Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new highly efficient technique for making hydrogen fuel cells suitable for vehicles. The technology has the potential to be twice as effective as current fuel cells at around half the temperature and much lower pressure.

The process uses ammonia borane, a high hydrogen-content powdered chemical and combines two hydrogen generating processes — hydrolysis and thermolysis — to achieve conditions appropriate for use in vehicles.

Currently hydrogen fuel cells run at pressures of aound 5,000 psi. Hydrolysis alone requires a catalyst to turn hydrogen into energy, and thermolysis requires a temperature of 170°C to function. By combining hydrolysis and thermolysis processes, and introducing ammonia borane into the reaction, the required temperature is lowered to about 85°C and the pressure requirements lower to 200 psi.

The researchers believe that, if this technology can be scaled up, it would be the perfect reaction to generate electricity for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and small appliances. As well as scaling up the process, the researchers are working on ways to recycle the ammonia borane used in the reaction and return it to its original state.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

American 60 Minutes has shown this segment on teh Bloom Box, a new fuel cell system that its makers say can cost-effectively generate electricity on the spot, without being connected to the electricity grid. Large corporations are already testing the device; the manufacturer foresees one in every home.

(The segment begins with an advertisement.)

Watch CBS News Videos Online

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

General Motors has released the newest version of its hydrogen fuel cell  engine and says that hydrogen fuel cells could be cost cometitive with other technologies by 2015.

General Motors’ "second generation" fuel cell is half the size of previous "Project Driveway" stack. Although significantly smaller in size and weight it is capable of generating more electric power than the previous version. The weight has been reduced to 130kg, the number of parts has been cut nearly in half and the amount of platinum catalyst has been reduced from 80g to just 30g.

A GM Hydrogen Fuel Celll Test Vehicle

Click here to read the rest of this entry.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

One of the main factors in the high cost of fuels cells is the use of platinum as a catalyst. Platinum is scarce and costs around $1,200 an ounce - and that price is likely to skyrocket if fuel cells with platinum catalysts become widely used.

A U.K. company, ACAL Energy, has developed a new fuel cell design that reduces the amount of platinum used by 80 percent.

In a conventional fuel cell, platinum is embedded in porous carbon electrodes. ACAL’s design replaces this with a solution containing molybdenum and vanadium as the catalyst. The company says that the resulting fuel cell works as well as a conventional one but should cost 40 percent less.

The company has already made a one-kilowatt system that it intends to sell in limited quantities next year. The new fuel cells should be widely available by 2011. ACAL plans to target the market for diesel generators first, then move on to larger volume applications such as home power generation and electric cars.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

Hyundai Motor has announced that it plans to commercially produce its first hydrogen fuel-cell car starting in 2012. The fuel-cell vehicle would come three years after Hyundai introduces its first petrol-electric hybrid Avante compact car in 2009.

Hyundai has previously announced that a lithium-ion powered hybrid version of the Sonata sedan is planned for the United States market in 2010 and a hybrid version of its compact Avante sedan will be on sale in 2009, but the Avante will not be available in the U.S. The company has already produced about 2,800 of the compact Avante hybrids as part of various pilot projects.

Hyundai plans to be producing half a million hybrids a year by 2018.

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

Hyundai Avante Hybrid

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

The Economist magazine has published an article in which it claims that a consensus has emerged among motor vehicle manufacturers about how the industry will move to zero-emission vehicles.

Late last year, American carmakers were arguing that it was not possible to achieve a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon (6.7 litres per 100 kilometres) by 2020 and European manufacturers were claiming that complying with a requirement to produce less than 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre was impossible.

Within just eighteen months a consensus has developed that future vehicles will be electric and that hybrids will be a bridging technology. The idea of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles has been dumped as impractical and unachievable.

Click here to read the rest of this entry.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

Just two days ago, we spoke about the major breakthrough in energy storage by MIT scientists in finding a cheap catalyst for the oxygen-producing electrode in fuel cells. The ramaining problem was the need to use expensive platinum nanoparticles for the second, hydrogen-producing electrode. The small amount of platinum needed for a typical fuel-cell car would cost about $4,000.

Now, scientists at the Australian Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at Monash University, led by Maria Forsyth, have developed an alternative catalyst - a polymer called poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), or PEDOT. Professor Forsyth estimates that the cost of a PEDOT-based electrode would only add a few hundred dollars to the price of a fuel-cell vehicle. PEDOT-based electrodes are also much more stable than platinum ones.

The researchers are now developing a three-dimensional fuel cell to maximise the surface area of the electrode and are already speaking to car manufacturers about using their technology.

Professor Forsyth says that the PEDOT electrodes could also be used in zinc-air batteries which many believe will eventually replace lithium-ion batteries.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

MIT researchers claim to have found a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

"This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years," said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."

Professor Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow, have developed a process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to simply and cheaply split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen can be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity whenever required.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

The Renault-Nissan Alliance, which has already announced its plans to start selling electric vehicles in the US and Japan by the end of 2010 and to mass-market electric vehicles in Israel and Denmark in 2011, has announced that will be demonstrating fuel-cell vehicle prototypes in Europe starting this month.

Nissan has be doing "real world testing" of its X-Trail fuel cell vehicle in Japan for more than two years and has already leased some of the cars to government authorities there. The most recent development is a Renault prototype called the Scenic ZEV H2. Based on a Renault Grand Scenic, the ZEV features Nissan’s in-house developed fuel cell stack, high pressure hydrogen storage tank and compact lithium-ion batteries. From June to September, Nissan will demonstrate  its X-Trail fuel-cell vehicle in six European countries, while Renault will show the Scenic ZEV fuel-cell vehicle in Barcelona late in June.

Meanwhile, Honda has announced that its FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle will go on sale to the public in the United States during this Northern summer. Because of the lack of hydrogen fuel stations, the vehicle will initially only be available in the Torrence, Santa Monica and Irvine areas of Southern California.

It has been estimated that the cost of installing a hydrogen refuelling point every 25 miles on US freeways and within two miles of more than 70 per cent of the population would be about $us12 billion. To put that into perspective, in the 1960s, the US government spent $17 billion a year (in current dollar values) on its space programme and  the oil industry estimates it will need to spend $200 billion in coming years simply to secure its infrastructure.

Honda Clarity

If you found this item interesting, please let others know: