Bristol's Hydrogen Ferry Wins Sustainable Shipping Award (26/07/11)

Bristol Hydrogen Boats has won SustainableShipping.com's first Environmental Innovation of the Year Award for its work in developing the UK's first hydrogen ferry.

The project, supported by the city council, is aimed at demonstrating the benefits of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and comprises No 7 Boat Trips, the Bristol Packet and Auriga Energy Ltd.

Nedstack delivers world’s largest, 1 MW PEM fuel cell for chlorine plant in Antwerp-Lillo (27/07/11)

Dutch fuel cell manufacturer Nedstack has transported its first one-megawatt fuel cell power plant to the Solvay chlorine plant in Lillo, Belgium.

The largest of its kind in the world, the PEM Power Plant will convert hydrogen into electricity and heat.

It comes after the Dutch firm built a 70 kW version for AkzoNobel in Delfgzijl, the Netherlands.

Why I’m backing Fuel Cells (27/07/11)

Hydrogen fuel cell technology will make the "largest contribution" to reducing carbon emissions, according to Dr Robert Trezona, technology director at the Carbon Trust.

He believes that fuel cells will overtake battery-only vehicles because of the limited useful range of the latter.

"Fuel cell technology offers a route to lower cost electric vehicles with long range; it is much cheaper to store most of the energy on board the vehicle as hydrogen than in large battery packs, then use a fuel cell to convert this to electrical energy and a much smaller battery to manage variable power requirements," Dr Trezona explains.

He expects a "sharp reduction" in the capital costs for fuel cell development by 2020, which at the moment remains a hindrance to growth and uptake.

Opel may launch new flagship model with fuel cell system (23/07/11)

Opel/Vauxhall plan to introduce a new flagship model by 2016 or 2017 that will use an alternative powertrain, such as fuel cell technology.

Bosses think the vehicle could achieve annual sales of around 20,000 units.

Klaus Franz, Opel deputy chairman, said the model would be a "technological spearhead" for the brand.

"Already with the our Ampera electric vehicle, we have shown what we are able to do and enjoy an advantage of two to three years compared to the competition," he added.

UVic scientists creating first North American ship to use batteries, fuel cells (17/08/11)

The University of Victoria is creating a ship that will rely on batteries, low-emission diesel generators and fuel cells.

It will be the first ship of its kind in North America and will feature a science lab and extra berths.

Kim Juniper, university professor and the leading scientist in the project, explained that the team were "borrowing technology from a whole bunch of different places".

"We've got cruise ship-style propulsion that's very quiet. We've got the bus fuel cell system and there's a lot of different technologies that are coming together on this ship to make something that's very quiet and very environmentally friendly," he said.

Low Emission Cars Under NREL's Microscope (17/08/11)

Scientists at the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have been trying out the Kia Borrego Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, which is being viewed as one of the leaders in the field.

NREL vehicle systems engineer Mike Simpson said: "We are currently working with a number of manufacturers to bring more plug-in and fuel call vehicles to NREL.

"We are bringing them in to support testing in areas unique to NREL like grid integration and thermal effects on comfort and batteries." 

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