technical report
Can the Past Help Power the Future?
- Senior Strategic Advisor
- Azure Dynamics Corp, Vancouver, BC
Pre-production hydrogen, Ballard fuel cell, New Flyer bus integrated by ISE Research on trial in Whistler September 2008. It has a Valence of 47 kWh Li-ion battery. Picture courtesy of BC Transit.
William Grove developed a successful primary zinc battery in 1839, and then in 1842 he built the first fuel cell that consumed hydrogen. As one of the acknowledged fathers of the conservation of energy he would have seen the advantage using a secondary battery to both store energy and capture regenerative braking. Would William Grove be excited by the interaction of batteries with fuel cells today?
The environmental specifications in niches that need electrical power have changed with time, as have related technologies. Fuel cells have not stood still but neither have inverters, electric motors, batteries which both enable and compete, and engines which compete with or complement them in the case of the HDW Type 212 and 214 submarines. And there are clean burning liquid fuels that can be made by combining hydrogen and captured CO2. Changing strategic supply and environmental issues impact the way we look at energy. Our technologies evolve and interact in changing environments and the selection we make for each market niche may change with time. As with life forms, survival and growth of technology in one niche will mean evolution and selection for another niche later.
Conferences are great mixers and milestones. An early exposure to fuel cells was on the Alcan stand at the 1983 SAE show in Detroit. There amidst a range of aluminum automotive components, I explained the operation of a mechanically refuelable, saline aluminum-air battery or "semi fuel-cell", where a solid fuel anode reacts with oxygen from the air. It ran the wheels of a 1/3rd scale model of a 1984 Laser loaned by Alcan's then-customer Chrysler. A gray-haired visitor was interested in the workings of the aluminum-air system and we talked. It was the late Deke Slayton of NASA fame. He said that the cells on the stand looked safer than the ones he had seen in use. When the Apollo 13 story became a movie, I realized that the issue might not have been the cell per se but the safety of liquid oxygen storage for the Pratt and Whitney alkaline hydrogen fuel cells used by NASA after the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) GE cells used in the Gemini program.
Astronaut Deke Slayton autographed a sheet at the Detroit SAE Trade show in 1983 when he saw Alcan's "semi fuel cell".
New, higher power density, PEM hydrogen fuel cells emerged after the Apollo program in both the U.S. and Canada. In 1990, Alcan was able to buy a "500 watt" PEM system from Ergenics in New Jersey that was being developed, it was said, to power an astronaut backpack. We planned to generate hydrogen from scrap aluminum, one of a number of methods used for balloons in WWII. We stalled when we found that we needed a then-costly process to refine the hydrogen to the grade recommended for the PEM fuel cell.
The Canadian Navy, meanwhile, evaluated both the Ballard hydrogen fuel cell and the Alupower aluminum fuel cell for submarines and showed that both could be used for range extension or "Air Independent Propulsion". It was to be concluded in Canada and the U.S. that the hydrogen PEM fuel cell is the preferred solution for large underwater vehicles where neutral buoyancy allows pure hydrogen to be stored easily in heavy metal hydrides to safely replace the normal ballast. PEM-assisted diesel-electric submarine fuel cell systems have now been developed to production by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW) and Siemens and there is now a non-nuclear option that is arguably reducing the proliferation of nuclear technology.
At the 2003 Grove Fuel Cell Conference, two decadesafter that Detroit SAE meeting, the largest group present were those companies committed to hydrogen PEM fuel cells. But there were also displays of still-evolving metal-air, alkaline, solid oxide and molten carbonate fuel cells.
There was great excitement because Ford had driven a hybrid PEM fuel cell-powered Focus to the conference and there was also a definite move to get the PEM to market early and independently of the road vehicle. Indeed, the Ballard presentation in the proceedings described applications for their then new 1kW Nexa™ Power Module and covered backup power, UPS and stationary power in general. Their speaker also described possible future uses in small electric vehicles (LSVs), forklifts and mobile floor scrubbers. Hydrogen PEM buses were also much discussed. BP spoke about hydrogen infrastructure and a bus refueling station in Barcelona. There were questions on full-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and it was clear that BP was thinking through GHG system issues.
A Canadian company was proffering an assembly of Siemens SOFC tubes for 5kW domestic systems, and Rolls-Royce showed that in the range 5MW to 10MW, the SOFC could be hybridized with a turbine to reduce overall costs and increase system efficiency. But in 2003 there was a new SOFC gem in a poster presentation by Ceres Power (www.cerespower.com). I spoke there to then and now CEO, Peter Bance. Gadolinia-doped ceria allows the SOFC to operate at between 500EC and 600’C rather than the much higher temperatures normally used for yttria doped zirconia.
It is fascinating that the newcomer at the Grove in 2003, Ceres Power, announced at the end of 2009 that they are beginning production and say there is "an addressable market of around 14.5 million households in the U.K. for a natural gas fed CHP product". If Ceres Power continues to succeed, it will be where natural gas is available and the derived electrical energy less expensive than alternatives. Their business case, though, will not prevail in, for example, large areas of Canada which have access to carbon-free hydro electricity such as British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba. For example, as the 2010 Winter Olympics approached in Whistler a number of hotels were claiming to have reduced both their costs and greenhouse gas emissions by implementing a "hybrid heating system"developed by Sempa Power. (http://www.sempa power.com/hybrid_heating_solutions.html). Sempa switches air or water heating from natural gas to electricity at the right time of day and are winning because of the rapid response of their system and smart energy management.
Presenting the first production fuel cell bus for the Whistler fleet in Vancouver October 2, 2009, are Premier Gordon Campbell and Minister Stockwell Day. Picture courtesy of BC Hydrogen Highway.
Even the Ceres Power solid oxide fuel cell may not yet be a candidate for rapid switching and really needs 24/7 applications to excel, e.g., it is a good candidate for powering continuous impressed current corrosion protection systems on natural gas pipelines as identified by Global Thermoelectric in their SOFC quest a few years ago.
In Anaheim at the Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS) 23 in 2007, Honda announced that the FCX Clarity would be leased to selected users in Southern California, and a vehicle was on their stand. Recently a Honda Clarity was delivered to the California dwelling of Canadian 2010 Olympic hockey team captain Scott Niedermayer.
Also at EVS 23 it was reported that five Ford Focus hybrid FCV's had attained a 260-320 km (162-200 miles) driving range. But there was another step on display: the Ford Edge plug-in fuel cell hybrid. It had a smaller fuel cell and a larger battery packing 15.6kWh. The fuel cell reliability and life had further increased. In a release that year Ford said, "This provides another 200 miles of range for a total of 225 miles with zero emissions. Individual experiences will vary widely and can stretch out the time between fill-ups to more than 400 miles."
These thoughts progressed and in early 2009, Ricardo Engineering came to the conclusion that a way forward for fuel cells in light road vehicles was by plug-in electric vehicles such as Ford had demonstrated. But in August 2009, Mercedes Benz announced the B-Class F-CELL, which only has a 1.4kWh lithium-ion battery, with a "range of about 400 kilometers and short refueling times of around three minutes". Given that the fuel cell used was developed in British Columbia by AFCC, a joint-venture between Daimler, Ford Motor Company and Ballard Power, one can deduce that if the plug-in Ford Edge was knocking on 400 miles range in 2007, then a >500 mile range fuel cell plug-in vehicle is now in sight if technologies are combined.
The hockey games that FCX Clarity driving team captain Scott Niedermayer would play in the Olympics that would be in Vancouver, BC. Scott knows that Vancouver is on the BC Hydrogen highway and that it includes 20 fuel cell hybrid buses deployed in BC Transit's Whistler fleet for the 2010 games and for years after.
Conventional Hino hybrid bus in Kawagoe near Tokyo in January 2009 with a 5.2 kWh NiMH battery.
The Whistler fleet will use 650kg of hydrogen per day from a fuel station that can supply up to 1000kg of hydrogen per day. The hydrogen is trucked in as a liquid. In an earlier article we described a project to recover hydrogen from a chemical plant. More than one plant in BC is venting waste hydrogen and the total exceeds the bus needs in Whistler. There is a plan to liquefy this locally available hydrogen when it can move from being a supplemental supply to handling the whole fleet. Though not plug-in vehicles, each Whistler bus couples a 150kW Ballard HD6 fuel cell module with a 47kWh Valence lithium battery. This is a large battery, for example, a Hino (Toyota) diesel hybrid bus has a 5.2kWh battery comprised of "four Prius modules". The fuel cell life increase and reliability gain from a large "battery fraction" that Ford found with the Edge may be a reason for the difference. If so, fuel cells will fight alongside hybrids to help bring down battery cost for all electrically driven vehicles.
Batteries brought Apollo 13 back safely. The hydrogen fuel cell proliferates in submarines where hydride can be used as ballast and there are large batteries. Batteries were helping the Whistler fuel cell buses, the Canadian Olympic hockey captain's Clarity and the B-Class F-CELL. Fuel cells extend the range of battery fork trucks as well as the duration of batteries in a power outage.
Attending the opening of the world's largest hydrogen bus fueling station on January 21, 2010, are (from left): Manuel Achadinha, president and CEO of BC Transit; Ken Melamed, mayor of the resort municipality of Whistler; Joan McIntyre of MLAWest Vancouver/Sea to Sky; and Shirley Bond, BC Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure. Picture courtesy of BC Hydrogen Highway.
Can the low carbon waste hydrogen being developed in BC to bring Whistler fuel cell buses further onside for climate change ever link with mass market light vehicle needs? It will be considered. Ricardo projects that plug-in fuel cell hybrids will have less hydrogen than today's hybrids. Could that 47kWh battery also be a step this way?
Will a world of electric road vehicles needing intercity range expand the use of fuel cells? Or will "range-extenders" be fueled by, for example, clean burning, dimethyl ether (DME) which can be used on the diesel cycle. Production of DME using captured CO2 is being examined in BC.
Niche by niche, and city by city, technologies survive and compete. Indeed only in January Ballard Power announced a relationship with Dantherm and Danfoss on backup power in Europe. PEM turns on and off more easily than SOFC but gives lower grade waste heat. It progresses in domestic power. John Tak, president of the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, says: "In Japan, more than 4,000 homes are powered by stationary PEM fuel cell systems. The Japanese government,working with electronics companies and utilities, has a plan to commercialize for the mass market."
Meanwhile, John feels that fuel cell back-up power systems for telecom providers in the U.S. grows because of a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation requiring a minimum of eight hours of run time. John is also enthused about some off-road vehicle applications when he says that last year Central Grocers Inc., Wal-Mart, Bridgestone Tires, and Coca Cola purchased fuel cell electric forklifts where the "up time" of a vehicle is built into the business case.
William Grove would be interested in the commercially viable fuel cell niches on land and under water and the progress towards centrally refueled bus fleets. He would deduce that transportation would become progressively less carbon-intensive as fuel cells, batteries and indeed CO2 capturing hydrogen-enriched, liquid fuels would advance.
We will integrate these technologies with good energy management. The amounts of each technology chosen in each niche will depend on the business case which will increasingly involve the dollars to reduce carbon now foretold with models like GHGenius and GREET.
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