November 20th, 2009

Science of better fuel cells

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:58 am

Categories: Blogroll, energy, engineering, green tech, housing, renewable energy, research, water

Tags: Fuel Cell, Fuel Cells, Emerging Technologies, Harry Fuller

An MIT energy and chemistry researcher is working on better ways to produce energy on a personal, household level. His goal: workable fuel cell tech that is efficient. Today he explained on NPR how his group has found a new catalytic process that takes water and through hydrolysis releases hydrogen which is then burned in the fuel cell to produce electricity.

The MIT hydrolysis process uses a catalyst consisting of cobalt metal, phosphate. Then add an electrode.

November 19th, 2009

Alcohol and fuel cells in our future?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:21 am

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, fossil fuel, green tech, renewable energy, research, venture capital

Tags: Fuel Cell, Neah Power, Navy, D'Couto, Methaol, Fuel Cells, Emerging Technologies, Harry Fuller

Neah Power, a Seattle-based company, is finding widespread interest in its portable fuel cells. Some of the company’s past research and development was paid for by the Pentagon. The Navy has been especially eager to see Neah’s technology developed. The Neah fuel cells can operate in anaerobic conditions. No air. Can’t do that with gasoline, diesel or even traditional fuel cells.

Other early money for Neah came from Novellus and Intel. The power for portable gear is very attractive to corporations making all manner of remote or portable equipment.

I recently spoke with Neah’s CEO, Chris D’Couto, who’s got a PhD in chemical engineering and an MBA. Right combo, because Neah has a number of chemical processes they intend to patent. And they’re building and selling fuel cells that use methanol for fuel. No Kevlar-reinforced cylinders full of liquid hydrogen. Just simple plastic cartridges with methanol inside. For portable uses, no expensive and heavy lithium-ion batteries with their concomitant ability of exploding on a ship or plane. Just plastic cylinders of methanol. Neah’s goal: better power through chemistry.

D’Couto sees Neah’s tech becoming common across many parts of the economy. The military needs to get those heavy batteries out of the foot soldier’s backpack, and out of ships at sea or airplanes overhead. Neah fuel cells can help run digital technology in remote areas where there’s no electrical grid. Campers, hikers, boaters will use it for many purposes. Already Neah and Hobie are teamed making electrically-powered kayaks. The parts needed for Neah fuel cell on board a kayak.
The Torqueedo. Images courtesy Neah and Hobie.

D’Couto sees easy acceptance of the Neah fuel cells. Methanol is already widely produced and available in the U.S. It is much easier to handle and safer than liquified hydrogen. The chemistry: methanol is CH3OH. When it burns in the fuel cell it produces water, carbon dioxide and a spare electron. That’s the electricity. Neah has developed super-efficient fuel cells, says D’Couto. Neah claims efficiency as much as 2.5 times as great as the traditional fuel cells using pure hydrogen and requiring an constant air supply.

The Neah fuel cells use only miniscule amounts of gold or platinum, the necessary catalysts for breaking down the methane and freeing the hydrogen which gets burned in the fuel cell. D’Couto says they can get down to sub-micron thickness of gold and platinum in their fuel cell design. Important because those metals are expensive. That’s why they are classed as “precious.”

And there’ll be no need for building large, new infrastructure to build the cartridges or other components. Neah will hire existing computer chip fabrication plants to create the necessary catalyst parts for its fuel cells. No capital expenditure, no ramp up.

November 18th, 2009

California Dreamin' revisited

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 5:47 pm

Categories: Blogroll, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, green tech, housing, law & politics, renewable energy, solar, wind

Tags: California, BV, Telecom & Utilities, Harry Fuller

I recently blogged about the future of greentech in the State of California in the current state that state is in. Can greentech enable California to get its mojo back?

Well, here comes a blog report on how the state’s goal for alternative energy use could invigorate the statewide economy. One thing California has is plenty of sunshine, especially in those parts of the state with the least amount of water from Palm Springs to San Diego and northward toward Santa Barbara.

Can California get one-third of its electricity from renewable by the 2020 target? That’s the official state target. Sure, the state government’s in deep money trouble. Furloughs of workers, cutbacks in services–standard across the state agencies and universities. But much of California has cash, especially some of the little tech companies most of us have heard of: Intel, Google, Cicsco, Oracle, Apple to name a few landowners in Silicon Valley. And the state has hugely productive agribusiness. Then there are all those parking lots in the San Diego and Los Angeles sprawl. Think this conjures up dreams of a solar powered future?

Some think it may lead to high value for roof space that faces south, or value in covering parking lots with solar collectors. And it would mean re-thinking and re-engineering the electric grid.

Earlier this year the state’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) issued a report on what’s needed to bring desert solar-generated electricity to the California urban areas which are mostly along the coast. RETI projected billions and billions in cost. But now one of their consultants, Black and Veatch, says smaller rooftop and subrurban solar farms could decentralize power production. BV says the cost of solar panels is decreasing, as an unwritten corollary to Moore’s Law would suggest. Even in crowded Silicon Valley there are hundreds of days of sunshine yearly plus hundreds of square miles of roofs and parking lots, so, what are we waiting for?

Black and Veatch also see much more harvesting of wind energy, another plentiful California resource.

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November 17th, 2009

Cap and trade controversial in Australia

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:54 am

Categories: Blogroll, European Union, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, green tech, law & politics, renewable energy, research

Tags: Cap-and-Trade, Harry Fuller

It’s not only in the U.S. that cap and trade (CAT) is a controversial approach to try to lower greenhouse gas emissions. A report written in Australia, and critical of CAT, has sparked a battle over censorship. Finally the report’s author and the leading science agency in Australia have reached a compromise that will allow publication there.

Currently there are CAT schemes in place in the European Union and among the northeastern states in the U.S. Here’s the website for RGGI which administers CAT across ten states in the northeastern section of the U.S.

Japan’s current government is looking at introducting CAT in the next two years. Some major metro areas of China have long had carbon trading schmes in place. But there is no national emissions regulation or CAT in China.

November 17th, 2009

Ford turns to wind power

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 5:35 am

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, green tech, renewable energy, wind

Tags: Turbine, Wind Energy, Ford Motor Co., Telecom & Utilities, Harry Fuller

Ford is going to be using wind power. Not to actually power their cars, but to power a car factory in Belgium.

Ford of Europe announced that its plant in Genk, Belgium will now be generating electricity through two gigantic wind turbines, each with a height of 150 metres. Installed by local energy company, Electrabel, each unit has an output of two megawatts of power, enough to power 2,500 private homes. The wind turbines will deliver a significant part of the electrical power needed in the Genk Plant, production home of the Mondeo, S-MAX and Galaxy models.

Wind is not a new Ford investment. Ford’s Dagenham Diesel Centre in the UK became the world’s first automotive plant to meet all its electricity needs from two giant on-site turbines.

A third turbine is expected to come into service in Dagenham in 2010, allowing the plant to remain 100 per cent powered by wind-generated electricity, following the installation of a new 1.4/1.6-litre Duratorq TDCi engine production line. A new three-bladed turbine, provided by Ecotricity, will be commissioned to produce two megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 1,000 homes.

November 16th, 2009

How we think, and perhaps lie, about the oil supply

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 5:30 am

Categories: Europe, biofuel, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, green tech, law & politics, petroleum, renewable energy, research

Tags: International Energy Agency, Aleklett, Leadership, Government, Management, Harry Fuller

I recently blogged about one oil expert claiming the world’s oil supply is less than officially admitted. In the most recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), it’s clear what they are worried about: economic panic.

The IEA warns that continued rising oil prices could stymie economic growth on a wide scale. Oil prices have risen 80% this year from their low point after the economic woes that were openly recognized late in 2008. Crude is still less than $80 per barrel, far below the record prices of $140 or more a couple years back.

The U.S. and China rank #1 and #2 in national oil consumption.

DON’T TRUST THE IEA

A group of European academics are warning their governments to not trust the IEA oil supply figures. Without directly referencing the recent whistleblower who says the IEA is cooking the books, these scientists and engineers say the oil supply and production numbers have been “politicized.” That’s polite talk for corrupted and dishonest. The academics go on to say the world production of oil will actually decline between now and 2030, not increase as much as the IEA continues to project.

Here is where you can find this report on “Peak of the Oil Age.” The leader author is Kjell Aleklett of Uppsala University. Aleklett is president of ASPO, Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO).

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November 16th, 2009

Don't envy the ENVI. GM re-VOLTing other brands

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:50 am

Categories: Europe, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, green tech, renewable energy

Tags: Electric Car, Fiat, Brand, Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp., Harry Fuller

Fiat/Chrysler’s new leaders are scrapping the ENVI electric car program. Last year Chrysler planned putting 50,000 electric vehicles on the road. That was before Chrysler sold itself to Fiat during the Detroit automaker meltdown. You can see a video report on that decision here.

Meanwhile, GM’s looking to make the electric VOLT design and technology pay off. The corporation is reportedly going to begin building the Cadillac Converj by 2013. It will be an upscaled VOLT which is the Chevy electric due to launch in about a year.

And GM seems to be stuck with the Opel division in Europe, so they’ve decided to use VOLT technology to build an Opel plug-in there, the Ampera. Ampera, amp, electric car…get it?

Here’s the Ampera website, auf English.

Europeans will get their first chance to buy either the Opel Ampera or the Chevy Volt in 2011.

November 11th, 2009

California Dreamin'... or fantasizing?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 9:24 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, green tech, law & politics, petroleum, renewable energy, research, solar, wind

Tags: California, Government, Internet, Transportation, Vertical Industries, Harry Fuller, innovation, business, jobs,

Can California once more emerge as the global tech center? A recent NPR program explored the challenges and promises of greentech California style. Amid further state budget problems, California’s governor is counting on greentech to help revive the once Golden State’s economy. Just this week an electric truck and bus company opened its new headuqarters in Stockton. Here is EVI’s website. The company said it moved to California because that’s where they expect most adoption of the electric vehicle tecnology.

The new California gold rush, as it is being characterized, will inevitabley arouse oppisition. What will huge solar farms or wind farms do to land use and wildlife?

Of course from the invention of the transistor through the Apple Mac to the iPOd, Calfironia was where it happened first. Then there was the Internet, from Netscape, Yahoo and Excite to Google and on to YouTube, California has constantly been a center for reinventing technology. Can you imagine Cisco, Oracle or Pixar located anywhere but California?

But this time around every nation on earth is looking for the next generaton of energy and green tech. Governments are watching and investing. The Internet grew out of a DARPA project but once it went public there was little government aid or interference. That will not be true with anything important in the energy sector, anything involving the electricity grid, transportation or even massive water systems. Everybody’s playing for keeps this time.

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November 11th, 2009

A flip of the on switch: Utah wind project goes online

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 6:32 am

Categories: conservation, energy, environmental health, green tech, renewable energy, wind

Tags: Project, Turbine, Utah, Telecom & Utilities, Heather Clancy

The California cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and Pasadena just got a new source of energy: The 203 megawatt Milford Wind Corridor Project, which is now online.

The 97 turbines located in Milford, Utah, will power about 45,000 homes in southern California with clean wind energy. This is the first phase of the project, which has already brought about $86 million to the Utah economy. It took about a year to get these turbines in place. The construction was handled by RMT, an environmental consulting and wind farm development company, and the project was backed by developer/owner First Wind, which is based in Boston. There were many many supporters for the project at the state, federal and private sector level.

This press release goes through more specifics of the project.

November 10th, 2009

IBM figures rail transit is going to get faster and cleaner

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 2:11 pm

Categories: Africa, Blogroll, China, India, Latin America, Russia, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, green tech, law & politics, renewable energy, research

Tags: Harry Fuller

I recently spoke with IBM’s Ken Donnelly, the company’s world-wide industry leader for transportation. IBM is busily working with major rail systems all over the globe: China, India, Taiwan, South Africa, Brazil, even in the U.S. IBM’s smart transit services are suited for metro area rail lines and bus lines as well. IBM’s system offers asset management, real-time monitoring of conditions of trains, signals and rails.

It’s exciting to hear about the state-of-engineering rail lines. Taiwan’s new end-to-end system transects the island on a north/south axis. It can travel at 300 KM per hour. With thirty minutes for stops the train goes end to end in Taiwan in 90 minutes. And their on time record: over 99%.

What’s on-time in Taiwanese? Here in the willy-nilly world of U.S. rail a train within two or even three minutes of its scheduled time is considered “on time.” However, in Taiwan the leeway is exactly six SECONDS.
Taiwan high speed train. Courtesy IBM.

The IBM management system used on the Taiwan high-speed rail system monitors the cars, the rails, the signal system and measures the crucial vibration effects along the route. Taiwan, like California, is prone to earthquakes which can threaten rail system safety.

Speaking of California, it is estimated a north-south high speed rail system there will cost over $50 billion. The current stimulus plan has eight billion to spread around the U.S. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is going to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars on their high speed rail system. Donnelly says the technology for high speed rail now exists, and like the highway system the U.S. began building in the 1950s, high speed rail will bring great economic rewards if it is built.

Most large nations are investing heavily in rail services. Russia. India. In Brazil they’re preparing for the summer Olympics in 2016. They hope to have a high speed rail service connecting Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro when the Olympics come to town. Earlier I blogged about the new consortium doing rail research and planning, in a center based in China.

All the new technology of high-speed rail is electric-powered, said Donnelly. In many areas railroads run their own power-generation plants and electricity is carried on overhead lines or ground-level third rails. The trains, rails, bridges, signals are all metered and data is constantly fed into the IBM management system that then sechedules maintenance and replacement, measures wear on parts, watches for failures of equipment and manages the necessary invrestory of new parts. Donnelly said the efficiency of rail systems is crucial if they are going to attract and maintain heavy daily use or replace air travel for medium distance travel. In Taiwan you can go 300 KM in 90 minutes, faster than you can get checked onto an airplane in most airports. At that level of service, you take the train and avoid the plane. Trains are far more fuel-efficient than trucks, cars, planes.