Posts Tagged fuel cell

Low-Cost Fuel Cells Run on Fire

Posted by Leigh Kim in Energy news on May 1, 2013

Craig Jacobson, an entrepreneur, scientist, and CEO of startup Point Source Power, has chosen what is usually considered an improbable technology, the fuel cell, as a power source for off-grid villagers in Kenya. Typically, fuel cells are more expensive than grid power in both 3rd world countries and the developed world. Portable fuel cells have [...]

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 [...]

New Hydrogen Generator is More Efficient and Less Expensive

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on March 29, 2013

The basics of a fully functional hydrogen economy have to include both efficient and inexpensive hydrogen generators and fuel cells. Electrolytic cells generate hydrogen and oxygen gas from water using an electric current. They are not particularly efficient however, as the energy in the resulting hydrogen and oxygen is less than that which was used [...]

BMW Proud of In-House Fuel Cells Used in Forklifts

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on March 15, 2013

While generalized hydrogen infrastructure is very slowly gaining ground on the nation’s highways, BMW fuel cell vehicles are already inhouse at BMW Spartanburg, South Carolina. A warehouse or manufacturing facility is the last place that you want to have an internal combustion engine running, which is why materials handling equipment, from fork trucks to man [...]

H2USA Plan Pushes for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles and Infrastructure

Posted by Benji Jerew in Green Policy, Hydrogen Power on March 8, 2013

Several automakers have already decided that they want to release fuel cell vehicles as early as 2017 or so, and the Department of Energy’s [DOE] H2USA plan could expand the infrastructure. There are already a few hydrogen fueling stations in the US, but only a couple dozen or so are available for public access. This [...]

Forze VI – Fuel Cell Race Car to Compete in Dutch Caterham Cup

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on February 27, 2013

The Dutch Caterham Cup is a Lotus 7 race league. These cars weigh in at just 1,212 pounds and are powered by 200hp engines. There should be a newcomer this year, one with a completely different powertrain, a hydrogen fuel cell and electric motors. The Forze VI hydrogen fuel cell race car has been under [...]

Iron-Based Fuel Cell Catalyst to Make Hydrogen Cars Cheap

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Hydrogen Power on February 18, 2013

An efficient iron-based fuel cell catalyst has been discovered by PNNL scientists. It uses a hydrogenase molecule to split hydrogen and create electricity. For years, scientists have been playing around with various alternatives to platinum, an expensive catalyst used in hydrogen fuel cells today to create electricity directly from hydrogen. Fortunately, platinum has the intrinsic [...]

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles in the UK – Future in Doubt

Posted by Benji Jerew in Green Policy, Hydrogen Power on February 5, 2013

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles may very well be the future, and administrators in the UK are expecting to have the first on the road by 2015. By 2030, they expect to have maybe 1.5 million on the road, which is pretty ambitious, to say the least. Of course, the fuel cell technology costs a bit [...]

New Japanese Fuel Cell Runs on Hydrocarbons at Record-Low Temperatures

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power on January 30, 2013

During combustion, hydrocarbon fuels emit water and carbon dioxide. Really, all good fuels are rich in hydrogen, if only they didn’t have those nasty carbons attached to them. Pure hydrogen may just be the perfect fuel, as it emits nothing more than water upon combustion. While hydrogen can be burned an engine, it is finding [...]

Toyota Licenses Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology to BMW

Posted by Benji Jerew in Car industry, Hydrogen Power on January 24, 2013

Hydrogen fuel cells [HFC], which convert pure hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity, is nothing new. As a matter of fact, the technology exists as far back as the late 1930s. Fuel cell technology was also used to generate electricity on the NASA Space Shuttle program until it was dismantled last year. While being [...]

New Foam Material Could Improve Batteries and Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Posted by Mila Luleva in Energy Storage on December 20, 2012

The latest issue of the journal Angewandte Chemie published a study that reveals a new cheap material that can be used in electrodes of electrochemical cells. The material discovered by a team of Korean and American scientists is based on affordable carbon black and melamine foam. The high number of catalytically active centers, combined with the [...]

Innovative Micro Fuel Cell Could Power Future Electronics

Posted by Benji Jerew in Green Electronics, Hydrogen Power, New Inventions on December 6, 2012

The first hydrogen fuel cells [HFC], much like the first mobile phones, were large, bulky, and expensive. Technologies in various fields, such as metallurgy, electronics, and chemistry, have made the mobile phone, not only smaller, but more available than ever before. With the advent of the smartphone, battery and smartphone manufacturers have been working to [...]

Mercedes-Benz’s Ener-G-Force Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Posted by Mike Sandru in Hydrogen Power on December 4, 2012

The 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show brought some great new concepts this year. One of them is the Mercedes-Benz Ener-G-Force. Big and bully, like the oversized Hummers, the G-Force only looks like a notorious SUV. This model is equipped with fuel cells, whose only emission is water. Following the lines of the G-class models, back [...]

Microsoft Testing Biogas Fuel Cell for Future Sustainable Data Centers

Posted by Benji Jerew in Biogas, Hydrogen Power on November 20, 2012

Well-known software company, Microsoft, in its efforts toward sustainable data centers, has teamed up with Danbury Connecticut’s FuelCell Energy to test a combination of energy technologies. “With the demand for renewable energy resources outstripping available power supplies today, Microsoft is researching new methods to help our operations become more efficient and environmentally sustainable,” said Gregg [...]

Platinum-Cobalt Alloy Boosts Hydrogen Fuel Cell Output by 12

Posted by Janina Lazo in Hydrogen Power on November 1, 2012

A cost-effective new alternative to fuel cell’s catalyst have been developed at Cornell University, promising a 5X reduction in cost, an output of 12X more than the conventional platinum catalyst, and a high stability even after more than 5,000 cycles. An efficient and cheap hydrogen fuel cell would be an ideal renewable energy device as [...]