Fuel Cell Nation

First North American Fuel Cell Ship

(UVic Communications)

In a story titled Greener B.C. research ship to use fuel cells, the 1985-vintage Tsekoa II, once used by the Canadian Coast Guard, is discussed being transferred to the University of Victoria, along with its ongoing retrofit with an all-electric, hybrid drive. The propulsion system consists of:

• Batteries
• Hydrogen-air fuel cells and
• "Low-emission" diesel generators.

As such, the Tsekoa II will apparently become North America’s first hybrid fuel cell and plug-in hybrid ship. No word on the vendors supplying the battery and fuel cell systems, or even the battery type. If it is a Lithium-Ion battery, it will likely be one of the largest transportation-based installations in the world, because Kim Juniper, lead scientist on the project. is quoted as saying "When fully charged, the batteries can supply all the ship's power requirements for up to eight hours."

$22 million (CAN) is going to the power plant changeover. An additional $8.8 million (CAN) is going to to expand the Venus undersea observatory in the Strait of Georgia and Saanich Inlet.

So not only is this project developing a hybrid ship, but it involves hybrid funding sources and sinks: a variety of governmental and private sources are being pooled to fund both fuel cell and oceanography work!

Another Bloom Story

 
There's a new Press Release from Bloom Energy about the  Bloom Electrons^TM program they started. Instead of paying big money up front to buy a Bloom Box [a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), running on natural gas], you can sign up for a 10-year lease and "... pay only for the electricity consumed ...". On the positive side, you now have a known price for much of your electricity supply (without tying down your natural gas price,) which is good. Also, you get the kudos of friends and neighbors for being an early adopter of Green Energy.

What I don't like is their somewhat deceptive advertising that you can pick one up and only "pay only for the electricity consumed." People are going to be saddened when they investigate and see that, just like cogeneration systems (and many other energy-saving technologies), it only pays to base-load a Bloom Box. Peak electric power will still need to be bought from the local electric utility. Of course, this non-base-loaded power is a large fraction of most customer's total annual electricity needs. So Bloom Electrons users will not generally be totaly green customers.

Once again, there is no such thing as a free lunch!

Interesting Pizza Seminar

Myoungbae Lee, a postdoc at the Virginia Tech Department of Chemical Engineering (Jim McGrath's group), was recently at Giner to work with some of our specialized membrane characterization equipment. He made a presentation for us while he was here at one of our periodic Pizza Seminars, which expanded on Effects of block length and solution-casting conditions on the final morphology and properties of disulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) multiblock copolymer films for proton exchange membranes.

We got to hear some of his latest results concerning details of his work with us on a DOE Fuel Cell project. The VT multiblock copolymer materials are a potential future source of low-cost proton exchange membrane (PEM). Though specifically addressing the effect of various (thermal and other) treatments on the properties of the VT membranes, it helped give us insight into other PEMs, including Nafion (today's baseline fuel cell membrane).

Hydrogen for 65,000 Feet

In 2003-2004 Giner Electrochemical Systems, LLC put me in charge of building a MATLAB/Simulink model that automatically optimized the design of a fuel cell-based power generation system for a stated 2-week high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) aircraft mission. NASA and other government agencies were convinced that an air-breathing, liquid hydrogen fueled engine would provide the lowest-weight HALE aircraft power plant. Accordingly, they hired us to determine the weight and volume of such a hydrogen-fueled proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell-based system. Other firms optimized the design of alternative power plants, such as a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine.

AeroVironment is developing both types of aircraft. In 2005 they demonstrated a 1/4-scale version of their Global Observer HALE aircraft that was driven by a liquid hydrogen-based fuel cell engine. Earlier this month (1/11/2011) AeroVironment's full-scale, liquid hydrogen-fueled, internal combustion engine-based Global Observer took its first flight, lasting four-hours. Ultimately, with its 175 foot wingspan, it will operate for up to a week at 65,000 feet.

Global Observer at at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) in California (USAF Photo)

Its always good when the theoretical becomes reality!

Hydrogen Refueling - Oops!

Mid-August 2010 was not good for General Motors (GM) in Rochester, NY (or for Praxair). WIVB-TV has posted some video of an explosion seen from an airport security camera while Praxair was exchanging some compressed hydrogen storage tanks. Look for flames in the upper left corner after the camera shakes from the blast (or see County video of explosion near airport):

 

Not the worst thing in the world, but a black eye for GM (and Praxair). Nobody died, but two people were injured.

To avoid Hindenburg-style sensationalism, I'd like to see some analysis that looks at how many accidents happen with the gasoline refueling supply chain, in comparison with the current hydrogen refueling infrastructure. This is the first hydrogen event I've heard of, and many, many gasoline "events" occur in the U.S. each year. And nobody is talking about getting rid of gasoline!

Of course, if they generated hydrogen on-site at the refueling station with an electrolyzer, rather than bringing in compressed hydrogen made from fossil fuels, this might never have happened.

Another Interim Hydrogen Step

The Green Car Congress has an article from Nikkei about Japan's METI cost-sharing 50% of programs that will upgrade refinery-grade hydrogen (90% purity) to 99.99% pure fuel cell-grade hydrogen:

With Japan moving toward wide adoption of fuel cell vehicles by fiscal 2015, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry seeks to secure a steady supply of high-purity hydrogen.

Of course, this will do nothing to reduce global warming, as all refinery hydrogen is produced from petroleum-based feedstocks. You'd think they'd try to promote electrolyzers, which use renewable (or conventional) electricity to efficiently produce pure hydrogen. But, I'm sure they will get some good press about their valiant efforts to support fuel cells.