by Hydrogen Power on December 14, 2005
With all of the hype surrounding hydrogen, hydrogen cars and fuel cells and government investment in hydrogen technology, is it any wonder everyone is whipping together a new hydrogen device of some sort in his garage? Inventors who know a little about how hydrogen is produced are tinkering with new ideas. Companies with expertise in other areas are jumping into hydrogen because dollars are waiting. Everyone has the breakthrough that will change the world, ... or not. Wired has an interesting article:
"Eighty percent or more of the ideas that come directly to us violate the laws of physics," says Patrick Serfass, a spokesman for the National Hydrogen Association.
"When you put that kind of money out there, anybody who has even the most marginal technology related to hydrogen comes out of the woodwork," says Joseph Romm, an assistant energy secretary during the Clinton administration and author of the book The Hype About Hydrogen.
Wired
by Hydrogen Power on December 13, 2005
Fairchild International is planning two projects to generate hydrogen.
The first takes leftovers from the Alberta Tar Sands recovery process and uses them to generate hydrogen. The input is shredded rubber or petroleum coke and the output is hydrogen.
The second project, also in Alberta, Canada, uses wood waste products to generate hydrogen.
Interesting here is the combination of technologies, recovering oil from tar sands and generating hydrogen from what would normally be leftover waste.
"Present extraction technologies leave a lot of energy in the discarded sands and byproducts. We can use those discards and squeeze even more energy out of them, while leaving a much cleaner discarded byproduct,"
"Technologies to mine the energy from Oil Sands are developing at an incredibly rapid rate as the rate of discovery of traditional oil sources declines. We are fortunate to be on the cusp of another emerging technology that allows us to profit from waste while improving the environment," commented Robert Klein, President of Fairchild International Corp.
Yahoo! news
Fairchild International
by Hydrogen Power on December 12, 2005
Larry Burns of GM, whom we've noted before, is all fired up about hydrogen cars and says GM will have a competitive car ready by 2010. That's well in front of anyone else's prediction but he cites the constant improvements in cost and efficiency achieved by GM already. One of his driving forces is the huge profits of the oil companies while car companies struggle. to survive.
The way Burns sees it, the big energy companies have little incentive to invest in new capacity production that carries the risk of being in excess of demand for fuel. “As such, the oil companies have the favorable perfect storm,” Burns argues, “in that they have capacity short of demand and they have constraints in their supply chain that explain away why they have to raise prices.”
The result is an “outrageous” transfer of wealth to the oil industry, as evidenced by the fact that ExxonMobil’s profits are greater than GM’s market capitalization. What galls Burns is that the auto industry has been driven to the point where it is giving its cars away and the oil industry is making the money on supplying fuel.
The passion he brings to the table is exactly what's needed to make hydrogen happen. 2010 isn't very far away so we'll know soon if the passion produces results.
via Autos Insider
by Hydrogen Power on November 29, 2005
Everyone thinks about hydrogen fuel cells installed in very efficient people movers, cruising down the road quietly and cleanly, ... very proper. Of course, anyone who has observed the history of self propelled vehicles knows sooner or later, someone's going to start racing them and I like that. The upcoming 2006 LA Auto Show had a design competiton around a theme called an LA Adventure. The contestants came up with some great ideas and one of them is this hydrogen fuel cell dragster, the Hyundia Greenspeed Gator.
What happens when drag racing moves beyond internal combustion and nitrous oxide? The Hyundai Greenspeed Gator, which pushes the boundaries of design and fuel cell performance. Inspired by the top fuel racers of the ‘60s, this alien shape is rooted in pure function. The overall design consists of a main fuselage with integrated roll protection and “seat sling” that hangs underneath, tied together by a center spine chassis with integral fuel cells. The giant hood blisters house the hydrogen storage tanks, and the rear wheels house gargantuan electric motors.
2006 LA Auto Show
via Popular Mechanics
by Hydrogen Power on November 25, 2005
GM says it has made a lot of progress in reducing fuel cell costs, dropping them by half in the last 12 months, and continues to push forward in this area. Larry Burns, GM's vice president for r&d and strategic planning, in an interview with Automobilwoche, believes fuel cells will be on the market in numbers in the coming decade. His estimate of the system is to have "a range of 300 miles, exhibit an impressive acceleration and last at least 150,000 miles."
He made a number of other interesting comments, suggesting 12,000 hydrogen stations would make it possible for customers in the 100 largest cities to find hydrogen within 1.25 miles. He also suggested that companies working together instead of everyone working on their own to develop a fuel cell system would make more sense and speed progress.
via Autoweek
