NEWS

April 2006 Fuel Cells Bulletin7

water transport within the stack, advanced cath-ode catalysts and supports, cell hardware, inno-vative fuel cell concepts, and studying the effectsof impurities on fuel cell performance anddurability.

Contact: FuelCell Energy Inc, Danbury, Connecticut,USA. Tel: +1 203 825 6000, www.fuelcellenergy.com orwww.fce.com

H2 Logic delivers firstbatch of H2 Trucks

Last fall the Danish-based companiesH2 Logic and A. Flensborg unveiled

the H2 Truck™, powered by a 1.5 kWePEM fuel cell, and the partners say thattheir hydrogen truck is now ready forproduction. The first batch of six vehi-cles has rolled off the assembly line andentered service in hospitals and munici-pal facilities in Herning, Holstebro andAarhus, where they are being used totow wagons with food or laundry, oras maintenance vehicles in parks in thecity centers.

‘We have the first six H2 Trucks driving infive different locations, and this will give us real-time drive experience, which will provide crucialdata, before we can optimize later versions of theH2 Truck and other niche transport applica-tions,’ says Jacob Hansen, director for H2 Logic.

The company has also developed theFillingStation™ to complement the H2 Truck.Innovative, briefcase-sized metal hydride canis-ters are interchanged for almost instant refuel-ing. It takes only about 30 min to recharge thecanisters offline, to provide 12–16 h of normaldrivetime. The maximum pressure within thesystem is only 20 bar (285 psi), making it verysafe in operation. Both the H2 Truck and theFillingStation are CE-certified.

Contact: H2 Logic ApS, Herning, Denmark. Tel: +459627 5600, www.h2logic.dk or www.h2truck.dk

Chevron installs fuel cellat California mail centers

In California, Chevron Energy Solutionshas completed a unique hybrid alter-

native power plant – combining twosolar technologies and hydrogen fuelcell generation – and major energy effi-ciency improvements at two of thestate’s largest US Postal Service (USPS)centers. Together, the facilities – theSan Francisco Processing & Distribution

Center (P&DC) and the EmbarcaderoPostal Center (EPC) – employ about3000 people and process 7.5m pieces ofmail daily.

The Chevron subsidiary developed, engin-eered and constructed the project over the pastyear. The work involved installing energy-effi-cient equipment, including new energy manage-ment and compressed air systems, lighting retro-fits and comprehensive heating, ventilation andair conditioning system upgrades. At the P&DCfacility, Chevron Energy Solutions also installedhigh-efficiency natural gas cooking equipmentfor the cafeteria, as well as a unique hybridsolar/fuel cell power plant comprising a FuelCellEnergy 250 kWe Direct FuelCell® DFC300that generates electricity from hydrogen pro-duced internally from natural gas, 185 kWp ofcrystalline-silicon solar panels mounted on aPowerLight® parking canopy that tracks the sun,and 100 kWp of flexible, amorphous-silicon,roof-mounted UNI-SOLAR® solar panels.

The improvements at both facilities will lowertotal annual electricity purchases by 46%, whilethe energy-efficient equipment will reduce theP&DC’s and EPC’s heating needs by 69% and28%, respectively.

The $15m cost of the project is funded by$8.3m in energy savings, $4m from the USPS’sCFC refrigerant replacement program, andnearly $2.6m in grants and incentives from thestate of California and the Department ofDefense Climate Change Fuel Cell Program.

Contact: Chevron Energy Solutions, San Francisco,California, USA. Tel: 1 800 982 6887 (tollfree in US),www.chevronenergy.com

efc commissions morefuel cell heating units

In Germany, Hamburg-based europeanfuel cell gmbh has inaugurated two

more of its Beta 1.5 fuel cell heatingunits, following the recent commission-ing of the two first such units atSchiltach in Baden-Württemberg [FCB,February]. One of the new PEMFCcogeneration units – which generates1.5 kW of electricity and 3 kW of heat –is installed at the Centre for Energy,Water & Environmental Technology ofthe Hamburg Chamber of Trade (ZEWU),with the other in an apartment buildingbelonging to the Railwaybuilders’Association in nearby Reeseberg.

The partners in this project are energy sup-plier Vattenfall Europe Hamburg AG, local utility E.ON Hanse AG and the Hamburg

I N J A P A N

Idemitsu Kosan begins full testing of residential LPG fuel cellsThe Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan hasinstalled fuel cells powered by liquefied petro-leum gas in 25 homes as part of an expandedfield trial, according to a report in the NikkeiBusiness Daily. The company is now testing atotal of 33 LPG fuel cells, including eightunits that have been operating since last sum-mer.

The Tokyo-based firm will gather perform-ance data on the devices, installed in homesacross 21 prefectures, for the next two years inorder to make improvements and reduce costs.Each unit has an electric power capacity ofabout 700 W, enough to meet about two-thirdsof the electricity needs in an ordinary Japanesehousehold. Idemitsu Gas and Life Company, agroup LPG gas importer and distributor, willprovide gas refueling and maintenance servicesfor the tests.

Idemitsu Kosan developed the fuel cell withToshiba Fuel Cell Power Systems Corporation.The trial is being conducted under the Japanesegovernment’s program to promote large-scaledemonstration tests on stationary fuel cells.

Last spring Idemitsu Kosan announced thatit had developed a demonstration 5 kWe PEMfuel cell system running on liquefied propane(LP) gas, in partnership with Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries [FCB, May 2005].The company is also trialing a prototype 1 kWekerosene residential model, developed in collab-oration with Corona Corporation in Niigata.

Citizen Watch develops hydrogen leaksensor for fuel cell applicationsIn Japan, Citizen Watch Company has lever-aged the precision machining techniques of itswatch business to develop a durable and fast-reacting hydrogen leak sensor for fuel cells.Built from a double-spiral coil of platinum-rhodium wire, the new hydrogen sensor isclaimed to last for 10 years, twice as long asconventional sensors using a single-spiral coil.

The device is a type of contact-combustiongas sensor that detects the presence of hydrogenthrough changes in electrical resistance thatoccur in the coil when hydrogen reacts withoxygen in the presence of a catalyst, generatingheat. In addition to increased durability, thedouble-spiral coil structure also creates a largersurface area, which cuts detection time by morethan half to just 2–3 s.

According to a report in the Nikkei BusinessDaily, the company is preparing to mass-pro-duce the sensor, and hopes to sell 10 000 unitsa month in fiscal 2007 for home-use and auto-motive fuel cells. Citizen Watch has alreadybegun shipping samples of the new hydrogensensor at ¥3000 (US$25) each, and aims tocapture at least 30% of the market.