania State University, who earlier this year demonstrated the world’s first microbial fuel cell (MFC) to generate electricity directly from wastewater [FCB, April], have modified the design to reduce its cost by two-thirds, while increasing power output almost six-fold. The prototype MFC device generates electricity through the electron-carrying action of bacteria occurring naturally in domestic wastewater skimmed from the settling pond of a sewage treatment plant. The reaction simultaneously cleans the water. The original design featured a polymeric proton-exchange membrane bonded to the cathode. The team, directed by Professor Bruce Logan, has now removed the PEM – one of the most expensive parts – and substituted carbon paper for the graphite rod electrodes. The carbon paper is placed on opposite ends of a plastic tube about 3.8 cm long and 2.5 cm in diameter. The cathode also contains a Pt catalyst. Using carbon paper allows oxygen in air to react directly at the cathode, removing the need to bubble air into the water at the cathode as is required in a typical two-chamber MFC. By modifying the MFC to make it cheaper, the Penn State team found they can also boost electricity production from about 26 mWe per m2 of electrode surface to about 146 mWe/m2; Logan says the team’s ultimate goal is 1000 mWe/m2. Tests with a 3 mW fan have shown that a typical wastewater treatment plant

equipped with a Penn State MFC could power the fan with just a teacupful of wastewater. By slashing the cost of MFCs, Logan is optimistic that these devices may be able to help reduce the $25 billion annual cost of wastewater treatment in the US, and provide access to sanitation technologies in developing countries. The progress is described in a paper by Logan and Hong Liu published in Environmental Science & Technology. 38(14) 4040–4046 (15 July 2004). Contact: Professor Bruce Logan, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA. Tel: +1 814 863 7908, Email: [email protected], www.engr.psu.edu/ce/ enve/mfc-logan.htm

Avalence receives Maine, DOE contracts for high-pressure H2

C

onnecticut-based Avalence has been awarded a contract by The Chewonki Foundation of Wiscasset, Maine to install a Hydrofiller 15 electrolyzer at the foundation’s Environmental Education Campus. The company has also received a DOE grant to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the proprietary electrolytic process in the Hydrofiller, which produces high-pressure hydrogen without using compressors. The Chewonki Renewable Hydrogen Project (CRHP) is intended to expand Maine’s renewable energy economy by demonstrating that ‘green’ hydrogen can power fuel cells to provide critical backup power. The project’s centerpiece, the Avalence Hydrofiller 15, is fueled by renewable energy generated by an array of solar photovoltaic panels. It will generate hydrogen at 3000 psi (210 bar) and store sufficient quantities to provide four days’ backup power for the campus’ Environmental Education Center. The project also involves the collaboration of the Hydrogen Energy Center of Portland, Maine. For the DOE-funded Phase 1 SBIR contract, Avalence will team with a representative from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and John Deere. The research has two goals: the first is to assess and document the energy savings afforded by generating hydrogen directly at storage pressures of up to 700 bar (10 000 psi), eliminating the energy associated with mechanical compression. This efficiency advantage is due to the unique configuration of the Hydrofiller system, according to Avalence, and has been the subject of previous NREL research. In addition, work in Phase 1 will advance the design of the Hydrofiller to directly interface

August 2004

NEWS with renewable sources of electricity – specifically, PV arrays – without the use of any power conditioning equipment. The Phase 1 results research will be applied to a PV-powered renewable hydrogen fueling station for agricultural or commercial vehicle use. Contact: Avalence LLC, Milford, Connecticut, USA. Tel: +1 203 701 0052, www.avalence.com For more information on the Chewonki Foundation, go to: www.chewonki.org

present record was achieved at more than 100°C lower, demonstrating that using improved SOFC cells significantly reduces the operating temperature while achieving the same power output. The progress was also in part as a result of improvements in joining techniques and the new ‘JS-3’ steel specially developed at Jülich. Contact: Dr Robert Steinberger-Wilckens, Fuel Cell Project (PBZ), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany. Tel: +49 2461 615124, Email: r.steinberger @fz-juelich.de, www.fz-juelich.de/pbz

Further progress with Nuvera, Takagi to jointly high-performance SOFCs develop cogen systems at Jülich for Japan

R

esearchers at the Forschungszentrum Jülich research center in Germany have achieved a power output of 13.3 kWe from a planar 60-cell solid oxide fuel cell stack, operating on hydrogen, which they believe is a new record performance. The mean operating temperature was 760°C, a relatively low temperature for SOFCs, which has a favorable effect on the life expectancy of the materials used. Two years ago the same team reported a performance milestone of 9.2 kWe from a 40-cell stack at 850°C [FCB, August 2002]. Jülich’s scientists are developing SOFCs characterized by a thin electrolyte and planar single cells, intended for use in buildings. Researchers from the center’s Institute for Materials & Processes in Energy Systems (IWV) and its Central Department of Technology (ZAT) have now connected 60 such cells to form a stack, roughly 40 cm high, which is operated at around 800°C. At these temperatures methane is directly converted into hydrogen and CO2 in the stack, which makes the SOFC especially efficient. It likewise minimizes the effort required to process natural gas, which mainly comprises methane. This reduces the cost of the entire fuel cell system, and enables it to be used in vehicles for onboard auxiliary power generation. The new Jülich stack reached a power of 11.9 kWe using such a methane/hydrogen mixture. The new stack has been in continuous operation for more than 1100 h, during which time it only lost 3% of its power output. ‘This loss can be attributed to the behavior of individual stack layers rather than to ‘ageing’ of the stack as a whole,’ explains Dr Robert SteinbergerWilckens, head of the Jülich fuel cell project. He emphasizes that the increase in performance to 13.3 kWe cannot be attributed merely to increasing the number of cells from 40 to 60. The

August 2004

J

apan’s Takagi Industrial Co is joining forces with US/Italian-based Nuvera Fuel Cells to develop commercial fuel cell-based cogeneration systems for the Japanese market. The partners will be building on technology already jointly developed and deployed for the Japan Gas Association [FCB, May]. Under the terms of the agreement between the two companies, Takagi will integrate its innovative heat management system with Nuvera’s 5 kWe Avanti™ fuel cell power system, which runs on natural gas to generate hot water and electricity. Takagi’s system will store the hot water and interface it with the end customer’s thermal demand; the company will also manufacture certain components for Nuvera. The partners expect to conduct field trials of the system in 2005 and 2006, with an eye towards fully commercial sales in 2007.

Contact: Nuvera Fuel Cells, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Tel: +1 617 245 7500, www.nuvera.com Or contact: Takagi Industrial Co Ltd, Fuji-shi, Shizuoka, Japan. Tel: +81 545 330705, www.purpose.co.jp (or www.takagi-usa.com in English)

LOGANEnergy launches office CHP project

A

600 kWe phosphoric acid fuel cell installation developed by Georgiabased fuel cell services company LOGANEnergy Corporation has started operation at a 12-storey office building in Fresno, California. The fuel cell power block harnesses three 200 kWe PC25C power plants made by UTC Fuel Cells in Connecticut, and is sited next to the Guaranty Savings Building.

In Brief Nokia demos fuel cell phone headset Finnish-based cell phone giant Nokia is testing wireless cell phone headsets powered by miniaturized direct methanol fuel cells that could offer two or three times the runtime of current portable devices. The fuel-cell earpiece and microphone are still at least several years from the market, but the breakthrough indicates one direction the cell phone of the future could take. The International Herald Tribune quoted Yrjo Neuvo, Nokia’s chief technology officer, as saying that ‘the [fuel-cell headset] technology seems to be reasonably mature.’ About 100 Nokia employees are testing the headset, which connects to the cell phone via Bluetooth short-range wireless technology. The cells are recharged by squirting methanol from a separate small container into a tiny internal tank on the headset; each charge provides about 10 h of talk-time, compared with only about 2 h for current Bluetooth headsets. Motorola, Fujitsu and Toshiba are investing heavily in research, mostly for laptop computers, and STMicroelectronics is collaborating with four Italian companies on fuel cells for cell phones [FCB, October 2003]. NEC, Hitachi and Sanyo Electric are also in pursuit. Nokia, which does not make its own components, is working with unidentified partners on the fuel cell project, according to the IHT. Fuel cell go-kart for Japanese schoolkids Japanese PEM fuel cell developer Chemix has developed a children’s fuel cell powered go-kart, which it has already begun selling into elementary schools, according to the Nikkei Business Daily. The company hopes the vehicle will give 9 to 11 year old students an opportunity to ride an environmentally friendly vehicle. The go-kart is powered by a 120 We fuel cell installed in front of the driver’s seat, and can reach a speed of 4–6 km/h. A hydrogen-storing alloy tank behind the driver carries 200 l of hydrogen, enough for an hour’s operation. Chemix has also developed a simplified test kit to quickly determine the electrical characteristics of PEM fuel cells. The test can be completed within 40 min: a simplified assembly procedure means that assembly and disassembly each take less than 5 min, with evaluation of the basic performance taking about 30 min. Sharp, New Mexico link on new energy Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corporation and the State of New Mexico in the US have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop new energy technologies, including fuel cells and solar power. Sharp will collaborate with Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs and universities in New Mexico on joint R&D aimed at achieving practical uses for PEM fuel cells, as well as experimental technology in solar power generation systems.

Fuel Cells Bulletin

7