by guest blogger, Stan Thompson Long before the California Gold Rush, there was a North Carolina Gold Rush. The land right under the feet of President Obama and delegates to the 2012 Democratic National Convention was riddled with ancient gold mining tunnels. Mine waste tailings were so plentiful that eventually they were used as construction • Read More »
Archives: Fuel Cells
HYDRAIL, FRACKING AND WILLIE SUTTON
September 2, 2012 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on HYDRAIL, FRACKING AND WILLIE SUTTON | Filed in: Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen Fuel Production, Hydrogen Fueling Stations, Hydrogen Vehicles, Hyrail, Infrastructure, Political Issues.Posted on September 2nd, 2012 By guest blogger, Stan Thompson According to Wikipedia, Willie Sutton claimed never to have said the words that elevated him in history from a habitual law-breaker to authorship of Sutton’s Law. Sutton was a notoriously successful bank robber—the original “Slick Willie.” His notoriety earned him a famous, though apocryphal, interview • Read More »
Fuel Cells 2000 State of the States Address 2012
August 29, 2012 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Comments Off on Fuel Cells 2000 State of the States Address 2012 | Filed in: Fuel Cells.Fuel Cells 2000 has just put out a very positive 79 page report describing the growth of hydrogen fuel cells in the United States over the past year. According to Fuel Cells 2000, “With more than 74 MW of fuel cells for stationary power and 1,700 fuel cell-powered forklifts installed or purchased in just over • Read More »
“Energizer Bunny” Fuel Cell Keeps Going and Going …
July 3, 2012 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | 2 Comments | Filed in: Fuel Cells.Researchers at Harvard University have come up with a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that keeps going even after the hydrogen has run out. The thin-film SOFC uses Vanadium oxide on its anode to generate energy like a fuel cell then store energy like a battery. According to the Harvard Gazette, “The new SOFC uses a • Read More »
ITM Power Develops Supply Chain for Low Cost Fuel Cell Parts
June 28, 2012 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Comments Off on ITM Power Develops Supply Chain for Low Cost Fuel Cell Parts | Filed in: Fuel Cells.ITM Power has received a grant for $450,000 USD to develop a supply chain of low cost parts for hydrogen PEM fuel cells. ITM Power is part of a large consortium of partners, which in total will receive around $1.7 million USD for their efforts in bringing down the costs of fuel cells. According to • Read More »
Mercedes-Benz Opens World’s First Automated Fuel Cell Production Facility
June 26, 2012 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | 4 Comments | Filed in: Fuel Cells.The world’s first fuel cell stack for automobiles produced via automation came into being on June 7, 2012. Mark this date in your history books as it will be referred to many times in the future. Mercedes-Benz Canada, located in Burnaby, British Columbia, recently celebrated the opening of their 3,300 square meter automated automotive facility • Read More »
Toyota and eBay Turning to Stationary Fuel Cells
June 21, 2012 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | 3 Comments | Filed in: Fuel Cells.There is another industry passing up fuel cell cars in regard to commercialization right now. And that industry is large stationary fuel cells to supply main or backup power. Ballard and Bloom Energy are two of the big players selling large stationary fuel cells to corporations such as Toyota and eBay. According to Altenergymag, “Site • Read More »
Ballard to Be the First Profitable Fuel Cell Company
June 13, 2012 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | 1 Comment | Filed in: Fuel Cells.Ballard has been in the fuel cell game for a couple of decades now. The Canadian company ran at a loss for many years banking on the fact that its fuel cells for cars would one day pay off and put it into a black bottom line. I remember asking the Ballard reps at one • Read More »
Unzipped Carbon Nanotubes to Replace Platinum in Fuel Cells
June 5, 2012 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | 2 Comments | Filed in: Fuel Cells.Researchers at Stanford University in Northern California have developed what they are calling “unzipped carbon nanotubes” to replace catalytic platinum in fuel cells. Today’s price of platinum is between $1400 and $1500 per ounce. Carbon nanotubes and graphene, on the other hand, are relatively cheap to produce. This low price could lead to wide spread • Read More »
U.S. DOE Chemist Named Fuel Cell Inventor of the Year
May 8, 2012 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Comments Off on U.S. DOE Chemist Named Fuel Cell Inventor of the Year | Filed in: Fuel Cells.The New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) has named a senior chemist, Radoslav Adzic, who works for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) with its prestigious 2012 Inventor of the Year award. It’s Adzic’s work with nanocatalysts that use small, durable amounts of platinum to create reactions in hydrogen PEM • Read More »