- Email: [email protected]
Ducon, Cemtrex in PEM fuel cell joint venture
NEWS in France, and three industrial partners: the engineering and prototyping contractor ESORO, systems integrator RUAG Aerospace and concept developer Tribecraft. About 20 ETH students worked on the project, mostly from the Department of Mechanical & Process Engineering. The two drivers, both women, are also students at ETH Zürich. The whole fuel cell system (including control and power electronics) was designed at ETH Zürich. The 900 We PEM fuel cell, a by-product of the PowerPac project, benefits from an embedded self-humidifying area specially designed by PSI researchers, as well as newly developed membranes and custom-made endplates. The stack efficiency is exceptionally high, at close to 70%; the stack itself weighs just 4 kg. Contact: Dr Jean-Jacques Santin, Institut für Messund Regeltechnik, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. Tel: +41 1 632 5131, Email: [email protected], www.paccar.ethz.ch
CFCL launches SOFC generator, signs up EWE for German field trial
A
ustralian-based Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd has officially launched its solid oxide fuel cell generator unit, integrated into a micro-CHP (combined heat and power) system initially aimed at residential markets in Europe, Japan and North America. The company has also signed a contract with German utility EWE for a commercial field trial of two CFCL solid oxide fuel cell units. ‘We have designed our micro-CHP unit for maximum efficiency; we are looking for 80% system efficiency when current systems are around 10–30%,’ says Julian Dinsdale, CFCL’s executive chairman. ‘We are looking to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% over current carbon generation systems, and to produce constant power – ideally stable for the grid and for residential users.’ The product launch comes as CFCL shipped its first fuel cell powered micro-CHP demonstrator unit to its first customer, the utility Powerco in New Zealand. ‘We have to target the European market, particularly Germany and the UK, because utilities and governments there understand and actively support efficient distributed generation systems such as fuel cells and micro CHP, and emissions trading systems,’ adds Dinsdale. ‘We would urge the Australian governments to take similar steps.’
August 2005
EWE joins Powerco in running field trials of CFCL’s planar SOFC generators, to evaluate and test the performance and reliability of the fuel cell technology and micro-CHP unit. The EWE contract is particularly significant, as CFCL sees Europe – and especially Germany – as its target market for future volume production and sales. The contract follows a recent visit by senior EWE managers to CFCL’s head office in Australia to inspect its extensive research and manufacturing facilities and demonstration fuel cell units. EWE is already working with two other fuel cell developers, Swiss-based Sulzer Hexis with its SOFC systems [FCB, February 2002] and Vaillant in Germany with its Plug Power PEM fuel cell systems [FCB, April 2004]. The utility is intent on finding a fuel cell design that is suited to economically viable serial production systems for environmentally friendly turnkey cogeneration plants. ‘The successful negotiation of this field trial contract has largely been due to the establishment of our European subsidiary in August 2004,’ comments Brendan Dow, CEO of CFCL. ‘Through this office we have been able to foster relationships with important energy market players such as EWE.’ Contact: Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd, Noble Park, Victoria, Australia. Tel: +61 3 9554 2300, www.cfcl.com.au Or contact: Ceramic Fuel Cells (Europe) Ltd, Chester, UK. Tel: +44 1244 893781, Email: [email protected]
Ducon, Cemtrex in PEM fuel cell joint venture
I
n Long Island, NY emissions monitoring company Cemtrex has entered into a joint venture with its sister company Ducon Technologies, an air pollution control and emissions monitoring firm, to develop fuel cells for application in utility applications, transportation and other industries. Cemtrex will work with Ducon to customize the latter’s existing PEM fuel cell technology for power plant applications. ‘Ducon has been developing PEM fuel cells for the past three years, and we plan to leverage our relationship with existing utilities by marketing the fuel cells to meet specific power plant’s requirements,’ says Aron Govil, who heads up both companies. Cemtrex manufactures advanced and custom-engineered equipment for the clean energy and emission monitoring markets. Ducon is a leading provider of advanced and custom
IN BRIEF Kansai Electric, Iwatani unveil mobile hydrogen fueling Osaka-based utility Kansai Electric Power (www.kepco.co.jp) and Iwatani International (www.iwatani.co.jp) in Tokyo, a trading house specializing in gases, have jointly developed a mobile hydrogen fueling station system, as a step towards expanding the use of fuel cell vehicles. Claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, the system uses cryogenic liquefied hydrogen and can be transported by small trucks, according to a Kyodo News report. The mobile station can refuel up 15 fuel cell vehicles. A fueling station for compressed hydrogen gas costs ¥200–300 million (US$1.8–2.7m) to build, but the partners claim the new system would cost only ¥40–60 million (US$360 000–540 000) to construct. The two companies will shortly begin marketing the new hydrogen fueling station to local governments and businesses. Last summer Iwatani International unveiled a 10-tonne truck modified to enable it to transport both a mobile hydrogen station and a fuel cell car, making it possible to run an FCV for almost 1000 km (620 miles) in a region without a hydrogen station [FCB, August 2004]. And a year before that, Iwatani was a partner with Showa Shell Seikyu on the first liquid hydrogen refueling station in Tokyo, constructed as part of the Japan Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Demonstration Project [FCB, August 2003]. FuelCell Energy dedicates Manhattan’s first high-temperature fuel cell Connecticut-based FuelCell Energy has dedicated a DFC300A power plant to provide electricity and hot water at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in midtown Manhattan. The 250 kWe molten carbonate DFC unit is operated by FCE’s distribution partner, PPL EnergyPlus, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) provided $920 000 in funding towards the project. The project is part of a master agreement between PPL and Starwood that could lead to DFC power plant installations at other Starwood properties. Starwood’s upscale Sheraton brand has taken the lead in adopting fuel cell energy applications in the metropolitan New York area, with DFC power plants at two suburban New Jersey properties – the Sheraton Edison and Sheraton Parsippany hotels. Earlier this year FCE announced that it will install a 1 MWe DFC power plant at another Starwood property, the 1044-room Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, in the fall [FCB, April].
Fuel Cells Bulletin
9
NEWS equipment for controlling atmospheric pollutants, as well as emission monitoring instrumentation, for a wide variety of industries. Contact: Cemtrex Inc, Farmingdale, New York, USA. Tel: +1 631 756 9116, www.cemtrex.com Or contact: Ducon Technologies Inc, Farmingdale, New York, USA. Tel: +1 631 694 1700, www.ducon.com
Propane-burning microSOFC for small devices
R
esearchers led by Dr Sossina Haile at the California Institute of Technology have created a miniature propaneburning solid oxide fuel cell that is almost as small as a watch battery, yet many times higher in power density; just two of the cells have sufficient power to drive an MP3 player. The research team, which also includes scientists from the University of Southern California and Northwestern University in Chicago, published their results in the 9 June issue of Nature. According to Haile, an associate professor of materials science & chemical engineering at Caltech, a key breakthrough is a novel method of getting the fuel cell to generate enough internal heat to keep itself hot, a requirement for producing power. ‘Fuel cells have been done on larger scales with hydrocarbon fuels, but small fuel cells are challenging because it’s hard to keep them at the high temperatures required to get the hydrocarbon fuels to react,’ she explains. ‘In a small device, the surface-to-volume ratio is large, and because heat is lost through the surface that is generated in the volume, you have to use a lot of insulation to keep the cell hot. Adding insulation takes away the size advantage.’ The new technology tackles this problem by burning some of the fuel to generate heat to maintain the fuel cell temperature. The device could probably use a variety of hydrocarbon fuels, but propane is almost ideal because it is easily compressible into a liquid, and because it instantly becomes a vapor when released. ‘Actually, there are three advances that make the technology possible,’ Haile continues. ‘The first is to make the fuel cells operate with high power outputs at lower temperatures than conventional hydrocarbon-burning fuel cells. The second is to use a single-chamber fuel cell that has only one inlet for premixed oxygen and fuel and a single outlet for exhaust, which makes for a very simple and compact fuel cell system.’ The third breakthrough involves catalysts developed by Zhongliang Zhan and Scott A. 10
Fuel Cells Bulletin
Barnett at Northwestern University, which cause sufficient heat release to sustain the temperature of the fuel cell. In addition, a linear counter-flow heat-exchanger ensures that the hot gases exiting from the fuel cell transfer their heat to the incoming cold inlet gases. Although the technology is still experimental, Haile says that future collaborations with design experts should greatly improve the fuel efficiency. In particular, she and her colleagues are working with David Goodwin, a professor of mechanical engineering and applied physics at Caltech, on design improvements. One such improvement will be to incorporate compact ‘Swiss roll’ heat-exchangers, produced by collaborator Paul Ronney at USC. Potential applications could include tiny flying robots, in which the US defense funding agency DARPA has shown a lot of interest in recent years. For everyday use, the fuel cells could also provide longer-lasting sources of power for laptop computers, television cameras and most devices in which batteries are too heavy or too short-lived. Contact: Professor Sossina M. Haile, Solid State Ionics & Electroceramics Research Group, Materials Science Department, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA. Tel: +1 626 395 2958, Email: [email protected], Web: addis.caltech.edu
Fuel cell Morgan sports car project under way
T
he British motor industry is still renowned for its sports cars, and now a partnership of UK companies and universities plans to develop the world’s first environmentally clean sports car. The new vehicle, known as LIFECar and based on the Morgan Aero Eight, will be ultra-quiet and promises to be a clean vehicle combined with sound motoring performance and stylish good looks. The composite-bodied vehicle will be powered by a PEM fuel cell developed by QinetiQ, Europe’s largest science and technology company. Partnering QinetiQ in the project will be the legendary British sports car manufacturer, the Morgan Motor Company, Cranfield and Oxford Universities, BOC and OSCar Automotive. LIFECar aims to offer significant improvements over current fuel cell prototype vehicles, with the fuel cell powering separate electric motors at each drive wheel. The key to delivering this ‘step change’ in energy efficiency lies in a combination of factors, including weight reduction and a different design approach to exploit opportunities across the vehicle to
reduce energy losses and requirements. Regenerative braking and surplus energy will be used to charge ultracapacitors, which will release their energy when the car is accelerating. This architecture will allow the car to have a much smaller fuel cell than is conventionally regarded as necessary; it will only be large enough to provide cruising speed, approximately 24 kWe, compared with around 85 kWe as proposed by most competing systems. Costing a total of £1.9 million (US$3.4m), involving a mix of industry and Department for Trade & Industry funding, the 30-month project will be broken down into the following areas of responsibility: • BOC will develop the hydrogen refueling plant. • Cranfield University is responsible for systems simulation, on-board computing and control of the fuel-cell hybrid powertrain, and analysis of the integrated design process used, as well as the vehicle controller and control algorithm, and modeling software. • Morgan will provide the car platform and assemble the final concept car. • The University of Oxford is undertaking the design and control of the electric motors. • OSCar Automotive is responsible for overall system design and architecture. • QinetiQ is developing the PEM fuel cell that will be used in the ground-breaking vehicle. Contact: Professor Stephen Evans, International Ecotechnology Research Centre, School of Industrial & Manufacturing Science, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK. Tel: +44 1234 754108, Email: steve.evans@ cranfield.ac.uk, www.cranfield.ac.uk/sims/ecotech
Hamburg initiative for fuel cell and hydrogen technology
T
he north German city of Hamburg is about to unveil an initiative to become one of the leading centers for the development of fuel cell products. Work on the program began last fall, under the leadership of Dr Michael Freytag, the city’s minister for urban development and environment. The initiative will be presented to the public for the first time at the forthcoming H2Expo in Hamburg. The initiative comprises some 20 leading companies, research facilities and institutions, with the goal of establishing close relations between research and industry. ‘Hamburg has a long and distinguished tradition in hydrogen
August 2005
CFCL launches SOFC generator, signs up EWE for German field trial
A
ustralian-based Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd has officially launched its solid oxide fuel cell generator unit, integrated into a micro-CHP (combined heat and power) system initially aimed at residential markets in Europe, Japan and North America. The company has also signed a contract with German utility EWE for a commercial field trial of two CFCL solid oxide fuel cell units. ‘We have designed our micro-CHP unit for maximum efficiency; we are looking for 80% system efficiency when current systems are around 10–30%,’ says Julian Dinsdale, CFCL’s executive chairman. ‘We are looking to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% over current carbon generation systems, and to produce constant power – ideally stable for the grid and for residential users.’ The product launch comes as CFCL shipped its first fuel cell powered micro-CHP demonstrator unit to its first customer, the utility Powerco in New Zealand. ‘We have to target the European market, particularly Germany and the UK, because utilities and governments there understand and actively support efficient distributed generation systems such as fuel cells and micro CHP, and emissions trading systems,’ adds Dinsdale. ‘We would urge the Australian governments to take similar steps.’
August 2005
EWE joins Powerco in running field trials of CFCL’s planar SOFC generators, to evaluate and test the performance and reliability of the fuel cell technology and micro-CHP unit. The EWE contract is particularly significant, as CFCL sees Europe – and especially Germany – as its target market for future volume production and sales. The contract follows a recent visit by senior EWE managers to CFCL’s head office in Australia to inspect its extensive research and manufacturing facilities and demonstration fuel cell units. EWE is already working with two other fuel cell developers, Swiss-based Sulzer Hexis with its SOFC systems [FCB, February 2002] and Vaillant in Germany with its Plug Power PEM fuel cell systems [FCB, April 2004]. The utility is intent on finding a fuel cell design that is suited to economically viable serial production systems for environmentally friendly turnkey cogeneration plants. ‘The successful negotiation of this field trial contract has largely been due to the establishment of our European subsidiary in August 2004,’ comments Brendan Dow, CEO of CFCL. ‘Through this office we have been able to foster relationships with important energy market players such as EWE.’ Contact: Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd, Noble Park, Victoria, Australia. Tel: +61 3 9554 2300, www.cfcl.com.au Or contact: Ceramic Fuel Cells (Europe) Ltd, Chester, UK. Tel: +44 1244 893781, Email: [email protected]
Ducon, Cemtrex in PEM fuel cell joint venture
I
n Long Island, NY emissions monitoring company Cemtrex has entered into a joint venture with its sister company Ducon Technologies, an air pollution control and emissions monitoring firm, to develop fuel cells for application in utility applications, transportation and other industries. Cemtrex will work with Ducon to customize the latter’s existing PEM fuel cell technology for power plant applications. ‘Ducon has been developing PEM fuel cells for the past three years, and we plan to leverage our relationship with existing utilities by marketing the fuel cells to meet specific power plant’s requirements,’ says Aron Govil, who heads up both companies. Cemtrex manufactures advanced and custom-engineered equipment for the clean energy and emission monitoring markets. Ducon is a leading provider of advanced and custom
IN BRIEF Kansai Electric, Iwatani unveil mobile hydrogen fueling Osaka-based utility Kansai Electric Power (www.kepco.co.jp) and Iwatani International (www.iwatani.co.jp) in Tokyo, a trading house specializing in gases, have jointly developed a mobile hydrogen fueling station system, as a step towards expanding the use of fuel cell vehicles. Claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, the system uses cryogenic liquefied hydrogen and can be transported by small trucks, according to a Kyodo News report. The mobile station can refuel up 15 fuel cell vehicles. A fueling station for compressed hydrogen gas costs ¥200–300 million (US$1.8–2.7m) to build, but the partners claim the new system would cost only ¥40–60 million (US$360 000–540 000) to construct. The two companies will shortly begin marketing the new hydrogen fueling station to local governments and businesses. Last summer Iwatani International unveiled a 10-tonne truck modified to enable it to transport both a mobile hydrogen station and a fuel cell car, making it possible to run an FCV for almost 1000 km (620 miles) in a region without a hydrogen station [FCB, August 2004]. And a year before that, Iwatani was a partner with Showa Shell Seikyu on the first liquid hydrogen refueling station in Tokyo, constructed as part of the Japan Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Demonstration Project [FCB, August 2003]. FuelCell Energy dedicates Manhattan’s first high-temperature fuel cell Connecticut-based FuelCell Energy has dedicated a DFC300A power plant to provide electricity and hot water at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in midtown Manhattan. The 250 kWe molten carbonate DFC unit is operated by FCE’s distribution partner, PPL EnergyPlus, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) provided $920 000 in funding towards the project. The project is part of a master agreement between PPL and Starwood that could lead to DFC power plant installations at other Starwood properties. Starwood’s upscale Sheraton brand has taken the lead in adopting fuel cell energy applications in the metropolitan New York area, with DFC power plants at two suburban New Jersey properties – the Sheraton Edison and Sheraton Parsippany hotels. Earlier this year FCE announced that it will install a 1 MWe DFC power plant at another Starwood property, the 1044-room Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, in the fall [FCB, April].
Fuel Cells Bulletin
9
NEWS equipment for controlling atmospheric pollutants, as well as emission monitoring instrumentation, for a wide variety of industries. Contact: Cemtrex Inc, Farmingdale, New York, USA. Tel: +1 631 756 9116, www.cemtrex.com Or contact: Ducon Technologies Inc, Farmingdale, New York, USA. Tel: +1 631 694 1700, www.ducon.com
Propane-burning microSOFC for small devices
R
esearchers led by Dr Sossina Haile at the California Institute of Technology have created a miniature propaneburning solid oxide fuel cell that is almost as small as a watch battery, yet many times higher in power density; just two of the cells have sufficient power to drive an MP3 player. The research team, which also includes scientists from the University of Southern California and Northwestern University in Chicago, published their results in the 9 June issue of Nature. According to Haile, an associate professor of materials science & chemical engineering at Caltech, a key breakthrough is a novel method of getting the fuel cell to generate enough internal heat to keep itself hot, a requirement for producing power. ‘Fuel cells have been done on larger scales with hydrocarbon fuels, but small fuel cells are challenging because it’s hard to keep them at the high temperatures required to get the hydrocarbon fuels to react,’ she explains. ‘In a small device, the surface-to-volume ratio is large, and because heat is lost through the surface that is generated in the volume, you have to use a lot of insulation to keep the cell hot. Adding insulation takes away the size advantage.’ The new technology tackles this problem by burning some of the fuel to generate heat to maintain the fuel cell temperature. The device could probably use a variety of hydrocarbon fuels, but propane is almost ideal because it is easily compressible into a liquid, and because it instantly becomes a vapor when released. ‘Actually, there are three advances that make the technology possible,’ Haile continues. ‘The first is to make the fuel cells operate with high power outputs at lower temperatures than conventional hydrocarbon-burning fuel cells. The second is to use a single-chamber fuel cell that has only one inlet for premixed oxygen and fuel and a single outlet for exhaust, which makes for a very simple and compact fuel cell system.’ The third breakthrough involves catalysts developed by Zhongliang Zhan and Scott A. 10
Fuel Cells Bulletin
Barnett at Northwestern University, which cause sufficient heat release to sustain the temperature of the fuel cell. In addition, a linear counter-flow heat-exchanger ensures that the hot gases exiting from the fuel cell transfer their heat to the incoming cold inlet gases. Although the technology is still experimental, Haile says that future collaborations with design experts should greatly improve the fuel efficiency. In particular, she and her colleagues are working with David Goodwin, a professor of mechanical engineering and applied physics at Caltech, on design improvements. One such improvement will be to incorporate compact ‘Swiss roll’ heat-exchangers, produced by collaborator Paul Ronney at USC. Potential applications could include tiny flying robots, in which the US defense funding agency DARPA has shown a lot of interest in recent years. For everyday use, the fuel cells could also provide longer-lasting sources of power for laptop computers, television cameras and most devices in which batteries are too heavy or too short-lived. Contact: Professor Sossina M. Haile, Solid State Ionics & Electroceramics Research Group, Materials Science Department, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA. Tel: +1 626 395 2958, Email: [email protected], Web: addis.caltech.edu
Fuel cell Morgan sports car project under way
T
he British motor industry is still renowned for its sports cars, and now a partnership of UK companies and universities plans to develop the world’s first environmentally clean sports car. The new vehicle, known as LIFECar and based on the Morgan Aero Eight, will be ultra-quiet and promises to be a clean vehicle combined with sound motoring performance and stylish good looks. The composite-bodied vehicle will be powered by a PEM fuel cell developed by QinetiQ, Europe’s largest science and technology company. Partnering QinetiQ in the project will be the legendary British sports car manufacturer, the Morgan Motor Company, Cranfield and Oxford Universities, BOC and OSCar Automotive. LIFECar aims to offer significant improvements over current fuel cell prototype vehicles, with the fuel cell powering separate electric motors at each drive wheel. The key to delivering this ‘step change’ in energy efficiency lies in a combination of factors, including weight reduction and a different design approach to exploit opportunities across the vehicle to
reduce energy losses and requirements. Regenerative braking and surplus energy will be used to charge ultracapacitors, which will release their energy when the car is accelerating. This architecture will allow the car to have a much smaller fuel cell than is conventionally regarded as necessary; it will only be large enough to provide cruising speed, approximately 24 kWe, compared with around 85 kWe as proposed by most competing systems. Costing a total of £1.9 million (US$3.4m), involving a mix of industry and Department for Trade & Industry funding, the 30-month project will be broken down into the following areas of responsibility: • BOC will develop the hydrogen refueling plant. • Cranfield University is responsible for systems simulation, on-board computing and control of the fuel-cell hybrid powertrain, and analysis of the integrated design process used, as well as the vehicle controller and control algorithm, and modeling software. • Morgan will provide the car platform and assemble the final concept car. • The University of Oxford is undertaking the design and control of the electric motors. • OSCar Automotive is responsible for overall system design and architecture. • QinetiQ is developing the PEM fuel cell that will be used in the ground-breaking vehicle. Contact: Professor Stephen Evans, International Ecotechnology Research Centre, School of Industrial & Manufacturing Science, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK. Tel: +44 1234 754108, Email: steve.evans@ cranfield.ac.uk, www.cranfield.ac.uk/sims/ecotech
Hamburg initiative for fuel cell and hydrogen technology
T
he north German city of Hamburg is about to unveil an initiative to become one of the leading centers for the development of fuel cell products. Work on the program began last fall, under the leadership of Dr Michael Freytag, the city’s minister for urban development and environment. The initiative will be presented to the public for the first time at the forthcoming H2Expo in Hamburg. The initiative comprises some 20 leading companies, research facilities and institutions, with the goal of establishing close relations between research and industry. ‘Hamburg has a long and distinguished tradition in hydrogen
August 2005