Schwarzenegger wants hydrogen for California

Hydrogen for Hamburg

Casio forecasts portable fuel cell potential from an OEM viewpoint

Results of European Portable Fuel Cell Study unveiled

FuelCon receives order from Airbus

Heliocentris announces new educational FC system

Dynetek scores twice with Stuart and DaimlerChrysler

Proton Energy becomes regular supplier for weather bureaus

In a September 21 announcement California's most famous candidate running for Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, detailed the specifics for his environmental action plan and spoke out for hydrogen. "California's economic future depends significantly on the quality of our environment", reads the action plan and goes on: "'Jobs vs. the environment' is a false choice. Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that clean air and water result in a more productive workforce, and a healthier economy, which will contribute to a balanced state budget." If Schwarzenegger wins the October 7 election, he wants to make California the leader in clean hydrogen fuels and hydrogen technology development and is willing to throw in some weight to achieve this. "As Governor, I will sign an Executive Order creating a public-private partnership to ensure that before 2010, California has a network of stations in place to allow a real choice of cleaner fuels to put in their tank", says the actor best known for his lead role in Terminator 1-3. "I will launch a program of 'Hydrogen Highways' to ensure the availability of hydrogen fueling stations every 20 miles on California's 21 major interstate highways, using state leadership – and challenging businesses to match the state's leadership commitment." California already made a head start in hydrogen and fuel cells commercialization with the Clean Air Act and the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP). Yet the fuel infrastructure and mass introduction of competitively priced hydrogen vehicles still is a major challenge, also known as the "hen-and-egg-problem". While the energy companies say they are prepared to build a hydrogen filling station network as soon as there are enough alternatively fuelled cars to make this investment worthwile, the car manufactureres insist they need an infrastructure to be in place before they can start the series production of hydrogen vehicles. Initiatives like the CaFCP try to break the knot, and Schwarzenegger is ready to lean on federal money to keep going. "As Governor, I will fight for federal hydrogen dollars to be heavily invested in California." adds the candidate. According to Fox News from the U.S. polls suggest that Schwarzenegger may be ahead of the race. If Schwarzenegger wins, the upcoming Hydrogen Expo USA in partnership with the National Hydrogen Association's 15th annual conference on April 26 to 30 in Los Angeles, CA should be marked red in his calendar. For more information go to: www.hydrogenexpo.com

Hydrogen for Hamburg

On September 15, Hamburg/Germany cut the red tape for its "CUTE" fuel cell bus project. CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) foresees the operation of three fuel cell busses in nine European cities and the building of hydrogen filling stations to supply the busses, which will run in public service. Hamburg is the second metropole to start testing the DaimlerChrysler-built "Citaro" busses under real-life conditions. Two of Hamburg's state secretaries, Peter Rehaag (Environment & Health) and Mario Mettbach (Construction & Transport), stood at the helm when the first bus cut through a symbolic wall, with Mr. Mettbach actually driving the vehicle. According to public transport company Hochbahn, the busses have started operation on the metroline 24's regular schedule, which operates in the north of the city and is close enough to the filling station to allow for overnight refills. Passengers will find themselves traveling on an almost noise-free bus, with only the low buzz of the air conditioning system audible. Also, passengers prone to travelsickness because of the low frequencies of the diesel engine will find the fuel cell bus experience unexpectedly refreshing. The busses will stay on Hamburg streets for the next three years, during which all partners including Hochbahn, utilities company HEW, BP and DaimlerChrysler want to collect valuable field data. The cost for this project range at 6 million Euros, of which 3 million are covered by the European Union and the German Federal Economics Ministry. The remaining three million Euros are brought in by Hochbahn, HEW and BP. Says Hochbahn Chairman Guenter Elste: "We want to operate our vehicles in the urban regions in an environmentally-conscious way, this is a Hochbahn tradition. Had we not been persistent about this, the manufacturers and the European Commission would never have come in on this project." Visitors of H2Expo 2003 can go for a ride on the fuel cell busses on all three days of the event from October 9 to 11. To register for your free ticket go to the Hochbahn booth in hall 4, booth no. 4323.

According to Nikkei Electronics Asia, Casio made a forecast of the potential of fuel cells and its competitive technologies in mobile applications over the next decade, looking at each type of market from a device manufacturer's viewpoint. The company is said to predict that for PCs fuel cells will become the mainstream subsitute for rechargable batteries. For digital cameras and PDAs it is presumed that FCs will coexist with different types of batteries. For the low-output field, such as Walkmans and radios Casio is reported to see only minor potential for fuel cells, which will have to compete with convential technologies and solar cells, as well as energy sources using natural energies, such as human body temperature and movement. Interestingly, for laptops, one of the most popular "battlegrounds" of PEM versus DMFC supportes, Casio's evaluation seems to indicate that the methanol-based type has its disadvantages. According to the manufacturer, laptops require high density energy of 1,000Whr/L or higher, in which case DMFC was insufficient to generate enough output density. Therefore, a modified type that supplies hydrogen from methanol had to be employed. At present, the output density of DMFC is said to be 50mW/cm2. Says a quote from Casio: "DMFC cannot be used until it reaches 100mW/cm2." For an evaulation of PEM and DMFC technologies, their and other technologies' characteristics, advantages and disadvantages and most likely applications, see the European Portable Fuel Cell Study. For details and order information go to: www.h2report.com

Results of European Portable Fuel Cell Study unveiled

On October 10, Marco Voigt from the VDI/VDE-IT in Germany will introduce the European Portable Fuel Cell Study to the public at the H2Expo conference in Hamburg. Together with its partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energies and Freesen & Partner, the VDI/VDE-IT spent the last six months on research and interviews for the most comprehensive overview of the technologies, applications, markets and players in the field of portable fuel cells in Europe. The European Portable Fuel Cell Study (EPFCS) will be a valuable tool for everyone interested in this promising segment – as a manufacturer, supplier, user, OEM (original equipment manufacturer), investor or supplier of competitive technologies. EPFCS answers questions about performance requirements, existing technological challenges and provides insigt into near-to-market applications and the potential of niche markets. For more information attend the presentation on Oct 10, 1.30-2.00pm in forum 2, or visit the VDI/VDE-IT booth at H2Expo in hall 4, booth no. 4405b.

Madgeburg/Germany-based FuelCon AG announced that it has received an order from Airbus, the world's leading manufacturer of aircrafts to supply testing and laboratory equipment for the company's fuel cell program. The order is for testing technology for reformers, SOFC and PEM systems as well as for balance-of-plant components including the necessary supply and safety provisions. Says FuelCon CEO Dr. Ingo Benecke: "With our sophisticated solutions we were able to win a tough competition and to satisfy the high expectations which a company such as Airbus has of their suppliers in every aspect." FuelCon has a name for field-tested solutions to ensure high level availability and operational safety for single cell, stack, reformer and component testing. The product range includes the "Evaluator" completely incapsulated test item box and the "FuelWork" state-of-the-art user software. FuelCon products are certified by the German TUV. To learn more about the company's capabilities visit FuelCon in booth no. 4208, hall 4, at H2Expo in Hamburg on October 9 to 11, 2003.

Heliocentris from Berlin/Germany, a supplier of small fuel cell systems for education and training, released news about its latest product line. The "Hy-Expert Instructor" is a 40-watt fuel cell power supply for post secondary and vocational education. The FC system delivers regulated DC power to demonstration electrical loads. The power plant includes a 50W PEM fuel cell, hardware control, power electronics and all necessary safety features. Hydrogen storage and an H2 generator are also available. Because the "Hy-Expert Instructor" has been designed for education, it comes with a manual and software to control and monitor FC power plant experiments. Heliocentris is currently negotiating sales agreements with distributors for their product line worldwide. At H2Expo from October 9 to 11, 2003, Heliocentris will also be showing its "Hy-Exclusive" range of premium gifts for business partners, family and friends. To learn more about the company's products visit the Heliocentris booth in hall 4, booth no. 4125.

Last month, Canadian storage cylinder manufacturer Dynetek was able to close a strategic alliance with Stuart Energy Systems and to secure a significant order with DaimlerChrysler. Stuart Energy has integrated Dynetek's advanced lightweight storage cylinders in all of its installed "HES" (Hydrogen Energy Station) systems. HES has been designed to provide an electrolysis-based hydrogen infrastructure for fueling and power applications and is comprised of up to five core modules, including hydrogen generation, compression, storage, fuel dispensing and/or power generation. For DaimlerChrysler, Dynetek will deliver 60 on-board H2 fuel storage systems for the A-Class "F-Cell" vehicles, using its certified 350 bar (5,000 psi) cylinders. This order comes after the Canadians already delivered storage systems for the 30 Citaro fuel cell busses operated in the CUTE and ECTOS (Iceland) projects. The 350 bar cylinders can be employed worldwide and are certified in Japan, Germany and in North America by the relevant national supervision bodies. Dynetek's storage solutions can operate at nominal working pressures between 350 bar and 825 bar (12,500 psi). Dynetek will be exhibiting at H2Expo in Hamburg in booth no. 4210, DaimlerChrysler will be in booth no. 4214, Stuart will be represented through its fully owned subsidiary Vandenborre Hydrogen Systems in booth no. 4450.

U.S. manufacturer of regenerative hydrogen generators Proton Energy Systems released news that it has delivered a unit of the "Hogen" line of products to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s new office on Norfolk Island. The Australian Bureau is the fourth weather data gathering organization worldwide to adopt Proton's systems to fill balloons for weather data collection. In seven hours, the state-of-the-art H2 generator can produce 99.999% pure hydrogen gas for storage in one of four 3.5 cubic meter stainless steel tanks. This is enough to fill two radiosonde-carrying weather balloons which are released from the bureau’s weather station every 12 hours to synchronize with weather balloons from other meteorological services around the world, says the release. The Norfolk Island installation is the 24th Hogen generator that Proton has supplied for a meteorological setting within the past three years. Other weather bureaus now using the H2 production units include the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Region (8 units), NOAA Caribbean (6 units), the Met Office United Kingdom's Falkland Island facility, MetService of New Zealand's Raoul Island Station and the Bangladesh Air Force. "The Bureau’s Norfolk Island station is one of the most remote data collection points for the agency, so reliability was key" explains Bob Melusky, Sales Director with Proton Energy Systems. "The new station's state-of-the-art features – including its Hogen hydrogen generator – ensure that personnel have the tools to operate independently, safely and efficiently." Reliability is also the theme of Bob Melusky's speech at this year's H2Expo conference on October 9, 2.15pm. For more information go to www.h2expo.com and visit Proton Energy Systems and its European partner Diamond Lite in hall 4, booth no. 4230.