Domestic Fuel

A breakthrough by chemists at the University of California-Berkeley could have a profound impact on the growing market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

In an article appearing this week in the journal Science, UC Berkeley chemists show how to construct a catalyst composed only of edges and demonstrate that it can catalyze the production of hydrogen from water as readily as the edges and defects in regular catalysts.

At the moment, creating these catalysts in the lab is not cheaper than using traditional catalysts, but efforts by Chang and others to simplify the process and create materials with billions of active sites on a ridged wafer much like a Ruffles potato chip could allow cheaper, commercially viable fuel cell catalysts.

Read more from Berkeley news service.

The 2011 Florida Energy Summit has been moved to October 26-28 in Orlando, Florida. The official announcement came today from the Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam who made the announcement during a visit to the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa where he learned about the research and development of energy technologies to advanced the production of hydrogen, fuel cell, solar energy and biomass.

“The Florida Energy Summit will advance the expansion of the production of renewable energy in Florida by bringing together leaders in energy development, agriculture production, government, academic research, technology and finance,” said Commissioner Putnam. “By taking a more comprehensive look at prospective energy resources, we will gain a better understanding of Florida’s energy potential to not only capture, but also capitalize on the rich resources available.”

The Florida Energy Summit replaces the Farm to Fuel Summit, and will be hosted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS). The change in focus came from the 2011 Legislative Session where they transferred the responsibilities of the Florida Energy and Climate Commission to DACS and thus creating the Department’s Office of Energy. The new summit will broaden the energy focus from “biofuels” to all forms of renewable energy.

Information about the Florida Energy Summit can be found at www.floridaenergysummit.com.

I sometimes wonder what in the world California is thinking. I just wrote about Feinstein’s attack on biofuels in the state, yet today the state’s biofuels industry scored a victory when the California Energy Commission (CEC) announced the approval of more than $29 million for advanced biofuels projects. The CEC completed the first two years of its program funding cycle by awarding $29,675,072 to seven different projects through its Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (AB 118).

“This is a major milestone for our program because it means we have awarded all $175 million from the first two years of the AB 118 program, plus another $14 million from the 2010-11 funding cycle,” said Energy Commission Vice Chair James Boyd. “We have awarded more than 82 grants, public agency agreements and program support contracts totaling $189.4 million in AB 118 funding, leveraging more than $425 million in private match funding and creating or retaining about 5,600 jobs.”

The CEC estimates that the awards will infuse more than $44.5 million into the state’s biofuels industry and they estimate that the monies will create or retain 616 construction, engineering and management jobs over the next three years. The projects range from reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions to providing jobs through the advancement of biofuel technology to the installation of alternative fuel infrastructure aimed at fleets.

Awardees include:

• Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District ($3,000,000 – Match Share $2,663,175) – AC Transit will construct a new hydrogen bus fueling station in Oakland.
• Biostar Systems ($3,372,314 – Match Share $3,372,314)  – BioStar Systems is partnering with Sonoma County Water Agency and Sonoma County Transit to produce 148,000 cubic feet per day of pipeline quality biomethane from dairy waste and food processor waste to support the Sonoma County Transit natural gas fleet.
• South Coast Air Quality Management District ($2,600,000 – Match share $6,000,000) – The South Coast Air Quality Management District and their numerous partners will install and upgrade 11 compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling stations throughout Southern California.
• USA Waste of California ($489,040 – Match Share $1,051,021)  – USA Waste will upgrade a liquefied natural gas (LNG) station in the City of Corona (Riverside County) to add storage tanks, vaporizers and dispensers that will also add compressed natural gas (CNG) to their current LNG dispensing capabilities.
• CR&R, Inc. ($4,520,501 – Match Share $18,166,460)  – CR&R estimates that this project planned for the City of Perris in Riverside County will produce 120,000 million BTUs of pipeline quality biomethane from nonrecyclable municipal waste using a two-stage anaerobic digestion process.
• Pixley Biogas ($4,672,798 – Match Share $4,910,925)  – Pixley Biogas intends to build an anaerobic digestion facility in the community of Pixley (Tulare County) that will process more than 36 million gallons of manure from three nearby dairies and produce biogas to be used at the adjacent Calgren Renewable Fuels ethanol biorefinery.
• High Mountain Fuels ($11,020,419 – Match share $11,020,419) – High Mountain Fuels intends to convert renewable landfill biomethane to liquefied natural gas for use as transportation fuel at the Simi Valley landfill facility in Ventura County.

Reading books about the renewable energy industry shouldn’t be all about education. That’s why this week I took a “mini” vacation and read the novel “The H Factor,” by L.E. Indianer. This fast pace story closely follows the triumph of two college students attending Georgia Tech University who using hydrogen, create the energy silver bullet. But basking in their invention doesn’t last long – the creators’ lives are threatened by global interests who don’t want hydrogen to succeed.

The students created a patented, cylindrical contraption that cost effectively and efficiently converts water to hydrogen with no emissions. Rather than paying the $1 million plus for a real hydrogen car (the hydrogen fuel cell cars are less), the students’ discovery can be put on any car or truck for less than $10k. For all things oil, this game changer must be quashed at all costs.

Hydrogen is one of the most common and combustible elements known to man and many believe that someday technology will be able to manipulate it in a means that is could save the world. Great premise for a senior thesis deducted the two main characters, students Marc and Gerri who had this discussion to kick off their project.

“Anything that requires oil-based fuel today needs to be replaced by some other energy source, or a combination of sources. There’s no question about it, and H could be the starting point for us,” said Marc.

“Can you imagine not being dependent on foreign oil…oil that produces the billions of dollars that militant Islam is trying to use to destroy our country?” asked Gerri.

Sound familiar? This is the battle cry of the renewable energy industry.

Well needless to say, evil oil wants the world to be dependent on its products and the lengths the oil companies and foreign regime make for some high drama that hits very close to home. While this was a fun, fictional read, lets hope that Indianer is not a clairvoyant, at least in the sense that a silver bullet would be welcome, but not the war that comes with it.

This month, testing will begin in Oregon on a new hydrogen fuel technology that works in tandem with diesel and gasoline engines to improve fuel efficiency, torque and horsepower and lower emissions. The technology was designed by Global Automotive Hydrogen Systems in Hong Kong. The system was first tested in Australia in 2010 by Pacific Transport, a trucking company. The hydrogen technology was installed in three Kenworth truck towing trailers that were each 180 feet long and weighed more than 280,000 pounds. The system produced an average increase in fuel efficiency of 23.5 percent over a typical 11,800 mile haul. Six trips were made and took into consideration various factors including terrain, wind and temperature, all elements that can affect fuel economy.

“This system has been tested in the largest truck and trailers driving anywhere in the world, and time and time again it produces significant improvements in fuel efficiency,” said Larry Bright of Lakeside Distributing Network, Eugene, Ore., the North American distributor of the system. “Our testing in Oregon will confirm for the American audience what we already know about our system: it works and works very well.”

The hydrogen technology will be installed in two trucks owned by McCracken Motor Freight based in Portland, Oregon. On May 9th, one truck will undergo a complete dynamometer test at Pacific Power Products in Ridgefield, Washington. This test is designed to verify increases in torque and horsepower, as well as any lowered emission levels or other results. The second truck will begin a two-day 1,200 mile road test. Final results will be announced May 12-13, 2011, in Eugene.

The system generates hydrogen from just over a gallon of potable water and then uses power generated by the alternator to fuel the hydrogen-generation process. The hydrogen is then fed into the vehicle’s intake, providing a steady source of clean-burning fuel that supplements the diesel or gas already being used. An on board computer that comes with the system monitors the three critical elements to making the hydrogen: temperature, voltage and amperage.

Once testing is complete, Lakeside Distributing Network will only release limited amounts of information on the specifics of the system in order to protect the developer’s patent applications.

Bright concluded, “I expect people to be skeptical. But, I’ve seen the results with my own eyes. And soon the people of Oregon will see it, too.”

Officials at Lawrence Livermore and Sandia California national laboratories have debuted a pair of hydrogen-powered shuttle buses.

This article from Patch.com says the Ford E-450, nine-passenger vans will be tested as they shuttle people around the two campuses:

The demonstration will test how well the hydrogen-powered vans and their fueling stations stand up to the normal wear and tear.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., is providing hydrogen gas fuel. It also built and installed hydrogen fueling stations at the LLNL and Sandia campuses.

The vans will be able to run 150 miles between refuelings. Of course, the only emission from the burning of hydrogen is water.

There are renewable winners and losers in the FY2012 budget proposed this week by President Obama.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the president has included funding in the budget “To promote the domestic production of renewable energy, we invest in renewable energy programs related to commercialization; research and development; education and outreach; and energy efficiency and conservation. We are also focusing our loans to rural electric cooperatives to support the development of clean burning low emission fossil fuel facilities and renewable energy deployment. Developing a nation-wide renewable energy industry will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in rural America, while helping us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and reducing risks to our environment.”

More specifically, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu says the budget includes $3.2 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs and $300 million in credit subsidies to support approximately $3-4 billion in renewable energy and energy efficient projects. Funding for renewable energy technology would increase over all by 70 percent, including $425 million to support the “SunShot” solar power initiative, $64 million for offshore wind farms, $59 million for geothermal power initiatives.

However, hydrogen energy and fuel cell research would be cut by about 40 percent, a move that the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) calls those cuts “misguided and harmful to American competitiveness.”

“After investing billions of American dollars and years of effort, we simply cannot walk away from our commitment to these critical technologies,” said Ruth Cox, president and executive director of the FCHEA. “Fuel cells are the microprocessors of the Energy Age and they are already transforming the energy network through distributed generation of clean, efficient and reliable power.”

In the good news category, Big Oil takes a big hit in the budget, eliminating some $3.6 billion in tax subsidies for the oil, coal and gas industries.

The nation’s first multi-use industrial park fueling station to supply hydrogen directly for industrial, commercial, and government use has opened in South Carolina.

Logistics provider GENCO ATC has partnered with customers Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Plug Power Inc., Air Products, and the Aiken-Edgefield Development Partnership to launch the facility:

The fueling station supplies hydrogen directly to Kimberly-Clark’s 450,000-square-foot distribution facility managed by GENCO ATC to be used with fuel cells powering Toyota forklifts. Both the fueling station and the Kimberly-Clark facility are located in Sage Mill Industrial Park, Graniteville, South Carolina.

“Kimberly-Clark is constantly looking for innovative ways to minimize the impact of our operations on the environment,” said Rick Sather, Vice President of Customer Supply Chain at Kimberly-Clark. “We are pleased to partner with GENCO ATC, Plug Power and Air Products to help expand hydrogen fuel cell technology to our entire forklift fleet. This energy technology can reduce our carbon emissions by hundreds of metric tons per year, lower costs and drive efficiencies to power our operations.”

The project got some help from $1.1 million of a $6.1 million cost-share award made to GENCO ATC by the U.S. Department of Energy.

German auto maker Mercedes-Benz says governments and utility companies need to invest more in hydrogen infrastructure in order to help get use of fuel cells in cars.

The Detroit News says the company made the pitch during the North American International Auto Show and said it soon put 70 fuel-cell powered B-class vehicles on the road soon in California and is promoting an around-the-world tour by fuel-cell B Class:

Mercedes said fuel cell cars are now at the same stage of development as early internal combustion engines in the late nineteenth century, when drivers had to buy gasoline from drug stores.

The fuel-cell B class has a range of 200 miles on one tank of fuel, and takes about three minutes to refill, if you could find a hydrogen filling station.

After making the pitch, the company unveiled an electric version of its gull-wing, two-seater roadster.

According to a new article published by a team of researchers from CalTech and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology there may be a new way to harness the energy of solar even when the sun is not shining. Led by Sossina Haile, she along with her colleagues are looking at ways to produce hydrogen and syngasses by using solar funnels.

In an article, “High-Flux Solar-Driven Thermochemical Dissociation of CO2 and H2O Using Nonstoichiometric Ceria,” published in the December 24, 2010 edition of Science magazine, the research team has developed a device that is able concentrate solar radiation and heat it up to 1,600 degrees Celsius. In simple terms, the heat that results from this process is then used to split water or carbon dioxide into hydrogen.

As described in an article in Clean Energy Authority.com, the device consists of a quartz lens that focuses the solar radiation on a reaction chamber that is internally reflective and captures most of the photons that enter and converts them to heat. The device heats up at a rate of 140 degrees Celsius a minute until it reaches about 1,250 degrees Celsius, and stabilizing at more than 1,400 degrees Celsius. Through a two-step process, the device’s catalyst ceria (cerium dioxide) converts CO2 or water into its constituent elements.

Haile said in an interview, “Ceria is a metal oxide, what that material will do when heated is it will release oxygen.…It happens at high temperatures, when we cool it back down it wants to absorb oxygen.  “The ceria replaces the oxygen by stripping it from the supplied material, carbon dioxide or water, thereby creating carbon monoxide—used for syngas, or hydrogen—which can be used directly. Either resulting fuel could be used to store the sun’s energy for use in power generation.”

The funnels can be small, but they’re not nano-sized. “It’s like a sponge it’s porous and the gasses flow through it,” Haile said. But “it’s not nano because these temperatures are too high for nano-structures.”

According to Haile, the funnels are not efficient enough for commercial use and to date, only convert around 0.7 percent to 0.8 percent of the solar energy in the funnel into fuel. With further research she hopes this will improve dramatically.

“We calculated efficiency should be between 15 percent and 19 percent. We’re working with University of Minnesota on that. Right now it’s limited by the thermal design of the reactor. We need a better thermal design,” Haile concluded.

California is not the only state to take on a “hydrogen highway“. This week, General Motors (GM) and The Gas Company (TGC) have launched an initiative to make hydrogen-powered vehicles and a fueling infrastructure a reality in Hawaii by 2015. Ten companies, agencies and universities have joined the program, called the Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative (H2I) in what participants hope will be become an essential piece of the state’s energy program.

“Hydrogen, used as a fuel, will reduce our dependence on petroleum starting today,” said Jeff Kissel, TGC president and CEO.

According to a press release from GM, they are the “leader in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles” and the “first to field the world’s largest fuel cell demonstration fleet of more than 100 vehicles”. The release also stated that TGC currently produces enough hydrogen to power up to 10,000 fuel cell vehicles with the capacity to produce more. Yet to be determined as part of the program is how to best distribute the hydrogen but the companies are looking at the possibility of using existing natural gas pipelines.

In 2008, the state launched the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI), a partnership with the U.S. DOE with a goal of generating 70 percent or more of Hawaii’s energy through energy efficiency and clean, renewable resources such as solar, wind, wave, biofuels, and geothermal. The goal of H2I is to make hydrogen available to all of Oahu’s 1 million residents by 2015 with the installation of 20-25 hydrogen stations throughout the island.

“In Hawaii, we want to address the proverbial chicken or egg dilemma,” said Charles Freese, executive director of GM Fuel Cell Activities. “There has always been a looming issue over how to ensure that the vehicles and the necessary hydrogen refueling infrastructure are delivered to market at the same time. Our efforts in Hawaii will help us meet that challenge.”

What was not discussed in the release was the cost for Oahu residents to purchase a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle nor what the cost will be to fill up the tank.

Algae Biofuel Maker OriginOil, Inc. has found a way to produce hydrogen from the power of the sun at a level comparable to solar photovoltaics.

This company press release says the breakthrough could prove to be a highly scalable and renewable source of hydrogen that can come from algae production:

To achieve this breakthrough, OriginOil researchers built a pared-down version of the company’s Hydrogen Harvester™ and tested many process variables and materials. They achieved hydrogen energy corresponding to a solar energy conversion efficiency of about 12 percent continuously for several hours on a partially clouded day. The sole energy input was the Sun. By comparison, commercial solar cells achieve conversion efficiencies between six and 20 percent.

Brian Goodall, OriginOil’s CTO, said: “Our experiments clearly demonstrate that this technology can generate renewable hydrogen at rates that matter to the global economy. These early rates compare well with those of the more mature solar cell industry, with the added benefit that the fuel, hydrogen, is readily storable. This is the first renewable source for today’s $39 billion hydrogen market.”

OriginOil officials admit the in-the-field efficiency might be less than the 12 percent achieved in the research system. However, since algae stores up energy during the day, it will continue to generate hydrogen throughout the night. Also, algae production facilities using a Hydrogen Harvester could be self-sufficient for refining.

Everyone’s favorite online retailer (well, ok, at least the favorite in the Davis household) is offering its customers some more environmentally friendly options when it comes to having their items shipped to your door, and one of those options is hydrogen.

The London Financial Times reports that Amazon has patented its “environmentally conscious electronic transactions” that allow customers to see the environmental impact of their purchase and choose green shipping options:

The proposal includes the idea of adding a fourth “environmentally friendly” shipping alternative to Amazon’s current range of standard, overnight or two-day options.

It says this could include opting for hybrid or hydrogen-powered delivery vehicles or using empty space on already scheduled routes.

The article goes on to point out that Ocado, the UK-based the online grocery home delivery service, already uses biodiesel in its delivery vans.

GoingGreen Silicon Valley has named it’s Top 100 for 2010 and on the list includes renewable biofuel and biochemical company, OPX Biotechnologies (OPXBIO). The list honors the companies that are developing technologies that will ‘change the world’ and ‘disrupt existing markets and entrenched players’. The list is based on five major categories including innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

“It is an honor to be recognized among this impressive group of clean technology industry leaders,” said Charles R. (Chas) Eggert, President and CEO of OPXBIO. “This recognition strengthens our responsibility and commitment to realize the economic and sustainability benefits of our breakthrough first commercial product – renewable BioAcrylic – for consumer and industrial customers.”

According to OPXBIO, they have developed a proprietary technology known as EDGE (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) to manufacture renewable bio-based chemicals and fuels that are lower cost, higher return, and more sustainable than existing petro-based products. Of special note, the company has developed a diesel fuel bio-processed from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded OPXBIO $6 million to support this development.

Other notable winners in the GoingGreen Silicon Valley Top 100 include; Amyris, Chemrec, Cobalt Technologies, CoolPlanetBioFuels, Coskata, EdeniQ, Gevo, LS9, Mendel Biotechnologies, Sapphire Energy, Solazyme, Synthetic Genomics, and ZeaChem.

Weston McBride, Greentech Editor at AlwaysOn said of the winners, “The GoingGreen Silicon Valley Top 100 winners have thrived during trying economic conditions through innovation and creativity. It is by their example that the next generation of clean technologies will transform the global economy with more robust systems primed for sustained growth.”

OriginOil, Inc., a company that has developed technology to extract oil from algae to be a competitor with petroleum, has invented a process that will be able to get hydrogen from the living algae.

This company press release says the new Hydrogen Harvester will use little or no external energy inputs, requires no sulfur deprivation or other “stressing” of the algae, and no genetic modification:

“One of the primary challenges for algae production is to achieve the best-possible energy balance,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO. “By harvesting hydrogen from algae we are able to increase the energy output of virtually any algae production system. The result is a photosynthetic technology platform that yields energy in the form of oil, biomass, and hydrogen.”

Dr. Brian Goodall, OriginOil’s new CTO, commented: “The co-generation of hydrogen at the algae production site is a critical development for the realization of a completely integrated algal biorefinery. All routes from algae to ‘drop-in’ fuels such as renewable diesel and jet fuel require hydrogen and hydrotreating. The Hydrogen Harvester technology would eliminate the need for hydrogen pipelines and dependence on existing refineries which are typically far removed from ideal sites for algae growth.”

The press release goes on to say that the Hydrogen Harvester is becoming part of OriginOil’s stable of algae growth technologies.