| won't nobody drive the million dollar HFC?? |
[Aug. 3rd, 2006|11:01 pm] |
Strange times in Chula Vista CA as no city employees want to drive the Honda FCX fuel cell cause it's just too daunting....
So here's the story: Honda gave the City of Chula Vista a sweetheart deal, they got to lease a FCX vehicle for $500 a month. This is a pretty great price considering at this point the cars still cost around $1 million. So, what's hapened is that everyone is afraid of driving the car. Seriously no one wants to be known as the guy who crashed the million dollar car. So even though they have a local electrolizer to refill the fuel cell, and even though the car emits nothing but watter, no one wants it. They offered it to Steve Padilla, Chula Vista mayor, he said thanks but no thanks. Everybody's chicken. Even though any employee can take the car out, even for a quickie spin. No one want to be the guy who crashes it. Except for one bold young employee, yeah, you guessed it; an intern. At least the intern's got style...
[swear i'm not making this up] |
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| Las Vegas to get second hydrogen station for fuel cell vehicles |
[May. 22nd, 2006|09:36 am] |
A second hydrogen fuel station is being planned to open in October in Las Vegas, a boost to local plans to introduce fuel cell vehicles. The station will open at the Las Vegas Valley Water District's main campus and is a joint venture with the UNLV Research Foundation. The Water District will have two small hydrogen-powered trucks that will use the station. The hydrogen for the new station also will be produced via solar-generated electricity. |
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| I WANT ONE!!!!!! (new toy hydrogen car!) |
[May. 22nd, 2006|08:57 am] |
The H-Racer from Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies is a palm-sized toy hydrogen car with its own fuel cell refueling station that creates hydrogen fuel by combining solar power and water. OK it's not the first one but to compare it to either the Thames lucide less-is-less model or that inaccessible metal one fomr Japan, this one kicks ass! Thanks gizmodo! |
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| good news for Honda FCX Fuel Cell Car |
[May. 22nd, 2006|08:49 am] |
Great news for people who live with winter climes and want a fuell cell horesless carriage; The FCX is capable of starting and operating at temperatures as low as -20C (-4F) with improved performance, range and reduced build complexity! Coming soon? |
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| it's official! Bill H.R. 5143 passes 416 to 6 |
[May. 11th, 2006|06:34 pm] |
from private Xprize to public HPrize
Fun times in the House! They just passed a bill funding a Hydrogen Fuel Cell prize. A grand prize of $10 million, and smaller prizes reaching millions of dollars is offered to anyone who can make one of these things viable... it's pretty muchin teh same vein as that Ansari X-Prize. The Energy Department announced earlier this year that it would provide $119 million in funding for research into hydrogen fuel cells, including $100 million over the next four years to projects to improve components of fuel cell systems.I guess the extra couple of million is incentive for the engineers and scientists to quit stalling or something...
[thanks anonymous tipster!] |
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| Xcel + Wind + NREL + Hydrogen + DOE =? |
[May. 11th, 2006|04:05 am] |
The U.S. Department of Energy, NREL, and Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) recently signed an agreement for a "wind to hydrogen" research, development and demonstration project. Pretty cool. As the focus is electrolizing water into Hydrogen with air power :DDD
The new wind-electrolysis system will be at NREL's National Wind Technology Center, where hydrogen will be produced, compressed and stored to be used as a vehicle fuel or to generate electricity. The project will compare electrolyzer technologies and researchers will examine issues related to system efficiency, integration, compression, storage, cost and the use of a mixture of hydrogen and natural gas. "One unique feature of this system is the direct connection between the wind turbine and the electrolyzer, which will make the system more efficient," (yeah.... fairly unique... in Toronto on the lakeshore there's one of those that's been making H from wind for almost 2 years now). Still a good bigger-than-a-baby step!
[fuelcell works] |
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| All Aboard! |
[May. 5th, 2006|05:38 am] |
FC Choo Choo Debut
News from Japan yesterday is that they just rolled out theteh first Fuel Cell Train! Testing begins thsi July and they expect that passengers will be riding the hydrogen powered vehicles next year! |
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| daily plug... |
[Apr. 28th, 2006|06:28 am] |
OK It's an article about Troy New York and their new Tech Valley. But who are the two examples of the turnaround and rebirth?? None other than DayStar and Plug Power! ...and if you've been reading this for anytime now, you know just how much i love these two companies!! So you can imagine how happy I was to read an article in the Troy Record, talking about both of these companies! Hmmm will there be a daystar solar powered electolyzer on the horizon? That would just be too kewl. |
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| another plug for Plug |
[Apr. 19th, 2006|11:47 am] |
More Partners for the Home/Factory FCs!
Well it's no secret to anyone here that (even though I may have some harsh words for FCs in general) I am a HUGE fan of plug Power. And last week I mentioned how they now have a deal to do those fancy Honda Full Home Fuel Cells, which kinda rocks. But the news this week is that now you have two hundred and seventy million more reasons to believe that Plug Power will be a major force to be reckoned with! |
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| fuck fuel cells.... |
[Apr. 15th, 2006|12:46 pm] |
Seriously, why wait forever for a fuel cell, when there are
Hydrogen I.C.E. vehicles running fine, working fine and rocking it out??
 
ok that's a MiniCooper Internal Hydrogen Combustion Vehicle, and that's a
straight Hydrogen filling station. Notice no mushroom clouds?
OK, check out this article from Canadian Driver, from 18 months ago(!!) where they talk about BMW's Hydrogen-ICE cars (been running for half a decade, no hindenburgs), now that hot MiniCooper, and even about how they have been filling up at the Munich Airport for years no (again, with no hindenbergs). In fact they say; " Any gasoline engine can theoretically be adapted to use hydrogen fuel and provide the various benefits offered by the gas in the type of vehicles we're already driving." And it's true. It's about as easy to convert your car to run on hydrogen as it is to turn a diesel into a biodiesel (which is WAY easy). So what are we waiting for? There are solar powered electroliyzers EVERYWHERE! And it's just that easy. We could all be driving on a brew we make in our basements, who's exhaust is water. So maybe instead of swapping one hundred year old system (ICE Engines) for another hundred year old system (fuel cells, i mean you didn't think they were new, did you?) instead of that overhaul, why not just upgrade??. Fuel Cell Vehicles and their drive trains will take a lot longer to implement than converting all of our vehicles (yes even those stupid SUVs --which wouldn't be that bad if they burnt water...) So seriously, what do we have to do to get people to wake up and smell the hydrogen? |
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| more cheap hydrogen!! |
[Apr. 2nd, 2006|11:49 am] |
Virent Energy makes H from Korn
UWisc Madison is awesome. Long known as the only place for hippies in the Midwest, they have been tearing it up lately on the eco sphere! First there was the "UWMadison Process" a way to make ethanol much more efficiently (they got it from 1:1.1 all the way to 1:2.2). But now here comes another UW spin-off, Virent Energy with yet one more way to make cheap hydrogen. This time from Korn.
Virent's aqueous-phase reformation (APR) uses a precious-metal-based catalyst to convert the sugars from the corn, to a mixture of Hydrogen, methane, ethane, propane, CO2 and steam. The H2O is removed by condensation, then Hydrogen of 99.999% purity is recovered through a palladium membrane filter or by something called pressure-swing absorption. Eric Apfelbach, Virent's CEO points out that APR is simpler than the conventional alternatives, such as producing, then reforming ethanol, or gassifying biomass and recovering Hydrogen from the "syngas". A test system is producing enough Hydrogen to power a 5-7-kW fuel cell. All from corn! neat (now, some people say we eat corn, but actually most-- almost 70% of our corn-- is used to feed cattle and pigs. So, I'm not suggesting that everyone go vegan (well ...wouldn't be so bad unless you're a pig farmer), but if we were all able to eat meat lets say, 15% less, then we will have all the corn based hydrogen we could possible need! |
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| Ballard and the 21.6% solution! |
[Feb. 24th, 2006|05:51 pm] |
Biggest Green Gainer of the Week!
The biggest gainer in the wild world of green stocks this week was Ballard Power Systems. Investors must like their choice of newly minted President/CEO John Sheridan. Their stock, sitting at $5.22 last week at this time, just closed at $6.35. That's a 21.64% gain in one week! Not bad! Sure, it's nowhere near their July 2000 high of $160 a share, but hey, we stumble, we fall, we pick up the pieces and saddle up again, right? So, here's to you Ballard, for sticking to it and climbing! |
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| HONDA seeks the typical British family for FC test run... |
[Feb. 20th, 2006|07:58 pm] |
Attention to all my British readers this honda may be yours!!
Honda is planning to offer a British family the opportunity to run a fuel cell vehicle and in doing so demonstrate that the technology is practical. (Following the successful trial in the California, which i told you about way back when), the company is now looking to extend the project to Britain.
The successful British family will have the change to operate Honda’s FCX hatchback which uses hydrogen to generate electricity. Honda will be searching for a family that would use the vehicle on an everyday basis to travel to work, on shopping trips and family holidays. Honda is reluctant to divulge details of the project as it may still be deemed as too costly. However, it is anticipated that the winning household will be provided with its own refueling station using natural gas to produce hydrogen. This is likely to be that super cool Honda home energy station unit they've been showing off lately....
Come on.. Even if you have to pay extra to drive into London, you gotta admit that would be fun!! |
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| Ion America claims are pretty huge.... (fingers crossed) |
[Feb. 20th, 2006|02:16 pm] |
is this snake oil?? I hope not--
Publication Date:18-February-2006 10:30 AM US Eastern Timezone Source:AP
"It looks like just a large white box, not too impressive expect for its size. Then you hear what it can do. The solid oxide fuel cell generates enough electricity to power a 6,000 square foot home. But that's not all... Congressman Zach Wamp, (R) 3rd District: "This unit, in a home or in a commercial operation, will not only make electricity, it makes hydrogen for your vehicle, so it solves both problems at the same time, being demonstrated in the Tennessee Valley."
It's just one of two fuel cells in the country producing both hydrogen and electricity, and it's located in UTC's SimCenter. The other one is found in Silicon Valley. This box runs on natural gas for now, then eventually bio-fuels like ethanol. And that means cleaner air. Dr. K.R. Sridhar, Ion America: "We put very little of sulfur oxide and other oxides which are not good for the environment almost no particulates into the air. Once we start using renewable fuels, we get to zero emissions with this technology." The SimCenter's fuel cell already produces electricity that goes straight into the power grid, and could be providing power to your home."
...there isn't all that much info on this one. Sorry! I got this really half-assed report from a Chattanooga TN News team and then did my best to find out whatever is out there... If this thing works the way they say it does, it has revolutionary implications... These guys don't have a website yet (people call them "stealthy") but if you want to find out more about IonAmerica you can check out the following links.. they seem to be up on it: the silicon beat, FuelCellWorks, and/or CleanTech Investing ... oh and here's a cute littel piece MSNBC did on them.. look forward to getting to the bottom of this one! |
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| Hat Trick! |
[Feb. 13th, 2006|07:52 pm] |
Millennium Cell scores a triple crown!
Wow! Things change fast, but not usually as fast as they have been lately over at Millennium Cell. They've had quite the month! It all began a few weeks ago when they got $1.7M from the 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill for their Protonex 30-watt portable soldier power systems (P2), and their now famous Hydrogen on Demand® systems.
Then late last week Millennium entered into a strategic development and licensing agreement with Jadoo Power Systems Inc (you may remember I was gushing about Jadoo's new camera Fuel Cells just before the CES show in Las Vegas). Focused primarily on the professional broadcast and law enforcement markets* for the past two years, Jadoo recently announced a move into such new markets as first responders and portable office users. The agreement will grant Jadoo the rights to design, manufacture and sell products using Millennium Cell's technology for their targeted markets. The Millennium Cell Hydrogen on Demand® technology will provide Jadoo with a high energy density, safe and cost-effective fuel cartridge to complement their existing fuel cell power units. "We have been selling one of the lowest cost fuel cell solutions in the market - around $1000 - for over two years now," said Larry Bawden, President and CEO, Jadoo Power. "Millennium Cell's technology will allow us to provide a lighter, longer runtime option for our current products and will allow us to continue to pursue and dominate new markets".
Then to make matters better, they made another announcement today! It turns out that Protonex Technology Corporation, a fuel cell supplier and existing licensee in the military market, has exercised its option to license Millennium Cell's Hydrogen on Demand® technology for industrial and medical markets. Protonex was involved with the P2, and again in a Swords to Plowshares move they are forging ahead in more civilian arenas. As Scott Pearson, Protonex CEO said; "We are pleased to now be able to offer industrial and medical customers the same innovative power system technology that can deliver more power in a smaller, lighter package than many batteries in use today for those markets."
It certainly looks like Millennium Cells will be a major player in the hydrogen economy!
=============================================================
*it should be no surprise that Jadoo is involved with both TV production and Law Enforcement, seeing how Jadoo is financed by Mohr Davidow Ventures, Venrock Associates and Sinclair Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc |
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| new from IdaTech; Fuel Cell Backups |
[Feb. 13th, 2006|07:36 pm] |
IdaTech, LLC, a global fuel cell solutions developer and manufacturer, announced its newest backup power product - the ElectraGen™3 fuel cell system. And Telcom and UPS companies are pleased as punch!
The ElectraGen™3 is a hydrogen-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell solution capable of producing up to three kilowatts of clean, reliable backup power. ( Read more... ) |
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| the Savanah River Site changes with the times... |
[Feb. 13th, 2006|05:42 pm] |
yet more swords into ploughshares.....
So it was a few years ago already that I met some people from the Savanah River Site, one of the United State's leading producers of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen used in nuclear weapons. Back then they were already playing with hydrogen fuel cell buses (heck they've been involved with Hydrogen for 50 years, not not all of it simply to blow things up). Well it appears that they never gave up their quest to turn away from the dark side, and now it looks like they may have really turned the corner! They're now working with GM and Toyota working out all the various needs of a hydrogen economy! SRS is now investigating a sort of metallic sponge that would allow hydrogen molecules to bond to the metal and be released through heat, and looking into storing hydrogen in small glass "microballoons" or in carbon-based nanotubes. Very cool. And what could be more inspiring than a company that used to make nuclear bombs making microballoons? Yay! |
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| roadmaps and rushes..... |
[Jan. 26th, 2006|12:17 pm] |
U.S. Gov announces $119M for research as part
of the new $1.2Billion Hydrogen Fuel Roadmap
The US Department of Energy announced today a new $119 Million dollar fund to advance fuel cells and the hydrogen infrastructure. "“This funding will help overcome technical barriers and bring hydrogen and fuel cell technology from the laboratory to the showroom,” Said Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman. He made this announcement at the Washington DC Auto Show, good chioce of venue, if you ask me. In addition, Secretary Bodman announced the selection of 12 competitively awarded, cost-shared projects that will receive $19 million in federal funding over five years for polymer membrane research ($19 million in federal funding; $4.75 million in applicant cost sharing). The lucky winners were Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO; Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA; Giner Electrochemical Systems, Newton, MA; University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN; Case Western Reserve University (two projects), Cleveland, OH; FuelCell Energy, Danbury, CT; Clemson University, Clemson, SC; General Electric (GE Global Research), Niskayuna, NY; Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; and University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL.
Lastly, Secretary Bodman also unveiled DOE’s Roadmap on Manufacturing R&D for the Hydrogen Economy. The 80-page document addresses challenges to manufacturing, storage and production of fuel cell technologies and proposes R&D solutions to overcome such challenges, focusing primarily on near commercial technologies. And of course, you can get your copy here! |
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| in the future we'll all be cool! |
[Jan. 17th, 2006|08:14 am] |
more clean motorcycle news....
Intelligent Energy, makers of those uber beautiful hydrogen fuel cell motorcycles, announced that they will in fact be exhibiting their good at the second international FC Expo in Tokyo, to be held at the ‘Big Sight’ from 25th – 27th January 2006. This event will mark the inaugural appearance in Japan of Intelligent Energy’s ENV (Emissions Neutral Vehicle), their hydrogen fuel cell motorcycle. The bike has been getting loads of accolades, won a Popular Science ‘Best of What’s New Award’ and was recently named as one of the ‘Greatest Innovations of 2005’ by TIME Magazine. Also winning the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track Research and Development Award and being named as one of only 8 British companies to be nominated as a Technology Pioneer 2006 by The World Economic Forum.
...not to mention it's a pretty hot ride! |
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| OScar and LIFEcar |
[Jan. 8th, 2006|07:33 pm] |
British Gas co. BOC's foundation gives OScar the £££££££ to get rollin'
....ok corrections first, that isn't the car I'm going to talk about, but it's the closest we can get, for now (that's the Morgan LIFEcar, which is also a hydrogen fuel cell car, and is also working with OScar and the BOC foundation, but I'm getting ahead of myself). So British Gas company BOC has a foundation. And they fund Fuel cell car development. But not just any FC Cars, MegaSuperHighPerforming Hydrogen vehicles! Take that LIFEcar up there, that sporty lil' beast only uses only 24KW. But that's nothing... They have just announced funding for the OScar. Apparently this new vehicle will be a 2 seater, and perform like a smart car, but get this; it will use 6kilowatts! Thats it! (and that's crazy! my old much-mentioned SWAP wa sa 4KW speed demon). It's going to have some way advanced drive-train, use ultracapacitors, something called hybran technology, and basically rock the joint! I can't wait to see the media frenzy around this one when they FINALLY start to release some pics!! |
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| next week @ the C.E.S. (part 4) ((well tomorrow, now..) |
[Jan. 8th, 2006|07:26 pm] |
Fuel Cell Laptop... now how kewel is that??
According to CNet (and surprised this hasn't made it to Treehugger yet) but anyway... say hello to the new panasonic methanol fuel cell laptop! Aparently it gets 20hrs on a FC. Nice huh? There are still a few hurdles to be voercome with it, like the fact that you can't fly on anairplane with methanol, so it will be very hard to get that methanol fuel cell (let alone the replacement cannisters) on board, andthen of course the fact that the fuel cell cost more than a laptop.. but hey, when aren't there hurdles? |
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| who's on the ball?? |
[Jan. 8th, 2006|07:16 pm] |
Stop me if you've hear this one before
Am i alone in thnking its deja vu all over again? All of the sudden i start to see a bunch of articles popping up about hondas "new" slew of scooters.... Fuel cell scooters, of course...
Now if you know me you now I'm totally wanting a new electric scoter after losing my babySWAP (ok sure, so my experimental plate ran out about 1000Km before the policeman stopped me, but he didn't have to take my bike away...) and you now i have been thining that the vectrix will come out come out wherever it is...(well truth be told theres a bunch i'd like to get my hands on) And now this Honda story has my appetitie whetted again-- though for some reason i can't shake the suspicion that this is old news. Anyone? Anyone know? |
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| next week @ the C.E.S. (part 1) |
[Jan. 4th, 2006|08:12 am] |
Folsom California's niche fuel cell maker JABOO will be pleased as punch next week-- premiering its line of fuel cell products for prosumers at next week's ShowStoppers event at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2006 in Las Vegas.
They'll be introducing their NABII power unit(pictured), the N-Stor(TM) fuel canister, and FillPoint(TM) refill station for a variety of new applications, including field-ready laptops, emergency response radios and other equipment used in "off-grid" power situations, as well as professional broadcast cameras. The NABII is being hyped as a way for camera-people to never have to shut down the camera... keep it rolling forever, if they want, and it fits all standard camera battery mounts! They also offer unique ways to refill the spent fuel cells and something called "hot swap capability" which allows you to switch fuel cells while everything is still running. No downtime at all.... |
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| life inside the fuel cell... |
[Dec. 14th, 2005|08:03 am] |
wanna know what it's like to try getting your fuel cell to market?
Then go out and read Baseline Magazine's ("the project management center") interview with Roger Saillant, CEO of (my very favorite fuel cell company) PlugPower. Not a huge article but he talks about what it takes to get an idea onto the floor and then out the door. Quite educational. (why do i dig Plug so much? is it because of their armslegnth relationship with GE's Ecomagination? Or is it because the first thing they did was put 75 fuel cells into operation in new york state? or maybe it's just the cute name....).
  Oh and hey, on the FC tip: i just read in EarthToys, that a truley Canadian product has just matured. Thats right, the hydrogen fuel cell Zamboni! Made by FC company E-Power Synergies made it's debut this week in the home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver, British Columbia! Dubbed the EP-ICEBEAR (Heyyy! AnotherIce Bear!!) it will be the centerpiece of the EPower display at the Electric Drive Transportation Association EDTA exhibition being held at Canada Place in Vancouver this week! Cute huh? clean ice, no exhaust... score! |
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| bright ideas |
[Dec. 8th, 2005|07:19 pm] |
micro FC manufacturer launches FC headlamps (for bikes)
Vancouver B.C.s Angstrom Power just released their brand new bicycle headlamp. It's fuel cell powered. So far they are only selling it for fleets to facilitate recharging.. but they envision it will be less than two years before you can go and recharge your FC while sipping "a latte at Starbucks".
ok i do like hokey spokes and anything that makes a bike cool and/or fun. and just the other week we were talking about that FC electric assist bike. it's all good. But i do think back to my old bike lamp and wonder what was wrong with the gyro motor that lit up as i pedaled? too simple? Yay for technology, but sometimes approprate technologies make so much sense. |
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| if you didn't know.... Bucky had cojones of steel! |
[Dec. 5th, 2005|09:55 am] |
Sony unveils fuelcells smaller, lighter, and more powerful thanks to BuckyBalls
Straight outta Digital World Tokyo Sony has announced that they have made great strides in fuel cells using the designs of R. Buckminster Fuller and his (at the time of death, theoretical) buckyballs.
The film for the Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs), which looks an awful lot like a fruit roll-up, uses buckyballs (Fullerenes) that should help fuel cells reach a power density of about 100 milliwatt-hours per square centimeter
( Read more... ) |
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| the first family of fuel cells takes the baby for a ride...... |
[Dec. 5th, 2005|09:22 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | ***, 15, 16, 17, 18, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, evs, fuel cells, i want one!!! | ] |
sometimes it pays to be polite to those pesky telemarketers
The big news out of LA's Daily Breeze is about Jon Spallino and his family's new car. Mr. Spallino, from Redondo Beach, is the first non-industry related person in the world to lease a fuel cell car (pictured above). He's the proud driver of a Honda FCX. Lucky guy! "We wanted a regular guy with a family," said Stephen Ellis, Honda manager for fuel cell marketing. And they found that in Spallino. Well he isn't exactly a "regular family guy" Jon's been driving a Honda CX (runs on natural gas) and that made the HOnda team feel he was ready to deal with some added issues (like, where would you fill up a fuel cell car if i dropped it into your driveway this afternoon? where huh?). Also, from the following quote we can see that Mr. Spallino is pretty calm and well tempered:
A few months before leasing the FCX, Ellis called Spallino to ask him about his impressions of the GX. The survey lasted about half an hour. A few weeks later, Ellis called again and asked Spallino more questions about the GX. Ellis called one more time. Ellis asked to meet Spallino for lunch. At that point, Spallino had had enough. "I thought it was some sort of survey-extreme and I was ready to put an end to it," Spallino recalled. But Spallino agreed to meet at a restaurant, where Ellis and another Honda official offered to lease the FCX to him for $500 a month.
Wow. pays to be nice to the telemarketers! (well maybe sometimes) |
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| now some real groovy fuel cell news |
[Nov. 26th, 2005|03:33 pm] |
Move over Oscar! There's energy in that there trash!
3 Tons of garbage a day = energy for 2 houses! Japan's ancient city Kyoto has just launched a pilot project to generate electricity for fuel cells with hydrogen derived from raw garbage. Organizers of the project (Kyoto University, the Environment Ministry and Kyoto's Mayor Yorikane Masumoto), aim to put their garbage-based power generation scheme into practical use in 2013.
The project uses a daily 3 tons of raw garbage to produce biogas made up primarily of methane gas, for conversion into hydrogen. From 3 tons of raw garbage, they produce 500 to 600 cubic meters of hydrogen, enough to generate electricity to sustain two households for one month. By 2013, the Kyoto municipal government will build a biogas generation facility that is expected to help generate electricity to cover the daily consumption of 18 million households by using 60 tons of raw garbage a day to be collected from 160,000 households.
I know what you're thinking... and i agree! We are getting close to that point where we'll have our very own Mr. Fusions! And they thought Jim Ignatowski was braindead!
[from Fuel Cell Works] |
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| first fleet of FC Bikes good to go |
[Nov. 26th, 2005|03:11 pm] |
While I usually cringe with the term First in a news release, it seems that German Fuel Cell manufacturer Masterflex is now supplying the world's first fleet of bicycles with fuel cell propulsion systems to the city of Herten in North Rhine Westphalia. pretty nice, it was displayed last year, and now less than a year later, it's already in production! At first, they're going to be used for tourists who'll rent them for quite day-trips through the Rhine. Partnering with a manufacturer of hydrogen storage systems they provide users with a safe and simple supply of hydrogen. There's plenty of bikes, too, open for now to anyone who wishes to buy 10 or more. Just call Stefan Schulte at Masterflex Brennstoffzellentechnik, Herten, Tel. 49 (0) 02366 305 191, schulte@masterflex-bz.de.
[from FuelCells Today]
...just as an aside-- while I gripe (a bit too much) about the word first, surely you remember the hydrogen bikes from Manhattan Scientificlike, 5 years ago, right?
 |
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| awesome home the kids have made! |
[Oct. 13th, 2005|08:53 am] |
...the Who? No. But i couldn't resit the gag, as the kids really are alright! Especially the kids at New York Institute of Technology. They have made a green-home, small (800sqft) but totally the future! its got solar panels, hydrogen fuel cell (to take up the excess energy, yes! solar powered electorlized water. killer!)...a couch who's materials cool and heat the sitter, and a host of other amazing gadgets. It's part of the Solar Decathelon in Washington DC, and i would be surprised if it doesn't come out the winner!
so hats off to David Schieren (energy team leader), Heather Castelli, Jason Dames, Hetaher Korn (architect team leader)and Mary Merges (interior designer). I can't wait till y'all have graduated and are out in the field doing this for us! |
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| that's one small step for FCT, one giant step for humanity!! |
[Sep. 29th, 2005|06:21 am] |
seems like i always roll doubles ...never just one groovy story about fuel cells, always a pair! and check this one out! big news!! this little gizmo is now street legal!
That's right! this is a 5KW fuel cell made by Kingston's Fuel Cell Technologies. and guess what they did yesterday? they got certified with the "ANSI/CSA America FC1- 2004 standard" so, this fuel cell stack, which produces enough juice for two homes, is now legal. You can put this baby in your basement and use it 24/7 without the need for all the complicated red tape! No special permits, no inspectors (who have never seen a fuel cell before, but still regulate them) ...no nothing! just plug & play...
just in case you are wondering, it is a solid oxide fuel cell (Solid oxide fuel cells have a solid metal oxide as the electrolyte. They function at the highest temperature of the different types of fuel cell (about 900-1000°C) and can reform most fuels internally)... which means no messy methanol.
ok, so now what is the excuse again?? |
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