Nuvera Fuel Cells

By William Mitchell, Vice President of Sales and Marketing

During a recent business trip, I had the chance to catch up on a little reading, and was very interested to dive into a special report published in the June 21^st 2008 issue of the Economist on the Future of Energy. Aside from the fact that the title of the article is a registered trademark of Nuvera, Geoffrey Carr gave an almost completely unbiased overview of the clean energy space and its developments around the world. In the article, Mr. Carr talks even handedly about the rise of wind, solar, carbon capture, geothermal energy, biofuels, and nuclear power and I agree with both the tenor of the report and his assertions of the status of each of the technologies. I view petroleum as nothing more than renewable energy that has been concentrated over millions of years, and believe that we will need to use all the available renewable resources at our disposal to replace its use.

Unfortunately, the report on the future transportation technologies missed the opportunity to fairly represent the current and options for the automobile powertrain of the future. In the section titled “The end of the petrolhead”, Mr. Carr represents fuel cell technology as something that is now out of fashion and on the way out compared to advanced battery technology. In the article, he poses a question: “But why bother? Why not cut out the middleman and plug your car directly into the electricity mains instead?” Hopefully, I can shed some light on the status of fuel cell technology and answer this question for Mr. Carr, as I believe he is really missing out on the real Future of Energy, at least in the transportation sector.

My first response to this question is that fuel cell vehicles (at least in the United States), when operating on hydrogen derived from natural gas, offer a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 33% compared to battery electric vehicles that are charged from electricity from the U.S. electric grid according to an Argonne National Labs report from April 2008. In the report, which compares battery powered forklifts to fuel cell powered forklifts, they conclude that “In many parts of the US, significant benefits could be obtained immediately by replacement of battery-powered forklifts with those powered by fuel cells using hydrogen from steam-reforming of natural gas.” This same savings holds true when comparing battery electric vehicles to fuel cell vehicles. To be clear, a 33% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions means that on a “well to wheels” basis, fuel cell vehicles are 33% more efficient than battery electric vehicles.

My second answer to this question is that fuel cell vehicles are currently the only foreseeable option for zero emission vehicles that meet both the consumer requirements for fast refilling/recharging and autonomy. Mr Carr references the advances in lithium ion technology and of the Tesla vehicle in particular. This vehicle, which is an engineering marvel, features a range of approximately 350 kilometers (220 miles) and a recharge time of 3.5 hours nicely packed into a 2 seat, 1,200 kilogram (2,600 pound) package. If the same system were placed into a sedan or small SUV meant for typical family use, the recharge time would stay the same, but the autonomy would fall into the range of 170 km (110 miles), which although good enough for many people to use for commuting or as a second car, would fall short on their expectations as a primary vehicle. On the contrary, today’s fuel cell vehicles are demonstrating autonomies equivalent to internal combustion engine vehicles. In fact, earlier this year, Toyota unveiled a fuel cell vehicle with a range of over 800 km (500 miles). For this reason, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted to triple the amount of zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) that staff had proposed for automakers to produce from 2012 through 2014. Staff had proposed to require 2,500 pure zero emission vehicles, which the Board increased to 7,500. Automakers can produce fewer ZEVs, 5,357, if they are long-range fuel cell vehicles or they can opt to satisfy the requirement by manufacturing 12,500 battery electric vehicles with a range of 100 miles. Clearly, CARB sees the potential of fuel cells for transportation, as they carry a much higher zero emission vehicle ZEV credits as compared to the lower range battery electric vehicles.

Now I am the first to admit that many companies in the fuel cell world have made a lot of promises in the past – promises that were not kept, which has caused a “fuel cell hangover” in the minds of investors and the public alike, but the technology is now ready to go, and all major automotive companies in the world are actively engaged in bringing this technology to the market. Mr. Carr indicates in his report that “only Honda and Mercedes seem to be sticking enthusiastically to fuel cells”. This is simply not true. In a recent report from the National Hydrogen Association meeting that I attended in California in March of this year, GM, Honda, and Toyota gave talks to reaffirm their commitment to commercializing fuel cell vehicles starting with the California ZEV requirements in 2012-2014, and Catherine Dunwoody of the California Fuel cell partnership reported on the status of the other OEM’s developing fuel cell vehicles, including Ford, Nissan, Mercedes, Hyundai, and Volkswagen. According to Larry Burns, the V.P. of R&D at GM, 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.

In the end, it is not a matter of fuel cells versus batteries for the future automotive powertrain. The two will work together to make hybrid fuel cell vehicles. Mr. Carr should not view these technologies as competitors for the market. The real competition is the status quo and internal combustion engines. We all need to work together to achieve The Future of Energy and get us moving away from our dependence on petroleum.

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.

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.