The University of Birmingham, UK, will host the next International Hydrail Conference there in the summer of 2012 in cooperation with Appalachian State University. Dates and details will be available in late September, 2011, on the hydrail web site of the Energy Center at “App State” in Boone, North Carolina: http://www.hydrail.org.

The University of Birmingham and the University of Pisa, Italy, have become the first to offer Ph.D. degrees addressing hydrogen railway technology. Candidates from Birmingham and Pisa made invited presentations last summer in Istanbul, where the United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technology (UNIDO-ICHET) hosted the Sixth International Hydrail Conference (http://www.hydrail.org/summary6.php).

The international character of the hydrail transition is illustrated by the fact that both the Birmingham and Pisa doctoral candidates are from different countries than their schools. Birmingham’s first candidate, Andreas Hoffrichter, BSc, Bankkaufmann, (http://www.hydrail.org/docs/6_hoffrichter.pdf) is from Germany. The first hydrail-related doctoral candidate at Pisa is India’s Tarun Huria (http://www.hydrail.org/docs/6_huria.pdf), on sabbatical from Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at Jamalpur, where he chaired the locomotive and rolling stock design faculty.

Given the high and growing price of copper and labor, external power for most railroads that don’t already have it seems a doubtful proposition at best. Vulnerability to climate variation plus resource competition with foodstuffs production do not augur well for biofuel availability in the amounts that rail systems require. Cost, geopolitical considerations and environmental concerns (both climate and pollution) make staying with oil less and less practicable.

Unless some truly remarkable breakthrough in electrochemistry makes batteries more capacious by orders of magnitude, hydrogen seems the only plausible way to deliver the cleanest energy sources for railway use.

Hopefully other universities will follow and expand the trail that Birmingham and Pisa are blazing.

EkoKaravan

In July 2009 I had talked about how Turkish students had developed the SAHIMO hydrogen car that gets around 340 mpge. Last year the International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (ICHET) based in Istanbul decided to build the EkoKaravan recreational vehicle (pictured above) that runs off a combination of solar, wind, batteries and hydrogen fuel cell.

According to Green Prophet, “Released last year, the EkoKaravan is a mobile home that runs off wind, solar, battery, and hydrogen energy systems and could be used for anything from disaster relief situations to tourism. It’s also the first vehicle to combine four energy systems, according to Hatipoğlu. A 1kW wind turbine and 1.7kW solar array are the caravan’s primary sources of energy, and 17kWh batteries hold about three days’ worth of energy in the bottom of the vehicle. A hydrogen fuel cell converts excess energy into hydrogen so that if all these sources are depleted, the hydrogen can be converted into electricity by the same fuel cell. Hydrogen extends the range of the vehicle, in other words, but is not its primary fuel.”

Now, officials in Turkey are stating that they may have hydrogen infrastructure in place to support H2 cars and other vehicles as early as 2020. Currently a hydrogen hybrid bus is running in Turkey and a hydrogen hybrid boat is being built. These smaller projects are starting to add up so that officials are taking notice.

If the government decides to subsidize the building of hydrogen fueling stations such as the one now being built in the Golden Horn region of Bosphorus and the expansion of the European Hydrogen Highway continues, then Turkey will also expand its efforts.

Turkey may also become a hub for hydrogen trains (hydrail) so there is a lot of development going on in this country in regard to hydrogen technology that is underreported. So, even though Turkey may not be leading the hydrogen charge, they are at least trying to keep pace with what is going on with this technology, which is more than I can say for (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) other countries.

The State of the States report is an overview of how each state in the United States is growing (or lagging behind) in the fuel cell sector. The top 5 fuel cell states listed in both 2010 and 2011 reports are California, Connecticut, New York, Ohio and South Carolina.

But, this year a few more states are playing catch-up and may soon break into the top 5 themselves. These states are Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, and Texas.

Some of the progress in the past year includes:

• 1,500 fuel cell forklifts have been deployed or ordered

• 30 fuel cell or hydrogen-powered buses were either put on the road or plans were announced for deployment in numerous states

• Hawaii’s Oahu has announced plans to open 25 hydrogen fueling stations by 2015.

• By the end of 2011, California will have 20 public hydrogen fueling stations either operational or under construction.

• Honda and Daimler started leasing hydrogen cars in California (and Germany for Daimler).

• Toyota has let government agencies, companies and universities test its FCHV-adv and will continue to rollout 100 such vehicles in the next 3 years.

This is just a quick summary of what the 106-page Fuel Cells 2000 document has to say. For more information, read this PDF File:

http://www.fuelcells.org/StateoftheStates2011.pdf

Perhaps the single greatest impediment to the advent of the hydrogen economy has been the media-led insistence that hydrogen fuel cell technology is an automotive design experiment that has not yet been made to work. The ubiquity issue—the controlling obstacle unique to the car application—is never examined. Mention hydrogen and people inevitably assume that you’re talking about cars.

Steam technology was applied to railroads in the 1830s but wasn’t commercialized in automobiles until nearly 1900—seventy years after rail. Similarly, diesel was introduced to railroading about 1925 but—excepting the few Cummins cars produced in 1934 and the early Mercedes diesels in Germany in the mid-1930s—diesel cars, supported at the pump island, did not appear for another fifty years or so after diesel rail.

Why, then, do newsrooms insist that hydrogen cars should either emerge on the scene out of nothing, like some quantum commercial prodigy, or else be written-off as a failed experiment?

If steam took 70 years to evolve from the rail to the road and diesel took 50 years, why is the non-technical press so bent upon “putting the car before the iron horse” in the case of hydrogen?

This question, I concede, is somewhat rhetorical. In the 1830’s (with apologies to Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot) there was not yet a horseless paradigm to pique public interest in personal steam vehicles. By the mid-1920s, the reverse was true; cars were well past the innovation stage and barreling through the integration stage. That is, the state-of-the-art was advancing fast, having standardized on the energy density advantages of gasoline, with its ready domestic availability. Expensive, heavy-engined diesel cars were a “why bother” technology until the 1970s Arab Oil Embargo made diesel’s superior fuel range a design factor that could no longer be ignored. The minute diesel dispensing pumps became relevant, they popped up like mushrooms. Hydrogen will do the same.

But all that would happen very much sooner if hydrogen, like steam and diesel, were first made familiar to the public as a rail technology. Easier-to-implement hydrail would hasten the advent of hydrogen cars if its imminent emergence were not buried by the general press. Hydrail is a natural for compact, closed rail systems like streetcar lines, industrial plant yards and, especially, in maritime switching yards, where it complements hydrogen ferries and work boats. Hydrogen needs this kind of showcase to advance.

South African journalist Rowan Watt-Pringle has just broken ranks and disclosed present-day hydrail in all its progress and promise. Let’s hope the path he’s just refreshed is kept open for a while!

And since this last blog post I’ve learned that more hydrogen technology is coming to my “hood” which is the Inland Empire region of Southern California. A company called ClearEdge Power is installing a residential hydrogen fuel cell inside the city of Palm Springs.

Now, if you haven’t been to Palm Springs then you may not know about the plethora of wind turbines surrounding the desert oasis which creates clean energy for the businesses and homeowners. But, the wind doesn’t blow all the time.

So over 30 homeowners have now opted for the ClearEdge5 fuel cell that takes natural gas, reforms it into ultrapure hydrogen and then runs this through its fuel cell to create electricity. It cuts down on CO2 emissions by 37-percent. Now, tie this system to wind turbines or solar panels and this could be a zero emissions home power plant.

But, I haven’t even mentioned one of the coolest features about this system is that the first one installed in Palm Springs has been by Jackie Autry who used to own the Los Angeles Angels baseball team of Anaheim and is the widow of singer, actor and businessman Gene Autry.

Known as a cowboy singer, Gene Autry is famous for his Christmas songs and in particular “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer”. It’s good to see Jackie Autry getting “back in the saddle again” when it comes to living the life of clean, green energy and helping others to do the same.

When the history of railway evolution in the first half of the twenty-first century is written, it may largely be a tale of two metals and their respective economics. Copper and hydrogen are both essential to the long-term economical delivery of electric power: copper to stationary applications and hydrogen to things that move over land and water and through the air.

Track electrification is a pricey but proven hybrid solution, powering moving trains and streetcars via massive stationary plant.

Hydrail (hydrogen fuel cell) railway traction is pursued primarily as a preferable alternative to petroleum railway traction fuel rather than as an alternative to track electrification.

The oil-emphasis of hydrail stems from the fact that replacing petroleum solves more conspicuous problems than placing a moratorium on electrification. Reducing oil dependence reduces particulate pollution; ozone precursors; greenhouse gas emissions; depletion of finite extractable resources which have important non-fuel uses; and “geoilpolitical” turbulence—reinforcement of barriers separating the populations of some oil-endowed nations from the levels of self-determination and confidence they observe abroad and demand at home.

It still makes little or no sense to contemplate replacement of modern electrified routes where they already exist in good operating order.

But the recent (and probably permanent) rise in the price of copper, driven by the emergence of China and India as industrial giants, is bound to shift the economic balance between hydrogen and copper in a way that requires rethinking capital deployment assumptions.

Hydrogen is destined to become cheaper and more plentiful as copper becomes ever more scarce and is priced accordingly.

For new, small, rail vehicle (“hydrolley”) alignments, about all that stands between overhead trolley systems and the end of the line is the absence—to date—of a hydrogen streetcar demonstration. The presence of proven hydrogen buses around the world shows that battery-fuel cell hydolleys are feasible at that scale and are over-due to make their debut.

At the other end of the scale, however, the much greater energy requirements of high-speed rail present disproportionately daunting hydrail engineering problems.

But that may not be the case always.

With the price of copper hovering near its all-time high, even in a lingering world recession (having approximately quadrupled in about three years) and the cost of track electrification at around US$ 7 million per mile, the break-even point between a crash program to scale-up hydrail technology to high-speed rail proportions may be closer in time than we suppose.

Even the keenest track electrification advocates would not seriously propose that switching yards and branch lines could economically be electrified nationally. If not, that means carbon-fuelled and/or battery traction would have to coexist with electrified main lines indefinitely. It would be the kind of uncomfortable hi-tech/lo-tech symbiosis the telephone industry experienced during the transition years from circuit-switched to digital call transmission.

If hydrail technology can side-track the copper supply problem and serve all rail technology scales (streetcars to high-speed rail and perhaps even cross-country freight), then the rail industry can converge toward a single, environmentally benign technology.

R&D costs will be enormous. Implementation will take decades.

But even these barriers are small in proportion to the cost of widespread track electrification.

And they could be negligible in proportion to the capital write-offs that would follow if massive electrification were already far advanced when fuel cell/battery hybrid rail traction (and mass production of low-cost hydrogen via emerging thermochemical technologies) inevitably overtake electrification and strand that redundant investment.

Prudent capital allocation between extravagant electrification and unfamiliar hydrail may be one of the toughest questions the rail industry chews on over the next few years.

But projected growth in the price of petroleum and copper may soften it up considerably.

I live in the Inland Empire area of Southern California which is east of both Los Angeles and San Diego. The Inland Empire region is composed of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. San Bernardino County itself is larger than the 9 smallest U. S. states and 4 of the states put together, so it covers a vast territory.

In this vast territory I often wonder how hydrogen will make inroads and be mainstreamed locally. The more local new technology is, the more relevant it is right?

So, when I get discouraged I have to remind myself of several facts. First, I’m not that far from Los Angeles and Orange County which are hotbeds for hydrogen car and fueling infrastructure technology. Second, even though the Inland Empire isn’t a hotbed, it isn’t a cold block of ice, either.

In my region, there are 4 hydrogen fueling stations, at least a several hydrogen powered fleet vehicles being tested, a project underway to turn landfill waste into hydrogen, and now one of the local colleges, California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), which is about 10 miles away from me, will be powered by a large stationary fuel cell starting in 2012.

The 1.4 Mw combined heat and power plant will be built by FuelCell Energy Inc. (and the 5^th such college installation in the state) and owned by the Southern California Edison utility company.

And what gives me more hope is that according to CSUSB, “In conjunction with the installation of the power plant, the university is expected to incorporate fuel cell technology into its curriculum to teach students and the public about the benefits of fuel cell power generation. The unit is expected to be operational in early 2012.”

And what gives me an additional spark of hope is that inside the local library, which is powered by solar panels on the rooftop, there is a fuel cell bus exhibit for kids. It’s a little rudimentary, but it basically shows children how garbage can be turned into hydrogen which in turn can power a fuel cell bus that one day they could be driving or riding in.

So, even though I get impatient looking at hydrogen development on a national scale, I need not look further than my own backyard, so to speak, to see that hydrogen power is indeed making inroads. The progress may not be as fast as I would like, but then again every time the price of the barrel of oil goes up, there seems to be a public outcry to move a little faster. Now, why do you suppose that is?

There is a natural affinity between the emergence of hydrogen fuel cell railway technology (hydrail) and public broadcasting—though I’ve only just noticed it. Both worlds fall within the province of early adopters and other folks driven to scratch below the surface to see how things work and how they come to be.

With listener input and support, national and community public broadcasting can fill the great void in accurate hydrogen economy reporting—a gap that commercial media have been unwilling to address.

With this in mind, I recently dropped-in at one of my local public television stations to enlist their aid in calling hydrail to the attention of The News Hour and Nova. As I’d expected, the reception was cordial.

My family lives in the Greater Charlotte NC area—a community served by four excellent public broadcasting stations, two radio and two television. Though we’re retired and watch our money, we are members and enthusiastic contributors to all four stations because they offer access to information that is both interesting and unavailable elsewhere.

Hydrail is a case in point.

Mooresville, NC, near Charlotte, is my home. Over the years, the former Mayor—Bill Thunberg—has been my closest ally in the advancement of hydrail technology. It all began around 2003 with our quest to have the planned commuter rail line from Charlotte to Mooresville introduce hydrail technology as a US DOT new-technology demonstration site.

That quest is very much alive, though it’s overshadowed a bit by the success of the international collaboration our initiative has since become.

Locally, and nationally, public television and radio could do much to help move hydrail into the public conversation and out of the narrow world of scholars and agencies.

Charlotte has had its own public television service since August 27, 1965, when WTVI was originally licensed to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. Today its expanded vision is to highlight and address issues and needs that will enhance lives and improve its served communities. In the city that’s most mentioned internationally as an ideal “alpha site” for hydrogen streetcar (hydrolley) introduction, that vision implies a station role in hydrail education.

Charlotte is also served by WUNG, a university-related station. NC is nearly 500 miles across and the State’s 17-campus University has created a twelve-transmitter network so that the widely-separated mountain, Piedmont and coastal regions can monitor State issues as well as each other’s news.

Since 2005, both the University and its public broadcasting network have played a central role in introducing hydrail (and its Green manufacturing job creation potential) to the public and the world.

A major element in unifying State awareness is a program called “North Carolina Now,” hosted and produced by Shannon Vickery and news-anchored by Mitchell Lewis. “NC Now” has already broadcast two hydrail segments with Mayor Thunberg and me as guests. There is probably no other way the entire State can be informed about hydrail all at once.

Local public radio has also been a valuable portal in introducing hydrail to Greater Charlotte.  WFAE, whose 1981 origin was linked to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has since expanded its mission the be “the station of record for community leaders.”

A flagship program of WFAE is “Charlotte Talks,” hosted by Mike Collins. Twice I’ve had the pleasure of discussing hydrail on “Charlotte Talks.” Mike’s other hydrail guests have included:  Former mayor Bill Thunberg; Dr. Barry Burks, formerly with the US DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratories and now Assistant Director of the Charlotte Research Institute at UNC-Charlotte;  Dale Hill, founder of the high-tech transit vehicle manufacturer, Proterra Inc., whom I wrote about here recently; and Dr. Jan Brecht-Clark, Associate Administrator of RITA, the US DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration.

Our fourth station, WDAV, is a superb classical music station with few ways to support a technology issue. That’s unfortunate; our prospective hydrail debut line runs within a few hundred feet of their studio!

Sadly, public broadcasting’s Federal funding component may be on the new Congress’s hit-list. If that axe falls, chances grow slimmer that the public can access reliable information about the hydrogen economy, hydrail or other hydrogen issues the pop media don’t see fit to embrace.

Therefore I’m writing this blog to suggest that those of us who do see how important hydrogen will be for a clean-energy future should join, upgrade memberships, and otherwise support our local public broadcasting stations—and also let them know that we appreciate hydrogen-related programs and news coverage.

Especially just now, we need to let our Representatives in Washington know that lopping-off funding for one of the best mechanisms for directing future generations of engineers and researchers into their professions would be a short-sighted economic gesture—calamitous for the future of science and high-tech job creation in the USA.

According to LBNL, the scientists and researchers “… surmised disorder boosted the photocatalyst’s performance. To find out if their hunch was correct, they immersed disorder-engineered nanocrystals in water and exposed them to simulated sunlight. They found that 24 percent of the sunlight absorbed by the photocatalyst was converted into hydrogen when using a sacrificial reagent, a production rate that is about 100 times greater than the yields of most semiconductor photocatalysts under the same conditions.”

The scientists also found out that unlike other photocatalysts that only absorb a small spectrum of light such as ultraviolet, that their new disordered titanium catalyst absorbs the ultraviolet, visible and infared light of the spectrum accounting for a higher yield of hydrogen.

Meanwhile, researchers at Florida State University have discovered a material that they believe is a viable alternative and will reduce the need for platinum in fuel cells. The material they are calling “buckypaper” is made from carbon and, “…will create a new generation of hydrogen fuel cells that are less expensive, smaller, lighter and more durable.”

The new generation hydrogen fuel cell breakthrough has an increased durability of 25-percent and improved performance of 40-percent making it suitable for both stationary and transportation markets.

As more breakthroughs occur in creating cheaper and more robust hydrogen and fuel cell production only one thing can naturally occur: the acceleration of hydrogen cars to the marketplace. Add to the fact that this is Groundhog Day, I believe that Punxsutawney Phil also predicted this year that hydrogen cars are just around the corner.

According to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), “In the project, hydrogen will be supplied via pipelines installed in urban districts and pure-hydrogen-type fuel cells will be operated for a full scale of a community as demonstration.”

The go onto say, “The Research Association of Hydrogen Supply/Utilization Technology will install pipelines from Kitakyushu Hydrogen Station (Higashida, Yahata-higashi-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka), that uses hydrogen manufactured by Nippon Steel Corporation, to complex houses, individual houses and both commercial and public facilities in the vicinity so as to demonstrate operation of pure-hydrogen-type fuel cells for both home and business use.”

Now, on the other side of the globe in Scotland, an area that has its own hydrogen highway project underway, the Hydrogen Office Limited (HOL) project has just kicked off. Scotland has an overabundance of wind energy with no way to store the extra electricity.

This is where hydrogen storage kicks in. Wind turbines will electrolyze water and store the extra hydrogen for powering the surrounding areas. Presumably, when the Scottish hydrogen highway project is a little further along this hydrogen can also be used to refuel cars as well (or even sold on the open market).

There is also a rumor floating about that the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen is starting to be leased. So, even though hydrogen cars are not directly in the limelight right now they are far from being out of the picture altogether. And by flying under the radar for a while, hydrogen cars will ultimately outwit, outlast and outplay their opponents.