Hybrid Vehicle Technology - Improving Gas Mileage

Toshiba plans to begin mass production of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Toshiba plans to begin mass production of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells by March next year and to have a television based on the powerful Cell microprocessor on sale before the end of the same year, it said Thursday.

The roadmap was revealed when Toshiba outlined an aggressive mid-term management plan that seeks to push sales to ¥10 trillion (US$96 billion) from last year's ¥7.7 trillion and propel operating profit to ¥500 billion from last year's ¥238 billion.

Toshiba has been developing the fuel cells and Cell chip for several years, and their readiness for commercial use coupled with continuing advances in the company's chip-making expertise are expected to be key drivers behind growth in Toshiba's digital products and electronic devices divisions. Toshiba is targeting annual growth of 12 percent in sales and profits for the businesses over the next three years, it said.

Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs) produce electricity from a reaction between methanol, water and air. The only by-products of the reaction are a small amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide, so the fuel cells are typically seen as a much greener form of energy than traditional batteries. A big advantage of DMFCs is that they can be replenished with a new cartridge of methanol in seconds.

$4 a gallon not the end of rising gas prices

$4 a gallon not the end of rising gas prices
'It's not going to be a 1-year blip and go away'

Drivers will likely need to become comfortable with gas at $4 a gallon, as oil experts say an era of historic pain at the pump will endure well beyond the Memorial Day weekend, when prices traditionally peak.

You might trade in that GMC Yukon for a Honda Civic, skip the highway for the bike lane and redefine that time-honored tradition of the road trip. Americans are already reordering their Memorial Day weekends, with AAA predicting a decrease in travel for the first time since 2002.

But those changes might not be enough to immediately pull down a gasoline market that follows the whims of the world economy. Newfound wealth fills pockets of the globe once known for overwhelming poverty, and for the first time prices are responding to their thirst for fuel as much as demand in America.

The new world order for petroleum markets has some analysts predicting far higher prices ahead. Gasoline in the U.S. could reach $7 a gallon because more drivers in India and China will hit the road even as American oil consumption retreats, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce predicts.

Carbon membrane looks gooey but is key to sustainable energy

Tigergen I utilizes hydrogen fuel cells

A hydrogen fuel cell car built by MU students will drive across the continent in an effort to promote greater understanding of alternative fuel use technology.

The Mizzou Hydrogen Car Team will introduce its car, Tigergen I, at the North American Solar Challenge July 13. In the nine-day event, university-built alternative fuel cars to drive 2,400 miles from Dallas, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta.

BMW announces its latest milestone in its pursuit of the hydrogen future, the BMW Hydrogen 7

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced that the FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle

Since 2007, all IRL IndyCar series racers run on low environmental impact 100% ethanol fuel. Scheduled for release in the U.S. in the summer and in Japan in the autumn of this year, the FCX Clarity runs on hydrogen and emits no CO2 or other environmentally harmful emissions in operation, making it an ideal vehicle for the event. The fuel cell vehicle emits only water and is regarded as the ultimate environmentally responsible vehicle.

Fuel cell materials company, Bac2, has appointed Dr. Ashok Vaidya as a non-executive director

Dr. Vaidya is a Chartered Physicist with a PhD in superconductivity and has an MBA from Henley Management College. He brings both commercial and technical expertise to the Bac2 board, following more than 25 years in industry. Dr. Vaidya has commercialised new technology and managed high growth technology businesses during that time. His career includes executive positions with EMI Central Research Laboratories and Thorn EMI New BusinessVentures and as founder and director of Scipher plc.

Bac2’s CEO, Mike Stannard, commented, “Ashok’s advice and guidance in Bac2’s earliest days has been of great help already and we are delighted to formalise our working relationship with him through this appointment as we take the company forward into volume production of ElectroPhen-based products.”

Bac2 Ltd www.bac2.co.uk

Bac2 is the developer of ElectroPhen™, an electrically conductive plastic that will make a significant contribution to the early adoption of clean energy from fuel cell stacks. Fuel cells are technically proven sources of clean energy for our planet, but adoption is presently limited by cost.Bac2 is in the process of developing ElectroPhen™ commercially and has patents pending in Europe, America and Japan. ElectroPhen™ is made from readily available low-cost constituents, can be pressed or moulded to complex shapes, and is robust enough for harsh environments. By comparison, competitors produce composite plates using electrically insulating resins to bind together conductive particles such as graphite. In addition to its role in fuel cells, Bac2 will find an increasingly wide range of applications for ElectroPhen in electrical and electronic industries.

Computer modeling

Computer modeling is one of the tools scientists are using to bring fuel cells closer to technical and economic viability.

"Fuel cells are costly to study in the laboratory," says Adam Weber of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD), who uses computer models to simulate what goes on inside fuel cells. "It's very hard to characterize what's going on in a fuel cell locally. Imaging techniques are difficult and expensive to use in a cell's interior, and the resolution of existing techniques is often not high enough."

Computer simulation of the processes in the cell, however, is a cost-effective way to figure out what's going on inside. "It let's you think outside the box," Weber says. "What if we made a new electrode material? What properties should it have? Simulation provides an approximate idea of the distribution of heat, fuel, and water within different parts of the cell, and how these distributions affect the cell's power output."  

One of Weber's projects is studying thermal and water management in polymer-electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) using computer simulation. Understanding the flow of water in a fuel cell is important, because if water is not managed properly the fuel cell will not produce its maximum power, let alone operate. In the long term, improper water management could also lead to shorter fuel-cell lifetime, which affects the economic viability of the technology. The ultimate goal of the research is to provide guidance to other scientists and fuel cell manufacturers so that they can optimize fuel cell performance at minimum cost.
Where does the water come from?

"The fuel cell is an energy conversion device, not an energy storage device like a battery," Weber explains. The conversion process begins with hydrogen, the fuel input. Hydrogen flows into the fuel cell and encounters a gas diffusion layer, where it spreads out evenly on a plane.

The gas now reacts with electrolyte at the cell's anode layer, resulting in the dissociation of hydrogen into protons and electrons.  The electrons are the cell's power output — they flow out of the cell as an electric current and do useful work, such as moving an automobile or providing electricity to a building or space vehicle.

The rest of the hydrogen gas, the positively charged protons, flows through the electrolyte, a negatively charged polymer termed an ionomer, to the cathode layer. The electrolyte is crucial: its role is to conduct protons, not electrons or gas. 

At the cathode, in a series of chemical reactions, the protons recombine with electrons and with oxygen, which is flowing into the cell from the atmosphere, to form water — the primary source of the water within the cell.

The material that forms a fuel cell's electrolyte defines the type of fuel cell. Weber's research focuses on polymer-electrolyte fuel cells, considered promising for automotive and small, stationary applications, with operating temperatures usually less than 100°C (212°F). The typical material in use today consists of fluorinated polymers (Teflon, for example) with acid-group side chains.

In solid-oxide fuel cells, the electrolyte is a ceramic that conducts oxygen ions. Solid-oxide fuel cells operate at much higher temperatures, more than 700°C (1,260°F). Solid-oxide fuel cells are considered ideal for stationary applications, such as powering buildings, thanks to their cogeneration capabilities and use of natural gas as a fuel.
Dueling trends

A fuel cell that is generating an electrical current is also generating heat and water. The water in the cell is either liquid or a vapor, depending on the local temperature at the point in the cell where the water is passing through.

The polymer electrolyte needs to be wet in order to conduct efficiently, so some liquid water in the ionomer separating the anode from the cathode is desired. Liquid water also hydrates the membrane much better than water vapor. However, if liquid water fills up the pore pathways in the diffusion layer and blocks access of the reactant gases to the reaction sites, more vapor and less liquid is desirable. 

"This is an optimization problem," says Weber. "The problem is to keep sufficient water in the membrane so it can do its job of conducting, without having too much in the cell. The structure of an optimized backing layer depends on factors like the number and size of pores in the layer, their distribution, and total porosity."

Weber's computer simulations show that the shape of the gradient, the temperature profile of the fuel cell, reflects the cell's water distribution and management, with trade-offs for performance. Temperature reaches a maximum at the cathode where the oxygen is reduced to water — an inefficient reaction. Water vapor moves out of the cell in the diffusion layers; meanwhile the temperature decreases from the cathode to the gas channels.

Higher temperatures increase the rate of chemical reactions, the diffusion of reactant gases, and the conductivity of the electrolyte — all to the good, because these factors tend to increase power output. But higher temperatures at the membrane dilute liquid water; water vapor dilutes the reactants in the cell; and the flow of water vapor out of the cell inhibits hydrogen and oxygen from entering. 

Weber's simulation results suggest that these latter effects are the dominating factors, reducing the cell's performance if the vapor is not managed. The simulations show water vapor moving out of the cell and condensing, while liquid water moves into the cell — all because of the temperature gradient. 

"A lot of water is moving through the cell because of condensation of the vapor to liquid, and evaporation of the liquid to vapor," says Weber. "Water is also changing from liquid to vapor and back at the membrane. But these heat-related effects almost exactly balance each other in the cell."

A design for better water and thermal management

Weber points out that there are several engineering solutions to the water and thermal management problem. "You can tailor a microporous layer to do a better job of keeping liquid water in contact with the membrane. Wicks or porous plates can help remove excess liquid water. Distributed liquid-water injections can help maximize the liquid water at the membrane and reduce the temperature, so that less water vapor forms. You can induce temperature gradients to move water where you want it."

Because of Weber's work, enough is now known about the temperature and moisture conditions inside polymer-electrolyte fuel cells to point fuel cell designers in the right direction to solve these problems. But other, large challenges remain.

"The materials problem is the big one," says Weber. "We need a better membrane material for higher temperature conditions in the fuel cell." Operating the cell at higher temperatures, above 100°C, increases efficiency and power output but degrades the cell faster, shortening its lifetime.

Weber and EETD researcher John Kerr are conducting research in this area to model and create membrane materials capable of operating at elevated temperatures. Weber is also working on computer models that relate the impacts of material tolerances and manufacturing defects, a key route for eventual large-scale fuel cell production. Their goal is to help develop the materials that can meet goals established by the Department of Energy's fuel-cell research program.

Among these goals are fuel cells that will last 5,000 hours (equivalent to about 150,000 miles of driving), cost less than $50 per kilowatt — automobile combustion engines currently cost $30 to $35 per kilowatt — and operate at the full range of environmental conditions as cars powered by internal combustion engines, from extreme cold in winter to hot, humid summer conditions. The fuel cells will also have to start up quickly and reach 50 percent of rated power within 30 seconds — combustion engines turn on very quickly, but current fuel cells have a slower start-up curve.

There's still plenty to do! 

Gale Banks, president and founder of Banks Power in Azusa, has been chosen by BMW to road test

AZUSA, Calif. -- Gale Banks, president and founder of Banks Power in Azusa, has been chosen by BMW to road test its new advanced-technology showcase vehicle, the Hydrogen 7 sedan.

The sleek 12-cylinder, four-door luxury sedan is one of 100 BMW production-ready vehicles based on the 760i. The 260-horsepower, 6.0L sedan was adapted to run on liquid hydrogen to show the viability of the alternative fuel as perhaps the cleanest engine propellant on Earth.

Twenty of these machines are in use in the United States with the rest seeing duty around the world as “ambassadors” of the new technology. The unique vehicles are being placed in the hands of well-known figures from business, sports, politics, and entertainment, influential people who, BMW expects, will use them in everyday situations and report back about their experiences driving a car that “runs on the most plentiful element in the world and emits virtually nothing but water vapor.”

According to BMW CleanEnergy Program Director James J. Ryan, Gale Banks was chosen because of his reputation as a futurist and his interest in clean-burning alternative fuels. “He’ll have the car for a month or so, and we’re hoping that he both enjoys being one of our pioneer drivers and that he’ll give us his professional feedback on our car,” said Ryan. “The more people who experience using hydrogen for a fuel, the closer we’ll be to providing the infrastructure that will make widespread ownership possible.”

Banks received the keys to the “loaner” from Ryan, who was joined by the program’s personal care advisor, Marcus Wiesebrock, and BMW CleanEnergy Program Executive Nadine Jambor.

Banks plans to “do a little blogging” about the experience on his company’s bankspower.com website over the next month or more. Be sure to check it out. 

Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Most fuel cells are powered by hydrogen, which can be fed to the fuel cell system directly or can be generated within the fuel cell system by reforming hydrogen-rich fuels such as methanol, ethanol, and hydrocarbon fuels. Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), however, are powered by pure methanol, which is mixed with steam and fed directly to the fuel cell anode.

Shanghai--At the recent Beijing auto show, Beiqi Foton Motor launched China's first city bus model using the third-generation zero-emission fuel cell technology. The carmaker has produced four city buses powered by the fuel cells and will put them into a trial run on the designated streets in Beijing after the industry and municipal authorities give the green light.

Ouyang Minggao, a professor from Tsing University and a chief expert in charge of this fuel cell technology project, said that the fuel-cell bus made by Foton is the first "zero-emission vehicle" in China and is a landmark in the country's new-energy bus manufacturing sector. "If its trial run in July is successful, this will prove our success in the research and development of the fuel cell technology," Ouyang said.

Featuring the all-new third-generation fuel-cell technology, this Foton fuel-cell bus (codenamed Ou-V Bus, or Eu-V Bus) is equipped with the NiMH power battery and uses the hybrid fuel cell power to achieve the eco-friendly "zero-emission" standard. Foton's sophisticated fuel cells and supporting technologies ensure the "zero-emission" function of the new-energy bus.

Beiqi Foton said it will produce only a limited number of the fuel-cell-driven buses later this year because the manufacturing cost of the fuel-cell bus is still prohibitively high (at about 5 million yuan, or $716,000). The company will export some of the fuel-cell buses, and it has received the first order from the United States for the vehicle.

Chevy's Project Driveway

The announcement was made by Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks during her annual State of the County Address in Rochester, NY.

Project Driveway is placing more than 100 zero emissions Chevy Equinox fuel cell electric vehicles, powered by hydrogen, on the streets of key markets in the U.S. and around the world.

"Through this unique partnership with GM, Monroe County is leading the way toward a more sustainable future," said County Executive Maggie Brooks. "By testing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle, we will be able to provide valuable information to GM about the automobile's performance. At the same time, we will prepare Monroe County for the next generation of alternative fuel vehicles. We are proud to be the only community in upstate New York selected to participate in this cutting-edge program, and we look forward to the positive impact it will have on the environment."

GM and Monroe County will work together to collect comprehensive feedback on all elements including customer acceptance, operations and performance and overall satisfaction. This will include cold weather operation and on-road performance. The County is particularly interested in the fueling time and logistics as well as vehicle range. The Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicle will be highly visible at public events, festivals, parades and press conferences, and will also be utilized by department heads.

"Monroe County has always been on the forefront of progressive, new technologies, and what they will be able to tell us from their driving experiences with the Equinox fuel cell vehicle will be crucial as we further develop the technology and move toward commercialization of fuel cell electric vehicles," said Daniel O'Connell, GM director Equinox fuel cell service, support and infrastructure.

Enabled by GM's fourth-generation hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system, the Equinox Fuel Cell electric vehicle is a fully functional crossover vehicle. During the Project Driveway test, consumers in suburban Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. will drive more than 100 of these vehicles for three months and report their experiences to Chevrolet. The drivers have free use of the vehicles, including the hydrogen fuel it needs to make electricity onboard as well as insurance, in exchange for their valuable feedback. A small number of the Project Driveway vehicles will also be deployed to other parts of the world, including Germany and Asia.

Aside from its dramatically different propulsion system, the Equinox Fuel Cell electric vehicle looks and drives much like a production Chevy Equinox crossover. The fuel cell system fits within the space of the conventional engine compartment. The nickel-metal hydride battery pack, which stores energy from the regenerative braking system to increase operating efficiency and boost acceleration when needed, sits under the floor in the middle of the vehicle. Three compressed hydrogen storage tanks, made of carbon fiber for strength and pressurized to 10,000 pounds per square inch (psi), are located under the rear seats and cargo area. They contain roughly nine pounds (4.2 kg) of hydrogen. The Equinox fuel cell has a range of approximately 150 miles ( km) when fully fueled.

Outside, the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell electric vehicle fascia sports Chevy's horizontally split grille, along with extra cooling air inlets in the lower front corners. At the rear, the new fascia under the bumper has four thin vertical slits in place of the exhaust pipe; they release the clean water vapor emissions. This patented design lets onlookers know that this is no ordinary internal combustion engine vehicle.

The Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle boasts a long list of standard safety features including driver and passenger frontal air bags and roof rail side-impact air bags; anti-lock braking system (ABS); StabiliTrak stability enhancement technology and OnStar.