Daily News by Fuel Cell Today

Day 5 at the Hannover Fair
My second day of the Hannover Fair has been busier than the first. More company stands to visit, more colleagues to talk to, and a forum interview to do.

I must start with two Hydrogen Ambassador teams that particularly interested me. First was Team Canada with a novel and interestingly named “gun engine”. I know Kerry-Ann visited their stand earlier but with an exhibit name like that I couldn’t resist. The exhibitor has invented (or rather, rediscovered) a type of hydrogen engine which is extremely robust in terms of the quality of the hydrogen it runs off, and which has impressive environmental performance. Interestingly enough, the technology was invented in the 1930s but has been gathering dust ever since. Now it has been rediscovered and tweaked, and by the sound of it, it could attract a good deal of interest. Unfortunately, there was no model of the engine on display – they had all been tested to destruction!

Another Team Canada exhibit was the Fuel Cell Diver Propulsion Vehicle. This is essentially a commercial battery powered product which has been converted to run on a fuel cell. This move has doubled the range of the vehicle and cut the recharge time from 7 hours to 3.5 minutes. It is a simple and clever idea, and I think it has a significant commercial potential. I have an additional snippet I am pleased to write here – the Team Canada, from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, found out about the Hannover Fair on the Fuel Cell Today website some time ago, and went straight into the development of their exhibit with The Fair in mind. The system works!

Next, Idatech. They are exhibiting two new products, a 3kW and a 5 kW critical power backup system. Both products run on bottled hydrogen, but are also capable, with an additional reformer unit, to run on a water / methanol mix, for on site generation if customers cannot easily gain access to bottled hydrogen. Idatech also has a price list – as with other companies I have seen at The Fair – and again this is a very positive development. For me the most interesting point was that their systems are genuine critical power backup systems, with no additional backup backup (follow me?) paraphernalia such as flywheels, microturbines and a diesel engine, as I have seen in the not too distant past.

I had been trying to talk to Plug Power since yesterday morning, but was slightly hampered by the fact that only one of the four team members were briefed to talking to the press, and I didn’t manage to catch her. Still, I did talk to one representative about the Plug Power exhibit, the GenCore, their first commercial product which was introduced back in June 2003. Its main target market is the telecommunications industry, and the product has clocked up a very impressive 232 units shipped so far. I was hoping to get their take on the big news of the industry of a couple of weeks ago, Plug Power’s tie-in with a consortium from Russia. They weren’t touching this subject with a long stick.

Then it was my turn to be put in the hot seat – perhaps some kind of payback for hassling the nice chap from Plug Power. I was interviewed on the Forum about the role of Fuel Cell Today, recent market developments, and The Fair itself from my perspective. For those of you who had better things to do than listen to me, these are my thoughts that I have taken away from The Fair in summary:

• Product price information is proliferating. This can only be a good sign, not only because the products are finally reaching the market, but also because the companies producing them are confident enough to openly publish this potentially sensitive information in such an open manner.
• There was some significant evidence of growing recognition that engaging with the general public should be done now rather than later. I heard of a number of university courses being run, and even teaching at school level on hydrogen and fuel cells.
• The audience of the fuel cell industry is growing and, importantly, diversifying. For a number of years, it just talked just to itself (worrying...), but now I saw a number of people from other parts of the Hannover Fair wandering around the hydrogen and fuel cell stands. Engagement with related but once-removed areas such as wind power or solar cells is critical and I think that this is now happening on a level that hasn’t been reached in the past. This, I must say, is helped by the fact that The Fair is organised in such a way that this is encouraged – with non-fuel cell technologies being displayed next door. Perhaps this is a model to follow. Or perhaps the guys from the industrial cabling exhibition were looking for the gents?

Which brings me to the end of my report on the final day of the Hannover Fair. I would like to thank Arno A. Evers and his team for their faultless organisation and support, and also for the orange tie I was presented with after my Forum piece. I promise to put it in my wardrobe. My impressions of the state of play of the industry were almost all positive. And, I think I have discovered a whole new niche market for fuel cells. One poor exhibitor was unfortunate enough to have his bag stolen from his fuel cell car exhibit! Fuel cell powered anti-theft car door handles, anyone?

Until next year,
Mike Hugh

Day 4 at the Hannover Fair
This is the first time I (that is, Mike Hugh) have ever visited the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Group Exhibit at the Hannover Fair. I was forewarned that it is very large, and also very orange. I have found this description spectacularly right on both counts. The scale of this place dwarfs any similar exhibition I have attended; I had to take a car from the metro which deposits you at the entrance of Hall 1 to Hall 13 where the fuel cell stands are. There is plenty to see and plenty of people to talk to. I have no personal reference for this, this being my first time at the show, but this is day 4 and as far as I can see there are no signs of flagging yet.

As I arrived at The Fair the first thing I saw was a lady from INETI (Ms Carmen Rangel) in Portugal speaking at the forum. Unfortunately I only caught the last couple of minutes of the session, but I managed to catch her afterwards to find out what has been going in the fuel cell scene in Portugal over the last year. I should point out here that I was working on fuel cells in Portugal until I joined Fuel Cell Today very recently, so I have some interest in the general situation there. Carmen told me that there is significant activity going on at INETI in raising the level of awareness of hydrogen and fuel cells amongst the public of Portugal. There are currently 4 demonstration projects INETI is involved with, mainly renewables-based hydrogen production linked with fuel cell systems. Indeed INETI’s own building now has a fuel cell system running off solar power. However, and perhaps more importantly, Portugal is become heavily involved with training programmes related to fuel cell technologies, with the emphasis being on constructing Masters and PhD level programmes.

This neatly leads me to the first company I visited – Portugal’s SRE – which can genuinely be regarded as a success story. SRE was formed in 2002 by a small group of engineers involved mainly in systems integration for the portable market. Now, 4 years later, they have a staff of 24 (it was 12 just 1 year ago) and 4 products up and running and for sale at The Fair. Their stand has a price list, something which has been conspicuous by its absence at fuel cell trade fairs until very recently. They also are in the final stages of development of a 30W 12V military model which they aim to bring to market around January of next year. All good signs indeed.

My next port of call was a UK company called Fuel Cell Control. Fuel Cell Control has been in operation since 1999 and produces PEM and alkaline fuel cells. They describe their fuel cells as “transportable” rather than portable - the model on display is the size and shape of a fridge. They have found a rather specialised niche market – supplying power systems to the London 2012 Olympic Games. Apparently contractors on the site are not allowed to use diesel gensets because of the environmental sensitivities, so fuel cells are being seriously considered as an alternative. I was told that because of the somewhat compacted timeframe of the Games preparation period, they are not able to meet the full demand for their product – a nice problem to have. And, dear readers, I am happy to bring you an exclusive piece of news. Fuel Cell Control has just merged with lpg. converters Alternative Fuel Systems, and they now operate under the same roof. This exploits a range of natural synergies between the two companies and brings down development and production costs. Fuel Cell Control is in a position to expand, and it is actively seeking new partners.

Onwards, and to one of the big boys of the automotive fuel cell industry – Honda. I was interested in what their latest project is, what they have planned, and what they make of the so-called clash between fuel cell vehicles and hybrid vehicles. On display was the Honda Fuel Cell Power FCX, a car which has been around since 2004, and of which there are currently 23 driving around in the US and Japan (including one private customer in the US). The next product they have planned is the FCX’s successor, the FCX Concept. They plan to put the car on minimal production runs in 2010, and roll it out to the mass markets in 2020. I was told, interestingly enough, that environmental regulations planned to come into force in California in 2012 were a significant driver for the development of this vehicle. Concerning any perceived threat from hybrid cars, Honda believes that fuel cells have not receded from industry’s plans nor from the public’s minds since hybrids have taken off in recent years. They are viewed not as a rival technology, more as a complimentary, transitional technology. Honda is currently on its 4th hybrid model and still has not scaled down its fuel cell development programme.

My next visit was quite a departure from Honda – the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC). This is a not-for-profit organisation established in 1992 to facilitate the channelling of funds from a group of Western countries (plus Japan) to provide funds for Russian and CIS nation scientists previously involved in physics and weapons research so that they might remain at their institutions. The worry at the time, following the break-up of the Soviet Union, was that the significant skills and knowledge base found in these countries might leak away to nations which might not put them to the most constructive use. In more recent times, this threat has all but disappeared, but the ISTC remains and continues its work in building up businesses, matchmaking, introduction and travel support, and implementing IPR ownership settlement procedures. The ISTC has allocated $600m in the years since 1994, and now has over 300 members. It is represents a formidable bloc and can claim a number of successes from countries ranging from Russia to Tajikistan and Belarus.

Well that is just about it for my first day and The Fair’s fourth. I have had a good time, learned an awful lot, and am looking forwards to more of the same tomorrow.

Day 3 at the Hannover Fair
Well even though I promised myself last night that today I would go and listen to some of the forum presentations it has just not happened. The numbers are up, the excitement is up and I have, again, spent the day talking with exhibitors and the Ambassadors. (What also has been nice is the feedback that is already coming through from the first two days reports – useful as sometimes we do wonder if anyone actually reads these!).

My final day here started with meeting two more of the Hydrogen Ambassadors teams. I have really been impressed with all of these teams – which is the main reason why I didn’t vote on an overall winner – and I really hope that their ideas don’t end here at the Fair. This would be a real shame and waste of some innovative concepts. I started chatting with the H2Deep team from the University of Waterloo (Canada), whom I am guessing are keen divers and James Bond fans! I say this as they have redesigned and modified an underwater unit which the driver holds on to and it pulls them through the water, saving their energy and their oxygen (when you are relaxed apparently you use less oxygen). This unit now incorporates a specialised Hydrogenics stack and balance of plant, which they designed, with compressed gas tanks underneath the unit. There are many advantages to using this unit, including a diver familiarity with using and working with compressed gas. (The James Bond reference by the way is to these machines having been used in an old Bond film).

Next was the winner next to them. Stefan Oßwald has designed a long distance endurance motorbike from the ground up using the benefits that the fuel cell stack offers to make a machine that is certainly striking. A scale mock-up of the bike is on show on the stand and talking to Stefan you really get the sense that this is not just a design but a product he wants to take forward. I asked if he was looking for anything specific from the fair and the answer loud and clear was a manufacturing partner for the bike. So if anyone reading this is getting involved in the building of a fuel cell motorbike then go and see Stefan (H77 / 5) before the Fair closes.

Some exhibitors here are not that easy to pin down to chat to and it wasn’t until today that I caught up with the guys from Medis for a long overdue talk on their powerpack. This unit, which weighs only 150 grammes, is due to become available to certain stores in the US at the end of this year. The unit combines a fuel cell, a DC to DC converter and a fuel source and will power up any handheld device (mobile, PDA, blackberry etc). Medis claim to have a manufacturing facility already up and running in Israel (the home of the founder) and is building another in Ireland, due for completion next year. This first generation unit will cost US$25 and is designed also to be recycled. I certainly plan for some of our team to test these units the next time we go to the USA and run out of power for our mobile phones!

Last year the Proton Motor stand was gaining a lot of attention this year with their fuel cell forklift. This year is no different, in terms of attention, but what is different is the expansion of plans to use their fuel cell power units. Proton Motor prides itself on being open to new ideas of how their units can be used and two projects in the pipeline are working with Rittal on > 5 kW UPS systems, and, if they can get the funding, using the units in a fuel cell powered tourist boat as part of the HyCity project in Hamburg. The forklifts are still there and they continue to work with the company Still on building routes into this market. Wonder what I will see next year on their stand.

Well my time at the Fair is over and Mike is arriving tonight, so until next year I bow here. Auf Wiedersehen.

Day 2 at the Hannover Fair
Last night in the relative quiet of the hotel room was the first chance to reflect on the overall feel of the FAIR-PR. Starting with the positives it was very good to see a number of new companies come into the fuel cell space. These companies are on a steep learning curve but are certainly promoting themselves well. Also it is nice to see genuine debate. Not everyone here believes that fuel cells will provide the answer. The options need to be discussed and it helps focus, or refocus, the mind on the salient points and arguments. Also the increased numbers of interested looking visitors who now seem to be shying away from the basic questions of “what is a fuel cell”, “isn’t hydrogen dangerous?” to asking more salient questions of timing, load, working parameters could be seen to be a sign of market growth, and also education starting to filter through. On the downside not all that glistens is gold. This is not meant to be cryptic but a way to say that some of sales pitches are starting to sound repetitive and that now we are looking for action of match the words – something that some companies seem short on.

New this year was the Hydrogen Ambassadors competition. This competition, which ran through the year, has given the winners the opportunity to have a full service package booth here at the Fair to promote their ideas. I had the chance today to speak with three of the winners. A number of teams have focused on hydrogen and its potential in automotive applications. One team has produced the first hydrogen fuelled, internal combustion engine powered model car. The car looks very impressive and is currently being sold to universities and the like for 9,900 euros. Kazimierz Holubowicz, an independent inventor, is certainly a chap who likes a debate! Mr Holubowicz won his place here on the strength of his plans for a fuel-flexible variant of the internal combustion engine. The engine, which he designed, built and tested himself, could work not just on hydrogen but also a range of carbon based fuels, and due to the design, he claims, it could be as high as 90% efficient and very clean. Keith LeBlanc and Lazlo Zsidai have taken a totally different idea base and have a very eye catching stand. They have built a mock-up of their idea to produce hydrogen in an urban environment using a 200 metre tall wind tower. This is not 1 turbine 200 metres tall (!) but a series of circular platforms, stacked on top of each other, each with a small number of turbines. At maximum production rate they have calculated that it could produce up to 30 kg hydrogen per hour, either for use as hydrogen, or, selling the electricity into the grid when the hydrogen is not required. The benefits of this idea are obvious in areas where land space is at a premium price but energy requirements high. In cities such as New York where there are already a number of architecturally innovative skyscrapers I could easily see this wind to hydrogen tower fitting in!

One worry that I have from the Fair is a personal one. When I come to write the Fuel Cell Today Niche Market Survey this year I am not sure how I will fit in all the new information and companies activities! Companies such as Masterflex and Besel are here with their cargo bikes, scooters, wheelchair and enhanced push bikes. Masterflex is working to put 15 of its CargoBikes (think of a standard push bike at the front with a large storage compartment at the back) into German cities for the football worldcup. The bike has been carefully engineered to be still legally classed as a pushbike, and therefore needing no license to use it, and can also still use the cycle lanes. Besel is working on a fuel cell scooter and wheelchair (Carlos from Besel even offered me a test drive of the wheelchair which I gently declined. Somehow I don’t think I would invited back next year if I crashed into someones stand!). The wheelchair is a beta prototype with a PEM stack and hydrogen storage under the seat. The plans to further develop it are well underway with the market launch in just a couple of years. Both the scooter and the wheelchair are being developed for use in the HyChain project.

Hydrogenics, as always, have an interesting stand and story to tell. I was able to have a very chat earlier on with one of the team on the UPS market and their rack mountable HyPM units. The PEM fuel cells are teamed up with APC architecture to form a system that is being sold now into the datacentre, etc, markets. With 25 units in the field being run and tested the feedback is reported to be very positive. This is another application for fuel cells that is building consumer confidence by having an open pricing structure (currently around US$2,500 / kW), support infrastructure and backing of well established solution providers. Unlike some market applications the UPS market is one where the need for the product exists and the barriers to adoption are not that high.

Finally today I had a chat with a company that I basically like. There is no company working in this space which is not approachable, but some are simply nice with it. NedStack is a company that no matter whom you talk to seems to have a really positive attitude and are open about their problems, as well as their successes. Here they are showcasing their units for city buses and stationary fuel cells. The units, compact and looking fairly user friendly (the signage on one was superb “cathode here”, “anode here”, “if you unscrew you invalidate the warranty” etc) and are being targeted in four main sectors. Apart from the city buses and larger stationary markets they are also putting their PEM Units into micro-generation (5 kW) projects and forklifts. And, something that so far they are the only company that I have heard really focus on this: their units are designed to be 98% recyclable. Once you start to hit levels such as this not only is it good for the environment but also the economics of the unit shifts. Currently the price of the units sits at around 1500 – 2000 euros per kW but with only small economies of scale they report that will shift substantially downwards.

Tomorrow I plan to rest my feet a bit more and see what the forum has to offer, as well of course of chatting to exhibitors.

Day 1 at the Hannover Fair
After a slight twinge of temptation this morning (the train I was on went all the way to Vienna and it is a beautiful spring day. I’m only human!) I arrived, along with a few hundred others, at the Fair grounds. I arrived shortly after 9am in Hall 13 and business was already under way. After having said hello to the Evers team – which seems to grow every year – it was straight to work.

To start with I had a long walk around all the stands to see which old friends and new faces I could spot. One of the pleasures of this event is the number of people that come straight over and say hello. Even when it is obvious that you are not there to buy anything information flows freely. Interestingly one of the first impressions during this walk was of the growth in numbers of universities exhibiting.

My first company port of a call was H2Logic. We often mention this companies activities in our Niche Market surveys and more recently through their press releases on a planned hydrogen community. On the stand H2Logic had one of their funky little delivery vans, of which they have already sold 6, on show. The fuel cell unit is neatly packed away under the drivers seat leaving a large space in the back for whatever type of storage the customer requires – the example on show had a refrigerator unit on board full of chocolate cakes! When I asked about costs, something that only two years ago would be have been something of a taboo subject for many companies, I was given a price list. Not only does it list the price of the core H2Truck (46,000 euros) and hydrogen refuelling station (28,750 euros) but also a number of add-ons. This confidence certainly goes a long way in promoting this company!

After heading over to the Italian Island I bumped in another contact. Hank Teh is well known for his involvement with the H2 Expo in Japan. This expo is also telling a story of growth (from 2 up to 3 halls in 2007) and has also an increasing number of participants, with companies such as Polyfuel and Cabot new next year.

Italy this year has increased its presence significantly. Its “Italian Island” contains a number of small and medium sized Italian companies. I had the pleasure of a conversation with Dr Prosini from ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment) on his research into hydrogen storage. His team is looking of Sodium Borohydride (NaBH4) as a potential option for a quick release hydrogen storage solution. Current work is on a 25kg cartridge with the aim to develop a full system for integration into a Light Duty Vehicle. As this research is still new, it only kicked off last year (2005) Dr Prosini is hoping to have a small prototype vehicle in the next couple of years.

Voller are another company going from strength-to-strength. The Fair sees the launch of the VE100 rack-mountable battery charger. This unit is designed to be rugged, have an extended run time and operate over a wide variety of temperatures. Seeing as we are going to publish an article on Voller and their development activity this Wednesday I won’t say anything else about them now, except that they also gave out a very clear pricing structure. The new VE100 can be bought for £3500 (approx 5000 euros) and has an order time of around 5 weeks.

After a relaxed lunch I said hello to one of the many new companies that are here for the first time. Electro Power Systems of Italy have certainly already attracted a lot of interest with their eye catching system design. The company only started in the beginning of 2005 and is based in Turin, Italy. Since then, working with a well known stack manufacturer, they have designed two separate systems. The Electro 7 is a 7 kW PEM unit that will be commercial in the Autumn of 2006 at a price of around 25,000 euros, plug-and-play. The larger Electro50, 50 kW, unit has been designed to deliberately target the growing distributed generation market. This unit will see Beta testing at the start of 2007 with commercial availability being targeted for the end of 2007. Interestingly although both units use PEM fuel cells the 50kW system has been designed to run off methane or bio-ethanol.

The forum programme, as usual, is well attended and has a variety of speakers. The only presentation that I caught today was that of Brendan Bilton of Ceramic Fuel Cells. Brendan was discussing the proposed route to market that Ceramic is working on. This includes in the short term the locating and construction of a large manufacturing plant, with capacity of 200,000 units per annum and the securing of a systems / appliance manufacturer. Unlike many others the Ceramic unit is designed to be 100% grid connected and will function as a micro-grid system rather than providing power for distributed generation. One final interesting statistic from Ceramic is that it only takes 15 minutes to shut-down, replace a stack, and then start-up the unit again.

The last call of the day was to Protonex, also exhibiting for the first time this year. Protonex are operating in the same space as companies such as SMART and Voller but unlike these other companies they also manufacture their own PEM stacks. This company recognised early on the power of the military dollar and is working with a large number of different military units in the USA. Alongside the military though they are also developing a commercial product and is looking at the RV, marine and mobility markets for its portable generator. In fact they say the main bottleneck at the minute for them is the lack of manufacturing capability. An interesting company to watch – in my opinion.

So Day 1 is fast closing and the evenings networking reception is starting to loom in the minds of the those who have been on their feet for a long time. I will be back tomorrow with more of the news and goings on of the Fair-PR Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Groups Exhibit.