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Technology Stocks : Energy Conversion Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank Haims who wrote (3790)	7/6/1999 11:43:00 AM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8393

Frank, did that article mention DCHT at all?

To: Frank Haims who wrote (3790)	7/6/1999 2:00:00 PM
From: Futurist	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8393

Any thing for us? DJ Honda Motor Develops New Ultra-Low Fuel Consumption Techs TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japan's Honda Motor Co. (HMC or 7267) said Tuesday that it has newly developed two ultra-low fuel consumption technologies. Both the Honda IMA (integrated motor assist) system, centering on a new lean-burn engine, and a new lightweight aluminum body structure will be used for Honda's new hybrid car "Insight" to be introduced this autumn, the automaker said. The new technologies will allow Honda to achieve the world's lowest fuel consumption for a mass-produced gasoline-power vehicle - 35 kilometers per liter, Honda said.

To: Frank Haims who wrote (3790)	7/9/1999 12:09:00 PM
From: Ray	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8393

In I have bee trying to assess the importance of ECD's new hydrogen storage "device". Page 92 of the July 1999 Scientific American provides the pertinent numbers. The chart on that page lists the stored electrochemical energy (in Watt hours) for several sources of Hydrogen for fuel cells. (This chart also gives data for rechargeable batteries and lists NiMH batteries at only 60 Wh/kg!) First, note that the metal hydride listed (LaNi5H6) provides about 2/3 the energy per volume as provided by Methanol. Pretty good, I say; particularly considering that the methanol requires a reformer to provide the hydrogen for fuel cells. Perhaps there is little difference in required volume between LaNi5H6 and methanol when the reformer is included. It appears to me the only substantial reason methanol is being emphasized for auto fuel cell use is the lack of hydrogen supply stations. Of course, the LaNi5H material is much heavier than methanol, but this problem with metal hydrides in general is much lessened by ECD's new Mg-hydride material. I think the LaNi5H6 material can store up to about 2% by mass of Hydrogen, while ECD's new material can store up to 7% -- or about 3.5 times as much per mass unit. However, the LaNi5H6 material is, I believe, roughly 3.5 times as dense as Mg, so the volumetric efficiency of Hydrogen storage is about the same for both materials. (I am assuming that only Magnesium is used, rather than some alloy; and this assumption could well be wrong). Bearing in mind the much higher efficiency of fuel cells, but also bearing in mind the lower energy content of methanol, a ten gallon methanol tank would likely be sufficient for methanol-reformer/fuel-cell autos. This means a 15 gallon ECD-type metal-hydride tank would also be sufficient; and is a quite reasonable volume. Then, since Magnesium is about twice as dense as methanol, the 15 gallon ECD-type tank would weigh about three times as much as for a full methanol ten gallon tank. As methanol weighs roughly 7 pounds per gallon (from memory), the weights would be about 90 pounds for the methanol tank, allowing 20 pounds for the tank itself, and 240 pounds for the ECD tank, allowing 30 pounds for the container itself. It seems to me that the ECD hydride material is reasonably competitive in weight and size to using a methanol/reformer design. NOTE that I am assuming a tank for a fairly large auto with long range capability. In the SA article, Appleby assumes a small car with a somewhat limited tank-range of 500 km (300 miles), which he estimates would need about 3 kg of Hydrogen storage. (I live in Colorado, where a range of 400 to 500 miles is preferred!). The 210 pounds of mg-hydride in my example is about 95 kilograms, which would store about 6.7 kilos (at 7%). Do NOT take the above as accurate -- too many assumptions -- it is only reasonable enough to support the idea that ECD may well have an important product in their Hydrogen storage "device".