Eco Factor: Zero-emission electric aircraft to run on hydrogen fuel cells.
Designers at the University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Aircraft Design have announced that they’ll be building an electric aircraft that will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Dubbed Hydrogenius, the aircraft will be equipped with a lithium battery and electric motor, which will use the power from the aircraft’s onboard hydrogen fuel cell system.
H2 Power Systems, an early development company, thinks it may have found a way to produce hydrogen on-site and on-demand at existing fueling stations. The idea would be to place solar panels atop filling stations and use high temperature cracking of water to create hydrogen and oxygen.
The brains behind the operation are entrepreneur Nils Kongmark plus two physicist colleagues. This thermolysis reaction of breaking up the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen also requires H2 Power System’s selective membrane filters for effective gas separation.
Mr. Kongmark also has a bit of a different idea when it comes to using this process to fuel hydrogen cars. He suggests using both the pure hydrogen and pure oxygen generated by his process to fuel the cars saying that pure oxygen will degrade the fuel cell less than using oxygen from the ambient air, which is how most if not all H2 fuel cell car manufacturers are currently building their vehicles.
Kongmark says there are two benefits to his system. The first benefit is that his H2 system will have a small footprint so that it can be placed in practically any location. The second benefit is that his process takes less energy to crack the water into hydrogen and oxygen than other known systems.
But, the proof is in the pudding as they say for this English company as they are still 6 months away from a working prototype. And after this building a working commercial system will be another hurdle.
The science however does sound promising. If H2 Power Systems can build a solar to hydrogen on-site, on-demand device, this will solve the transportation and distribution issue that is holding back a quick rollout of hydrogen pumps to already existing fueling stations nationwide.
A group of bright young Rensselaer students will soon take up the Hudson River, but with a difference. They are using a boat driven by clean and green hydrogen fuel. Their boat is the 22-foot New Clermont looked after by a three member crew. It is fitted with a pair of 2.2-kilowatt fuel cell [...]
Posted in: Fuel Cells, Future Energy, Hydrogen Fuel
In the past, I’ve talked about using algae to create hydrogen again and again and again and again. I’ve talked about Cyanobacteria genes (blue-green algae), Hawaiian algae, Germany and Australia developing algae solutions and algae balloons.
Well, yes, I’m actually going to talk about algae one more time (now, there’s a surprise). Energy Quest in Henderson, Nevada is using its new PyStR (Pyrolysis Steam Reforming) process to create hydrogen from algae and other biomass.
The Pyrolysis process will not only create high purity hydrogen, but also high purity CO2 (carbon dioxide) and N2 (nitrogen) as well. Hydrogen can be sold on the open market for H2 cars and stationary fuel cells.
CO2 can also be sold on the open market for oil recovery from abandoned wells (where it can also be sequestered), carbonation for the beverage industry and as a feedstock to grow more algae. Nitrogen can be sold on the open market for the creation of ammonia for fertilizers, nitric acid or organic propellants.
Energy Quest is currently working with a manufacturer in Cleveland that is growing a strain of algae that requires more CO2 than is currently in the ambient air in order to hit its maximum growth rate.
Algae farming may likely become a growth industry in the future as all it needs to flourish is water, sunlight and CO2. Future Farmers of America may be growing algae instead of or in addition to corn, wheat, soybeans and other crops.
Organic fuel is nothing new and the fuel cell cars of the future may just powered by algae. Now, how green is that?
Eco Factor: Zero-emission DIY ship gets powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
A team of students at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are trying to prove the viability of hydrogen fuel cells by sailing from New York City to Troy on a DIY ship that gets powered by hydrogen fuel cells that were originally designed to power forklifts.
The Hydrogen Club at Oregon State University is conducting research and development on 3 different methods of producing hydrogen. According to the Hydrogen Club their vision is to “…make the hydrogen economy a reality in Corvallis and to make Corvallis a model community for renewable energy solutions.”
Corvallis is a small town approximately midway between Portland and Eugene, Oregon. The Hydrogen Club sees the sun as playing a major role in producing hydrogen to be used by fuel cell cars and other applications.
The first method of producing hydrogen that the researchers are studying is the use of certain strains of bacteria that will produce H2 gas with a 600-fold increase over other methods. This kind of hydrogen production method could be used in areas that are overcast (like the Northwest), which are more amenable to bacteria production.
The second method the Hydrogen Club is studying would be for areas of the country where the sun shines hot and bright much of the year, such as Arizona. Using solar concentrators with concave mirrors could crack water into hydrogen at temperatures above 1,000 degrees F.
The third method of producing H2 that the Hydrogen Club is focusing upon is building microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment plants. Sewage, landfills, and other sources of waste produce significant amounts of hydrogen, which can be sequestered and purified for commercial use.
The Hydrogen Club at Oregon State University is a good example of thinking globally and acting locally as Corvallis, Oregon may just be a model for other cities to follow in the very near future.
While the critics keep kicking hydrogen cars to the curb, the funding continues nonetheless. This week the U. S. House of Representatives passed a .9 billion bill for advanced automotive research, some of which will go to hydrogen car R&D. On July 20, 2009 (and before) I had talked about how DOE Energy Secretary Steven Chu recommended to President Obama that all hydrogen car research money be zeroed out.
The U. S. House and Senate took a dim view of this cut, partly because it would mean a loss of jobs in some of their states at a time when unemployment is at an all-time high and partly because we need to spend money on green zero emission resources to combat global warming and increase energy independence.
Now the House measure, lead by Representative Gary Peters, D-Michigan passed this bill 312-114 at a time when the automakers are struggling financially and the way out of this struggle is to research, create and promote greener cars. Whether President Obama signs this bill, however, is another hurdle that must be passed before hydrogen research can continue full tilt.
And even though Energy Secretary Steven Chu wanted to zero out the hydrogen budget a few months ago, his department, the DOE is now offering a million H-Prize. The H-Prize was first introduced in 2007 by Bob Ingles, a representative from South Carolina as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
The newest version of the H-Prize focuses on unique and advanced hydrogen storage methods on vehicles. One of the hurdles for hydrogen cars has been how to store hydrogen, safely, effectively and with adding as little weight as possible on H2 cars while still retaining the 300 mile range the DOE has called for in the past.
The purpose of the H-Prize is to incentivize small businesses and entrepreneurs to come up with this one solution that will help towards the commercialization of hydrogen cars in the future. So, hydrogen vehicles are not dead as some critics are proclaiming. They are just getting started.
I’ve talked about direct solar to hydrogen production in the past including discoveries by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China, researchers at the California Institute of Technology and scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Northeastern University.
This time I wish to talk about RoseStreet Labs in Phoenix, Arizona who have come up with a unique method of producing hydrogen directly from solar energy. The researchers used a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) to spontaneously generate H2 without external power.
This discovery by RoseStreet Labs is coupled with their use of full spectrum Nitride Thin Film semiconductors. In the past, photovoltaic cells had been limited to using the ultraviolet range of the spectrum to produce direct solar to hydrogen. This new technology can use the full visible and non-visible spectrum of light to create hydrogen.
According to RoseStreet CEO Bob Forcier, “We are excited about this new development in capturing the full spectrum of the sun for not only instantaneous power generation, but also for energy storage via liquefied hydrogen or to assist the emerging biofuel and biodiesel efforts. Although this is a significant milestone in our scientific research in Nitride Thin Film photovoltaics, it also represents the opportunity to commercialize this technology to the next level with RoseStreet’s partners.”
RoseStreet has not announced, however, if they are using water as a feedstock for the direct solar energy or some other hydrogen rich chemical compound. No matter, since with the amount of R&D into direct solar to hydrogen technology it is only a stone’s throw away until commercialization becomes a reality in this field.
It seems simple but if put it into practice then we can develop real potential for hydrogen fuels. A new method of “recycling” hydrogen-containing fuel materials could pave the way for commercially viable hydrogen-based vehicles. An article published in world’s leading chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, makes a claim about recycling hydrogen-containing fuel materials. Los [...]
Posted in: Batteries, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Fuel
This is the second part of an email I received over the weekend from Tom B. of the Clearlight Foundation. The email was a bit long for this blog so I broke it over two parts. Here is what Tom B. continues to say:
“Natural gas today is primarily a non-renewable, fossil fuel. But people have already begun selling renewable gas into the pipeline. Landfills, manure piles and sewage plants that used to release significant amounts of methane into the atmosphere are now selling it as green gas. Biomass and garbage can also be gasified to add to the supply. The energy balance of grass biomethane production is 50% better than annual crops now used.
“Though the US power grid uses significant hydropower and other renewables, CO2 emissions are still almost twice as much per kilowatt-hour as a 60% efficient NG fuel cell. In 2007 the US power grid emitted 605 grams/kWh. A NG fuel cell emits only 327 grams. At 4mi/kWh that translates to about 151 grams per mile for a grid charged car verses 82 for the NG fuel cell car.
“Someday the grid should be cleaned up so that electric cars charged from it are cleaner than NG fuel cell hybrids. EIA data makes it easy to track our progress towards this goal: In 1996 we emitted 627 grams of CO2 per kWh and by 2007 this was reduced to 605 grams. That’s a 2-gram per year decrease. If we continue at that rate, it will take 139 years to equal what we can do now with a NG fuel cell. Recent years show even less progress. There was no improvement between 2006 and 2007. Plugging into the grid is, unfortunately, a bit like plugging into a lump of coal.
“Infrastructure expansion also favors natural gas. Gas pipelines cost half as much to build as ugly overhead electric transmission lines of the same energy capacity. Energy storage is also cheaper with gas. Depleted gas fields and salt caverns are already storing 4.1 Tcf of gas in the US. At 60% efficiency this could produce 840 GW of electricity. A very cheap battery!
“Fuel cell developers are in a race to commercialize suitable fuel cells. The first products using NG fuel cells are home CHP electricity generators that use their waste heat to make hot water. The fuel cells in these units produce only 2 kW but they can startup from an idle state in 5 or 6 minutes. Scaling up to 15 kW and adapting to the tough environment of a car could take years. Another company is developing a fuel cell range extender that is fueled by methanol. Methanol has only half the energy density of gasoline but, because of the high efficiency, fuel tanks would still be smaller than current gasoline tanks.
“’Price at the pump’ is the one thing that seems to get voters excited. Reducing fuel cost/mile by a factor of 18 with a fuel that is 97% from North America while using corncobs should generate some excitement. The hydrogen initiative should be immediately redirected to focus instead on a fuel that is plentifully available, transportable and storable.”
As in yesterday’s email I agree with much of what Tom B. has to say. In fact, most of what he says can be applied to hydrogen fuel cell cars as well. Hydrogen cars can use the existing natural gas infrastructure if we were to reform the NG at the pumps. Hydrogen can also be produced from landfills, manure piles and sewage plants.
In addition, hydrogen has the advantage of being produced from water via electrolysis during off-peak hours from the grid, of which prices have come down immensely over the past 5 years. There is also promising technology in regard to direct solar to hydrogen production, using algae and microbes to produce hydrogen, along with clean coal, nuclear and biofuels to produce hydrogen.
I disagree with the last point that the hydrogen initiative should be redirected to focus on natural gas or other fuels. When I look into my crystal ball, I see a future filled with all kinds of alternative fuel vehicles that have been mainstreamed such as CNG vehicles, hydrogen cars, electric vehicles, biofuel vehicles and even air powered cars. I think we need to allocate resources to all of these different alt fuel vehicles without robbing one program to pay for the other.
Developing alternative energy and alternative fuels is too important to wait or pick winners and losers at this point. Global warming is real, energy independence is a necessity and the creation of new jobs is mandatory and the creation of alternative fuel vehicles fills the bill on what we need so badly now and in the future.
Eight major companies including Linde, Daimler, EnBW, NOW, OMV, Shell, Total and Vattenfall have signed a memorandum of understanding in Berlin for the proliferation of hydrogen fueling stations in Germany as part of the H2 Mobility program with the goal of serial production of hydrogen cars by 2015.
Right now, Germany has 30 hydrogen fueling stations operating throughout the country, the most in the European Union Hydrogen Highway system. Of those 30 locations, 7 hydrogen fueling stations have been integrated into current operational gas stations.
According to Minister for Transportation, Building and Urban Affairs, Wolfgang Tiefensee, “Today, after more than 100 years of combustion engines and the dominance of oil, we are facing a new technological era in the transport sector. Germany, with its excellent ideas from all over the country, is to become the market leader for modern drive technologies.
“This will secure and create new employment in the markets of the future. Our aim is to continue consistent and systematic promotion of electromobility based on batteries and fuel cells. Today we can see that Germany is setting the pace when it comes to hydrogen and fuel cell technology. We are aiming at establishing the nation-wide supply with hydrogen in Germany at around 2015 in order to support the serial-production of fuel cell vehicles.”
The drive to setup a network of public hydrogen fueling stations throughout the nation is part of the German economic stimulus package (Konjunkturpaket II). The idea is to both create jobs and ensure the serial production of hydrogen cars within the next 5 years.
Besides Daimler, all the major car companies are committed to pushing forward with hydrogen technology including: General Motors, Opel GmbH, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Renault, Ford and Hyundai-Kia.
Critics in the U. S. have stated that establishing a network of hydrogen fueling stations would be too costly. This is why smaller countries such as Germany and Japan and others are pushing ahead and expect to outpace the U. S. in hydrogen car and infrastructure development for years to come.
On August 24, 2009 I had talked about how London’s Major Boris Johnson had reversed his decision about bringing hydrogen cars to the foggy UK metropolis and has now decided to assemble 150 H2 vehicles and 6 refueling stations in time for the 2012 Olympics.
Now, northwards of London in the Aberdeen area is the new Energetica plan which calls for a Hydrogen Highway system connecting the cities of Bridge of Don (just north of Aberdeen, Ellon and Peterhead (click here for a closer look at the UK hydrogen highway map).
This 30-mile corridor will not only host new alternative energy companies and the employees who work for these companies but will also host “The Donald’s” Trump International Golf Links and five-star luxury hotel.
According to Donald Trump, “The proposals for Energetica are truly exciting and Trump International Golf Links are delighted to be part of them … I am convinced it can become a sought-after place for people and businesses from around the world.”
Along this eastern coastline area, energy will be supplied by both traditional farms and wind farms. Hydrogen will be used to power cars, tractors, refrigeration plants and for standby power for fishing boats.
At some point one will also wonder whether this UK Hydrogen Highway will be extended southwards to connect to London, similar to what needs to happen to connect northern to southern California or southern California to Las Vegas, Nevada.
But, no matter. The UK Hydrogen Highway is a good start no matter how the starting points, ending points and middle points develop. Wind and hydrogen could be the perfect coupling for the British Isles in working towards a sustainable economy and energy independence.
Earlier this year I had talked about using ammonia borane (H3NBH3) as a chemical carrier for hydrogen. Ammonia borane is a white power that is rich in hydrogen and the H2 can be easily disassociated from the remaining material.
Ammonia borane as a solid is also easily transportable and would do away with the idea of transporting compressed H2 is large, long haul trucks.
The problem with using ammonia borane, however is that it takes significant energy to re-hydrogenate the chemicals that have been left behind. Now researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of Alabama have made a discovery that uses less energy than previous methods to re-hydrogenate the chemicals back into ammonia borane.
The researchers discovered that by using a chemical called polyborazylene that ammonia borane could be easily recycled using a low amount of energy. The research team is using the assistance of Dow Chemical in scaling up this process for future commercial use.
Cheap manufacturing, storage and distribution of H2 has been the holdback of charging ahead with a hydrogen based transportation system (not the cars themselves). This new process of extracting hydrogen from ammonia borane and recycling it quickly and cheaply gives hope that a suitable infrastructure can be put in place faster most advocates and critics had previous prognosticated.
Since I tend to be U. S. centric and especially California centric when I talk about hydrogen cars, vehicles and the upcoming hydrogen economy I thought it would be fun, to take a break from this and point out many different hydrogen developments from around the globe.
For instance, in Germany, owners of Westfalia’s “James Cook” model of mobile home (or motor home to you and me) can have their vehicle equipped with an EFOY hydrogen fuel cell. This is especially useful for travelors who like to get far from the grid and still have power for their onboard lights and other power generation needs.
In China, for the World Expo 2010, the Shanghai Fuel Cell Vehicle Program is proposing rolling out a new line of fuel cell vehicles. In fact according to Fuelcellworks, “It is reported that the World Expo 2010, the 20 fuel cell buses, 300 fuel cell car, electric vehicles, as well as 1000 a number of fuel cell cars and postal cars venues will be put into operation, then, Shanghai will build a five hydrogen refueling station for these vehicles to meet the demand for hydrogen fuel.”
Japan has taken another step towards introducing fuel cells and hydrogen stations into their country. Fuel cell powered airport limousine buses will be used to shuttle passengers among Tokyo, Haneda and Narita airports.
India has decided to run a small fleet of H2/CNG blend vehicles to transport athletes from their villages to the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Much of the vehicles are now running on CNG-only in the city, so adding 20-percent hydrogen to the blend will make these clean cars even cleaner with slight or no modifications needed.
And, as I’ve already talked about South Korea has unveiled their Master Plan to develop a hydrogen vehicle and refueling system from a landfill. On two islands north and west of Seoul this experiment will include at least one Hyundai fuel cell vehicle.
So, you see, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are not U. S. centric at all. This is a global phenomenon with many countries valuing the potential hydrogen has for reducing greenhouse gases and leading each country towards energy independence.
PHOENIX, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ — RoseStreet Labs Energy (RSLE) scientists announced a leap forward in generating hydrogen gas directly from sunlight by a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC). This hydrogen fuel is generated spontaneously in a single device without external power and without petroleum products such as natural gas. Hydrogen gas is a key resource for next generation hydrogen fueled cars, and also a key component in the renewable process of harvesting biofuels and biodiesel for replacement of oil based gasolines and jet fuels.
RSLE’s discovery is coupled with RSLE’s Full Spectrum photovoltaic development which is expected to start field trials in late 2010 with +25% efficiencies. Full Spectrum technology is primarily based on Nitride Thin Film semiconductors which have excellent robustness to extreme environments including solar radiation, heat and corrosive environments. RSLE’s photoelectrochemical cell development is targeting the high performance terrestrial market for renewable energy.
Bob Forcier, CEO of RSLE, stated, “We are excited about this new development in capturing the full spectrum of the sun for not only instantaneous power generation, but also for energy storage via liquefied hydrogen or to assist the emerging biofuel and biodiesel efforts. Although this is a significant milestone in our scientific research in Nitride Thin Film photovoltaics, it also represents the opportunity to commercialize this technology to the next level with RoseStreet’s partners.”
Wladek Walukiewicz, CTO of RSLE, announced, “I am pleased with the great strides we have made in this Nitride Thin Film photoelectrochemical cell technology working with our distributed R&D teams. We are accelerating our efforts in carbon-free Full Spectrum photovoltaics and photoelectrochemical cells for the high performance energy market.”
RoseStreet Labs Energy, Inc. (RSLE) is a privately held firm headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. RSLE is commercializing full spectrum photovoltaic devices for high performance applications. RoseStreet Labs LLC, the parent company of RSLE, is a privately held supplier of products and services for the renewable energy, semiconductor and life science markets.
When it comes to the future of automotive technology, electric cars get the lion’s share of the attention. But hydrogen-powered vehicles are slowly gaining traction, first with an announcement last week that auto companies are spending billions on fuel cell vehicles, and now with news that Germany is planning to launch a countrywide hydrogen fueling network by 2015!
Read the rest of Germany to Create Countrywide Hydrogen Fuel Network by 2015
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Eco Factor: Hydrogen generating station uses landfill gas as raw material for a clean fuel.
Hydrogen is undoubtedly the fuel the world needs for a green future. Auto makers have already rolled out demonstration vehicles that use hydrogen as a source of energy, but nothing major has happened due to the lack of adequate infrastructure of generating and storing hydrogen fuel.
Eco Factor: Zero-emission concept yacht to be powered by solar energy and hydrogen.
Yachts are meant to be your home on the open waters, but this sea living dream mostly has an effect on the delicate marine environment. Eco-minded designer Adam Voorhees has come up with a green change – a yacht that is designed to run on renewable energy and makes use of sustainable techniques to lower its overall environmental impact.
When Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh teamed up for the movie version of “A Streetcar Named Desire” little did they know at the time that they had created a classic that would live on for years.
But, change is inevitable. Back in 1951 when the movie was created, there were no cell phones, no desktops and laptops and the civil rights movement hadn’t taken hold yet. Back then streetcars were powered by overhead electrical lines.
Today, however, may signal a changing of the guard when it comes to streetcars or trolleys as some call them. What city planners in New Orleans and San Francisco and 50 other cities fail to realize as they are waxing nostalgia is that they can in fact have the retro look and feel of streetcars of old with the new propulsion system of hydrogen fuel cells.
The streetcars of the 1950’s were expensive, tied to unsightly overhead power lines that require much upkeep and are a hazard to streetlight changers, power companies, firefighters and birds. The cost effective solution for cities and towns wanting to add trolleys to their urban landscapes is to go hydrolley (hydrogen trolley) instead.
By going with streetcars using hydrogen fuels cells, no overhead power lines are used and electricity during peak hours is also saved. Safety issues are diminished and the cost and planning of building an intercity streetcar power line grid goes away.
Willie D. Jones at IEEE Spectrum has taken a good look at the merits of hydrogen fuel cell powered streetcars, saying, “At first blush, streetcars may not seem worth devoting much effort to. Many Americans think of them as a quaint anachronism retained by a few cities like New Orleans for nostalgia’s sake. But more than a dozen municipalities around the world have restarted and extended trolley car lines because they attract wealthier riders than buses and inspire new, high-density property development … Choosing a streetcar design based on hydrogen could save such municipalities millions of dollars per kilometer … A 2006 assessment found that roughly one-quarter of the total cost of a planned 16-kilometer rail extension connecting the city and surrounding suburbs would have gone toward installing a catenary system.”
This is where old meets new. The yearning for the past can still stay alive with a few upgrades in the present. A Streetcar Named Desire has a new desire and that is to run on clean, green hydrogen while paying homage to the history that has taken us to this present place in time.
A couple of days ago I talked about South Korea’s Master Plan eco community on two islands to the north and west of Seoul. The South Korean Master Plan community involves the islands of KangHwa and OnJin-gun.
Now, on a different island to the west of Seoul (and there are many islands around South Korea) called Nanjido, the government is developing its first landfill to hydrogen project. Typically, landfills create a large amount of hydrogen rich methane that has to be dealt with in one way or another.
The landfill, which had been closed in 1993 because it reached capacity, channeled the methane to heat the 60,000 seat Seoul World Cup Stadium. With new technology supplied by South Korea’s SK Group, the carbon in the methane will be sequestered and 99.9 percent pure hydrogen will be produced.
The hydrogen produced from the landfill recycling station will refuel two hydrogen buses and two hydrogen cars including a Hyundai fuel cell vehicle. Some of the hydrogen will also be used to create electricity for the Nanji Art Studio in town.
Because of poor air quality around Seoul and the foresight to invest in hydrogen solutions, South Korea is becoming a country to watch in regard to H2 development. Several Hyundai and Kia fuel cell vehicles are currently being tested in the country and have been for the past several years.
Along with Japan and China, South Korea may just be a hydrogen powerhouse in the next 5 to 10 years and beyond.
Bristol Spaceplanes has conducted a successful strap down test firing of a hydrogen peroxide demonstrator (HPD). This engine will be part of the Ascender rocket engine which will be propelling space tourists into low earth orbit within the next 1 to3 years.
The exhaust from hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is steam and oxygen. Now, it’s no secret that NASA has used liquid hydrogen as a propellant for years. NASA has also reportedly been doing some of its own R&D with hydrogen peroxide.
And, on this blog I’ve talked about using hydrogen peroxide as a current and potential future fuel to be used in cars, racecars, jetpacks, spaceplanes and airplanes.
In fact, hydrogen peroxide is routinely used in some racecars and jetpacks. Also it has been used in one Chinese car the Habo Number 1. The problems with hydrogen peroxide are that it is difficult to handle safely and it has been long thought of as a short-term propellant rather than a long-term fuel.
For instance, the hydrogen peroxide you have in your medicine cabinet is about 10 percent hydrogen peroxide and 90-percent water. On the other end of the spectrum is the fuel grade hydrogen peroxide, which is 90-percent plus H2O2.
In relation to using hydrogen peroxide to power planes, trains and automobiles, this is a much under-researched area. The perception of H2O2 is that it has to be used to power large, powerful machinery.
But, in August 2007, I had talked about how hydrogen peroxide was being used to power a bionic arm. That fact is the fuel is clean burning, with no greenhouse gases emitted, can be transported as a liquid and must be considered as a clean fuel candidate going forward. Getting the money to do R&D on H2O2 and changing public perception, however, may be the biggest challenges.
Introduction
This essay initially started out as “Pretenders, Contenders, and Niches.” However, the section on pretenders grew to the point that I have decided to split that essay up. The first part, Renewable Fuel Pretenders, will cover some of the current media and political darlings. The second part, Renewable Fuel Contenders, will discuss some options that have received less attention, but in the long term are more likely to have staying power in my view. The final part on niches will discuss situations in which certain options might work in very specific situations.
One thing that probably goes without saying. Most pretenders don’t believe they are pretenders. They are often completely sincere people who believe they have cracked the code, and thus they take exception to my characterization. The cellulosic guys, the algae guys, and even the hydrogen guys will insist that I have it all wrong. In fact, following the posting of this essay on my blog, I heard from all of them. I got numerous e-mails assuring me that they really had come up with the solution. What I have discovered in many of these cases is that people often believe this because they have no experience at scaling up technologies. They might have something that works in the lab, but this can instill a false sense of confidence in those who have never scaled a process up.
Reality Begins to Sink In
There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal this past week:
U.S. Biofuel Boom Running on Empty
A few pertinent excerpts:
The biofuels revolution that promised to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil is fizzling out.
Two-thirds of U.S. biodiesel production capacity now sits unused, reports the National Biodiesel Board.
Producers of next-generation biofuels — those using nonfood renewable materials such as grasses, cornstalks and sugarcane stalks — are finding it tough to attract investment and ramp up production to an industrial scale.
This all boils down to something I have said on many occasions: You can’t mandate technology. Just because you mandate that 36 billion gallons of biofuel are to be produced by 2022 doesn’t mean that it has a remote chance of happening. This is not a hard concept to understand, but it seems to have eluded our government for many years. Politicians would probably understand that they couldn’t create colonies on the moon in 10 years via mandate. They know they can’t cure cancer via mandate. But in the area of biofuels, they seem to feel like they can just conjure up vast amounts of hydrogen, cellulosic ethanol, or algal biodiesel.
Domestically produced biofuels were supposed to be an answer to reducing America’s reliance on foreign oil. In 2007, Congress set targets for the U.S. to blend 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year into the U.S. fuel supply in 2022, from 11.1 billion gallons in 2009.
Cellulosic ethanol, derived from the inedible portions of plants, and other advanced fuels were expected to surpass corn ethanol to fill close to half of all biofuel mandates in that time.
But the industry is already falling behind the targets. The mandate to blend next-generation fuels, which kicks in next year, is unlikely to be met because of a lack of enough viable production.
Most people don’t realize that the Germans were the first to produce ethanol from cellulose. That happened in 1898. For our political leaders and many industry boosters, cellulosic ethanol is a recent discovery, and thus they expect big leaps in the technology in the next few years. These expectations completely ignore the fact that researchers have been hard at work on making cellulosic ethanol a reality for decades – with little success. The situation is like needing to make a journey of 100 miles, and companies send out press releases every time they move an inch. This gives the false impression that the technology (same story with algae) is expanding by leaps and bounds.
In President Bush’s 2006 State of the Union address, he broadly expanded the mandate for ethanol. He voiced his strong support for cellulosic ethanol, and included billions of gallons in the Renewable Fuel Standard – as well as billions of dollars of financial support.
How quickly our politicians seem to have forgotten the 2003 State of the Union, in which Bush set forth his vision of the hydrogen economy:
“A simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen generates energy, which can be used to power a car producing only water, not exhaust fumes. With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free.”
We spent some two billion dollars toward that goal. Once again, this ignored many technical and economic realities, and so in May 2009:
Hydrogen Car Goes Down Like the Hindenburg: DoE Kills the Program
The dream of hydrogen fuel cell cars has just been put back in the garage. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced yesterday that his department is cutting all funding for hydrogen car research, saying that it won’t be a feasible technology anytime soon. “We asked ourselves, ‘Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will covert to a hydrogen car economy?’ The answer, we felt, was ‘no,’” Chu said.
My prediction is that in the not too distant future we will start to see headlines like this for cellulosic ethanol. The troublesome barriers to commercialization are quite fundamental, and aren’t likely to be resolved by government mandate. If enough money is thrown at it, cellulosic ethanol will certainly be produced. After all, the Germans could do it 110 years ago. But it can never be a scalable, economic reality.
Pretenders
Broadly speaking, in the world of next generation renewable fuels there are contenders, pretenders, and niches. Over the past decade, we have thrown an awful lot of money at pretenders and have little to show for it. There are many reasons for this, but fundamentally I believe it boils down to the fact that our political leaders can’t sort the wheat from the chaff. If a proponent extols the benefits of hydrogen, cellulose, or algae – the politicians just don’t know enough to ask the right critical questions. They listen – generally to the very people who will benefit from more funding – and then they allocate money. Billions of dollars and little progress later, they or their successors may begin to realize that they have been misled and they start to dial the funding back.
Here is how I define a next generation Biofuel Pretender: A company or group that makes grandiose promises about the ability of a technology to displace large amounts of fossil fuel, despite facing significant (and often unrecognized) barriers to commercialization.
Here are some examples:
Hydrogen
One of the original renewable energy pretenders. Proponents ignored practical realities in many different areas, including fuel cell vehicles that cost a million dollars, the fact that most hydrogen is produced from natural gas, the fact that the energy density of hydrogen is very low, and the fact that there are multiple issues with hydrogen storage and transport. Technical breakthroughs were being counted on to solve these challenges. After all, we put a man on the moon. Surely we could solve these challenges.
The real problem is that the potential for success falls rapidly as the number of needed breakthroughs pile up. Imagine for instance that each of the following – cost of vehicle production, cost effective storage, and cost effective transport of hydrogen – individually have a 25% chance of achieving commercial viability in the next 20 years. The total chance for success of all three in that case falls to 1.5%. Thus, most technologies that truly require multiple technical breakthroughs will fail to materialize commercially except perhaps over a much longer period of time.
Cellulosic Ethanol
As was the case with hydrogen, this one requires multiple technical breakthroughs before commercial (unsubsidized) viability can be achieved. I won’t go through them all now, as I have covered them before. The fundamental reason that cellulosic ethanol won’t scale up to displace large amounts of gasoline is that the energy efficiency of the process is so low. You have the sugars that make up cellulose locked up tightly in the biomass – which has a low energy density to start with. So you add energy to unlock the sugar and turn it into ethanol, and then you end up with ethanol in water. More energy inputs are required to get the ethanol out. Even if the energy can be supplied by the by-products of the process like lignin, the net BTUs of liquid fuel that you end up with are going to be low relative to what you started with.
For example, assume you start off with 10 BTUs of biomass. You expend energy to get it to the factory, to process it, and then to get the water out. You burn part of the biomass to fuel the process, and input some fossil fuel. You might net something like 3 BTUs of liquid fuel from the 10 BTUs of biomass you started with. Don’t confuse this with fossil fuel energy balance, though. If the external energy inputs in this example only amounted to 1 BTU of fossil fuel, one could claim a fossil fuel energy balance of 3/1. But that doesn’t change the fact the final liquid fuel input is a small fraction of the starting BTUs in the biomass.
This is analogous to the situation with oil shale, which is why I have compared the two. There may in fact be a trillion or more barrels of shale oil locked up in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. But if the extraction of those barrels requires a trillion barrels worth of energy inputs and lots of water – then that oil shale might as well be on the moon. So, a trillion barrels isn’t really a trillion barrels in the case of oil shale, and a billion tons of biomass is much smaller than it seems when talking about cellulosic ethanol.
So despite the claims from the EPA that the Renewable Fuel Standard program will increase the volume of renewable fuel required to be blended into gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022 – that is not going to happen unless the government is willing to throw massive amounts of money at an inefficient process.
Algal Biofuel
Like many, I was initially enchanted by the possibility of weaning the world away from fossil fuels by using fuel made from algae. Proponents wrote articles suggesting that we could do just that, provided the necessary investments are made.
Sadly, the story is much more complex than that. The U.S. DOE funded a study for many years into the potential of algae to produce fuel. (For an overview of where things stand from John Benemann, one of the men who co-authored the close-out report of that study, see Algal Biodiesel: Fact or Fiction?) The problem is again one of needing to surmount multiple technical hurdles, and the close-out report discusses that reality. Again, I won’t go into those details, as that has been covered before.
While it is a fact that you can produce fuel from algae, the challenges are such that John has written that you can’t even buy algal biofuel for 0/gallon. He said that if you want to separate the reality from the hype, just try to secure a contract with someone to supply you with algal fuel.
Note: Following the initial publication of this essay, a person who has been active with algae research for many years wrote to me: “In spite of all the hype and non-stop press releases, no one to my knowledge is producing algae on a commercial basis for biofuel production.” Again, if someone claims they are, ask where you can buy some of their fuel.
First Generation Biodiesel
This story is primarily about 2nd generation fuels, and as such I won’t get into corn ethanol issues. But I will say a bit about biodiesel. As indicated in the Wall Street Journal story, conventional biodiesel producers are in trouble. Briefly, a conventional biodiesel producer is someone who takes vegetable oils or animal fats and generally uses methanol (almost all of which is fossil-fuel derived) and converts that into an oxygenated compound (called a mono-alkyl ester). This compound has been defined as ‘biodiesel’, and can be used – subject to certain limitations – in a diesel engine.
Again, the problems are fundamental. It takes a lot of effort (energy, cost) to produce most of the oils that are used as raw materials, and then you have to react with methanol – which usually contains a lot of embodied fossil fuel energy. Presently, the first generation biodiesel producers benefit from a high level of protectionism (to the extent of punishing the more efficient 2nd generation producers). But even with the protectionism and the subsidies, producers are still struggling to survive. What really killed them is that they were exporting a large amount of the biodiesel production to Europe. This enabled them to collect double subsidies – U.S. and European – but the Europeans recently put a stop to that, thus putting the industry in financial crisis.
Miscellaneous
There are a number of miscellaneous pretenders that we probably don’t need to discuss in depth, such as various free energy schemes or water as a fuel. If you think you might be dealing with a pretender, one caution flag is when their promoters are from backgrounds that have nothing to do with energy. For instance, the person who founded the dot.com that ultimately morphs into an energy company is almost certainly a pretender chasing funds.
Summary
To summarize, the biofuel pretenders fall into several broad categories. The big ones are:
• Hydrogen
• Most would-be cellulosic ethanol producers
• Most would-be algal biofuel producers
• Most first generation biodiesel producers
This isn’t to say that none of these will work in any circumstances. I will get into that when I talk about niches. But I will say that I am confident that none of these are scalable solutions to our fossil fuel dependence. Frankly, I wish the algae story was true. I love the idea of getting renewable fuel from brackish waterways. But I try not to let a hope get confused with what I believe is realistic.
The problem is that political leaders have been, or are still convinced that there is great potential for some of these and we waste billions of dollars chasing fantasies. This is a great distraction, causing a loss of precious time and public goodwill as taxpayer money is squandered chasing schemes that ultimately will not pan out.
In the next installment, I will talk about contenders – options that I think can compete with fossil fuels on a level playing field.
Belgium recently took the lead among a set of top university teams vying for “zeroth place” in the Formula Zero European Championship of hydrogen fuel cell cars. This carbon-free Grand Prix injects ingenuity and sustainability back into the races, starring get-up-and-go “karts” with a little H2O in their tailpipes.
Read the rest of Formula Zero: Hydrogen Cell Racing Takes Off
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Post tags: AUTO, car, Europe, formula zero one, green design, hydrogen fuel cell, racing, sustainable design
Biofuels Go Bust: “The wave of biodiesel failures,” combined with the inability of Khosla-backed Cello Energy “to produce even a fraction of what it expected have spooked private investors, which could further delay technology breakthroughs and derail the government’s green energy objectives.” — Wall Street Journal
Cali’s eBay Approach to Energy: California utility regulators have proposed a “reverse auction market” feed-in tariff for renewable energy projects in which developers would bid on power purchase agreements. The energy company offering the lowest electricity rate to utilities in a given project would win the contract. — NYT’s Green Inc.
Climate Policy More Popular Than Health Care?: While Obama’s health care has been staggering in the polls lately, his energy policies — including the proposed cap and trade system — have relatively broad support. — TNR’s The Vine
DOE Throws a Bone to Hydrogen: “After trying to cut research funding by hundreds of millions for hydrogen technology (most of which was restored by Congress) the Department of Energy has announced a million prize for a hydrogen technology breakthrough…But plenty of rules, red tape, and a short deadline may shortchange this contest of its best entrants.” — Gas 2.0, Edmunds Green Car Advisor
EnerG2 Eyes Japan: Department of Energy grant winner EnerG2 plans to expand its reach in Japan. The Seattle-based energy storage startup announced plans today to start visiting customers, device manufacturers and scientists in the countyr in order to build “a long-term customer support presence” there. — Press Release
A little earlier this summer India delivered the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano to its first customer. Tata also announced they are working on a hydrogen version of the same vehicle.
And this week, the Indian Oil Corporation announced they have set up a fueling station with a hydrogen and compressed natural gas blend in Dwarka in Delhi. The blend will use 18-percent hydrogen and 82-percent natural gas and can run in CNG powered vehicles, of which India has many, without modification.
But, perhaps the biggest news coming out of the world’s largest democracy is that Indian company Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) has showcased the Hy-Alfa three-wheel hydrogen vehicle at the World Hydrogen Technologies Convention 2009 held in New Delhi.
The Hy-Alfa offers a 3-seat version and a cargo version of the vehicle. The Hy-Alfa also uses an internal combustion engine instead of fuel cell to supply power to the wheels. Up to 15 Hy-Alfa vehicles are expected to be produced for this demo project.
The M&M Hy-Alfa is not a speed burner though with a top speed of around 42 mph, but it will also work in -30 degrees Celsius temperatures and will achieve around 45 mpg equivalent. Researchers from the Sonalika Group and Banaras Hindu University have worked 7 years bringing the Hy-Alfa to the point of it now being on public display.
Last week I talked about the California Fuel Cell Partnership T-shirt Slogan contest and the deadline is this coming Friday, August 28, 2009 so you’d better get cracking, or brainstorming as the case may be.
This week there is another contest for hydrogen lovers being offered by the National Hydrogen Association (NHA). This photo contest is from the NHA’s educational branch H2&You and the winner will receive a scale sized model Daimler F-cell which is pictured on their website.
You may submit photos of yourself or another person inside or next to a hydrogen car. For inspiration you can check out the winner and entrants from the last H2&You photo contest. The winning entry is of a man sniffing the steam coming out the tailpipe of a fuel cell vehicle (this is similar to what Jack Nicholson and Jay Leno have done in the past).
Voting will end on September 30, 2009, so the sooner you get that photo in, the sooner you can start accumulating votes. There are already two entries posted on the website doing this right now.
So, if you have a picture of yourself, a friend or family member driving or next to a hydrogen car, why not send it in and tell all your friends about it? It will be good publicity for hydrogen cars and you just may win a prize as well.
