Archive for category Hydrogen Power

Artificial Chlorophyll Can Generate Hydrogen from Seawater, UOW Researchers Find

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Hydrogen Power, Solar Power on June 13, 2013

A new way to turn sea water into hydrogen has been developed by scientists at the University of Wollongong, in Australia. It uses artificial chlorophyll that acts as a catalyst to split saltwater in a way that’s never been used before. The team of researchers, led by Dr Jun Chen and Professor Gerry Swiegers, say that only five [...]

Fiat Doesn’t Believe in Hydrogen Powered Cars, Advances CNG Option

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Car industry, Hydrogen Power on June 6, 2013

Fiat, one of the oldest automobile manufacturers, has turned its back on hydrogen these days, Autocar reports. They favor CNG instead of hydrogen fuel cells, which they say are still unreliable. After developing three generations of hydrogen-powered cars, Fiat says that it is still too difficult for states to implement a hydrogen infrastructure that can [...]

Audi A7 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Prototype, Testing in Progress

Posted by Benji Jerew in Electric Vehicles, Hydrogen Power on June 3, 2013

Automotive alternative fuels like hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could actually be easier to implement than electric vehicles, but still suffer from the same infrastructure problems. Actually, electric vehicle infrastructure is becoming more commonplace, but it’s still a game of Catch-22. Comparing electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles boils down to powertrain expenses [hydrogen is [...]

Mercedes Benz to Ditch Electric/Fuel Cell Vito, Van Chief Says

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Car industry, Electric Vehicles, Hydrogen Power on May 29, 2013

Mercedes Benz seems to want to shelve electric vans, be them battery or fuel cell powered. The E-Cell version of their successful Vito van hasn’t had too much success. Volker Mornhinweg, the van division boss told Car and Driver that demand is “virtually nonexistent” and that the company is putting the model into “hibernation mode.” As [...]

Gold and Rust Unlikely Partners in Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Duke University

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on May 23, 2013

Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity directly from hydrogen and generate zero carbon dioxide emissions, unlike conventional methods of electricity generation. In order to accomplish this feat, a catalyst in the hydrogen fuel cell starts and maintains the reaction. Hydrogen in the fuel, typically pure hydrogen gas, is combined chemically with oxygen from the atmosphere, generating [...]

Japan’s Hydrogen Fuel Infrastructure is World’s Most Advanced

Posted by Benji Jerew in Green Policy, Hydrogen Power on May 22, 2013

As automakers gear up to release even limited numbers of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, perhaps the biggest struggle will be getting infrastructure in place. Electric vehicles have pretty much the same problem right now, with limited opportunities for fast charging on the road. Efforts are well under way, but this is mostly on the part [...]

Geobacter Bacteria Used to Create Electricity from Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Hydrogen Power on May 20, 2013

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst have recently engineered Geobacter metallireducens, a bacterium that can feed with hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce electricity. “This represents the first result of current production solely on hydrogen,” says Amit Kumar, who worked with Derek Lovely, the scientist who first isolated Geobacter metallireducens 26 years ago, in the Potomac River. [...]

New Thermal Decomposition Process Produces Hydrogen Fuel sans Carbon Dioxide

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on May 10, 2013

Hydrogen fuel on its own may be greenhouse-gas [GHG] free, but what’s the point of it all if the production methods produce GHGs like carbon dioxide [CO2]? One way to produce hydrogen fuel is by steam reformation of natural gas, the main component of which is methane [CH4], itself a GHG about 20x more potent [...]

Toyota FCV-R Hydrogen Fuel Cell Concept Set for Production in 2015

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on May 7, 2013

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles haven’t seen a whole lot of the limelight in recent times, in part because the technology is wildly expensive, not only for the infrastructure, but the vehicles themselves. Still, imagine a vehicle that has zero emissions [tailpipe anyway] like an electric vehicle, but can refuel in about the same amount of [...]

California, Global Leader in Hydrogen Refueling Stations by 2016

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on April 22, 2013

Worldwide, there are just over 200 hydrogen refueling stations, which reflects the addition of just 27 stations in 2012. There are probably just as many hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road, which doesn’t include fleet operators with private hydrogen refueling stations. Still, this kind of progress is expected to be slow, just as the [...]

Hydrogen Fuel Generation – Breakthrough Catalyst Investigated in India

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Hydrogen Power on April 19, 2013

Hydrogen fuel used in hydrogen fuel cells, as a replacement for natural gas, or even in an internal combustion engine, burns clean and emits zero carbon dioxide. This is great news for those concerned about increasing carbon dioxide emissions, but the current-best method for generating hydrogen fuel isn’t very efficient. Electrolysis uses electricity to split [...]

Naturally-Occurring Hydrogen Fuel Could Come From Geological Formations

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on April 18, 2013

One problem that hydrogen fuel has is the efficiency of the system by which it is produced, mainly electrically or chemically, but what if there was a naturally-occurring source of hydrogen? This is one reason why some believe that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles aren’t a good idea. On the other hand, a lot of current [...]

Honda Testing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles With Vehicle to Grid Technology

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Hydrogen Power on April 13, 2013

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and plug-in vehicles are both essentially electric vehicles, but hydrogen refuels in minutes, compared to hours required to recharge a plug-in. Some electric vehicle makers and aftermarket companies have been producing vehicle-to-grid [V2G] technology, which enables an electric vehicle to serve as an emergency backup power source. In case of an [...]

Artificial Leaf Generates Hydrogen, Even in Contaminated Water

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power, Solar Power on April 11, 2013

Daniel Nocera, previously of MIT and now Harvard, once called the artificial leaf “one of the Holy Grails of science,” but what if it was improved even further? In all green trees and plants, photosynthesis uses energy from the sun to split water into oxygen gas and hydrocarbons, that is, sugars which the tree uses [...]

Genetic Engineering Increases Hydrogen Yield from Biomass, Virginia Tech

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on April 4, 2013

Hydrogen itself is a clean fuel and can be used in fuel cells to generate electricity or even burned in traditional internal combustion engines with zero harmful emissions, but producing hydrogen isn’t so clean. The goal of hydrogen power is to eliminate carbon dioxide from the equation, but this has proven difficult. The never ending [...]