Looking for partners for the solar hydrogen community

During a congress at the university of applied sciences in Osnabrueck high tech start-up H2 Energie AG from Moenchengladbach presented an ambitious project which points to a new energy future. The solar hydrogen community is designed to provide a solution to waning fossil ressources, while at the same time securing sustainable energy supply. For CEO Dr. Georg Buchholz "solar" includes all renewable energies. His concept relies on a mix of sun and wind power. Energy from a photovoltaic system and from green electricity generated by wind power is stored in hydrogen, which is used to run a fuel cell block heating station called H2 Power Station. This system is sufficient to deliver energy for up to 120 residential units. An intelligent energy management systems serves to garantuee the same supply at all times. "We are currently in discussions to build two such communities in two German provinces, North-Rhine Westfalia and Baden-Wuerttemberg, and we are confident that at least one of them gets the green light by the end of this year", says Buchholz. The next step in H2 Energie AG's vision is to create a solar network of singular units powered by decentralized regenerative energy. In this systems hydrogen technology helps to save energy in times of oversupply and to release it when it is actually needed. However, the search for partners who actively help to put this into practice is still underway. But Buchholz is optimistic: "We might just be able to present all the partners who help us to make this a success at Hydrogen Expo in October."

The popularity of alternative energies

Right now at Formula 1, Ferrari and the German pilots are very popular in Germany, one reason being that the Schumacher brothers are among the fastest drivers of the world. But there are several things which are even more popular. The institute for market and social research in Duesseldorf (IRES) completed a representative survey about the most popular issues in Germany. As a result "alternative energies" ranked close to the top with 5,0 points, followed by car manufacturer Ferrari (4,9), Formula 1 racing (3,6), and Michael Schumacher (3,2). Even the all-time favourite, stocks (4,2), follows behind on the scale of what fascinates people the most. High speed train ICE and German capital Berlin scored equal with renewable energies. Only such topics as love (8,1), friendship (7,8) and beauty (5,9) made it higher on the list.

Further development at DaimlerChrysler

In Berlin, the Adenauer foundation organized a seminar as part of the "Fascination Science" series last month. Under the title "Fuel Cell-Technology, Economy, Environment" experts from industry and research institutes discussed hydrogen market potential and gave an outlook into the future. On the occasion of this meeting one of the DaimlerChrysler fuel cell busses drove on the bus line 100 through the Brandenburg Gate. In his speech Prof. Ferdinand Panik, Vice President of the DaimlerChrysler Fuel Cell Project, presented the agenda for the fuel cell vehicle Necar's market introduction, which is to start in 2004. For a period of three years, until 2007, data and information on practical experience will be collected from customers. This will be followed by a "market division period" and finally the actual rollout after 2010. By this time, approximately 100.000 fuel cell vehicles will be manufactured in series. In the meantime, DaimlerChrysler's bus project (CUTE: Clean Urban Transportation for Europe) is making a great leap forward. Transportation companies of nine European countries signed a contract in Amsterdam for altogether 30 "Citaro" busses. These new fuel cell-vehicles are to get onto the streets by the year 2003 in London, Barcelona, Hamburg, Stockholm, Luxemburg, Porto, Stuttgart, Reykjavik, and Amsterdam. Subsidiary company EvoBus is in negotiations with further cities. The Citaro vehicles are so-called low floor busses (12m long) for 70 passengers. They are powered by a "Mark 900" fuel cell system by Ballard Power Systems with a performance of 200kW. The busses can drive distances of 200-250km and can reach a maximum speed of 80km/h. They will cost approximately 1,25 Mio. Euro, which is five times more than a common bus.

Competition for residential fuel cells

H2 Report 04/01 informed about the activities of Vaillant, Sulzer Hexis and Buderus on the fuel cell heating station front. Viessmann Werke GmbH & Co. KG are investing in research and development in this segment, too. According to corporate information "Viessmann is seriously working on such technologies". As part of an R&D program in cooperation with partners from the industry and science sector, which is financially supported by the German Ministry of Economics, the potential to install fuel cell power stations for home energy supply is being examined. The R&D phase is planned to last three years, to be followed by field studies with prototypes. One of the program's objectives is to increase the life-cycle and reliability of the power units, while at the same time reducing indivdual investment. Viessmann say that these costs currently amount to 100 thousand DM and that a reduction by the factor 5 is necessary to make the product competitive. The appropriate life-cycle is said to be at 40.000 hours, which is ten times higher than today.

Smaller, cheaper and more efficient

The major demands to hydrogen technology can be put in four words: smaller, cheaper, more efficient. In these days, most fuel cell systems are still complex and expensive yet, some manufacturers are trying to establish their products on the market. Probably by the end of the year the first portable fuel cell systems will be offered. These systems will be suitable for energy supply on yachts or for camping. Several manufacturers presented their systems during the Hannover fair and announced that they will offer systems by autumn for about 9.000 Euro (500W system from Sachsenring Entwicklungs GmbH), respectively 30.000 Euro (750W system from Gesellschaft fuer Angewandte Technik mbH). Hamburg Gas Consult GmbH (HGC) announced to offer a complete house energy supply system for 8.000 Euro by the year 2004.

VW designer fuel

Designer fuel for engines is what is haute couture is for humans. Equal rights for engines is the new motto, however, this is about performance not aesthetics. Volkswagen AG released information about their new fuel and propulsion strategy during the Vienna engine symposium at end of April. "The engines of the future and the appropriate fuel have to be syntonized much more than in the past. We see enormous possibilities to save fuel here," said Dr. Wolfgang Steiger, Head of VW Aggregateforschung. VW wants to invest in optimizing conventional engines for some time, until hydrogen is introduced to the market as the "most promising alternative fuel of the future." The new designer fuel, which is called "SunFuel", will be produced from natural gas, or regeneratively from biogas. The strategy of Volkswagen is to use SunFuel also for the fuel cell vehicles of the first generation during the transition period.

Toyota to introduce fuel cell vehicle

Last month's issue of H2 Report covered the of new fuel cell vehicles study by Toyota. Now the Japanese automobile manufacturer gives indication that the introduction of this sports vehicle (Highlander) is to take place this summer. A combination of fuel cell and battery will power the five person car with 90kW. Head of Toyota Hiroyuki Watanabe forecasts mass production of fuel cell vehicles to start in the year 2010. According to his opinion the differences to competitor DaimlerChrysler are only minor except for the fuel. While the German manufacturer favors methane, the Japanese rely on gasoline.

Italian hydrogen station

German automobile manufacturer BMW stopped in Milan/Italy during the "Clean Energy Tour", and the South-European country showed deep interest in hydrogen technologies. The capital of Lombardy is the home of the first European fuel cell power plant, which produces energy from hydrogen generated by reforming natural gas (1,3 MW system of AEM). In the long run AEM wants to convert to renewable energy sources like the sun, wind and water. They further plan to add a hydrogen (gas) station to their current stationary service for more mobility. On the occasion of the tour's third stop BMW spokesman Christoph Huss said: "We do not need a fuel which covers another niche but a fuel which brings the revolution by the year 2020." According to his vision, within the next 20 years 15% of today’s fossil fuels will be replaced. Tentative estimations say that the first hydrogen BMW vehicles will go on the market in five years.

250kW from Ballard for Japan

Ballard Generation Systems, a subsidiary company of Ballard Power Systems, recently announced that a stationary test facility (250kW, all in all the fifth) had been finished and shipped to Nishimachi Sewage Treatment Centre in Tomakomai/Japan. "This will be the first use of waste gas from an anaerobic digestor as fuel in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system," said Jim Kirsch, President of Ballard Generation Systems. Anaerobic digestor gas (ADG) mainly contains methane. Additional systems for field tests at various customer sites will follow by the end of this year and in early 2002.

H2 Report: Who is P&T Technology AG?

P&T: The company has ist roots in PTS Solarstrom GmbH, which was founded in 1985 in Berlin by Jens Peters and Wolfgang Trüschel, the P and T in our company name. In 1998 PTS Solarstrom and the cooperation "Arbeitsgemeinschaft" (ARGE) Peters & Trüschel became P&T Technology AG in Hamburg. Already two year later the company went public, and very successfully so. In 2000 our revenues amounted to DM 87,4 million (Euros 44,82 million), an unexpected surplus of DM 3,4 million (Euros 1,74 million). Our core business still lies in planning, project management and delivery of turn-key wind parks in Germany and worldwirde. We have subsidiaries in several European countries and are active in South Korea and on the Philippines with our alliances, too. Our next step is into the Arab countries and North Africa, where for example we participate in an exhibition in Maroc.

H2 Report: Which projects involving hydrogen are there at P&T?

P&T: The add-on to our name "technology" points to the fact that our company pursues further activities in addition to wind power. We are developing new technologies with a focus on hydrogen. Fuel cells play an important role here, so do conventional Otto motors running on hydrogen. Our "P&T system" is unquie, a system for storing electricity generated from renewable energies in hydrogen, which at the same time filters large amounts of salt or waste water. This is possible without existing electricity or water supply infrastructures. We call it "Wind will do". In cooperation with the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel we installed a pilot plant including H2 production, fuel cell and osmosis in Büsum. Here, hydrogen is produced through electrolysis, the osmosis station is powered by a pump engine.

H2 Report: Who are your partners?

P&T: Our cooperation partners will be with us at Hydrogen Expo. They are: Air Products (technical gas), Jenbacher (gas motors), Norsk Hydro (elektrolyser), Pall-Rochem (osmosis station) and Siemens (measurement & control technology). Jenbacher for example developed their H2 powered Otto motor in close cooperation with our R&D department. The "Pat. Pall Rochem" osmosis station is part of the mentioned project in Büsum.

H2 Report: What exactly will P&T show at Hydrogen Expo?

P&T: Together with our partners we will provide an overview of the various products and services we and the individual partners offers. This will happen on our stand in hall 4. Outside the halls we will install a fully functioning production site built into three 20-feet containers. The whole process chain will be demonstrated here. Additionally, our partners and ourselves will have several presentations about this in the seminar forum.

H2 Report: How do you see the future of the hydrogen economy?

P&T: For us there is no doubt: the future of hydrogen technology is not only just beginning. We are right in the middle of it. Already in 2004 hydrogen powered busses will be driving on Hamburg streets. At P&T Technology they can get their fuel.