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FAQ: Guide to alternative fuels
February 1, 2007 -
Driving coast to coast on deep fat fryers
July 11, 2006 -
The greening of the city bus
June 1, 2006 -
Stanford project mixes Darwin with hydrogen
July 21, 2005 -
Start-up zeros in on hydrogen fuel cells
July 11, 2005
A start-up touting technology developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory plans to announce a breakthrough on Tuesday that could make hydrogen fuel a stronger contender in the alternative-energy race.
Ecotality plans to produce a prototype of an apparatus called the Hydratus that generates hydrogen fuel, from a reaction between magnesium and water, as it's needed by a vehicle's fuel cell.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, run for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, has developed a new version of the Hydratus that offers double the mileage of the old version, but at the same weight and volume. Ecotality, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., plans to unveil its prototype by the end of 2007, which will give the company time to put refinements into the newer version of Hydratus, according to Ecotality's CEO, Jonathan Read.
"Hydrogen on-demand is going to be what catapults hydrogen from being a great concept to a great reality," said Read.
The Department of Energy has been encouraging research in alternative-energy technologies such as that used in hydrogen fuel-cell cars, whose only byproduct is water. But large-scale implementation of hydrogen fuel faces obstacles that many critics say could be almost insurmountable.
Among the issues: It takes a lot of electricity to produce hydrogen for fuel; hydrogen fuel-cell cars can't go far before needing a refill; the U.S. has no hydrogen fuel infrastructure; and transporting hydrogen safely and efficiently could be tricky. Also, producing hydrogen via conventional means generates a lot of carbon dioxide, one of the primary causes of global warming.
The problem with compressed hydrogen
But Read points out that the product of conventional production and storage techniques--compressed hydrogen--is unlikely to find a viable market anyway. "Compressed hydrogen is the least likely to be the prevailing system when the shakeout is done and over with. It's expensive to produce, transport and store, and it's inefficient in form to produce and store," said Read.
A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with a Hydratus on board would eliminate the need for producing hydrogen fuel, compressing it for transport and then safely storing it at filling stations, he said.
The details of Hydratus' on-demand fuel production system are proprietary to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but Read said that the magnesium/water reaction occurs somewhere between 400 and 600 degrees Celsius. The Hydratus has a cooling system based on the controlled flow of the magnesium, which is also used to continue the reaction.
The device is similar in concept to on-demand electricity producer from start-up Signa Chemistry, which uses a controlled chemical reaction to harvest hydrogen from sodium with silica gel or crystalline silicon powder.
Besides water, a byproduct from the reaction in Hydratus is a powder form of magnesium oxide, which stays in the device until it is pumped out. Filling stations for Hydratus-equipped vehicles would use a three-pronged pump that pumps in new magnesium pellets and water and pumps out the spent magnesium oxide. The pump is safe enough to be used by any consumer, said Read, and takes about 3 to 5 minutes to fill a Hydratus to capacity.
The spent magnesium oxide powder is 99.8 percent recyclable and can be made into usable magnesium pellets at the filling station itself. Though the process for converting the spent magnesium into usable pellets does require electricity, it is far less than the electricity required to produce hydrogen fuel, according to Read. This makes the magnesium a renewable resource.
"Magnesium is the fourth most-common mineral in the world and could be extracted from the sea. It's common and available in almost all countries. The magnesium, once it's put into the system, is a contained system. So there is no need to continue mining," said Read.
Ecotality's Hydratus-equipped buses will offer a range of about 155 miles (250 kilometers), or about 15 hours of operation. The cost for fuel is about $4.80 per liter (about $17.50 per gallon), or $2.80 per liter if the filling station recycles its own spent magnesium.
Because of the limitations on driving range, Ecotality sees municipalities trying to meet clean-energy requirements, and companies with truck fleets such as FedEx, as the most likely early adopters of its technology. The company is already in negotiations with interested municipalities around the world.
Buses equipped with power systems from hydrogen technology company Hydrogenics would, when outfitted with the Hydratus, cost about $500,000 each, whereas a bus with a conventional engine costs about $300,000, according to Read.
The company is also developing other versions of the Hydratus that could be used with fuel cells producing back-up power for houses, cell phone towers and computer systems.
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1. Global warming is a FACT - which it is NOT. The evidence does NOT support warming caused by man. the overwhelming evidence points directly at our local furnace (i.e. STAR) called the SUN.
2. That somehow man hasd caused a buildup of CO2, when this can be easily refuted with some relativel simple science measuring the comparative release of "greenhouse gasses" from volcanic eruptions. (a single LARGE eruption of an average volcano - releases more CO2 than man could muster over decades) The FACTS dont't support the "man did it" camp. Our influence contributes, but it's a TINY portion of the overall equation, amounting to less than 1/10th of 1%.
GO ahead folks, follow like the nice, docile sheeple that you are and allow this facade to lead us all towards the great Socialist police state you really want. This is all about control and power. If you can't figure it out then you deserve what's coming to you.
I'm all for preservation of resources, good stewardship of our environment, higher efficiency in energy use etc.. But let's get real. We CANNOT and will NOT ever be able to effect Earth's Global climate on a large scale unless you want to unleaseh several thousand megatons of surface nuclear detonations to create a "nuclear winter".. Beyond this, all the talk of carbon sequestration, blah, blah, blah..is just more smoke and mirrors so the average doofus can't see the power plays being made to control us. (Save the children, save Mother Earth 'Gaia'-- Hilarious)
God already foresaw this time in history.
CNET - You are hilarious. I LOVE reading this drivel as it's very entertaining. Another publication kowtowing to the New World Order freaks.
Keep up the 'good' work.
ROTFL ;-)
I haven't seen a Scientific Law, just Babel, theories, first there's a Thesis then a Theory then when the Theory is proven it becomes Law, (Like Newton's Law of Gravity). All I've seen it's Crystal Ball future computer Models, that do not even take into account the past (the fact that earth has gone through cycles of Warming and Cooling before and as recent as 200 years ago).
You know Science is not up to a Vote, Science is or it isn't. It is Binary 0 or 1, it's true or not. People can say the earth is flat or that the earth is the center of the universe like the catholic church said in the middle ages, All that it takes is an individual like Galileo, Copernicus or Columbus to prove them wrong (sometimes being laugh at or prosecuted in the process). So when I see a bunch of some called Scientist in consensus all I see is a Political issue with a Social Agenda, Not science.
Follow the Money folks, That's is what this Global Warming nonsense is all about.
P.S> By the way I should have got a Pattern 20 years ago when I had the same idea of Self contained Hydrogen Fuel generator/Engine. :)
Thanks, enscorp!
http://www.hypowerfuel.com/home.html
It should be an amazing future
Ralph
Oh, and this all affects the price of corn, which will continue to rise as demand increases. Yeah, great solution to $4.00 gas.
If it's 5 gallons and the rest is water it's still cheaper than gas... Getting some efficiency numbers would be nice.
IB
Therefore a recycled cost of $2.30 for a clean non oil fuel is REALLY amazing!
All you need is a solar panel to produce clean electricity for the compressor needed to fill up this beauty's tank with compressed air, cos that's what this car runs on, compressed air.
And all that comes out of the tailpipe is breathable air.
Here's a nice report on the thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
I'm getting one!
http://www.hypowerfuel.com/home.html
And consensus is not science. Einstein said something like "It only takes ONE person to prove me wrong."
The Ecotality Blog discusses and argues these issues in great detail, with basically all views represented.
http://ecotalityblog.com
But if it's approached correctly, and other alternatives are used, the variety of different approaches could help solve the problem.
So, let a million (or at least a dozen or so) alternative fuels flow - including hydrogen.
Janis Mara - www.ecotality.com
"some - including a former economist for President Clinton - fear that ethanol might cause worldwide food prices to spike"
Unlikely for several reasons:
1) The best maize for ethanol production is rarely used by humans directly as food.
2) An average box of corn-based breakfast cereal sells for about $3.50 or more, but contains less than a penny's worth of corn.
3) The amount of agricultural acreage in the USA and Canada lying fallow due to price support legislation is staggering, in many cases direct cash payments for non-production is involved. In effect you are paying to keep the price of corn artificially high. Removing price supports would offset any spike created by fuel production demands.
4) The highest and best use of a resource, i.e. it's most profitable use is generally the best policy for everybody. That an economist would forget that fundamental principle is surprising, but if said economist once worked for Clinton then it?s merely typical.
"producing hydrogen via conventional means generates a lot of carbon dioxide, one of the primary causes of global warming"
Please explain how there can be more than one primary cause of anything?
there is nothing in the definition of "basic, fundamental" that implies uniqueness.
also: DIRECT, FIRSTHAND
nothing exclusive there, either.
maybe focus less on perceived logical errors and go expand your vocabulary, hmmm?
Hydrogen has long been at the forefront of alternative fuel discussion, and it's rewarding to see it get such a positive write-up.
Let's hope this alternative fuel source is given its due.
- Did I get lost?
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by bejota
April 25, 2007 1:58 PM PDT
- Hey, I thought I was going to be reading interesting posts on Alternative energy? All I see here is a bunch of ***-for-tat discussions on Global warming and who right about the causes. who care about that...lets get to the alternative energy stuff so we can get the *ell out of Iraq and leave the Middle East region alone to sort out thier own messes for once
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