[Graeme]

Toyota Preparing For ‘The Next 100 Years’ With Fuel Cell Vehicles

At this year’s New York Auto Show conventional vehicles were well represented, but quietly shouting its potential to one day usurp them all was Toyota’s Fuel Cell Vehicle Concept.

Or rather, a bold declaration for fuel cell vehicles was made by one of the largest banners prominently positioned high toward the atrium ceiling of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, along with other signs strategically placed:

“Let’s go for a ride,” said Toyota’s message with a picture of the FCV Concept, “We’re setting the next 100 years in motion.”

The next 100 years?

The company that gave the world the Prius did show vision before, but it does not yet even have a fuel cell vehicle in production. Hydrogen has been discussed and delayed by various automakers for years, efforts by Honda and Hyundai have so far only just made a small dent, and is Toyota now making predictions for the next 10 decades?

As true today as it ever was, consumers are accustomed to – shall we politely say – exuberant marketing verbiage, but we asked Toyota, does it fully intend what this sign appears to imply?

Essentially, Toyota says, the answer could be yes, no, or maybe.

This we learned in an interview with the company’s Vice President of External Communications, Mike Michels, who did temper the outlook on hydrogen, while holding out the possibility of its mass acceptance, as implied.

To take some of the edge off the banner’s sharp declaration, Michels said he was not even sure Toyota originated the “100 years” statement, and of course it does not know the future, but will be ready in any case.

“I do think it is correct to say Toyota takes a very, very long view and we are preparing for peak oil and all of the other demands that society is going to have and also the impact of our products on society and maintaining mobility,” said Michels. “Toyota overall looks at itself as a mobility company, not necessarily as a car company.

“We think fuel cells and hydrogen have a lot of benefits and a lot of potential, but again it is a long view.”

hybridcars

[Graeme]

Taking A Deep Dive Into Hydrogen (Charts, Graphs, Tables, More)

A new factbook on hydrogen, Hydrogen-Based Energy Conversion — More than Storage: System Flexibility*, really deals with hydrogen’s potential and limitations in a realistic and useful way.

Part of a primer sent to me along with the report, here are a few summary paragraphs:

According to the Factbook, the value of hydrogen-based solutions lies predominantly in their ability to convert renewable power into chemical energy carriers. But hydrogen is more than just an energy carrier. Utilizing the current energy networks hydrogen also acts as a bridge between the different branches of the energy supply system — optimizing the use of energy generated from renewable power at the energy-system level.

The main challenge for hydrogen conversion, however, lies not in its technology but in its economics. Most technologies in the hydrogen value-chain are proved, albeit at different stages of maturity. The FactBook considers that cost reduction is the next prerequisite on the road to commercialization, especially for flexible water electrolysis technologies. Beyond innovations that could disrupt the technology landscape, the principal areas of focus is engineering and manufacturing to allow for greater scalability and capitalize on accumulated knowledge.

Costs are only one side of the commercialization equation. The versatility of hydrogen opens the way to a wide range of end-uses that valorize the power conversion to hydrogen as a service or the hydrogen generated as a product. However, the benefits of hydrogen solutions remain difficult to assess and monetize as most end-markets are virtually non-existent today and are subject to the growing penetration of variable renewables.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Global Fuel Cell Market By Product (PEMFC, DMFC, PAFC, SOFC, MCFC, AFC) to Reach 664.5 MW by 2020: Grand View Research, Inc

Global fuel cell capacity is expected to reach 664.5 MW by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 22.6% from 2014 to 2020. Government support across various nations to develop hydrogen fuel station is expected to remain a major driving factor for the market over the next six years. In addition, favorable regulatory scenario owing to shift in focus towards developing renewable energy is also expected to boost the global fuel cell market over the forecast period. However, high switching cost and lack of infrastructure in developing countries are identified as major restraints to the market.

Further key findings from the study suggest:

Global fuel cell shipments were 50,050 units in 2013 and are expected to reach 790,450 units by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 49.1% from 2014 to 2020.

PEMFC emerged as the leading product segment in the overall market and accounted for 88.6% of total units shipped and 42.8% of total capacity in 2013. However, MCFC is expected to be the fastest growing product segment for fuel cell at an estimated CAGR of 56.6% from 2014 to 2020.

Portable applications dominated the global application market for fuel cells, accounting for 71.2% of total unit shipments in 2013. However, in terms of capacity, stationary applications emerged as the leading application market and accounted for 58.1% of total capacity installed in 2013.

North America emerged as the leading consumer for fuel cell in terms of installed capacity and accounted for 42.5% of total capacity in 2013. In terms of total unit shipments, Asia Pacific emerged as the leading consumer and accounted for 36.9% of total market in 2013. However, North America is expected to surpass Asia Pacific to become the largest market for fuel cell both in terms of unit shipments and capacity by 2020.

The global market is highly concentrated with top four participants catering to over 70% of global demand. The market is dominated by companies such as Fuel Cell Energy, Ballard, Clearedge and Toshiba. Some of other companies operating in the global market include, Panasonic, Plug Power Inc. and Hydrogenics Corporation.

prweb

[Graeme]

Widespread hydrogen fueling infrastructure goal of H2FIRST project

As hydrogen fuel cell vehicles continue to roll out in increasing numbers, the infrastructure for fueling them must expand as well. To this end, a new project launched by the Energy Department and led by Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will work in support of H2USA, the public private partnership introduced in 2013 by the Energy Department and industry stakeholders to address the challenge of hydrogen infrastructure.

Established by the Energy Department's Fuel Cell Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Research and Station Technology (H2FIRST) project will draw on existing and emerging core capabilities at the national labs and aim to reduce the cost and time of new fueling station construction and improve the stations' availability and reliability.
By focusing on these aspects of the hydrogen fueling infrastructure, the effort hopes to accelerate and support the widespread deployment of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. Watch this new Energy 101 video to learn more about how fuel cell electric vehicles work.

The vehicles themselves continue to proliferate, as evidenced by Toyota's recent announcement that it will begin selling its Fuel Cell Vehicle in 2015. Last year, General Motors and Honda announced plans to jointly develop hydrogen fuel cell cars, and Hyundai will lease its Tucson Fuel Cell hydrogen-powered vehicle in California this spring.

phys.org

[Graeme]

GM FUEL CELL FLEET TOPS 3 MILLION MILES

General Motors’ fleet of fuel cell vehicles recently passed 3 million miles of hydrogen-powered, real-world driving. Some individual vehicles have accumulated more than 120,000 miles. By GM’s estimate, using hydrogen to power these vehicles, the fleet has avoided 157,894 gallons of gasoline consumption.

This specially equipped fleet of Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles are part of GM’s 119-vehicle Project Driveway program, which launched in 2007. Since then, more than 5,000 drivers have provided feedback on the functionality and drivability of fuel cell technology.

“Hydrogen fuel cell technology is an important part of GM’s advanced propulsion portfolio and we continue to make substantial progress in furthering this technology,” said Charlie Freese, executive director of GM’s global fuel cell engineering activities. “These vehicles have operated through seven full winters and a wide range of environmental conditions, proving that fuel cells can meet the demands of real-world drivers.”

Last year, GM announced two fuel cell-related collaborations. In July, 2013, GM and Honda announced a long-term collaboration to co-develop next-generation fuel cell and hydrogen storage systems, aiming for potential commercialization in the 2020 time frame. In addition, GM and Honda are working together with stakeholders to further advance refueling infrastructure, which is critical for the long-term viability and consumer acceptance of fuel cell vehicles.

Also last year GM opened a new state-of-the-art Fuel Cell Development Laboratory at GM Powertrain World Headquarters in Pontiac, Mich. In September, 2013 GM and the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development & Engineering Center (TARDEC) jointly announced an expansion of their relationship for testing automotive fuel cell technology.

GM is an acknowledged leader in fuel cell technology. According to The Clean Energy Patent Growth Index, GM ranked No. 1 in total fuel cell patents granted in 2013, and continues to lead all companies in total fuel cell patents granted since 2002.

earthtechling

[Graeme]

Is This New Fuel Cell Catalyst a Game Changer for Hydrogen Vehicles?

Fuel cell electric vehicles, or FCEVs, may have just taken a giant step closer to widespread adoption. Why? Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have jointly developed a new type of fuel cell catalyst that has more than 30 times the catalytic activity than conventional catalysts and uses 85% less platinum. That's potentially great news for Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM ) , Honda Motor (NYSE: HMC ) , and Hyundai Motor (NASDAQOTH: HYMTF ) .

Nanotechnology to the rescue
One of the main barriers to widespread FCEV adoption is the high cost of fuel cell catalysts. This is because they rely on platinum. In fact, the Energy Department estimates that platinum can account for 50% of a fuel cell's cost. Luckily, the new class of catalysts being developed by Argonne and Lawrence Berkeley help solve this problem. Here's how.

Fuel cell catalyst researchers conventionally use polyhedra, or small, solid nanoparticles of pure platinum. However, when scientists at the labs combined platinum and nickel nanoparticles to make an alloy -- and then exposed that solution to air for two weeks -- it reacted with oxygen and dissolved the particle's nickel interior. The result was a dodecahedron nanoframe, which is a three-dimensional, 12-sided, hollow structure a thousand times smaller in diameter than a human hair.

Further, the Energy Department states: "The research team then took the nanoframes a few steps further -- applying heat to form a thin topmost skin of platinum atoms over the remaining nickel and encapsulating an ionic liquid in the nanoframe to allow more oxygen to access the platinum atoms during the fuel cell's electrochemical reaction."

To put the above in layman's terms, what researchers did is create a hollow frame of the original polyhedron so, instead of a solid particle of pure platinum, what's left is just a frame with platinum-rich edges. Thus, the amount of platinum needed is greatly reduced. Moreover doing this makes the catalyst more efficient because the surface area is increased, and the catalyzed molecules can contact the structure from more directions.

fool

[Graeme]

Patented Hydrogen Engine Ready to Power the Future

Hydrogine, the hydrogen engine developer that wants to offer consumers an alternative to internal combustion engines and electric vehicles, is on Kickstarter seeking $750,000 from backers. The company has spent a decade developing a hydrogen-powered engine and recently received a international patent (US 8590496 B2) for their efforts.

Their engine is fully scalable for use in transportation, manufacturing and power generation. The inventors claim that after months of failure with one of their test engines, an accidentally thrown wrench caused a change in the flow of hydrogen energy and thus led to the breakthrough that is the Hydrogine S fuel technology today.

Hydrogine comes out of research at MIT and NASA. The credentials of the inventors seem pretty good. And they have been at it for a considerable length of time.

hplusmagazine

[hvacman]

At least in California, it looks like all hydrogen may be driving is pork.

http://www.dailynews.com/opinion/20140512/conflict-of-interest-cronyism-along-the-hydrogen-highway-thomas-elias

[Logic]

No, it s being reported in a number of places.
California's CARB board has had a definite hydrogen bias for a while now.

I still don't understand why they don't roll it out through more fleet services rather than trying to force it into the retail auto market.

The infrastructure would be much easier and more efficient, and cost the California taxpayers less.

[hvacman]

The author, Thomas Elias, is anything but a "hater" and certainly not "in the pockets of big oil" He is a well-known and respected CA syndicated columnist who specializes as a gov. watchdog, rooting out smelly behavior by both the left and right, similar to Dan Walters with the Sacramento Bee. He has been smelling a rat at the Energy Commission and CARB for a while and won't let go. Good for him.

If anything, the hydrogen fuel movement is led by the "big oil" fossil-fuel industry, which manufactures most hydrogen with natural gas. They make the hydrogen primarily for use in their refineries as they manipulate crude oil chemistries to make their products. It is a powerful irony that in CA, where we have virtually no coal electric generation and massive amounts of bio mass, hydro, wind, geothermal, and PV generation, the state government has decided that 100% natural-gas-derived hydrogen is a "zero-emission" fuel and eligible for higher emission-free-vehicle manufacturers' credits than electric vehicles.

[Graeme]

Seeing Future in Fuel Cells, Toyota Ends Tesla Deal

Toyota said on Monday that it would allow a battery-supply deal with Tesla Motors to expire this year and would focus instead on building cars running on hydrogen fuel cells, a next-generation technology that rivals Tesla’s all-electric systems.


The Japanese automaker said its focus this year would instead be on its four-door sedan powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which it plans to introduce in California next year. The automaker will also focus on developing hydrogen refueling stations to support fuel-cell technology, it said.

nytimes

[Subjectivist]

I really do not understand this hatred of ICE transport. Hydrogen, Natural Gas, Propane, Butane, Town Gas, Wood Gas have all been used to fuel ICE systems, even Ammonia is useful as an ICE fuel! Yet instead of working to actually deploy any of the alternatives we focus on politically connected schemes like very expensive fuel cells. Clearly our system has long since stopped being about getting things done and is now all about getting paid to loo like you are doing something.

I despair and think perhaps Ayn Rand was a prophet after all. I never wanted to believe it, but our society is now a kleptocracy.

[Graeme]

Tokyo sets up panel to map out blueprint for hydrogen energy

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Friday set up a private-public panel to explore ways to promote greater use of hydrogen to meet the nation’s energy needs.

Addressing the media at the panel’s inaugural meeting at City Hall, Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe said its main task will be to help create a society that makes daily use of hydrogen energy. The main goal for now appears to be preparing for the launch of fuel cell cars next year.

“For the wide acceptance of fuel-cell vehicles, there are difficult tasks such as setting up hydrogen fuel stations,” Masuzoe said. “We have to act now to help develop the full potential of the energy.”

japantimes