Issue 0901    

Content:

Market News:

Inauguration of Fuel Cell Pavilion in Essen, Germany: RWE wants to head the trend

Innovation made in Germany: Smart Fuel Cell presents camcorder fuel cell at Hydrogen Expo

New online survey

Sven Geitmann reports:

Competition for hydrogen?

Sachsenring shows fuel cell system at gardening expo

Ford to compete with BMW?

General Motors manufactures stationary fuel cell systems

Miniature power plant on microchip

Interview of the month:

This time with Dr. Matthias Boltze, R&D Manager Vehicle Components, Sachsenring AG

Event News:

Environment Minister opens Hydrogen Expo

VIP Service

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Market News:

On August 17, 2001, after only nine months of construction, RWE Plus AG introduced the Fuel Cell Pavilion in the RWE Park to the public. There, a Siemens Westinghouse SOFC can now be viewed, which provides the "Meteorit", a museum designed by André Heller, with power and heat. The system can switch to run the Meteorit air conditioning on demand. The remaining oversupply is fed into the public network. In addition to the good efficiency ratio, fuel cells have the advantage of operating at low noise and of requiring little maintenance. The only noise in the pavilion comes from the building's ventilation, and a member of the monitoring staff confirms that few personnel is needed on-site to keep the system going. According to Heinz Bergmann, Project Manager Fuel Cells at RWE Plus, the 300kW SOFC holds the world record in operating hours: before the system came to Essen, it had served 16.000 hours in Arnheim. With another 1.000 hours in the new pavilion, the fuel cell suited for industrial applications, hospitals and hotels, passed a successful first phase. "We believe that the fuel cell will constitute an important part of the energy mix of the future", says Bergmann. This view is supported by RWE Plus Chairman Manfred Remmel in an interview in the company's corporate publication agenda: "This trend will come, so we should be at the spearhead of the movement." Consequently, RWE has amibitous plans: In October a 300kW MOFC by MTU will follow in the pavilion. And for next year the company promised a world premiere: Together with other cooperation partners RWE for the first time wants to operate an SOFC system with an integrated gas turbine and connection to the public net. With one of its current partners RWE then wants to announce an exclusive partnership. Only in collaboration with others, they feel, can the company be successful on the market. The RWE Fuel Cell Pavilion is the launch of an RWE Energy Park, which invites the public to experience new energy technology.

For once it looks like a German company heads the race for stand-alone fuel cell systems. Smart Fuel Cell GmbH (SFC) claims to have developed exactly what is currently being discussed in the U.S. as the right technology: a DMFC system in miniature format. This direct methanol fuel cell can be used as battery substitute for laptops or camcorders. The latter application will be presented by the Munich company at Hydrogen Expo on October 11 to 13 in Hamburg, Germany. The system bearing the name of the company, "Smart Fuel Cell", can be modified to the manufacturers' requirements in size, materials and performance. It promises an increase in operation time of 3 to 5 times due to the high energetic density, a reduction in weight of 50% while keeping the same volume, and accurate information about the system load through a fill level monitor. According to SFC, the methanol supply is also provided for. The fuel cell is powered by a cartridge that can be substituted within seconds. SFC CEO Manfred Stefener will explain this technology in more detail at the Hydrogen Expo Seminar Forum on October 13, 2001 in Hamburg.

Observers of the scene can now compare their views about the state of hydrogen and fuel cell technology and its market potentials with the current trend. The new site www.h2trend.com invites interested parties to answer a list of questions, which is regularly updated. The latest survey results can be viewed at the same time. Users also have the chance to contribute their own questions to the list. The objective of H2 Trend is to create an independent, international opinion barometer which provides insights about developments in demand and market potential.

Remours have it that there is a new fuel for fuel cells. They are about a technology from Japan which substitutes hydrogen with a boron compound. Borax (Na2B4O7), from which boron hydride can be produced, could be one possible fuel. The hydride is to provide hydrogen and will be converted to water by the oxidation in natrium boroxide (NaBO2). According to Prof. Seijirau Suda of reserach corporation Merrit, compared to pure hydrogen, this process is designed to achieve higher voltage and performance level at lower operation temperatures and costs.

The solar pavilion at the gardening expo in Potsdam, Germany showcases a stand-alone power supply system developed by Sachsenring AG. The company from Zwickau is one of the first German vendors to offer single fuel cell modules, stacks and whole systems ranging from 1 to 5 kW. The PEM stacks are supplied with gaseous hydrogen (1 to 10 bar). In addition to industrial applications, the aggregates are suitable for home energy supply, consumer electronics and electric vehicles. According to Dr. Stefan Nettesheim of Sachsenring, the price is approx. 5000 Euros/kW. (Also refer to below interview with Dr. Matthias Boltze, Sachsenring AG.)

Ford Motor Company just introduced a hydrogen vehicle with combustion engine and with this obviously wants to compete with BMW. The new P2000 concept is based on a Ford Focus 2l Zetec Otto engine. The motor's performance is 25% higher than in a gasoline engine. The vehicle is equipped with a gas tank (250bar) sufficient for a reach of 100km. Shortly, a lager tank for 200km will follow. Ford anticipates to get this model onto the market by the year 2006. However, the head of the Ford TH!NK Group emphasized: "We still believe that fuel cells are best technology to substitute propulsion systems in the future."

General Motors recently came out with two novelties. GM R&D Vice President Larry Burns presented the world's first gasoline reformer for fuel cell vehicles. The processor (Gen III) was introduced in a Chevrolet S-10 pickup at the University of Michigan. In combination with the fuel cell an efficiency ratio of 40% is achieved. The reformer has an increased energy density of 2% compared to its predecessor and enables significantly shorter start phases (3min. vs. 15min.). Further, GM presented a stationary power generator based on the vehicle fuel cell systems, which is suitable for network independent energy supply in households and small enterprises. This 5kW system can be run with natural gas, methanol or gasoline.

Miniature generators based on hydrogen could help to make electronic devices cleaner in the future. The latest development at Lehigh University (USA) is microchips (3 by 3cm) supplied by methanol cartridges which can power portable electronic devices. The amount of hydrogen generated is still small, yet the feasibility was proven. This development aims at being able to use any hydrocarbon in the mininature reformer for a miniature fuel cell to generate power. The microchips are similar to silocone chips with hydrogen substituting the electrical current.

H2 Report: Which fuel cell projects is Sachsenring currently working on?

Dr. Boltze: Our projects are about cost-effectiveness in the production of fuel cells for different applications. The cost aspect for fuel cells is independent of where they are used. For all FC applications comes a time when one has to think about costs, so this cannot be recuded to one area. We are at the moment concentrating our efforts on the leisure market and decentralized energy supply, not so much on the automotive industry. This is because of the general assumption that cost reduction goals in the automotive sector cannot be reached as soon as in other applications.

H2 Report: How do you achieve these cost reductions?

Dr. Boltze: The best potential for cost reduction lies in components. Fuel cell components are manufactured using new technologies. When it comes to mass series production, the corresponding scaling effects make the difference.

H2 Report: Who are your partners for these developments?

Dr. Boltze: Among others, we are working with SGL Carbon and Viessmann. Together with Viessmann we have an oingoing project for decentralized energy supply, a PEM home appliance. I cannot say when the device will be on the market, this depends on Viessmann in the first place. The result of our joint efforts will be field test systems, which we are going to install in selected households in Germany. The emphasis lies on private users, but we also want to install the systems at utilities companies.

H2 Report: What is Sachsenring going to show at Hydrogen Expo?

Dr. Boltze: We will present the latest generation of stack technology that we developed. Further, we are going to bring a hydrogen boat. This is a small operational boat with on-board compressed gas hydrogen storage and a small fuel cell module. So the propulsion is electrical and emission-free.

H2 Report: How do you see the future of the hydrogen and fuel cell technology?

Dr. Boltze: Very optimistic. FC technology is still in its beginnings, compared for example to the combustion engine. This technology bears great potentials, not only with regards to effeciency ratios, which have to be explored. I am confident that over the next years fuel cells will appear in many applications.

H2 Report: Can you say how much fuel cells currently contribute to your company's business and what the growth expectations for the future are?

Dr. Boltze: This is hard to say. At the moment the fuel cell devision is simply an R&D devision. But of course we hope that this will grow into a significant business for us. With regards to the autmotive industry in particular this has to be seen within a larger time frame. Once fuel cell systems are manufactured for this industry cost-effectively in larger amounts, we will deliver a significant contribution to this. As a European company we initially see the best market for us in Europe. But the fuel cell business is naturally an international business, because there is a global interest in this technology.

On October 11, 2001 at 9.15 a.m., the German Federal Environment Minister and patron of Hydrogen Expo Jürgen Trittin hosts the official opening ceremony. Further guest speakers are: Alexander Porschke, Environment Senator of Hamburg, Dr. Joachim Gretz, Hamburg Hydrogen Association, Detlef Frank, BMW Group, Prof. Dr. Carl-Jochen Winter, Forum for Future Energies. Visitors are welcome to join the ceremony, representatives from the press have the chance to put their questions to the minister and the other speakers. For more information go to: www.h2expo.com

A special visitor service is available at Hydrogen Expo. By booking the VIP ticket, attendees enjoy the transfer service from the airport or train station to the fairgrounds, have exclusive access to the VIP lounge with catering service in hall 4 and can participate in the special events program. The latter includes an excursion to the hydrogen production site in Stade (close to Hamburg), as well as suggestions for after-show activities. A three-day-pass for the exhibition and access to all seminars is also included. To book the VIP ticket, please call: +49-211-687858-11