FreedomCAR: Will It Drive? The Bush administration’s focus on a technology so far from market-readiness could mean missing important improvements to current technology, says another member of the Academy panel, MIT Sloan Auto Lab Director John Heywood. He stresses that incremental advances to existing technology—specifically, to the internal combustion engine—are every bit as important as revolutionary leaps. “It’s really important at a broad strategic level that we work hard to improve mainstream technology in the short term,” he said. “Even if people do develop fuel-cell technology, the horizon is fairly long, and if we don’t improve our internal combustion technology our dependence on petroleum will only increase.”
Archive for January, 2002
Methanol fuel cells in notebooks and camcorder fo…
Methanol fuel cells in notebooks and camcorder
follow the link below to an article I wrote for wired.com. additional info (which is not in the article) exclusively in the [fuel cells] channel!
Fuel Cells That Fit in a Laptop While many micro fuel cell companies have yet to show any real product, Smart Fuel Cell has been rapidly advancing its micro fuel cell line. In late January, the Bavarian company will roll out a pilot production of its first portable methanol fuel cells — just three months after having unveiled its first prototype.
new entry in [wind]: overview market German wind f…
new entry in [wind]: overview market German wind facility producer/facts generated wind power Germany/better offshore parks farther out?
Fuel efficiency or wasting money on hydrogen snake…
Fuel efficiency or wasting money on hydrogen snake oil?
There has been lots of talks recently on President Bush’s “Freedeom Car” initiative. Remember: more money for fuel cell research, especially hydrogen fuel cells as the “coming fuel”..
Since I am in Germany right now, I thought I should do some research on what Germans think about this. Of ourse, German car makers are also onto that hydrogen next big thing. There have been talks on establishing a German “hydrogen gas station net”; around 2000 gas stations by 2020…roughly estimated costs: 120 billion Euros/Dollars. Surely, nobody wants to pay for it, now they’re talking about 2050..;-)
[Here are some differences US - Germany]
- mpg/fuel economy: 20.4 mpg (US) vs. 29.5 mpg (Germany)
- there are already two “3 Liter cars” available (means: 3 Liter/100 km) — roughly 78 mpg:
* VW Lupo 3L TDI
* Audi A2 TDI
(both run on Diesel, which is in Germany way cheaper than regular gas and also sort of subsidized (but also dirtier; French companies Peugeot/Citroen already introduced certain filters to reduce emissions)
- in general, gas is way more expensive than in the US..about 3 dollars/gallon
- also, German Government issued an ‘eco tax’ in 1999: each year gas is going to be around 3 cents more expensive –
argumentation/calculation: 10% increased price for gas leads to 3% reduced usage. And this seems prove to be true: In the last
two years, gas usuage decreased at around 12% (source)
- biodiesel is coming; also ’sulphur-free’/’sulphur light’ gas at gas stations
[zero emission? naaah]
Is hydrogen our future? maybe. who knows. And I can’t stand listening to that ‘zero emission’ hydrogen fuel cell crap. But this is only partly true: The only byproduct of a hydrogen fuel cell is heat and water. However, hydrogen is a chemical element not to be found in nature; it takes energy to split hydrogen, usually done by environmentally unsound coal or natural gas. Also, hydrogen is more difficult and expensive to store and an new infrastructure has to be set up.
[methanol -- an alternative?]
And methanol is also not a very ‘clean fuel’ but it may be more efficient starting with methanol because it’s derived from natural gas. Methanol could be stored in regular tanks, though. But we shouldn’t forget: The output of purely methanol powered fuel cells is not only water but also unwanted carbon-dioxide (CO2) and there are lots of emissions in getting natural gas….
Clean Energy Markets 2002: US trends Clean Edge p…
Clean Energy Markets 2002: US trends
Clean Edge predicts five “new energy” trends to watch:
* Energy Web: the emerging marriage of the energy, telecom, and software sectors
* Bringing Solar to Scale: the mass commercialization and build-up of large-scale solar-cell manufacturing
* The Microtization of Fuel Cells: the application of micro fuel cells for use in a wide range of portable electronic devices
* Carbon Nanotubes: tiny fabricated tube-shaped molecules that are optimal for hydrogen storage — and are getting close to commercial viability.
Download Clean Edge’s 11 page report here.
No more wars on oil? Here’s a scanned pdf of an a…
No more wars on oil?
Here’s a scanned pdf of an article I’ve written, recently published in “Die Woche“. Download here. (in German)
