Mercedes-Benz decided to let company trainees do a mashup of what would happen if you combine a futuristic hydrogen car with an old school automobile. The result is the F-Cell Hybrid Roadster.

Over 150 Daimler AG trainees in Sindelfingen, Germany took turns for about a year in creating this 1.2 kw hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that has a top speed of around 15 mph and a range of a little over 200 miles.

The vehicle is a cross between an 1886 Benz Patent Motor Car and Mercedes B-Class F-Cell. There is no steering wheel on this two-seat buggy, only a joystick that steers the large spoked bicycle wheels in drive-by-wire fashion.

As the automaker with the largest fleet of hydrogen vehicles on the road today, it’s good to see Daimler allocating resources to training and development in a forward thinking fashion. This “back to the future” F-Cell Roadster is hip, fun, funky and an excellent training tool for a future generation of engineers.

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The California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) in Sacramento plans to have 46 retail hydrogen fueling stations in place in six communities by 2014. The H2 fueling stations will be enough to accommodate 4,300 passenger vehicles and 20 fuel cell buses.

Right now in California there are 26 hydrogen fueling stations throughout the state, but only six of these are able to accommodate a variety of hydrogen fueled automobiles.

The CaFCP Action plan includes:

• “Developing early ‘hydrogen communities’ for passenger vehicles with clusters of retail hydrogen stations in four Southern California communities: Santa Monica, Irvine, Torrance and Newport Beach, with additional stations to support the next identified communities and a network of connector stations
• Expanding the transit program in the San Francisco Bay Area with new mixed-use stations that provide fuel for passenger vehicles and transit buses, as well as dedicated retail hydrogen stations for passenger vehicles.
• Developing codes, standards and regulations with a state-of-the-art hydrogen station in the Sacramento area that will enable regulatory agencies to validate new test procedures as well as provide fuel for passenger vehicles in the Sacramento area.”

In August 2008, I had talked about the CaFCP Vision Plan and this action plan looks to be an extension of the vision plan. The action plan for California is well underway since last week the California Air Resources Board (CARB) sent out a notice to establish modular hydrogen fueling stations.

Grant agreements will be awarded to Chevron in Harbor City, San Francisco International Airport, Shell Hydrogen in Newport Beach and UCLA in Los Angeles.

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One of the largest hydrogen gas suppliers in the world, the Linde Group has come up with new hydrogen compression technology that it will be introducing at the National Hydrogen Association 20th Annual Conference in Columbia, SC on March 30 to April 3, 2009.

I’ve talked about the Linde Group before as the first company to open up a hydrogen fueling station for ships and as part of a small group of industrial hydrogen gas suppliers that could one day replace Big Oil.

The Linde Ionic Compressor will be a large step forward in hydrogen fueling technology. According to Linde, “Unlike conventional mechanical systems, the Ionic Compressor uses an ionic liquid in direct contact with hydrogen instead of a piston in the pressurizing process.”

Critics have long stated that the manufacturing and compression of hydrogen are not as energy efficient as they like, which leads to higher costs. This new pressurizing process is expected to reduce costs, increase efficiency and reduce noise and maintenance compared to systems that use pistons for compression.

Linde intends to use this system first for the indoor forklift market. For hydrogen cars, Linde is also introducing the HF-KTA hydrogen fueling station, which is highly transportable, easy to deploy and can refuel vehicles at 5,000 psi to 10,000 psi.

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Legendary singer and musician Neil Young will be driving a modified 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV called the Linc Volt into the Automotive X-Prize competition. The original 1959 Lincoln Continental is 19.5 feet from bumper to bumper (the longest car of its time), weighs about 2 ½ tons and gets around 10 mpg.

The modified Linc Volt hybrid vehicle however, is expected to achieve over 100 mpg as part of the X-Prize requirements. Neil Young has partnered with Jonathan Goodwin’s H-Line Conversions and UQM Technologies for the Linc Volt conversion that can run on gasoline, CNG or biofuels. One of the unique aspects of this vehicle is that it also has an onboard hydrogen generator to increase mileage, no matter which primary fuel is being chosen.

According to Young, “The hydrogen generator produces gas out of water. It is displacing an unknown amount of fuel at this time and that’s one thing we’re going to figure out with VIPER. We’ve had estimates that it’s displacing up to 70 percent of fuel at this time, but we really don’t know. But we know we can get more out of it than were getting now.”

One of the ideas behind Neil Young’s Repower America promotion of this new technology is that consumers don’t have to be confined to small cars to get over 100 mpg. Enthusiasts of all kinds of cars including classic Americana can convert their vehicles and achieve increased mileage and lower emissions.

Mr. Young was at the Virginia International Raceway last week testing the Linc Volt and will continue to do so throughout April as well. Young is also producing a movie called “Linc Volt” based upon the experimentation, promotion and results of this car, which will be due out in the Fall of 2009.

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In case you missed it, President Obama was in Southern California yesterday, first at the Southern California Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center in Pomona and then on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank.

While at the electric car center in Pomona, President Obama said it was good to get out of Washington to “recharge your batteries.” In the midst of electric car and plug-in hybrid fans, however, President Obama did mention hydrogen cars as part of the plan going forward. Here is video 1 and video 2 of the President’s speech.

The President also mentioned a plan to put a series of alternative fuel rest stops along the major highways on the West Coast that would refuel hydrogen cars, those that run on biofuels and recharge electric vehicles. This new vision may be a modification of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s vision of the Hydrogen Highway implemented a few years back that now has around 26 operating hydrogen fueling stations throughout California.

The criticism is that these “alternative fuel rest stops” will compete with other locally owned gasoline stations. The positive, however, is that these will enable the owners of these new breeds of alternative fuel vehicles to travel the West Coast without worry of finding appropriate fueling or recharging.

At the beginning of his Presidential campaign, President Obama traded in his Chrysler 300C for a Ford Escape Hybrid in order to appear more green-friendly. Now, if we could get President Obama to make another switch to the Ford Flexible HySeries Edge which is both a plug-in hybrid and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, we would be in business.

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Desalination plants everywhere could be producing hydrogen gas from seawater if the right device were to be installed. This is the word from physicist Roberto De Luca from Italy’s University of Salerno.

De Luca has run laboratory tests where he has forced salt water (containing sodium and chlorine ions) through a thin rectangular pipe that has two metal electrodes on the sides. A traverse magnetic force was applied to the salt water producing an electromotive force.

At one of the electrodes oxygen and hydrogen gas are produced from the water. The electricity produced in this process could be used to partly power the desalination plants, which are typically powered by oil.

The hydrogen could be sold for use in cars, or it, too could be run through a fuel cell and used to partly power the plants. In time when sustainability is not only a buzzword taught in schools, but one being adopted as a fact of life, it is this kind of thinking that will provide a greener and more economically sound future for all.

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I’ve talked about ExxonMobile and Shell Oil before in regard to creating alternatives to oil that will green the environment. At this time it was hard to tell whether their interests were legitimate or just another public relations greenwashing ploy from yet another set of major corporations.

Well, now both Big Oil companies have decided to show their true colors. Shell Oil, after putting up hydrogen fueling stations in places like Washington DC, Iceland, Los Angeles and Shanghai, China have announced that they are winding down their investments in wind, solar and hydrogen in favor of the more lucrative biofuels sector.

Over the past 5 years, Shell Oil has spent $1.7 billion in renewable energy development, mostly in the wind sector, with smaller amounts invested in thin-film solar and hydrogen development for cars. ExxonMobile, on the other hand has decided to jump on the hydrogen bandwagon and scale up their efforts.

The only catch is that ExxonMobile wants to use gasoline to produce hydrogen on demand inside the vehicle. While this research is being sold to the public as a green alternative, the goal is the sell more gasoline.

ExxonMobile does not address with this new technology the desire by many to wean ourselves from dependence upon foreign fossil fuels. Conversely, the ExxonMobile plan will keep this dependence alive and well for years to come. And it will be very profitable for them.

Now, just like a tiger can’t change its stripes, neither can Big Oil transition into Big Alternative Fuel. Oil companies at the core sell fossil fuels. They may put on alternative energy dog and pony shows every once in a while to throw the public off their trail, but when push comes to shove and its time for profit, its all about the oil. It always has been.

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So, just how does one save Detroit when the Big 3 Automakers are tanking further into insolvency? One answer, in addition to building new cars, is to put the autoworkers to task building a solar and hydrogen powered light railway MagLev system from Detroit to Lansing, Michigan.

The Interstate Traveler Company LLC, would be putting on the project and will use only private investors and no state money to do so. Interstate Traveler, however, will need permission of the State to use the right-of-way land next to the freeways to construct the light rail system.

The intention is the split the profits 50-50 with the state and local communities, so this will put people to work and be a money generator for locals as well. The hydrogen train will use its maglev power upon stainless steel tracks to accelerate to 200 mph. The rail train will carry passengers and freight as well. Fiber optics will also travel along the railway system adding another benefit to the system.

This hyrail or hydrail system (depending upon who you ask for the derivation) will also transport various liquid and vapor based fuels, electricity, liquid waste and potable water. The price tag for this project will cost around $15 million per mile to build, though the utility clustering model is expected to be a large revenue generator that will quickly recoup the investments.

If approved by the State of Michigan, this hydrogen light rail project could start as early as 2010.

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In Japan, Tokyo Gas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. are developing highly efficient hydrogen production units for cars and homes. The steam methane reforming units will include carbon dioxide capture features and will form a local hydrogen network.

Hydrogen will be supplied to fuel cell vehicles, homes and offices through a network of pipelines. Hydrogen and CO2 will be separated from the source methane. The “off gas” or gas left behind after the separation process will be cooled to – 20 C and the liquid CO2 will be collected and transported elsewhere.

Hydrogen and methane gas will be used to heat the unit. Tokyo Gas is stating that the hydrogen separation efficiency in this process is 81.4 percent or the highest known to date.

Tokyo Gas has been instrumental in developing the Japanese Hydrogen Highway system by putting up hydrogen fueling stations at different locations including the Senju station in the north. Tokyo Gas has also developed the first commercial hydrogen fuel cell cogeneration unit for the home.

Unlike natural gas utility companies in other countries, Tokyo Gas has stepped up to bat for a hydrogen-based transportation system and economy. By creating more efficient methods of separating out the CO2, Tokyo Gas is setting an example for other clean energy companies to follow.

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Even the most efficient turbodiesel engines in the world cannot match up to the efficiency of BMW’s new hydrogen internal combustion engine. BMW has partnered up in this H2BVplus program with researchers from Graz University of Technology, HyCentA and HOERBIGER of Vienna, Austria to produce an engine with improve geometry and progressive high-pressure direct injection of hydrogen.

The efficiency of BMW’s new hydrogen engine is rated at 42-percent, which is one-percent higher than the most efficient turbodiesel engines and roughly 50-percent higher than standard gasoline-powered internal combustion engines. The new BMW hydrogen engine combines the strengths of spark-ignition, diesel design and the low ignition temperatures of hydrogen.

The direct injection method pushes hydrogen into the cylinders at around 4,500 psi to produce around 100 kw of output. These same researchers have been working under the European Union Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (HyIce) project with the goal of competing with turbodiesel engines for efficiency ratings.

One has to wonder if this new H2 engine will anytime soon be ported over to the BMW Hydrogen 7 luxury car that the manufacturer has been loaning out to celebrities and other notables for the past year or so? Or perhaps BMW has some other interesting plans for the new engine? There’s no word yet, so we’ll have to keep our eye on this one to see how it unfolds.

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