Fuel Cell Intel

Hybrid Fuel Cell?

2009-01-22T16:57:00.002-05:00

Since my presentation at the NHA conference is going to be on fuel cell hybrid configurations, mainly fuel cells with batteries and ultracaps, I've been particularly on the lookout for the key word hybrid along with 'fuel cells' and 'hydrogen' in my google alerts and searches. So a company I've been hit with a lot lately is 'Hydrogen Hybrid Fuel Cell Corp.' who is putting out more press releases than you can shake a platinum ingot at. It turns out the product of this public company is no more a fuel cell than the 'Medis Fuel Cell' battery charger (see this year's CES press releases) which is a stand alone disposable power pack (using fuel cell technology). Most important, the Hybrid Hydrogen product appears to be just another of many small electrolyzers that runs off a truck's battery, makes hydrogen and uses it to goose up the diesel mixture, given perhaps slightly better milage. But, after I did a minmal amount of due diligence on the company, a ran across its latest 10-k filing which the SEC requires and essentially lists all the disclaimers on said company. I don't know why these companies have to go out of their way to give fuel cells a bad name as the industry has enough of an inferiority complex to begin with.

An unconscionable article on CNNMoney simply quoted a HyHy press release treating it as if it were a huge reputable fuel cell developer. A couple quotes from the 10-k:
"The financial conditions evidenced by the accompanying financial statements raise substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.";
"As of September 30, 2008, we did not have any employees. We are dependent upon our sole officer and a director for our future business development" ; and
"For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, the company spent $983 in product development ".

And its not even a fuel cell company, RIP Voller Power.

Links:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/10-k-hydrogen-hybrid-technologies-inc/story.aspx?guid=%7B49B154F5-DDA3-459A-9120-D7D82DA3182F%7D&dist=msr_1.
The embarrassing CNN story: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0465887.htm

Lilliputian Breaks Silence

2008-11-24T16:20:00.002-05:00

But only governor Deval hears - says company will hire 100 additional employees and roll out product in late 2009. CEO Ken Lazurus rumored to have said company will break with tradition and will not freeze vocal chords of new hires! He would not say whether Silicon Valley/Mumbai/Chattanooga BloomEnergy, fellow SOFC mute, will follow suite.

FCI will continue to follow the hand signals.

source: bizjournals

US Starts Massive Residential Cogen Demonstration Program

2008-11-20T10:23:00.002-05:00

The US DOE, joining the ranks of Europe and Japan, has finally 'got with the program' and teamed up with major gas and power utility National Grid and New York's own Plug Power with a proposed installation of one (1) (I) GenSys system at a site to be determined.

'We're late to catch the demontration program fever, so why not go all out' said a DOE spokeman. With the new national regime set to take power January 20th and the economy officially dead in the water (but not literally, not even off the coast of Somalia), now is the time to proceed full ahead with this win-win proposition.

I didn't catch a DOE announcement, but Albany BizJournals is on top of the story: http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2008/11/17/daily35.html

Plug has been part of the multi-continent two-year program to develop a high-temp PEM system headed by huge German boiler maker Vaillant, supported by both the DOE and EU and including London's world leading university fuel cell goup at Imperial College and a strong Bulgarian team.

I spent a lot of time at the Fuel Cell Seminar in Phoenix three weeks ago with Adam Hawkes of Imperial, the point man for thermal transfer modeling in residential cogen systems. When I noted that the two program was ending still without a successful HT PEM installation by Plug/Vaillant (the low temp installations petered out about 2 1/2 years ago), he said they had gotten a 3-month extension, and everyone's hoping for the best.

I've read subtle and not-so-subtle signals from Japan's NEDO and the US DOE that low temp (60-70° C) required hydrogen too pure for low cost reformers to produce, and too much extra balance-of-plant for water mangement and membrane humidification to have even a dim hope of hitting a viable price point ($5K - $10K at most, $4K preferred).

I have to hustle off to the GreenBuild International now to see if Gary Simon can convince Desmond Tutu to try out one the Acumentrics - MTS AHEAD SOFC 2.5 kW systems in his house. The hot running (750° C) system has a much higher power/heat output ration, and the high quality heat can be used to run an A/C condenser in warmer climates like that of South Africa. Where, to come full circle, Plug has about 100 successful critical back-up 5 kW GenCore systems installed and running.

Not a 'Quantum of Solace" for Fuel Cells!

2008-11-03T12:59:00.005-05:00

I just picked up some chatter about Fuel Cells on the recently opened 'Quantum of Solace' James Bond flick. I haven't seen the movie, but after check a number of reviews and comments, this blogger's descritption of the FC scene appears to nail it: "There was one area which, if allowed to go unchecked, could lead back to gadgetry and unbelievable situations - that is that the hotel in the desert had hydrogen piped through all it’s walls. A fuel cell installation would use wires and have the fuel cells in one area of the building. As soon as this was mentioned I thought ‘that’s blowing up’ - and then one chap said ’sounds a bit unstable’. Yep. Definitely." It seems that yes, the building does go up in flames. I posted the following on one website:

I'm a fuel-cell-literate industry analyst, and you've nailed this pretty well Murk. Firstly, the last thing the oft-maligned fuel cell industry needs is perverted bad publicity like this. Not only do current FC CHP (combined heat and power) commercial and residential installations fit your description, i.e. one fuel cell producing power for the building which is of course transmitted by wires, but hydrogen is just about the least explosive and certainly the most volatile of combustible gases.

Natural gas lines have been installed in buildings for 150 years with only the occasional 'incident' as our local gas company calls them, and it is far more dangerous than hydrogen as is gasoline and its heavier-than-air vapor. Hydrogen, if it it does leak, rises and dissipates quickly and therefore might burn on its way out, but it would be almost impossible to create an explosion.

This 'Quantum' scene plays into two popular misconceptions: 1. The Hindenburg was the result of its hydrogen exploding - The blimp was coated with a form of rocket fuel to help contain the volatile gas, and that caught fire, burned and crashed while the hydrogen, burning or not, quickly rose into the atmosphere, and 2. Hydrogen energy from combustion or fuel cells (which involve no burning) has nothing to do with the hydrogen bomb or the sun's energy, the energy from both of which is produced by fusion under extreme heat and pressure. Not only have there been no major safety incidents concerning the 10's of thousands of fuel cell installations around the world (from toys to the coming new Freedom Tower being built at Ground Zero), but there have been no major safety problems with our liquid hydrogen fuelled space shuttle rockets since the early seventies.

32nd Annual Fuel Cell Seminar: Not paradise, but the industry's doing just fine, thanks.

2008-10-31T10:00:00.001-04:00

Just got back from Phoenix. Saw a few cacti at the airport, one downtown, a lot of pavement and a new light rail installation which will have to go a long way to catch up with all the desert sprawl. But best of all, I saw a bunch of significant industry players, from engineers to business development VPs to CEOs, and everyone was reasonably pumped about the current state of affairs, particularly considering the crashing of the world economy. My rationale for the optimism is that not only are most stack developers and integrators still pre-commercial so that they depend a growing economy not now, but in the coming years, but also there have been significant government programs and policies committed to in the last few months, and those aren't going away. The US $3k/kW investment tax credit was part of the financial bail out bill, thank you very much, AIG, Countrywide, et al, and the EU's JTI (Joint Technology Initiative for Fuel Cells and Hydrogen) had its €245 million - €1B funding (6 years, 50-50 private shared) confirmed.

The essentially commercial state of the critical backup market and the initial 'Women in Fuel Cells' meeting created the most buzz, which was well-warranted. The luncheon drew a standing- room-only crowd, and the steering committee is comprised of an impressive well-balanced array of long-time industry devotees including engineers, scientists, industry analysts, government program directors, educators, business developers, marketing and communication directors, and industry analysts. You should definitely check out Nuvera's Danielle Andre's post http://www.nuvera.com/blog/. Engineer Pete Colantonio's post after also give a good report on the seminar in general. I, too, was blown away by GM's Byron McCormick's presentation stressing the holistic approach toward fuel cell implementation. This was his self-proclaimed swan song as GM's fuel cell guru, and most of his talk seemed at odds with everything we think about GM and its product development since 1980 (see EV-1 and SUV's).

The narrowing of focus by Ballard (including its departure from direct involvement with passenger vehicle power plant development) and the willingness of other stack developers with end product name recognition to use a Ballard stack rather than one of their own creation represented the most significant step towards mass proliferation of commercial fuel cell based products. Most important examples: IdaTech employing the Ballard stack to secure the Indian ACME order for 10,000 or so systems over the next couple years, newly spawned Dantherm Power also using the Ballard stack for their telecom backup system with production and sales heading from the low hundreds to the thousands, and Plug Power continuing their Cellex & GH motive power products commitment to use Ballard stacks.

My high point was while sitting in front of a Ballard friend during Dantherm Power's Paw Mortensen's presentation of their backup and mCHP systems - which go through low temp PEM, high temp PEM and SOFC - I heard mumbling from behind me "hell never mention Ballard, he'll never mention Ballard" until Paw finally said, "We decided for our critical back-up product, we would use the Ballard 1020ACS stack, the best fuel cell in the world." I concur, Ballard concurs, so all were pleased in the end.

In regard to my post heading, Phoenix does not quite compare to 2006's Seminar Hawaii location, and this was certainly the lowest budget show in my short (4 year) experience - no luau, no mariachi dancers, small bags - but things are definitely looking up. My presentation on the global commercial status of mCHP (residential co-generation) played to a somewhat full house and I drew a small crowd of interested parties to the stage at the end. We'll see how that plays out - I drove the Clarity - it's unbelievable, even compared to the Equinox or Hyundai. Now, I own two Civics and a Honda lawnmower, but Honda's still not giving me a matched set of Home Energy Station to heat and power my home and Clarity to be fueled by the station. Much patience is required in this industry.

First 3 Weeks of Jan in Review - Fuel Cell Excitement

2008-01-25T18:22:00.000-05:00

So I was planning on doing the first annual 'Fuel Cell Year in Review' sometime this month, but I've been busy plotting the global takeover by high temp PEM. More about that when I get rid of that darn cloak of silence. But while I've been procrastinating, things have been popping, and not just hydrogen dirigibles.

Hopefully I'll be able to go into more detail shortly on these events:

Biggest dollar deal: Abu Dhabi, the largest emerite in the UAE and home of the capital Abu Dhabi city, has funded a clean energy project to the tune of $15 billion which includes (you fuel cell fans note the difference between 'renewables' and 'clean energy') solar, wind, and hydrogen. The hydrogen production facility will have the capacity to produce 420 MW of electricity by reforming natural gas and sequestering 90% of the CO2. The plant is due to come on line in 2012, so hopefully there's plenty of time to squeeze some fuel cell action rather than giving it all up to hydrogen combustion turbines (are you listening waste hydrogen market seekers?)

Next big deal: Along the waste hydrogen lines, HydroGen has managed to talk electronics and consumer DMFC leader into signing as the Asian distributor for its yet-to-be-built 400 kW - 4 MW olde tyme technology PAFC plants. Samsung is clearly jealous of POSCO's deal with FuelCell Energy and is aware of Korea's $.28 feed-in tariff and pro-DG spark spread. I wish them luck.

Commercial News: German Smart SFC Fuel Cells is booking lots of wholesale orders for its small RV APU methanol fueled units, in the 300W range. It has a handle on the distribution of the methanol cartridges throughout the EU. Excellent for getting FCs in the public domain.

Ballard Stays on Top: Ballard signs up its second forklift power OEM (first was Excide for a tribrid) in Danish H2 Logic just in case Plug never gets it together with the Cellex and GH packages)

To Be Continued...

Year End News: Nippon in India, FCE Partial Victory

2007-12-26T14:57:00.000-05:00

Nippon Oil has stepped off the shores of Honshu in its quest for mCHP markets, surfacing in beautiful, bustling, downtown Mumbai. It is currently in negotiations with Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) to bring its ENEOS (there is nothing like a fuel cell product with a real live trade name) residential cogeneration product to India. Could NOC be eyeing the not so shabby grid-challenged Indian residential market? We'll have to see how this plays out - LPG predominates in India, so it would be a bigger win for the Sanyo Technology NOC recently purchased (see FuelCellIntel Nov. posting) than for Ballard whose stack is used in the NOC kerosene-fueled product. Ebara Ballard is licensed to manufacture the Ballard stacks in Japan when they go commercial in 2009-2010, so Burnaby, BC won't be filled up with Ballard manufacturing facilities (that's an optimistic thought).

And while we're on optimistic thoughts, FuelCell Energy finally got some business approved by the Connecticut DPU. The optimism is needed because the orders approved are for only 16.2 MW of the 68 MW worth recommended last spring. I thought the 68 was a stretch, and FCE's manufacturing capacity has been pushed to the limit with outstanding California (Linde) and Korean (POSCO) orders in the pipeline, and its changeover to the advanced (20% more power output) Direct Fuel Cell product manufacturing. There will be another review of the CT projects in January, but I'd say the future still looks pretty rosy for FCE.

And in Europe, watch for Morphic eating little FC firms and while it extends its continental reach from north to south. It may have a rational plan and enough expertise and financing to bring fuel cells to the EU people, so I wish the enterprise luck.

I hope everyone has safe and happy holidays, particularly today - Boxing Day and the first day of Kwanzaa. May the next year be cleaner, greener, and more peaceful for all despite the wonders of endless political debate and lack of constructive policies and action.

The Ethiopian-Caltech Fuel Cell Connection

2007-12-26T14:17:00.000-05:00

Kudos are showing up from all over the world, particularly from the Ethiopian diaspora, due to an article appearing in Newsweek online http://www.newsweek.com/id/81389 and in print (page 82, 12/31 issue) about my second favorite Caltech professor (still first is my former advisor, math Prof. Gary Lorden still going strong and remaining as the technical consultant and chief advisor for CBS's 'Numb3rs') Sossina Haile.

Dr. Haile has remained a dedicated full-time professor while her former grad students are running with her innovative SAFC (solid acid fuel cell) technology with the solidly-funded SuperProtonics Corp. in Pasadena. She is a dogged and intense researcher who has risen from her refugee roots to the top of the FC research world. I've spent time with her husband (through an incredible coincidence), heard her boys, and been figuratively blown away by her technology with a one-on-one poster presentation she gave me in Palm Springs, and I can say the Newsweek article does not exaggerate a thing. Her FC technology is the only one with a working temperature between 200° C (PAFC) and Ceres' 500° cerium-based SOFC, and it could hit the thermal sweet spot for fuel cells. Business development VP Sami Mardini says SuperProtonics will be putting small stacks in the hands of integrators throughout 2008, looking for a 2009 - 2010 market introduction. This could be in line with the 'conventional' SOFC developers like CFCL, Acumentrics, Topsoe, and certainly Ceres who appear to be poised for commercialization, so Sossina's third child has a real chance to grow up strong and healthy like her human ones.

SuperProtonics board member, and former NJ senator, NY Knick, and top-fight presidential candidate Bill Bradley, has (of course) full confidence in the product and technology.

What is Intelligence?

2007-12-11T09:52:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the short hiatus, but I got hung up last Tuesday with our president's press conference. Problem was, here I am talking from the 'Fuel Cell Intelligence' point of view, and he seemed to totally redefine the meaning of the word. 'Intelligence' particularly in regard to the latest foreign intelligence assessment regarding the state of Iran's nuclear program, immediately became 'not intelligence', or just plain 'wrong'. Although there might have been misunderestimating going on, his pronouncement did cause me to rethink the term, putting it in a new subjective light, perhaps freeing me from reliance on all facts in the reporting on 'intelligence'.

Let me comment on some minor fuel cell announcements the past week that fit into this category:

1. Medis received permission for its 'fuel cell' multi-battery charger to be carried on commercial airplanes. This is not so significant FC industry news, because the Medis disposable package is not a fuel cell by definition.

2. Italian (with intense Japanese backing) catalyst innovator Acta is riding on the success of its product's ability to reform hydrogen out of ammonia, reporting the smell is the only remaining problem. Admittedly, ammonia is a liquid and as such a much easier fuel to transport or store than hydrogen, but it is manufactured by combining some of the 79% of the atmosphere that is nitrogen with manufactured hydrogen. That is, one of the major uses for industrial hydrogen which the hydrogen energy industry has to compete is the production of ammonia, mainly used for fertilizer. Therefore it seems that in the long run, or even the short run, methanol, ethanol, or hydrogen stored and transported through novel methods now being perfected have much more of a future as fuels for fuel cells than ammonia. I may be wrong on this, but, if so, talk to me.

3. Finally, FC news maker Hydra first reported a Latin American distributor of gypsum wall board had been sign to sell its residential CHP fuel cell in that region. Although I did not call Frank Neukomm, the holding company CEO, again - he was very forthcoming last spring - this deal seems to be quite a reach for me. I don't think the distributor, whom I could not find through google or any industry listings, has trained with Dr. Mike Binder or Logan Energy in the not so easy installation of fuel cell CHP systems. And although Hydra then announced a second residential system sale to a customer in Florida, the excerpt from its 10-K disclosure statement on December 5 states that the company has had no (0) (zero) revenue thus far, and will have trouble surviving past the end of the calendar year. But I sure love those press releases!

Time to get back to the old intelligence - like FuelCell Energy's reported (its reports have always been 100% above board) sale of two 2.4 MW DFCs to POSCO in Korea, continuing to embarrassingly outpace its 'subsidy approved' potential 68 MW worth of business involving the State of Connecticut's Project 100, with most individual projects bogged down in bureaucracy.

Tuesday's News rife with FC Commercialization

2007-11-28T17:08:00.000-05:00

I hope to make some individual posts on the recent news, perhaps tonight. But to sum up:

FuelCell Energy, while still waiting on orders for its CT Project 100 68 MW worth of installations and the still holding Freedom Tower potential, has had its partnership with German Gas Giant Linde bear its first fruit. Linde secured 4 orders for California wastewater treatment totaling 3.9 megawatts. the units are the new technology (20% more power) DFCs, 3/1.2 MW and 1/300 kW. Linde has a bunch (100's) of ww plants as customers, primarily in Germany, but otherwise scattered around the world. CA offers the biggest subsidy, but this bodes well for the future.

Hydrogenics, following fellow canuck Ballard's lead by leaning down its non-FC power business, recently laying off a bunch test equipment employees, has received a follow-on order for 3 of its German midi-buses. The buses will be used in a high-profile Water and Clean development conference in Spain next summer. It's still a shame that FCs remain so low-profile in the US.

In Japan, Matsushita(Panasonic) and Toshiba FC both announced plans for gearing up to mass-produce their mCHP systems to the order of 10,000/year by 2010/2011. Ebara made a similar non-specific announcement with their own Ballard-licensed production, and Nippon Oil clearly has plans (and the resources) to do the same with its recently purchased Sanyo technology and production facilities. They are all assuming they will be able to bring down the reformer cost by then, whether they move to HT PEM or find another solution. Or else they'll have a lot of residential fuel cell systems for sale cheap to anyone with a bunch of hydrogen.

And lastly, on my home front, UMass Amherst garnered a seed grant from the NSF of $1.5M to begin a fuel cell research program, with $10's of millions more in a couple years if they do it right. They'll be trying to figure why fuel cell electrolytes work. I say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But then again, I wouldn't turn down the money.

One Regime Change Down, One To Go

2007-11-24T15:56:00.000-05:00

I've been deeply involved in high-temp PEM for the last week, but outside of another sale (and another press release) by FuelCell Energy of three of the apparently old technology DFC 300 units (described as 250 kW rather than the newer 300 kW - maybe FCE is concentrating the newer stacks into the 1.2 MW configuration and shipping what they have to fuel cell friendly Korea).

But the real big news came overnight from Australia, and it's not the CE certification that CFCL's NextGen mCHP system has received to facilitate EU marketing, should it finally come up with a deliverable system. We finally achieved the much-needed regime change at one of the only two major nations not to sign on to Kyoto: three cheers for Australia voting to oust anti-Kyoto John Howard form office.

The new prime minister will be pro-environment labor party leader Kevin Rudd. He has stated that his first order of business will be to ratify Kyoto.

So maybe now, CFCL will return to its homeland and start making plans for commercialization there in addition to Kyoto-friendly Europe.

Which country will be next?

Back to that left-over turkey (not one of the new influx of wild turkeys sporadically roaming the suburbs as well as the backwoods of New Englan) and cranberry sauce (homemade from local cape Cod cranberries) sandwich.

Later.

Nippon Oil Treads where US Oil/Gas Fears To Go

2007-11-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

Nippon Oil Company (NOC), Japan's largest refiner and leading supplier of home-heating fuel, has helped bail out financially troubled Sanyo Electric by purchasing its stationary fuel cell business. In a deal faintly reminiscent of last week's Daimler-Ford-Ballard agreement, NOC will form a new company of which it will have an 80% share with Sanyo owning the remainder. NOC has been the most successful participant in the Japanese government's Large-Scale Demonstration Project which has placed around 2000 1 kW co-generation systems in Japanese homes over the last three years.

NOC has developed 2 separate reformers, one producing hydrogen from kerosene that has been packaged with the Ballard-designed Ebara-Ballard stack, and an LPG reformer that has been packaged with the smaller (700w) Sanyo stacks. NOC earlier this year took over primary competitor Cosmo Oil's position in the program, essentially doubling and redoubling its bet on its reformer technology and residential fuel cell co-generation systems in general. Japan sports about 1.2 million new homes per year which are primary prospects for the new technology.

Ballard counts on the Ebara and its Japan co-gen business for future growth - Ballard has not officially reponded to the development as yet. My reasonable take is that all players who can produce a reliable stack (Ballard is now testing for 40,000 hours lifetime, a 2010 goal of the program) will do well if any do, and there is no reason for NOC not to stick with both stacks for the long run. We will probably have to wait until the allocations for the extension year of the program, FY2008, happen in March or April of nex year, and are negotiated by the system marketers and the goverment (NEDO through METI through NEF - don't worry about it).

The FC cogen systems provide base load electricity and much of the domestic hot water and heating needs, cutting GHG emissions (as compared to central-produced power by natural gas) by up to 40%, save users $600/year, and cut all other pollutants to practically zero. The cost has been the major stumbling block, but it appears that Nippon Oil is intent on turning some of its oil profits into distributed fuel cell power production, expecting big returns in the future.

Fuel Cells at Forefront in LA Auto Show

2007-11-16T14:33:00.000-05:00

Honda has chosen the pomp and circumstance of the LA Auto Show this week to roll out the first commercially available fuel cell car. Honda has finally named its fourth-generation vehicle, the FCX Clarity. Honda will lease about 100 of them next summer in the LA, where an albeit limited hydrogen fueling infrastructure exists, for $600/month.

The car will be much quieter (I have driven it), cleaner, and cheaper to operate than any other on road - it promises to get up to 68 miles per gallon-equivalent of hydrogen (conveniently about 1 kG). I don't have exact 'at-the-pump' pricing, but hydrogen has been in the $4-$5 range per kG. The DOE target has been to get it down under $3, but that was when gas cost $2/gallon. The Clarity, not in mass production, costs Honda somewhere in the range of $600,000 - $1M to produce, but just getting the gorgeous machines out there will present a real breakthrough for the chicken-and-egg problem for hydrogen vehicles, encouraging more fueling stations. California has been anxious to take pressure off the grid, heavily subsidizing recent FuelCell Energy 300 kW - 1.2 MW stationary installations through its Self-Generation Program. So unless highly-touted plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) can be forced to charge-up only between midnight and 6 a.m., the FC vehicles have an upper hand.

Ford said it is going slow with FCVs because of problems with the LiIon rechargeable batteries, which Honda is using in the Clarity, but other more advanced electric vehicles depend more heavily on their batteries than FCVs. And Honda has already used ultra-capacitors in previous versions of it FCX with great success, and they will be getting much less costly and more powerful in coming years. Ford has just purchased a share in Ballard's automotive fuel cell business - it is certainly good for the industry that Ford can complain about the battery and not the FC.

Also demonstrated at the show was a new technology high-temp PEM powered Volkswagen, actually a three-way hybrid. The 'Space Up! Blue' (not one of the classically great VW names) has a large bank of LiIon batteries plus solar panels on the roof. Definitely a concept vehicle. High temp PEM, operating at 120-160 Celsius rather than the standard 60-80, is more forgiving of fuel impurities, eliminates the need for water management, and provides easier thermal management.

I'd go with the Honda.

Fuel Cell News News

2007-11-11T23:00:00.000-05:00

In checking the dialy fuel cell news on the incredibly reliable and consistant web site of 'Fuel Cell Works' last Tuesday, there was an item about technology innovator and micro FC developer Manhattan Scientifics naming a new CEO.What with the Ballard activity, etc., it took me a while to discover it was Fuel Cell Works own father, the inimatable Manny T. (the CEO of MS will be Emmanuel Tsoupanarias). I was in a panic at first, having come to rely on his Sunday night emails, as well as the comprehensive posting of every item fuel cell from sources around the world, perfectly vetted - yes, quite a bit more human than Google or any other automatons.

But he reasured me that FCW will continue, and noted at the end of tonight's weekly summary that he will even continue with the roll out of a newly updated web design (perhaps in an attempt to keep up with Dr. Kerry-Ann's 'Urban Landscape' themed Fuel Cell Today format, rolled out at the Grove conference in September).

Once again, more indicators that the industry continues to advance in multiple dimensions.

Best of luck to thee, Manny T.

Wrumor Wrap-up

2007-11-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

Ballard released the announcement making the sale of their 'automotive assets' [assets refer not only to the technology but to test equipment, related office equipment, and my favorite, 113 employees] to both Daimler and Ford who will jointly form a new company just for automotive fuel cell development.

Considering that Ballard's two year run under John Sheridan has featured a continuous departure from all things automotive, this just represents a final housekeeping move, allowing Ballard to get along with the business at hand, primarily borderline commercial forklift and backup stacks, and near market residential cogen and bus. The rumor stemming from a German news report picked up by Reuters over the weekend, the ensuing discussion, and final announcement along with Ballard's 3rd q earnings report led to some stock fluctuation:

What is interesting is that the biggest move was due to the rumor, not the facts, but who am I to judge.

During the conference call this morning with Ballard principals, everyone seemed relaxed and confident, as if a huge weight had been lifted off them, like superman lifting a car... But they did say that Ballard instigated the discussions. The new company will essentially stay put in suburban Burnaby, and with Ballard keeping a 20% investment in the new company, there will be plenty of IP exchange. Although its possible that the Daimler (50.1%) and Ford (30%) controlled entity could eventually compete in the bus market with Ballard, Ballard is not concerned, and shouldn't considering its lead there and the comparative market sizes (the bus market is squat compared to the far off potential automotive market).

The rational for treating the automotive development as a different animal is primarily that the other markets have received, and continue to receive considerable government funding and support, making it easier to sell a stack at a profit because the end product can be sold at far above market value due to subsidies.

So - good for Ballard, and what was Daimler going to do with all the free time it got from dumping Chrysler anyway?

Siemens SOFC Surfaces in Japan with 125 kW CHP

2007-11-06T14:58:00.000-05:00

Siemens' only statement of note at the FC Seminar was that it was shifting its focus from large-scale hybrid power generation to mid-size CHP systems. Its previous foray into CHP was via the now-departed Fuel Cell Technology which used a 5 kW Siemens stack in its few CHP installations, including a successful dormitory placement in Toronto some years back. But FCT handled all the BOP and heating for the system, and upon FCT's demise, Acumentrics ended up with the technology and key personnel, not Siemens.

The scene has now shifted to Japan where Siemens had quietly engineered an development and marketing agreement with technology and engineering conglomorate Meidensha Corporation in 2005, a partnership similar to the successful one forged earlier by Marubeni and FuelCell Energy. It seems that Meidensha has been working on the balance of plant and heating portion, and has been paying close attention to the 250 kW - 1 MW the FCE molten carbonate systems installations by Marubeni, and the recent installations by Fuji of its revitalized 100 kW PAFC systems. Meidensha - know locally as MEIDEN, says it will be ready to install 125 kW system in FY2008 which begins next April, and will provide all operations and maintenance. Applications will probably include waste water treatment and breweries (has your Kirin been tasting different lately?) and the sizable Hospital and Hotel markets.

Siemens only stack relibility and efficiency reporting has come via the required annual DOE SECA documentation, so it's a wait-and-see situation to find out if we will have the first actual commercially viable SOFC installations in the world.

Siemens has claim to the longest-running SOFC development program (is that good?), so success is definitely possible. Regardless, this may put competative Mitsubishi HI and Rolls Royce FC into action with their large-scale stationary SOFC plans.

Talking points: Korea, China, spark spread

International Rumor Mill

2007-11-04T22:26:00.000-05:00

After Ballard gave its vague response to the unspecified rumor, I decided it might be good to find out what the rumor was. Admittedly, it was me in Vancouver last spring who introduced the concept of Plug Power purchasing all Canadian fuel cell companies, but neither Hydrogenics nor Ballard issued denials then. This time, it seems that Daimler and/or Ford (not those in Norway) are jealous of the success enjoyed by GM with its own fuel cell development team (billions and billions....) and may have outbid Plug (kidding here!) for those funky automotive assets.

Of course Ballard will still be providing that wonderful 1020ACS for reverse (backup!) while the automakers have to struggle themselves with the fuel cells for the forward gears.

Probably more on this by tomorrow night.

Hydra boasts too many kWs, not heads

2007-11-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

A quick note on the first commercial residential mCHP fuel cell installation in this country by Oregon-based Hydra Fuel Cell. Frank Neukomm (the holding company's CEO) told me last spring when Hydra made the initial announcement that the 8 kW configuration was what they had working, so that's what the luxury villa on the gulf would get. And using the same model as Stephen Voller's luxury yacht, $25,000, 1 kW APU, application, it's all about keeping the beer cold, dummy! Who cares how much you paid for your domicile if you don't have the power for your fridge!

By the way, they don't have to join the USFCC despite the benefits they receive from the hard-working group who provides so much promotion for industry in the US, but it would be nice if companies like Hydra and California's Altergy showed up at at least one of the too many industry conferences, just to prove they're one of us.

San Antonio Memories

2007-11-03T16:38:00.000-04:00

I have been too busy celebrating my second visit to San Antonio this year without once seeing the Alamo. I do remember it though, particularly when I have to rent a car or see a racoon.

On the other hand, there were plenty of fuel cell representatives from around the world at the Henry B. Gonzalez convention center (or The Hank as only I know it - ask the locals about Henry's history the next time you're in town), and plenty of conspicuous absences as well. Plug and ReliOn, both with complimentary telecom backup products in international distribution, were among the missing. GE for the first time in recent memory was low profile as were all car manufacturers despite a raft of press releases from the various international car shows -a new land distance record from the Toyota FCV, Honda going commercial with FCX Concept vehicle about to get a name and be sold in 2008 for about $100,000, and GM putting 100 of their FCVs on the road, albeit on a trial basis. But fuel cell supply-siders were everywhere, clearly getting increasing real business from developers. On the car makers, someone did comment that when you're in the pre-commercial stage, you often want all the hype you can get, but when you're on the verge and think you've nailed the technology and marketing strategy, you discreetly quiet down to maintain the competitive edge.

For me the week in Alamo country started slow - plenary sessions were good and exhibit hall plenty busy, but it was too hot outside, too cold inside (not good with energy independence being the theme for the 31st annual FC Seminar), and the Tuesday evening reception in the exhibit hall featured a cash bar with a couple canned beers for sale and no food to be had of any type or cost - indicative of a lack of sponsorship. Maybe I'll pony up next year. But although there no grand announcements or demonstrations like at the otherwise much quieter Grove in September or the April Hanover Fair, and the technology sessions, exhibits and posters were fairly well mixed up with the product and commercially oriented ones, there was an ever present synergy of purpose and agreement that patience will breed success at last for the industry.

Highlights for me: Dr. Andreas Mai from Hexis giving an update on their reborn SOFC, confirming that he actually one of the three new hires by the Swiss company, and countryman Olivier Bucheli representing Swiss SOFCpower, as HTceramix with its new mix of Italian expertise is known. In attendance were no less than three representatives from low-profile Racine thermal management expert Modine Manufacturing. Modine is now working with Ceres Power and even lower-profile Bloom Energy as well as Ballard, and lent some expertise to my presentation on the importance of thermal management to the optimization and commercialization of fuel cells. Never shy Arno Evers continues his creative promotion of the industry, despite giving up control of the Hanover H2+FC pavilion, with his sponsorship of the exciting student competition and his team of fuel cell jugglers accompanying him from Germany. And from the supply side came a concerted push from Vairex's Ski Milburn for ethanol-powered portable fuel cells for laptops, as small containers of hydrated ethanol are already available for sale on most commercial airliners. The concluding Friday morning CEO round table was excellent, with both contrasts and similarities showing up in unexpected places in the diverse group. Both Mark Fleiner of international powerhouse Rolls Royce Fuel Cells and Jeff Bently, leader of eight-engineer strong CellTech are confident they'll have successful commercial products within two or three years, and aren't interested in any outside investment. Topsoe's Helge Holm-Larsen stressed patience, IdaTech's Harol Koyama perseverance, and Sam Logan offered the voice of hands on experience like no one else (save Dr. Mike) can.

I'd like to thank Dr. Rolf Rosenberg of the VTT Research Centre for pointing out after my presentation that Finland is surrounded by Sweden and Russia, and it's Norway that has all those Ballard fuel cell powered fjords. And we should all wish Dr. Ruairi (you pronounce it, or ask Frodo for help) MacIver the best of luck and largest of grants for taking the clean energy battle to his Hebridean Celtic island outpost - they need more than music to survive. http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk.

Next Year in Phoenix (hopefully an iconic rather than ironic location for the 32nd...)!

News from the Malay Pennisula

2007-10-25T10:37:00.000-04:00

With all the excitement of the 31st Fuel Cell Seminar, the California fires, and the brutal crushing of the Rockies by Josh Beckett and the Red Sox, I just want to keep everyone on top of events a short 12,000 miles (20,000 km) from here.

Firstly, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopodic surgeon from Kuala Lupur became Malaysia's first astronaut last week, and lived to tell about it. A computer glitch caused the Soyuz spacecraft to fall at high speed and missed its landing spot by 200 km. But he's ready to return.

And in more Earth-bound flight news, the Airbus super jumbo jet made its maiden voyage yesterday form Singapore to Sidney, with passengers paying up to $100,000 for the pleasure (first class includes double-bed furnished rooms) with proceeds going to charity. The jet, with capacity of up to 800 people, is representative of advances being made which will eventually include the total electrification of all (currently hydraulic) systems. Both Airbus and Boeing have made major long-term commitments, and investments, in developing megawatt-class SOFC APU units, expected to use standard jet fuel and be available by 2015.

My Singaporean fuel cell specialist pointed out that my favorite question mark (?) FC developer, suburban Kuala Lumpur based Agni Inc., has broken ground on its 65M euro manufacturing plant in Portugal. The company still has the most comprehensive environmentally oriented web site laden with actual science and plans for PEM-based tri-genration (you need a lot of AC in Malaysia) facilities that efficiently recylce all types of of organic and other waste. Malaysia does have a lot of cars and smaller motorized vehicles, a lot of deforestation, and a lot cellulosic waste from palm oil production. So is Agni for real? We'll have to wait and see.

And from a company that is for real, Rolls Royce Fuel Cell's US head of operations Mark Fleiner said in the excellent CEO roundtable held the final morning of the Seminar, that although RR will remain tight lipped about its progress (because it can), it is securely financed by the UK parent for years to come, and the investment by Singaporean consortium headed by EnerTek is resulting in a major manufacturing facility being built there in anticipation of the planned multi MW SOFC combined cycle gas turbine hybrid generating plant production.

Whew. It is hot down there.

Ballard 1020AC postscript

2007-10-15T15:49:00.000-04:00

Just a note - after my 9/27/07 entry, battery producer Exide signed a long-term agreement with Ballard to employ the wonderful 1020AC, the stack optimized for critical backup, in a 3-way hybrid power system for forklifts. Although using the 1020 for a forklift exhibits some real confidence in the stack , Exide is also committed to using lead-acid batteries along with the fuel cell and ultracaps, not my (or anyone's) favorite battery technology.

Ballard's Backup Believers

2007-09-27T10:40:00.000-04:00

The US DoD has joined Dantherm, Plug Power, and me as unconditional supporters of Ballard's 1020 ACS air-cooled stack. It has provided the joint development partnership team of Ballard and Plug an additional $3.5M to continue development of outdoor backup power system, primarily aimed at cell towers.

The incredibly simple air-cooled stack is the culmination of 4 generations and almost eight years of progress by Ballard - the 1020's entire balance of plant consists of a fan. Whereas Plug's historical installations have been reliable, they have all been based on Plug's own 5 kW stack, very often overkill coompared with ReliOn's 1 kW and current offerings from IdaTech and California upstart Altergy.

Hopefully the Plug-Ballard partnership will follow the lead of Dantherm Power in Denmark who yesterday issued a large order for Maxwell ultracaps to provide the immediate response for critical backup that fuel cells lack. The marriage of the Ballard 1020 and Maxwell ultracaps is certainly a match made in heaven. Whereas Plug hopes to have the new product in the field sometime in 2008, Dantherm has already been placing systems in Europe employing the Ballard stacks from its initial 100-unit order placed with Ballard last spring.

Fuel Cells in the Mainstream

2007-09-24T12:26:00.000-04:00

For those of you who missed it, a couple weeks ago there were actually two (2) (II) articles on fuel cells on the front page of the Boston Globe business section . But it was sort of a good news/strange news situation.

Good news: both were positive announcements, not bankruptcies.

The strange news: One was an announcement that Medis Technologies, a NASDAQ-listed joint Israeli-US venture, is ready to bring their portable multi-device charger fuel cell to market in the US. Problem is, the device is self-contained and disposable, therefore is not a fuel cell by definition. I (among others) have had some heated exchanges with Medis reps, but whatever.

Strange #2: For those of you buying a Honda FCX Concept fuel cell vehicle during the next year, the US is offering a whopping $12,000 tax credit. Problem here is, there's still only one in use in the US, leased by a California family, and an outright purchase price would be around $700,000 - $800,000. On the other hand, I have driven the Honda, and it's spectacular. I just wish I could use the tax credit.

Today's news: MA-based Protonex has come up with another business coup, non-military this time, signing a truck SOFC APU joint development deal with global diesel gen-set maker Cummins (MN, IN). Cummins had been working SOFCo-EFS of Ohio in the DoE SECA program for years, but SOFCo was purchase last year by Rolls Royce Fuel Cells.

Fuel Cell Intel Begins

2007-09-21T14:40:00.000-04:00

I will be creating a regular flow of real-time analysis and commentary on the global fuel cell industry. The industry as a whole is in the midst of a great sea change at present, trying to segue from a R&D engineering based field built around proof-of-concept trials and demonstrations (fuel-cell chevies drive 300 miles (thats 500 kms.) on one tank of hydrogen!!!), to actual commercial, cost-justified, installations.

Next week's Grove X symposium in London and October's 31st annual Fuel Cell Seminar in San Antonio will both for the first time feature a focus on commercial products. When the smoke finally clears (can we do something about all those noisy, unreliable, polluting diesel generators please?), we hope to see a viable industry arise from the ashes of previous false starts, just like the Phoenix and Hexis.

I will keep tabs on high profile public FC companies like FuelCell Energy, Plug Power, Ballard, Voller, CFCL, big entities with FC aspirations like Rolls Royce, Siemens, Toshiba, Air Liquide, and Wartsila, and below-the-radar upstarts llike Altergy, Bloom Energy, and CellTech.

And I'll expect feedback and hopefully news from India and China where the market and expertise are great but the news is small.

Jim Horwitz
Cambridge, MA, USA