EnBW, efc ready for residential fuel cell trial

NEWS

February 2006 Fuel Cells Bulletin9

triple the range compared to the existing batterypowertrain, improving performance and profit-ability for transit authorities without a corresp-onding increase in pollutants.

Hydrogenics is now marketing the fuel cellMidi Bus – the only certified ‘reduced scale’ fuelcell bus on the market today – to transit authori-ties in Germany and other European countries.

Contact: Hydrogenics Corporation, Mississauga, Ontar-io, Canada. Tel: +1 905 361 3660, www.hydrogenics.com

Or contact: TÜV Rheinland Group, Köln, Germany. Tel:+49 221 806 2148, www.tuv.com

EnBW, efc ready for residential fuel cell trial

In Germany, european fuel cell gmbh(efc) is preparing for the start of the

country’s first field test of its beta pro-totype 1.5 kWe fuel cell heating unit, byproviding a specialist training programfor service technicians with energy utili-ty EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg.Field-testing of efc’s PEM residentialfuel cell heating unit (FCHU) ‘in anauthentic environment’ is scheduled tostart in the first quarter of 2006, andwill be carried out by EnBW in Schiltach[FCB, September].

The training at efc’s Hamburg premises isdesigned to equip the EnBW service technicianswith specialist knowledge of fuel cell heatingtechnology, and confidence in how to handle it.It follows a 20-point program, tailored to therequirements of the individual participants, com-prising theoretical instruction in the fundamen-tals of fuel cell technology as well as direct,hands-on training with the apparatus itself. TheEnBW service technicians will in turn be passingon their knowledge to their trade partners on-site. Guido Gummert, managing director of efc,emphasizes that the training of future servicetechnicians is an important component ‘toensure that the fuel cell heating unit operatescorrectly, and is further developed during its fieldtest phase.’

A subsidiary of the UK-based Baxi Group, efc has been concentrating for eight years on the development of fuel cell cogen units forEuropean single-family houses. The companysuccessfully concluded long-term laboratory testson the complete prototype unit in 2005 inpreparation for the field-testing.

Contact: european fuel cell gmbh, Hamburg, Germany.Tel: +49 40 2366 7600, www.europeanfuelcell.de

Or contact: Baxi Group Ltd, Derby, UK. Tel: +44 1332524800, www.baxi.com

Tekion links with coupling maker formini power pack

Minnesota-based Colder ProductsCompany has developed a minia-

turized coupling for the innovativeFormira Power Pack™ micro fuel cell/battery hybrid being commercialized byTekion, a small company with opera-tions in British Columbia and Illinois.The Formira Power Pack allows users topower portable devices continuouslywithout mains recharging, and is said tooffer a charge that lasts at least twiceas long as a standard battery.

Tekion’s technology uses Formira™ – purifiedand modified formic acid – as a fuel, rather thanmethanol. The company, which recently receiveda strategic investment from Motorola Ventures[FCB, January], says that the high power capabil-ity and simple chemistry of its technology offer apower density significantly higher than that of aDMFC, leading to less complex products thatcan actually fit within portable devices. TheFormira Fuel Cell performs at a lower operatingtemperature, uses lower-cost catalysts, andrequires fewer balance-of-plant components.

The new coupling connects the micro fuelcell’s liquid cartridge to the power pack. Whenthe fuel is consumed, the user can insert a newfuel cartridge with the device still in operation.The easy-to-use Colder connection productenables the cartridge to be quickly snapped inand out of the device in one simple motion.

‘[Colder] produced a custom-designed cou-pling prototype that not only addresses our sizerequirements, but also provides operational andsafety benefits,’ says Malcolm Man, director ofprograms and strategic planning at Tekion.Colder’s connections meet the required safetystandards for the applications being pursued,with virtually leak-free liquid fuel systems.

Contact: Tekion Inc, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Tel: +1 604656 6616, www.tekion.com

Or contact: Colder Products Company, St Paul, Minn-esota, USA. Tel: 1 866 671 9165 tollfree, www.colder.com

Ceres contract is steptowards mass production

UK-based Ceres Power has won anew £500 000 (US$890 000) contract

from The Carbon Trust to help acceler-ate its mass-manufacturing capabilityand enable the company to meet the

I N B R I E F

Spanish engineers develop fuel cell bikeResearchers in the Energy Department of theCIDETEC-IK4 Centre for ElectrochemicalTechnologies in northern Spain have designed aprototype motorized bicycle powered by a PEMfuel cell, which assists the pedalling action via asmall electric motor. The project, financed bythe Gipuzkoa provincial government, uses abicycle provided by the Orbea bicycle company.

CIDETEC is working on its own standard-ized lab-scale fuel cell electrode preparationmethodology, which it sees as essential forachieving custom-made electrodes for each par-ticular application, as well as offering the abilityto modify its structure to optimize its perfor-mance. Its researchers are making progress onmicro fuel cells for portable electronics such ascell phones [FCB, July 2004], with the design,construction and demonstration of a 1–2 Wepassive micro fuel cell prototype as a technolog-ical demonstrator, as well as development of atransportable, self-contained 1 kWe PEM fuelcell generator for residential applications.

NEC boosts carbon nanohorn outputIn Japan, NEC has developed a device that canproduce 1 kg of high-purity carbon nanohornsa day, 100 times the capacity of existing equip-ment. To expand the output, the firm added amechanism that uses a special gas to process car-bon nanohorns continuously. The nanotech-based material has been found to significantlyincrease fuel cell power generation efficiency.

The company will shortly begin providingfree samples to major automakers and others toprompt them to find new applications. NEChas been looking for uses for carbon nanohornssince it discovered them in 1998, although sofar only NEC and affiliated research instituteshave been involved in the commercialization.

Researchers have found that the materialimproves the power generation efficiency of afuel cell by 20% when used as its electrode. Intests, NEC-made fuel cells with carbonnanohorn electrodes powered a notebook per-sonal computer for at least 10 h, according to areport in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Global database of hydrogen stationsGerman-based L-B-Systemtechnik GmbH(LBST) has launched a freely accessible data-base with details of the more than 220 hydro-gen refueling stations around the world.

The information system comprises all hydro-gen refueling stations, whether currently inoperation, planned or decommissioned. Eachhydrogen station is described in a profile sheet,which includes technical as well as organizationinformation, such as the year of construction,financiers, operator and the system componentsused, as well as images of many of the stations.

The online database is at: www.H2Stations.org