Nuvera Fuel Cells

The cars are coming, where’s the hydrogen?
By Bill Mitchell, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Nuvera Fuel Cells

Through 3 days of keynote addresses and meetings at the National Hydrogen Association meeting (including a ride and drive where we were allowed to put the Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicle and BMW Hydrogen 7-series to the test on a small rally track), one of the overarching themes that started to emerge on the fuel cell vehicle front was: The cars are coming – where is the hydrogen?

On the first day, Paul Brubaker, Administrator of Research and Innovative Technology Administration for the U.S. Department of Transportation challenged all of us with a simple question: Why not?  That is, why not make the required investment in hydrogen and fuel cells to move our country away from fossil fuels.  In the 1950’s, President Eisenhower signed the Federal Highway Act that resulted in our interstate highway system.  In the 1960’s, President Kennedy enabled research to put a man on the moon with the Apollo program.  In the words of Mr. Brubaker, both of these programs were expensive at the time, but in retrospect, have forever changed our society for the better.  Investment in hydrogen and fuel cells will be viewed similarly in the future.

On the second day, Dr. Mary Nichols, the Chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board discussed a recent decision at CARB that will mandate fuel cell vehicles, battery electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrids.  According to CARB, the mandate will ensure that in the 2012 to 2014 timeframe, that a total fleet of 7,500 fuel cell vehicles (5,357 if OEM’s can make the cars travel at least 300 miles on a tank of hydrogen) will be running around the streets.  This will be augmented by no less than 58,333 plug-in hybrids.  During her talk, she indicated that CARB is still studying how to “mandate” a hydrogen infrastructure to support the fuel cell vehicle rollout.

Fast-forward to today, and a few speeches stood out as a harbinger of things to come.  First, McKinley Addy of the California Energy Commission (CEC)  made a special announcement that the CEC has approved a budget of $120 Million per year for an 8 year period (total of $ 1 Billion) to help foster the commercialization and adoption of alternative fuels and clean energy technologies, including fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen refilling stations.

Second, Larry Burns, the Vice President of R&D and Strategic Planning at General Motors discussed GM’s perspective on hydrogen. Mr. Burns started by stating that the potential societal and consumer benefits of fuel cell technology are clear and compelling, and that no other technology offers this exciting potential.  In fact, he stated that GM has not uncovered a single issue yet to suggest that mass volume of fuel cell vehicles cannot ultimately be attained.  With that being the good news, Mr. Burns continued his talk by reaching out and challenging the energy providers stating that what is urgently needed is sufficient investment by energy providers to assure auto companies that the required hydrogen infrastructure will be in place when we deploy our next generation of fuel cell electric vehicles. In the view of GM, for the equivalent cost of 2 tanks of gasoline for every car in the U.S., we could deploy a hydrogen infrastructure that would put hydrogen refilling stations within 2 miles of 70% of our population. In closing his talk, he stated that together, we must act rather than debate, create the future rather than try to predict it, and solve the challenges we face now rather than handing these off to future generations.

As the meeting draws to a close, I feel enthusiastic about the future of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen.  I never did get to see Governor Schwarzenegger to deliver the fuel cells personally, but there is always next time.

By James Cross, Vice President, Technology and Product Development
Nuver Fuel Cells 

The NHA Conference is a very impressive event, building on 18 years of experience.  It brings together a diverse mix of stakeholders, spanning the spectrum from the impassioned to the cynical, the romantic to the practical, corporate executives to students, from industry as well as the general public, and from around the globe.  

In honor of April “Fuels” Day, I wanted to take a moment to note a few points on which the industry perspective also exhibit some diversity!
 

How far does a fuel cell vehicle go on a tank full of hydrogen?   One of the fuel cell vehicle information cards reports 290 miles, another a whopping 480 miles!  DOE says 190 miles on the accepted duty cycle (if you don’t cheat in the backseat or trunk!). 

How long can a customer accept to refuel?   Automakers say 3 minutes –but for light tanks at 70 MPa, a full fill overheats the tank, so expensive and energy wasteful H2 precooling is needed.  One company says if you go to 4 minutes, the precooling requirement goes away.  DOE has a goal of 5 minutes.

What is the reference price of natural gas for hydrogen costing?  One study used commercial rates and quoted $14+/MMBtu, another $6.50/MMBtu.  One suggested coal should be looked at – guess which!   
 

What is the penalty value for a vehicle when the refueling entails customer inconvenience?    Several prior studies indicate that for hydrogen availability at 10% of existing fueling stations, the offset to vehicle pricing would be ~$1000.  A new report says up to $5000!

What’s right and what isn’t?  We can’t tell yet.  This is an industry in the making, and while its architects are energetic in debate, particular to their individual analyses, and emphatic in their marketing claims, they and we remain largely aligned in spirit and sense of purpose.

Tomorrow morning is the keynote session where hydrogen companies and automakers share their perspectives on hydrogen infrastructure – Bill and I will be in the front row, ringside!   Later in the afternoon, I’ll be moderating the session on Fuel Cells:  Improvements & Analysis.

Early Mornings, Early Meetings, and Early (Forklift) Markets
By Bill Mitchell, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Nuvera Fuel Cells

After waking up at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and spending 7 hours on a fully loaded airplane, I was really hoping that my early departure to the NHA Annual Hydrogen Conference in Sacramento would be informative and fruitful, as I was asked to host a series of “table talks” at the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell State Regional Initiatives meeting on Sunday afternoon at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Upon exiting the airport into a beautiful 70 degree day, with no clouds in sight, I was a little worried that everyone might play “hooky” and go visit wine country instead of showing up on a weekend to talk about hydrogen; I was happily mistaken.  The event, co-sponsored by D.O.E, the NHA, and the Clean Energy Group attracted about 100 people. 

Over the course of 3 hours, we discussed the role of early market opportunities as a means to ramp up the commercialization of fuel cells, with one of each of the seven tables giving concurrent talks to interested parties.  Every 20 minutes, the tables would rotate, and we began again.  As someone from the meeting put it, it was like speed dating to find your first fuel cell match.

Some of the topics discussed at the meeting included:

• permitting tools,
• policy,
• fuel cells for prime power/critical loads,
• fuel cells for backup/remote power, and my favorite,
• fuel cells for material handling equipment.

Overall, there was a high degree of interest and appreciation for the forklift opportunity in general, and the Nuvera Total Power Solution in specific. From the interaction with the attendees, many of whom had not been exposed to fuel cells before, one message became clear – fuel cells for forklifts is a real market opportunity that can save you money now.

Not bad for a first day’s work.  You can view a copy of the table talk presentation here.

My only disappointment of the day was that I did not get to see Governor Schwarzenegger to deliver the fuel cell message personally.  However, there are still four more days…

Coming up next week, several of Nuvera’s staff will be blogging daily from the National Hydrogen Association Annual Conference and the Edison Electric Institute Spring Meeting. Check back often to see the scoop!

NHA 2008 has the unique opportunity to spark dialogue between different players in the hydrogen marketplace, from the DOE to early commercial fuel cell producers to environmentalist groups and big name energy and auto companies.

EEI brings together the electric industry and their biggest customers, along with anyone that has an interest in either.

The bloggers:

Bill Mitchell is our VP of Sales and Marketing and will be blogging from the NHA conference. Look for updates from Bill on state and regional hydrogen initiatives.

James Cross is our VP of Technology and Product Development. He is moderating a session on Wednesday at NHA titled Fuel Cells: Improvements and Analysis.

Gus Block is a Marketing Director, and spends most of his time working with our partner, East Penn Manufacturing, on fuel cell material handling solutions for North America. Look for his posts coming from the EEI Spring meeting.

Danielle Andre - I’ll be checking in periodically from the EEI Spring meeting in sunny Florida!

For our other events, check out our events listing.