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The news letter of L-B-Systemtechnik GmbH (LBST) and the German Hydrogen Association (DWV) · 2nd Quarter 2003 – 7th Year ã L-B-Systemtechnik GmbH
Interesting Projects HyNet - the European Thematic Network on Hydrogen European Integrated Hydrogen Project - EIHP
www.fuelcellpark.com
Introductory information on energy, hydrogen and fuel cells (website of the Bewag Fuel Cell Innovation Park, implemented by HyWeb)www.h2guide.de
Guide of German hydrogen projects by the German Hydrogen Association (in German language)Fuel cell drive project for municipal commercial vehicles – Bavarian fuel cell bus project
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Impressum
Editor Matthias Altmann, L-B-Systemtechnik GmbH (LBST), webmaster@HyWeb.de Articles AFH - Association Française de l'Hydrogène
DWV - German Hydrogen Association (DWV)
MA - Matthias Altmann, LBST
RW - Reinhold Wurster, LBST
VB - Volker Blandow, LBST
WZ - Werner Zittel, LBST
UB - Ulrich Bünger, LBSTAddress see HyWeb Impressum
other News Letters The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter Clean Fuels and Electric Vehicles Report
Monthly Technology Updates by Fuel Cells 2000
EC publishes "European FC and H2 Projects 1999-2002"
HyWeb, 03-06-23: The European Commission has published a brochure containing all hydrogen and fuel cell projects funded under the Fifth Framework Programme (1999-2002), ranging from basic research to large scale demonstration. It also describes the activities directly undertaken by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in these areas.The Brochure is available as pdf at ftp.cordis.lu/pub/fp6/docs/sustdev_h2_european_fc_and_h2_projects.pdf .
Another brochure containing poster presentations has also been published recently. It assembles representative examples of important national, international and, in particular, EU initiatives and projects related to hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The individual posters or the entire brochure can be downloaded at http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/sustdev_h2_poster.htm .
For information on more hydrogen and fuel cell projects consult HyWeb-Pro -- the European Centers of Excellcence Projects Database at www.HyWeb.de/pro.
MA
New study exhibits the environmental harmlessness of a global hydrogen economy
HyWeb, 03-06-18: The Science magazin published a study ("Potential environmental impact of a hydrogen economy on the stratosphere" by T.K. Tromp, R.-L. Shia, M. Allen, J.M. Eiler, Y. L. Yung, Science, vol. 300, 13. June 2003, p. 1740-1742) which investigates the potential environmental impact of a future hydrogen economy. To be at the safe site, the authors assumed that hydrogen emissions from a global hydrogen economy would amount to 120 Tg/yr, at worst, however, also pointing out that "it is likely that such emissions could be limited or even made negligible, although at some cost". For comparison's sake, 120 Tg/yr are more than the entire European road and air transport would consume if it were fully converted to hydrogen. By the way, the two references on articles which seem to justify their assumption of 10 - 20 % ermission losses are incorrectly quoted.With these worst case assumptions the authors conclude further that anthropogenic emissions would rise by a factor of four, and at the same time they assumed the hydrogen concentration at the surface to increase by a factor of four, to 2.3 ppmv. However, as well known in the scientific community, usually the decomposition rates also increase with increasing concentration, limiting the final figure to a lower level. Therefore the authors admit "Second, a large, possible dominant, sink of H2 from the atmosphere is uptake in soil. ... It is possible that this process could entirely compensate for new anthropogenic emissions, although a study will be needed whether this is the case."
In addition, not mentioned in the article, at least part of present H2 emissions will be omitted in a renewable hydrogen economy, these are emissions from industrial fossil burning process (which are estimated in the range of between 10 - 15 Tg/yr in the study but according to other sources could be as high as 57 Tg/yr), and atmospheric hydrogen production by the decomposition of hydrocarbons (CH4 and higher) which, at least partly, are due to fossil energy extraction and burning. It has been estimated by other authors, that 2 -3 % percent emissions of a world wide hydrogen economy (This would be about two to threetimes as much as from todays natural gas infrastructure) would outweight the ceased losses of fossil fuel extraction and burning and not lead to additional emissions (see also W. Zittel, M. Altmann, MOLECULAR HYDROGEN AND WATER VAPOUR EMISSIONS IN A GLOBAL HYDROGEN ENERGY ECONOMY, Proceedings of the 11th World Hydrogen Energy Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, June 1996).
A direct result of these crude assumptions is that stratospheric water content would rise by about 30 percent - again neglecting that today a large source for stratospheric water vapor is methane decomposition in high altitudes, which would be reduced once fossil fuel extraction and burning are ceased. Based on these assumptions the stratospheric ozone decomposition could be enhanced by about 1 percent. However, according to the authors, indirect effects might be more severe: Colder temperatures (the study indicates that temperatures could decrease by as much as 0.5 K!) would create more polar stratospheric clouds, delay the break up of the polar vortex, and thereby make the ozone hole deeper, larger (in area), and more persistent (in spring). With these assumptions, at worst the ozone depletion is about 5 to 8 % enhanced in the boreal sping. This leads the authors to the conclusion that "anthropogenic emissions of H2 could substantially delay the recovery of the ozone layer that is expected to result from the regulation of chlorofluorocarbons." But the authors also admit that beyond 2020 ozone levels will have recovered to a status where these additional H2 emissions will have even much less influence.
Consequently, the authors conclusion is not to stop a hydrogen economy but to delay the introduction of fuel cells and hydrogen economy beyond the year 2020, not realizing that large amounts of hydrogen anyhow will be handled only beyond 2020, due to the long lead times of its introduction. Keeping in mind the crude assumption are taken in this study, it can be concluded that this study admits that no severe consequences on ozone depletion are to be expected. Finally, other effects were mentioned but not studied in detail: These are a possible influence of H2 decomposition on OH concentration, potential impacts of increased mesospheric H2O levels on atmosphere chemistry, and the influence of higher H2 concentrations on microbial nutrients. But at least the consumption of OH radicals might be more than outweighed by the reduction of other emissions (CH4, CO...) which dominate the hydroxyl consumption (OH) for their decomposition.
However, keeping in mind that automotive exhaust emissions have increased their share of hydrogen emissions during the last two decades due to the introduction of catalysts, and that atmospheric hydrogen concentrations are increasing since at least 15 years (between 1985 and 1989 with an average increase of 0.6 percent per year [see Khalil M.A., Rasmussen R.A. "Global increase of atmospheric molecular hydrogen", Nature 347 (1990), 743-745] it is very likely, that in a global hydrogen economy anthropogenic hydrogen emissions are rather reduced compared with today's values.
Werner Zittel, L-B-Systemtechnik, 18 June 2003
For further reading:
W. Zittel, M. Altmann, Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH, MOLECULAR HYDROGEN AND WATER VAPOUR EMISSIONS IN A GLOBAL HYDROGEN ENERGY ECONOMY, Published in the Proceedings of the 11th World Hydrogen Energy Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, June 1996
Japan completes WE-NET, starts new project
HyWeb, 03-05-26: The Japanese WE-NET project (World Energy Network using Hydrogen: International cooperation in research and development of clean energy systems with particular emphasis on hydrogen) was completed one year ahead of schedule in 2002, and was succeeded by a new project "Development of Fundamental Technologies in the Safe Utilization of Hydrogen", which will be starting from 2003.WE-NET was initiated in 1993 with the objective to enable the introduction of a world-wide energy network for the development of abundantly available renewable resources such as hydro-power, solar energy, wind power etc., including transportation in the form of hydrogen to the point of use for heat and power generation as well as for transport applications.
R&D in the first phase, which lasted for 6 years until 1998, was based on a long term concept for the utilization of hydrogen. The second phase of WE-NET started in 1999, which was intended to introduce concepts for the short and medium term (realization, promotion and actual introduction of hydrogen energy into society) based on the long-term concept of the first phase. In 2002, three hydrogen filling stations were realized.
"Development of Fundamental Technologies in the Safe Utilization of Hydrogen" is implemented as part of the "Hydrogen Energy Application Program as Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell", which is to improve energy efficiency, to solve global warming (CO2) and environmental issues (NOx, PM etc.), to introduce new industries for the creation of employment opportunities, and to realize the hydrogen energy society. All achievements made in the 10 years of the WE-NET Project will be reflected in this new project.
For more information click www.enaa.or.jp/WE-NET/newinfo/station_taka_e.html .
MA
Dow Chemical plans to use GM fuel cells
HyWeb, 03-05-23: The Dow Chemical Company, the world's largest chemical manufacturer, and General Motors Corp., the world's largest automobile manufacturer, have reached initial understanding on the world's largest fuel cell transaction to date according to a GM press release.The intent of this is for GM to commercialize its hydrogen fuel cell technology to generate electricity from hydrogen created as a co-product at Dow's operations in Freeport, Texas, USA.
If tests proceed according to plan, Dow could eventually use up to 35 megawatts of power generated by 500 GM fuel cell units on an ongoing basis. The test is expected to begin during the fourth quarter of 2003 and to run through 2005, with plans to commercialize starting in 2006. Dow and GM teams are currently working to remove the final hurdles for placing the fuel cells in Dow's chemical manufacturing facility. A final agreement between the two industrial giants is expected to be signed in the next few months.
MA
Hexion and Ballast Nedam jointly develop reformer based hydrogen fuelling stations
HyWeb, 03-05-23: Ballast Nedam and Hexion, both of the Netherlands, have recently announced the signing of a joint development agreement to develop an automotive fuelling station based on Hexion's proprietary fuel processing technology.Under the agreement, Hexion and Ballast Nedam work together on a turn-key system for small vehicle fleets. The objective is to have design freedom of supplying hydrogen-natural gas mixtures, as well as pure hydrogen or pure natural gas. Ballast Nedam will be marketing the system while Hexion supplies the fuel processor.
Hexion's fuel processor will enable Ballast Nedam to expand its current business in natural gas fuelling stations to hydrogen stations.
Ballast Nedam has a similar agreement with Vandenborre Technologies for the development of electrolyser hydrogen filling stations (HyWeb, 01-07-26).
MA
Two fuel cell buses delivered to Madrid
HyWeb, 03-05-23: At the end of March, Irisbus delivered the first hydrogen fuel cell bus to Madrid. The CityClass Fuel Cell will also be adopted in Paris, Berlin and Turin. Ansaldo of Italy supplied the electrical engine while Spanish oil group Repsol-Ypf supplies the hydrogen and US group UTC Fuel Cells provided the fuel cell.On May 5, the first DaimlerChrysler fuel cell bus of the CUTE project was delivered to Madrid during the UITP conference. 33 of these buses will be operated in the cities of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Reykjavik, Stockholm and Stuttgart as well as in Perth, Australia.
The 12 m CITARO fuel cell bus has 35 MPa (350 bar) compressed hydrogen tanks for a driving range of 200 km. The Ballard fuel cells have a power output of 200 kW, the maximum speed of the bus is 80 km/h.
MA
MAN plans new fuel-cell bus with Ballard fuel cell
HyWeb, 03-05-23: The MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group and Ballard Power Systems of Kirchheim/Teck-Nabern (Germany) have signed an agreement on the delivery of a fuel-cell system for use in a city bus. The vehicle is to be operated as part of the hydrogen project at Munich Airport from early 2004 onwards.The low-floor bus will be a hybrid fuel-cell bus powered by a 65 kW PEM fuel-cell system and an energy storage unit.
The hydrogen is carried in tanks supplied by Dynetek on the roof of the vehicle at a pressure of 35 MPa (350 bar). The new concept holds the promise of cost savings, as it uses fuel-cell technology that is intended for the car sector. The electrical energy storage system makes it possible to reduce fuel consumption through use of the brake energy.
A further fuel cell bus will be built by MAN for use at Munich Airport.
MA
Astris Energi joint venture partner acquires HPower Canadian fuel cell production facility
HyWeb, 03-05-23: Astris Energi Inc. of Canada announced in early April that its joint venture partner, CareAction, Inc., Canada, has acquired the multi-million-dollar fuel cell laboratory and production facility in Montreal, which was formerly owned and operated by HPower Corporation of Englewood, NJ, USA.This nearly new plant became available as a result of the recent acquisition of HPower by Plug Power, Inc. Most of its experienced technical and operations personnel have become available as well. The facility will be operated by the joint venture - Astris Transportation Systems, Inc. (ATSI) - and is expected to be the first volume manufacturer of alkaline fuel cells in the world according to a company press release.
MA
Renewable energy potentials for the production of hydrogen in Europe
HyWeb, 03-05-21: The LBST Analysis from September 2002 (HyWeb, 02-09-06) presented the limited availability of fossil fuels as primary energies. This is particularly relevant for road transport which up to now has been completely based on the use of oil.So what is the potential for renewable energy? Is it possible to replace the fossil-based fuels with hydrogen produced on the basis of renewable energy?
Potential estimates have a long tradition in Europe, however up to now they were rarely used within the area of automotive fuel. It should be pointed out that the potential must be sufficient for both stationary and mobile applications and that the share between these two cannot be determined.
Electricity generation from wind has a huge potential in Europe. The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has calculated that even under a conservative scenario, 230 GW of wind power could be installed by 2020. This would result in a generation capacity of 460 TWh of electricity per year. The electricity generation potential for onshore wind power is published as being in the range from 125 up to 573 TWh per year, whereby the lower limit must be considered as very conservative.
For offshore installations, the potential is far larger. Depending on the assumptions for maximum allowable water depth and distance from the coast, the generating potential is in the range from 551 up to 3028 TWh per year. To put this in perspective, the total EU electricity consumption in 1998 was about 2500 TWh.
Along with wind power, solar thermal power plants of the type that have been commercially operating in California for years offer a large electricity generating potential at low cost. Within the EU, such power plants are only viable in the southern countries like Spain.
The technical potentials of renewable energy sources are used to calculate the hydrogen amounts represented in the figure below.
Figure: Potential for hydrogen from renewable electricity in the EU (Fig: LBST)
70 – 140% of the EU fuel requirements of road transport in 1998 could be met using compressed hydrogen from renewable electricity. In the case of liquid hydrogen as the fuel the numbers are slightly lower.
In addition to this, the direct generation of hydrogen from biomass must be considered. An additional 20 – 30% of 1998 road transport fuel requirements in the EU could be met (see figure below). In total 90% to 170% of 1998 transport fuel consumption could be supplied from European renewable sources.
These results require the following clarification
- These technical potentials will be used for direct use of electricity as well as for fuel production. If both electricity and fuel consumption remain constant, both demands could be covered by renewable energies in Europe.
- The fuel requirements of hydrogen powered fuel cell cars is about 40-50% less than conventional cars. Therefore the introduction of this technology would significantly reduce the total fuel requirements from road transport.
- Presently the EU imports a large portion of its energy. This practice can certainly continue in the future with renewable energy being produced in many more countries than those who produce fossil energies today.
- The ten EU candidate countries will not significantly increase the potential of biomass for energy supply. These countries have a population density which is only 20% lower than in EU-15 so that these countries will use their potential for their own energy requirements. Quantitative potential assessments underline this qualitative argument.
Figure: Potential for hydrogen from biomass and other biofuels in the EU (Fig: LBST)
MA; translation by zebotec
- "Hydrogen in Transport, Past - Present - Future", [pdf, 4.3 MB]
at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, 16th May 2003 by Reinhold Wurster, L-B-Systemtechnik, Ottobrunn- "The future of hydrogen in transport" [pdf, 4.0 MB]
presented at "The Hydrogen Economy" in Broome Australia 20th May by Reinhold Wurster, L-B-Systemtechnik, OttobrunnConference presentations in section "Knowledge" under "Artikel/ Abstracts".
"We will need 30 to 40 years to build up a hydrogen infrastructure"..."and the next 20 years the combustion engine will remain our cash cow in any case"
Professor Herbert Kohler, environmental representative of DaimlerChrysler in the german newspaper "Die Zeit", 2003-04-26
Hannover Fair 2003
DWV, 03-05-15: The 9. joint presentation on "Hydrogen and Fuel Cells" in the energy hall was one of the few places on this year's Hannover Fair where the generally unpleasant state of the economy was felt less strongly. 88 exhibitors from 19 countries were there. This means that the presentation achieved the level of last year in terms of area and number of exhibitors. This is certainly a success before the background of the unfavorable development of the economy as a whole. The exhibitors were very satisfied with their success; some said that they had come with some skepticism, but were favorably surprised. This holds both for the contact with the fair visitors and with other exhibitors. It was said repeatedly that the level of the discussions with the visitors was very high.
There were VIP guests from the political area, among them two state prime ministers (Wulff / Lower Saxony and Teufel / Baden-Wuerttemberg), seven other members of state governments and guests from Switzerland and Canada. Hesse's environment minister Dietzel had little problem to find quite a number of members of the state hydrogen and fuel cell initiative, which has recently been founded as a legal association. And Baden-Wuerttemberg's Erwin Teufel was drawn to DaimlerChrysler and to the state fuel cell research alliance.
In terms of public interest the car makers were again in front. Which is little wonder when the car looks as futuristic as General Motors' design study „AUTOnomy“ which was shown for the first time in Germany. Less conspicuous, but much more suitable for everyday use is DaimlerChrysler's prototype „F-Cell“. The company will test it in field experiments of various size in different parts of the world before the serial production will start around 2010.
By no means less important are the stationary applications, for example as heating device which makes also electrical power. The players from this segment were also present and reported about the state of the development. Sulzer Hexis said that 100 systems are ready, and 80 of them are installed in various countries. The tests run with support of partners from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and The Netherlands. More than 90 % of the systems perform without problems. The next objective will be to improve the endurance of the membranes and the general reliability of the systems. On the website of the company FAIR-PR (www.fair-pr.com) you can download a great lot of information (text, pictures, videos) about the fair. This is almost something like a virtual fair. In 2004 the exhibition will again be held at the same place. This will be a jubilee, the 10. time.
DWV
First hydrogen filling station in Iceland
DWV, 03-05-15: Iceland's first hydrogen filling station was opened on 24. April in the capital Reykjavik. It will be used to service three fuel cell city buses; their arrival at Reykjavik is scheduled for August. Their operation has to do with an EU funded project in which DaimlerChrysler is an important partner and which aims at running three buses each there and in nine other European cities, all of them matched with different ways to produce and distribute the hydrogen.What makes Iceland something particular is the political background. Nowhere else, not even in Japan, the transition to renewable energies in transportation is so prominent on the political agenda. (The other energy of Iceland comes from geothermal and hydropower anyway, and there is still a lot of it unused.) Valgerdur Sverrisdóttir, minister for industry and commerce, said at the opening ceremony: „The opening is a major step towards a hydrogen society and in full keeping with the Icelandic Government’s policy of encouraging and supporting the increased utilization of renewable energy resources in harmony with the environment.“
The station belongs to Skeljungur Ltd (Shell in Iceland) and Icelandic New Energy Ltd, a consortium comprising the Icelandic energy company VistOrka and DaimlerChrysler, Norsk Hydro, and Shell Hydrogen. Apart from the government and the partner companies the project company Icelandic New Energy (INE) was also present at the opening ceremony. The station is part of a Shell station at Reykjavik. The operators hope that not only the three buses will be customers, but private cars as well. Hydrogen is made right there by means of electrolysis, of course by means of electricity from renewable sources.
DWV
Clean buses for China
DWV, 03-05-15: On 27. March China started a 32 M$ project for the reduction of the costs of fuel cell buses. Buses and filling stations will be tested in Beijing and Shanghai. The transport utilities of both cities will by six buses each and let them run for about 1.6 million km. Beijing's vice mayor said that the government hopes that during the Olympic Games 2008 many of these buses will be running to improve the air quality. (China Daily, 28. March 2003)DWV
Emergency power
DWV, 03-05-15: Toshiba and Plug Power have agreed to develop emergency power units and similar systems jointly. Plug Power's fuel cells will be integrated in Toshiba's existing systems. (Plug Power press release of 19. February 2003).DWV
Canada to remain in front
DWV, 03-05-15: The country under the maple leaf intends to keep its good position in the fuel cell sector. Under the title „The Canadian Fuel Cell Commercialization Roadmap” the federal government in Ottawa presented a program for higher quality, lower costs and easier access to capital for developers. More than 45 industrial companies were involved, also public agencies from a number of provinces. People from the industry said that the roadmap is very necessary, because the technology will never enter the market without a clear political support.DWV
SOFC Development of Siemens-Westinghouse suffers a setback
HyWeb, 03-04-29: According to the "Hannoversche Allgemeine" newspaper the solid oxide fuel cell plant project in Hannover-Herrenhausen (HyWeb 2002-03-18) will be delayed for at least one year. Due to technical problems with the coating of the tubes the delivery of the plant will be switched to the second half of 2004.Originally it was foreseen to start operation in autum 2003. At this time the local utility is glad for also beeing late in rebuilding the now existing coal fired power station. At this stage it is not clear if the delay will have any impacts of the funding of the 6.2 million Euro project. A Siemens official was confident that the national funding of 3.12 million will persist.
At the end of last year a second SOFC demonstration project already has been cancelled. In southern german "Marbach" a 1 MW SOFC power plant in combination with a gas turbine was foreseen to be build in 2003. Due to difficulties to find a cost effective micro gas turbine the consortium decided to cancel the project although it already got the promise of funding support from the US DOE and the European Commission. Partners in the consortium were: Electricité de France, Gaz de France , TIWAG-Tiroler Wasserkraft AG, Siemens-Westinghouse, Siemens AG und EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, Pittsburgh.
MA/VB
Linde has created filling station using 700-bar technology for the Adam Opel AG
HyWeb, 03-04-29: Linde AG, Wiesbaden, supplied a 70 MPa (700 bar) hydrogen filling station to Adam Opel AG to their test facility in Dudenhofen near Offenbach. The filling station was designed and build completely by Linde.The 700-bar filling station in Dudenhofen is supplied from a 10,000 litre liquid hydrogen tank with downstream vaporiser installed by Linde. The tank has a delivery rate of 40 m³/min and allows the vehicles to be filled in no more than three and a half minutes. The new, two-stage Linde "High Booster" compression process allows a 300 bar cylinder pack to be used as an intermediate high-pressure buffer. The intelligent compression technology with its optimized power consumption uses only 0.18 KWh per standard cubic meter, a figure well below that of comparable gas filling stations.
All requirements and recommendations for full-scale filling stations distributing gaseous fuels were met. The procedure for filling the car's tank meets the highest possible safety standards, both for the compressor and at the point of delivery and is better protected against fuel leakage or faulty operation than a conventional filling station. The compressor equipment, electrical installations and the high pressure buffer are housed in a 20 feet steel container along with a service unit which can be used to empty vehicle tanks safely and then to flush them with nitrogen. The container can be easily disconnected from the gas supply and moved to another location. Thus, if required by the customer, the new filling station technology can be used on alternative sites.
MA/VB
GM and BMW to jointly develop liquid hydrogen technology
HyWeb, 03-04-29: General Motors Corp. and the BMW Group will work together to develop refuelling technology for liquid hydrogen vehicles and will invite other automakers and suppliers to join them, the companies said in a press release. For GM, BMW is an ideal partner because the German automaker has done extensive research on liquid hydrogen. "We want to accelerate the progress being made on the distribution and on-board storage of liquid hydrogen as the future fuel," said Larry Burns, GM's vice-president of research, development and planning. Compressed and liquid hydrogen both hold promise for hydrogen-powered vehicles, but liquid hydrogen's density is "especially attractive with respect to fuel distribution," Burns went on. GM and BMW say their goal is to have affordable and compelling hydrogen vehicles for sale by 2010. A key to meeting that goal, they say, is developing ways to store and handle the fuel easily.The collaborative work will centre around setting global standards for refuelling equipment, both on vehicles and at retail locations, and establishing specifications for suppliers. "We have to start working on a standard so that customers will not be confronted with various systems," said Christoph Huss, BMW's head of science and traffic policy. "Standardizing the refuelling coupler is a must."
MA
Vaillant starts "virtual power station" field test
HyWeb, 2003-04-29: Vaillant started a field test activity with the emphasis to the question how a number of small residential fuel cell systems could be combined to a power plant delivering energy to the grid especially on demand peaks. For this 30 Vaillant fuel cell heaters will be installed in various buildings and facilities. All systems will be controlled by a central controlling unit.At first priority the systems should provide heat and power at their place. A second task will be the delivery of maximum power if it is needed in the grid. This power will help to prevent very costly peak power production by the utility. Transformed to larger scale this "virtual power plant" will have the potential to replace even large scale power stations at a higher level of security of supply.
The project get's EC funding. Partners are: Vaillant (Germany), Ruhrgas (Germany), e.on Energie (Germany), EWE (Germany), Gasunie (The Netherlands), Plug Power Holland (The Netherlands), COGEN Europe, Instituto Superior Tecnico University Lissaboa (Portugal), Institute for Technology of Energy Supply and Energy Systems Essen University (Germany), Solar Center of DLR in Almería (Germany / Spain), Sistemas de Calor (Spain).
MA/VB
Fuel cell report to US Congress
HyWeb, 2003-04-29: The US Congress has asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to prepare two reports describing the status of fuel cells. The DOE was requested to report on the technical and economic barriers to the use of fuel cells in transportation, portable power, stationary, and distributed power generation applications. The DOE was also requested to provide preliminary findings about the need for public-private cooperative programs to demonstrate the use of fuel cells in commercial-scale applications by 2012. The aim of this report is to respond to these requests. The report is now available for download at www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcellsMA
High Level Group on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells (HLG) publishes draft report
HyWeb, 03-04-07: Last Thursday, the HLG draft report has been posted publically in the Internet and is open for comments. It is work in progress, and costs are still missing.In October 2002, the High Level Group on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells was launched (HyWeb, 02-10-29) and given the task of formulating an integrated EU vision of the possible role that hydrogen and fuel cells could play in achieving a sustainable energy system.
A preliminary draft of the vision document has now been released by the HLG to provide an opportunity for the wider research community and other interested stakeholders to give their comments. In the meantime, the Group will continue to work on the document with a view to producing a finalised version by the end of April 2003.
The European Commission asks to send the comments in structured format for which a template is provided on the Internet site. The deadline for comments is tight: 17 April!
Please check: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/energy/nn/nn_rt_hlg3_en.html
MA
