Fuel Cell Technology Update, December 1998
Exxon, Toyota To Develop Fuel Cell Cars. Exxon and Toyota have teamed up to develop fuel cell electric vehicles. While the joint effort will be looking at developing advanced power sources, the main thrust of the partnership will be fuel cell research. Exxon hopes to become a big player in the field of non-oil energy. It will initially be looking at extracting hydrogen for the fuel cells from gasoline. Toyota has been researching extracting hydrogen from methanol. Details of the partnership will be worked out by next April.
Initial Results From Fuel Cell at Wastewater Treatment Plant. A fuel cell system running on digester gas at a wastewater treatment plant in Yonkers, New York, has so far generated more than one million kilowatt hours of electricity for the plant. System emissions were below the measuring equipment's detection limits of 0.5 parts per million for CO and volatile organic chemicals and 1ppm for sulfur dioxide. Nitrogen oxide emissions were measured at 0.4 ppm. According to a press release from New York Power Authority, which owns and operates the fuel cell, the system is projected to cut annual emissions by more than 26 tons in all.
BMW to Use Fuel Cells . . . in Forklifts. BMW has announced it will deploy fuel cells in about 2000 forklifts in the company's production plants. Initial testing was conducted using Solar-Wasserstoff Bayern GmbH (SWB) forklifts. BMW is not currently considering use of fuel cells in passenger vehicles, but is looking seriously at hydrogen internal combustion engines as an option for the future.
Toshiba Sells Fuel Cells to Seiko Epson. Nikkei reports that Toshiba has begun selling 200kW fuel cell power systems to makers of LCDs and computer chips. The first order, for two units, was from Seiko Epson Corp. The fuel cells will use hydrogen from waste methanol from Seiko's chip-cleansing process, saving the company the cost of disposal of the waste, while reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by an estimated 90% and CO2 emissions by 12%. The units will be installed at Seiko Epson's Nagano LCD plant as early as spring 1999.
Hybrid Power Plant to Combine Fuel Cell, Micro-Turbine. Edison Technology Solutions announced that it will develop and commercialize 250kW "hybrid" power plants which integrate a fuel cell with a micro-turbine generator. The first unit, which will combine a 200kW solid oxide fuel cell with a 50kW micro-turbine, will be installed in mid-1999 at the National Fuel Cell Research Center in Irvine, California. The fuel cell will be provided by Siemens Westinghouse. Edison Technology is cooperating with the U.S. Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission, and Siemens Westinghouse in the $16 million project.
Oak Ridge Scales Down Fuel Cell Electrode Size. Light, carbon composite electrodes are being experimented with by Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers who are working to reduce the size and cost of PEM fuel cell electrodes. A Reuters story quotes Theodare Besemann, one of the researchers, as saying Oak Ridge's new approach could reduce the cost of the electrodes by "up to an order of magnitude . . . since we do not need to machine graphite, the current technology."
NEBUS To Be Tested in Mexico. Mercedes-Benz Mexico will begin testing the Daimler-Benz NEBUS -- a fuel cell-powered bus that the company plans to sell worldwide in 2004. According to a Reuters report, DaimlerChrysler Vice President Ferdinand Panik says "about nine units a year would be tested in urban areas through 2003." Chicago and Brazil are included in future locations for NEBUS tests.
New Residential Fuel Cell Powers Oregon Home. Northwest Power Systems of Bend, Oregon, announced the successful testing of its own residential fuel cell system in a local residence. The 2,200-square-foot home was disconnected from the power grid prior to the test and reconnected afterwards. For the test, the fuel cell system -- which includes Northwest Power Systems' patented fuel processor and an Italian fuel cell -- utilized methanol as the fuel. The system is able to recover 90-percent of the hydrogen from liquid or gaseous fuels such as methanol, propane, methane, diesel and gasoline. The company plans to have a commercial product in 2000.
Tokyo Gas to Test Residential PEM Fuel Cell System. Tokyo Gas will begin testing its new residential PEM fuel cell in January 1999. The system converts hydrogen from city gas, and generates anywhere from a few kilowatts to several tens of kilowatts of power. The company, which has already manufactured and installed 36 of its phosphoric acid fuel cell power plants, hopes to begin in-home testing of its fuel cells starting in 2001.
SOFC “Breakthrough” Announced. Global Thermoelectric Inc., of Canada, has announced breakthroughs in its SOFC development program. The company has overcome a problem with sealing between the individual cells in a stack, allowing the units to be continually cycled and handle rapid start-up and power-down. Global is developing fuel cell
systems that will generate up to 30 kilowatts of power, running directly on natural gas, without requiring a gas cleanup step. A prototype of the system should be ready for demonstration in early 1999.
Natural Gas PEM Fuel Cell Tested. Energy Partners teamed up with NUI Corporation under the name NuPower (TM) to develop PEM fuel cell systems for residential and commercial applications. The companies have announced the successful testing of a 2kW unit operating on hydrogen from natural gas. In a project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the partners will develop and market stationary PEM fuel cells that could run on either natural gas or propane,
with a targeted manufacturing cost of $600/kW. Energy Partners' President Ed Trlica says the companies will also soon introduce a product line of Personal Power Systems(tm).
Ballard Completes Agreement With EBARA. Ballard Generation Systems has completed a US$31 million agreement with EBARA Corporation to form a new company dedicated to selling, distributing, servicing, and manufacturing Ballard stationary power plants for the Japanese market. EBARA also aims to build energy systems, based on the Ballard power plants, using methane gas from water and waste treatment facilities. The new company, EBARA Ballard Corporation, will be based in Japan.
New Pressure Analysis System to Aid Fuel Cell Membrane Developers. New software developed by Sensor Products, Inc., will aid fuel cell manufacturers in evaluating membrane spacing within a fuel cell. The Topaq Pressure Analysis System, used in conjunction with Pressurex/Fuji Prescale stress indicating films, can analyze surface contact area down to 3 mils. Uniform spacing of the membrane is important for a PEM fuel cell to achieve maximum current flow.
Fuel Cell Organizations Established. The U.S. Fuel Cell Council was formally launched as the first broad- based trade association for the national fuel cell industry. A European Hydrogen Association has been established, and will include as members the national hydrogen associations of all European countries. An Institute for Fuel cell Science and Technology has been established at the University at Albany in New York. The Institute, which was founded with a $500,000 grant from New York State, will direct funds to public and private sector enterprises across the state that are involved in developing fuel cells. |
