The European Union Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) has allocated $679 million USD for research and development aimed at escalating the timeframe for rollout of new technology.

The JTI is a public – private partnership and part of the Seventh Framework Program that focuses on research, development and demonstration of new technologies. As I had talked about last month, the EU Parliament has now paved the way for standardized production, dispensing and marketing of hydrogen vehicles and technology among member countries.

JTI’s goal is to put money into various areas of hydrogen research, such as production, distribution, fueling stations, vehicles, and stationary fuel cells in order to ready the commercial rollout by 2020. The Initiative is made up of over 60 private companies and includes many non-profits as well.

One other area that the JTI will focus on is early markets for hydrogen fuel cell deployment which will likely be geared towards portable generators, large stationary fuel cells for homes and businesses and small portable devices to replace standard batteries in laptops, cameras, cell phones and other electronic devices.

Realistically, hydrogen transportation will take longer to rollout because of the necessary fueling stations that need to be built in each country. But, by “putting their money where their mouth is” the Europeans are making a bold move that the rest of world’s superpowers would do well to emulate.

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Dorothy may have tapped her ruby slippers together wishing to be back home in Kansas, but it’s the Brits who have made a home of hydrogen in the West Midlands area. The University of Birmingham and the Black Country Housing Group (BCHG) collaborated in making this residential fuel cell dream a reality.

The UK hydrogen home is connected to the grid so that it can sell extra electricity to the utility company during times when the homeowners are away and the house can also receive electricity from the grid as needed. Baxi Innotech supplied the fuel cell system which uses the standard natural gas pipeline for the house.

The natural gas is reformed into hydrogen, which is run through the fuel cell to create 1.5 kw of electricity. The system also can create 3 kw of heat as well, including hot water for showers, baths and dishwashing as well as the space heaters situated throughout the home.

The news of Great Britain’s hydrogen home comes right after last week’s news of the University of Glamorgan opening the country’s first Hydrogen Fuel Research Center. The Glamorgan project will use both solar and wind energy to create hydrogen renewably and cheaply for use in fuel cell cars.

With the Brits attacking the hydrogen front for both home and cars, it’s only a matter of time before these two puzzle pieces to the hydrogen economy come together and fall nicely into place.

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The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has made a breakthrough in high temperature production of hydrogen gas. By using High-Temperature Electrolysis (HTE) of steam, the water vapor components of hydrogen and oxygen can be broken apart more easily.

Many current day nuclear reactors use the heat generated from the radioactive process to change water into very high pressure steam, which turns the blades of steam turbines to produce electricity. The steam is then cooled and turned back into water.

What INL is proposing is that some of this steam be electrolyzed and turned into hydrogen. By running an electric current through steam instead of water, much less energy needs to be used in this “cracking” process.

Now, the INL is not new to using nuclear reactors to crack steam into hydrogen. In November 2006, I had talked about how the INL (not to be confused with the crew from SNL or even the INS) was building a Generation-IV thermochemical cracking nuclear reactor to create both hydrogen and electricity on a commercial scale.

Unlike the HTE process, however, thermochemical cracking involves heating water into steam and then applying a chemical agent (not electricity) to split the vapor into hydrogen and oxygen. The INL is calling its high temperature electrolysis method a breakthrough in hydrogen generation that it is currently working to scale up for commercialization purposes.

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Researchers at Oxford University in the UK, have identified a mushroom enzyme called “laccase” that could replace platinum and other precious metals in fuel cells. The fungi fuel cell would be more efficient than traditional metal catalyst FC’s in speeding up the chemical reactions.

Laccase typically comes from mushrooms on the ground or found on rotting wood, but the fungi could be harvested in higher yields for commercial purposes as well. The mushrooms are cheap and abundant and a very effective in getting hydrogen and oxygen to react with one another.

Enzyme coated electrodes could be used to replace both platinum in fuel cells and zinc in batteries, which some experts estimate will run out worldwide by 2037. The first attempts at the mushroom fuel cell will be towards developing a device that will work in the small portable electronics marketplace.

If successful, perhaps the researchers will also be able to scale up their endeavors to the automotive marketplace as well. This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about Oxford University developing biofuel cells.

In March, 2007, I talked about how the researchers there were using a very old life form, R. metallidurans hydrogenase to replace platinum in fuel cells. I also mentioned some similar research in September 2006 as well.

With the quest for cheap fuel cells that require no platinum or other expensive metals ever present, it is heartening to see alternatives being developed that are inexpensive, easily found and have potential market viability.

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Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) say that creating hydrogen from sewage may hit the Department of Energy’s (DOE) target of $2 to $3 per gallon equivalent of gasoline. And, this is only one benefit of the Oregon researchers’ plan.

In addition to creating hydrogen cheaply at waste treatment plants, the system developed will also produce clean water as well. Now, I’ve talked before about Toronto researchers creating hydrogen from biowaste at sewage treatment plants by introducing dried sludge pellets.

But, the OSU researchers have a different take on how to create hydrogen from biowaste. Their method is 75-percent more efficient that traditional electrolysis of water. According to OSU, “All of this was achieved through fundamental research on ‘microbial electrolysis cells,’ or MECs, that use a new ‘membrane free’ approach that costs less and is significantly more efficient than existing approaches.”

Many types of biowaste could be used in this process including food processing factory waste, woody waste, and manure from farm animals. Biowaste is fed into this device and what is output is clean water, electricity and hydrogen, all valuable commodities that may be sold on the open market.

Self sustaining sewage treatment plants may no longer be a drain on a city or county budget, but rather a revenue generator and a supplier of hydrogen to power our cars and stationary home fuel cells. What starts as waste in the home and on the farm my recycle itself back in the form of hydrogen. And, as hydrogen is expelled from the fuel cell vehicles as water and steam, this will also recycle itself back into the home and onto the farm as well.

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An article in the Autochannel says that best-selling author Edwin Black has charged Honda Motors with delaying, sabotaging and suppressing its Home Energy Station IV for rollout with the Clarity FCX hydrogen car. The Honda FCX Clarity was rolled out this past July 2008 to a few movie stars and other notables. Since this time there hasn’t been much marketing noise from the Japanese automaker.

According to the article, Black claims Honda is suppressing its Home Energy Station from the marketplace (which was built for use with the Clarity) in order to push for more local corner hydrogen fueling stations to be built. The Clarity is being rolled out in the Los Angeles area because of the number of supporting hydrogen fueling stations already in place.

Black believes that when Honda says it is waiting for the infrastructure to catch up as a reason not to produce more Clarity FCX’s in a timely manner, this is a false reason. Black says that the Clarity FCX was meant to be home fueled from the very beginning as is the case with the Honda Civic GX CNG car that uses a home natural gas fueling station for similar purposes.

According to Black, the company that produces the Home Energy Station, Plug Power has stated that Honda’s home refueling unit has been good to go since 2005. But, because of their license agreement with Honda, Plug Power cannot go into production without the express orders from the Japanese automaker.

According to Honda’s website, they still show a model of the Clarity FCX in a garage of a solar home next to a Home Energy Station. But, Black claims most other promotional materials from Honda pairing the Clarity and the Home Energy Station have been dropped.

If the Home Energy Station is being suppressed as Black claims, this still won’t stop other manufacturers such as ITM Power from rolling out their own hydrogen home refueling stations. Also, if the suppression is true, this would be the hydrogen equivalent of crushing the electric car a few years back. It may be a temporary stalling tactic, but you can’t keep good ideas and technology down forever.

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The Hydrogen Highway was a grand plan four years ago to turn the West Coat into a network of H2 cars and refueling stations. Because of various setbacks including the national and California economic crisis being two of them, a more likely scenario is that Hydrogen Cities will emerge first.

The theory is that most drivers drive less than 50 miles per day on average. This is also the same fact that electric car advocates and plug-in hybrid makers are banking on as well.

So, if most drivers are driving less than 50 miles a day, why not put the hydrogen refueling stations where the drivers are? Add to the fact that some of the hydrogen car drivers will opt for home hydrogen refueling stations and not as many public stations will need to be built.

Now, I’ve talked about the hydrogen car chicken or the egg obstacles before. RIT is calling for clusters of hydrogen stations to be built inside large cities first. Mary Nichols of CARB is also discussing this idea at the Reuters Global Environment Summit.

GM and Honda are already working under this idea as they are currently only letting drivers in a certain zip code (near the hydrogen fueling stations) drive their cars. Hydrogen clusters before hydrogen highways sounds like a prudent course of action in order to jumpstart the carmakers and hydrogen fuel station developers in tandem.

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In case of a terrorist attack or other nationwide emergency situation, Denmark wants to be ready with reliable communications. That is why they have turned to the reliability of hydrogen fuel cells to provide such critical power.

A couple of weeks ago I had talked about the EFOY fuel cells powering outlying traffic signals in Germany. These fuel cells only need to be recharged every 50 days compared to 1 to 2 days for the traditional battery operated ones.

In Denmark, Dantherm Power will be providing the security of fuel cells for public safety reasons along the SINE network. Over 450 sites spread throughout Denmark will help emergency workers stay in contact with one another even when the public electrical grin is down.

The fuel cells will be produced by Ballard of Canada, and must remain operational for proprietary period of time after a major power outage. For such a small country Denmark also has 6 hydrogen fueling stations related to the Hydrogen Link Project.

It is this kind of commitment to clean energy and national security that will push forward the acceptance of hydrogen fuel cells in the everyday marketplace. Cell phone towers, traffic signals, emergency telecommunications, cameras, laptops and of course cars and other vehicles are all inroads to the hydrogen economy, which is coming on faster than anyone thinks.

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At the Paris Auto Show, Suzuki has given a sneak peak of its SX4 fuel cell vehicle (FCV) plus the Suzuki Crosscage FCV motorcycle to eager car show fans. I had talked about the Suzuki SX4 FCV in July, 2008 and how it would be road tested in Japan.

Now, Suzuki has decided to do a little showing off with some updated numbers from the previous prototype from the middle of this past summer. The Suzuki SX4 FCV that is being shown off in Paris, according to the automaker, can achieve 93 mph using 107 hp and a range of 155 miles.

The Suzuki SX4 FCV uses a fuel cell designed by General Motors and a has a 68 kw electric motor and a 10,000 psi compressed hydrogen tank. One of the little “extras” that the Suzuki SX4 FCV has is a set of capacitors for quick starts off the line and to relieve the fuel cell when more power is needed.

Normally, Suzuki is one of the wallflowers of the auto show circuit, hiding in the back corner, trying not to attract too much attention. So, it’s good to see the hydrogen car and motorcycle maker stepping out and showing off their green technology.

What will be next for the green automaker? Could there be fuel cell ATVs, scooters and marine engines just off on the horizon? Only time will tell, but it’s about time another fuel cell vehicle player stepped up in the marketplace. Suzuki could just be the dark horse of this FCV race.

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At a time when the U. S. has lost 600,000 jobs this year, the Department of Energy has reported that 675,000 new jobs in the hydrogen fuel cell market alone could be created in the next 25 years. According to the U. S. DOE, “Commercialization would create jobs in manufacturing, assembly, fuel production, repair, recycling, construction, and at auto shops and dealerships nationwide.”

The kicker is that the faster a nation moves to hydrogen powered vehicles and stationary fuel cells, the more jobs are created. If the U. S. were to lag behind Japan and the European Union, for instance then fewer jobs would be created here and more overseas.

The report states that government support of growing the fuel cell market is imperative to creating new jobs in the industry. The DOE also states that when it uses a more aggressive model for the fuel cell marketplace three times as many jobs may be created.

In an election year, when the economy and jobs are voters’ primary concerns, the DOE report is a timely effort to encourage Congress to extend tax credits for the fuel cell marketplace and other alternative energy efforts as well.

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