fUelCELLS

BULLETIN

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ISSN 1464-2859 June

October
20152010

Air Products for Indias first green hydrogen site

ndia has inaugurated its first solarpowered hydrogen fueling station,

featuring a SmartFuel station supplied
by Air Products. The station, located
at the Solar Energy Centre near Delhi,
generates 100% green hydrogen from
solar energy via an electrolyser.
The station is part of a public transport bus
fueling and vehicle demonstration programme,
managed by the National Institute of Solar Energy
(NISE). The project implementation is being
executed by the University of Petroleum and
Energy Studies (UPES), and is entirely funded by
the ministry of new and renewable energy.
This project is an important, progressive step
towards unlocking the potential of hydrogen as
sustainable transportation fuel and alternative
energy source, not just for India but the rest
of the world, says Ravi Subramanian, Asia
business development manager for hydrogen
energy systems at Air Products.
Air Products now has three hydrogen stations
operating in India. In 2012 Air Products India

commissioned a hydrogen dispenser in Pragati

Maidan, New Delhi to serve a fleet of hydrogenpowered auto rickshaws [FCB, December 2012,
p7]. These three-wheeled, hydrogen internal
combustion engine vehicles transport visitors at
the Pragati Maidan exhibition site. Air Products
was also a key player in the earlier opening of
Indias first fueling station offering hydrogen
and HCNG (a hydrogen/compressed natural gas
blend), at an R&D centre in Faridabad, south of
New Delhi.
Air Products has formed alliances in Japan
with Suzuki Shokan to serve the materials
handling market [FCB, March 2015, p7] and
with Nippon Steel & Sumikin Pipeline &
Engineering to serve automotive customers
[FCB, March 2014, p8]. Other recent
installations include the UKs first supermarket
hosted hydrogen station [FCB, April 2015, p10],
and a hydrogen station sold to Hyundai Motor
Company Australia [FCB, January 2015, p6].
Air Products, Hydrogen Energy:
www.airproducts.com/h2energy

Kalibrate hydrogen infrastructure planning data

n the US, Kalibrate has released the

results of its California hydrogen
refueling infrastructure analysis
to the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL). Because the
availability and proper placement
of retail hydrogen fueling outlets
is critical to successful consumer
adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles,
Kalibrate was asked to employ its
fueling network planning expertise
to identify the best locations for
establishing a network of stations
[FCB, April 2014, p8].
More than 30 000 locations were identified
in California, and ranked on their viability
for introducing a hydrogen refueling station.
Kalibrate collaborated with NREL hydrogen
experts to identify the key drivers for ranking
the locations. Initially, 22 variables were

identified, which through statistical analysis

were reduced to the 11 most important.
At the top of this list were the number
of households with annual income above
$100 000, the number of existing fuel stations
within the trade area, and the projected number
of FCEV purchases. The existing fuel stations
are important to infrastructure development,
as they offer a more economical means to
introduce hydrogen refueling than a standalone, ground-up facility.
As of April, there were 11 hydrogen refueling
stations in California, with plans under way
for 38 more stations [FCB, June 2014, p6].
Kalibrates study recommends the best locations
to fill in the gaps not covered by the existing
and planned station network.
Kalibrate Technologies: www.kalibrate.com
NREL, Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Research:
www.nrel.gov/hydrogen

Contents
Contents
NEWS
Air Products for Indias first green hydrogen site
Kalibrate hydrogen infrastructure planning data

1
1

ROAD VEHICLES
Ballard extra next-gen bus module for Solaris
TU Delft hydrogen race car in Nrburgring test

2
2

MOBILE APPLICATIONS
Plug Power GenKey deals with two new clients
OWI success in testing fuel cell APU with diesel
Hydrogenics, Alstom for Europe fuel cell trains
Horizon has Hycopter fuel cell multirotor UAV

3
3
4
4

SMALL STATIONARY
PowerCell at energy-efficient Gothenburg house
Acumentrics SOFC units for remote power users
Horizon 3 kW methanol reformer fuel cell in Asia

4
5
5

LARGE STATIONARY
AFC Energy on track for KORE startup in July
Equinix installs 1 MW Bloom unit at data centre
Doosan PureCells in use at South Korea utility
FCE unit at CA water facility, CT fuel cell park

6
6
6
7

FUELING
CEP first hydrogen station on German autobahn
Air Liquide hydrogen station for HyWay project
H2 Logic acquired by NEL Hydrogen
Don Quichote adds green hydrogen at warehouse
Linde, OMV open Innsbruck transalpine station
FCE renewable hydrogen for transport, industry

7
8
8
8
9
9

ENERGY STORAGE
Hydrogenics tests 1.5 MW PEM electrolyser

COMMERCIALISATION
Ballard in PEMFC catalyst project with Nisshinbo
Trenergi 1 kW fuel-flexible HTPEM prototype

10
10

RESEARCH
Ulsan researchers for low-cost, stable DMFCs
DOE funds hybrid truck, fuel cell QC projects

10
11

NEWS FEATURES
NIST process to synthesise platinum nano-raspberries
for improved DMFC catalysts
12
McPhy wins major contract to supply
Wind-to-Hydrogen unit for Hebei province in China 13
Toyota, JFCC breakthrough in real-time
observation of fuel cell catalyst degradation 1415
REGULARS
Editorial
News In Brief
Research Trends
Patents
Events Calendar

3
5, 11
15
1619
20

ISSN 1464-2859/15
1464-2859/10 2015
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NEWS
ROAD VEHICLES
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Ballard to supply
additional next-gen
bus module for Solaris

anadian-based Ballard Power

Systems has received a followon order from Solaris Bus & Coach in
Poland, for a fuel cell power module to
be used in a zero-emission bus planned
for deployment in Europe.
Ballards next-generation FCvelocity-HD7
power module, which is scheduled for delivery
to Solaris later this year, will be incorporated
into a new 24 m (80 ft) fuel cell bus design that
is bi-articulated, i.e. a very long bus that bends
in two places.
The first two Solaris buses powered by
Ballards FCvelocity-HD7 fuel cell power
module were presented to Hamburger
Hochbahn transit operator for the German
city of Hamburg as part of an operational
trial that began last December [FCB, January
2015, p2].
Solaris manufactures intracity, intercity and
special-purpose buses as well as low-floor trams,
and is a leading player in the European bus
industry. Last November it participated with a
number of European bus OEMs in signing a
Letter of Understanding which signaled their
anticipation of 5001000 fuel cell buses being
put into service in urban centres across Europe
between 2017 and 2020 [FCB, February
2014, p2 and December 2014, p3]. Each of
the participating manufacturers intends to
independently develop, demonstrate, and offer
products in accordance with this timeframe.
Ballards next-generation FCvelocity-HD7
fuel cell power module features a reduced
parts count including fewer moving parts
an integrated air compressor and coolant
pump, along with reduced parasitic load. The
company is supplying this advanced module
to a number of international customers,
including for eight buses to be deployed
in several Chinese cities [FCB, May 2015,
p2], for koda Electric trolley buses for
Riga in Latvia [FCB, November 2014, p2],
to Canadian bus manufacturer New Flyer
Industries [FCB, August 2014, p2], and for
Van Hool in Belgium [FCB, January 2014,
p2].
Ballard Power Systems, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
Tel: +1 604 454 0900, www.ballard.com
Solaris Bus & Coach: www.solarisbus.com
Solaris bi-articulated fuel cell bus:
www.solarisbus.com/busmania/news/#3011

Fuel Cells Bulletin

TU Delft team test

hydrogen race car on
Nrburgring circuit

tudents at Delft University of

Technology in the Netherlands have
given their hydrogen fuel cell powered
race car the ultimate test, with a flying
lap of the legendary Nrburgring
Nordschleife circuit in Germany. Former
F1 driver Jan Lammers achieved a lap
time of 10m 42.48s in the Forze VI car,
even overtaking other cars.
The Forze VI raced through 73 challenging
corners, completing the 21 km (13 miles) of
world-class racing track in under 11 minutes,
and thereby setting a new record for a racing
car with a hydrogen fuel cell.
The successful lap is an enormous motivator
for the team, says team leader Menno Dalmijn.
The circuit is not dubbed The Green Hell
for nothing, as it pushes all race cars to their
absolute limits. With the lap data gathered, the
analysis will aid the team in reaching the higher
power limits of their racer, which so far has
only driven on half power.
The Forze VI reached a top speed of 170
km/h (105 mph) on the track, but the students
believe that it can do much more. With
some optimisations and tweaks, the car will
theoretically reach a top speed of 220 km/h
(137 mph), along with 0100 km/h (062
mph) acceleration in a blistering 4 s.
The Forze VI was designed by a group of
more than 50 students from TU Delft, who
dedicated two-and-a-half years to making a
hydrogen-electric racing car, the first of its kind.
The car is powered by a 100 kW PEM fuel
cell developed by the students, in combination
with an energy management system and several
supercapacitors. Formula Zero Team Delft
has been developing hydrogen technologies
since 2008 [FCB, October 2008, p4]. In the
coming years, they will go head to head with
combustion engines in various races, with the
ultimate goal being the 24 Hours of Le Mans,
using nothing but hydrogen.
Swiss-based GreenGT Technologies had been
lined up to enter its GreenGT H2 race car, the
first racing hydrogen fuel cell prototype, in the
24 Hours of Le Mans in 2013, but the team
withdrew because of insufficient preparation
[FCB, July 2012, p11 and June 2013, p5].
But that year did see the Aston Martin Hybrid
Hydrogen Rapide S race car, featuring a
hybrid hydrogen internal combustion engine
system, become the first hydrogen-powered
car to compete in an international motor race,

June 2015

NEWS / EDITORIAL
taking part in the ADAC Zurich Nrburgring
24-Hour race [FCB, June 2013, p5].
Forze Hydrogen Electric Racing Team: www.forze-delft.nl
Video of the lap: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZjbfZvXm2c

MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Plug Power announces

GenKey deals with two
new customers

n the US, premium food distributor

Dietz & Watson will deploy Plug
Powers GenDrive fuel cells in the
entire fleet of Class 2 and Class 3 lift
trucks for its new warehouse building
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania under a
full-service GenKey agreement. Plug
Power has also signed a deal with a
large but unnamed North American
footwear manufacturer, which outlines
purchase terms and defines site-specific
agreements for deployment of the
GenKey hydrogen and fuel cell solution.
Dietz & Watson is one of the largest
manufacturers and distributors of premium
delicatessen meats, artisan cheeses, and related
products in North America. The company will
utilise the GenDrive, GenFuel, and GenCare
solutions provided through the GenKey
package in its newly constructed facility in
Philadelphia. The 200 000 ft2 (18 600 m2)
warehouse and distribution centre is located
next to the companys existing headquarters and
manufacturing plant.
Previously, Plug Power customers typically
saw positive economic value with large-scale
lift truck fleets, upwards of 50 trucks. Now,
however, through technology improvements and
streamlined supply chain management within
the GenDrive and GenFuel product lines, Plug
Power customers with as few as 20 lift and reach
trucks are able to achieve positive payback.
Plug Powers investment in the GenFuel
business is showing great progress in the
materials handling market, and were now able
to provide economically viable solutions to a
diverse customer base in the materials handling
market, says CEO Andy Marsh [see the Plug
Power feature in FCB, December 2011].
Plug Power has also announced a Master
Sales Agreement (MSA) with a large footwear
manufacturer in North America, following
a successful demonstration at one of its
distribution centres. The customer has defined
the first three sites where the GenKey hydrogen
and fuel cell solution will be implemented, and
is analysing wider adoption of the technology

June 2015

in its 30 sites globally. GenKey enables seamless

implementation of hydrogen fuel cells by
materials handling customers, combining
GenDrive fuel cells, GenCare aftermarket
service, and GenFuel hydrogen storage and
dispensing infrastructure.
Plug Power recently announced that
Wisconsin-based Uline will deploy more than
130 GenDrive-powered lift trucks at two
facilities [FCB, May 2015, p1], and won a
GenKey contract for the FreezPak Logistics cold
storage distribution centre under construction
in Carteret, New Jersey [FCB, April 2015, p4].
Plug Power, Latham, New York, USA.
Tel: +1 518 782 7700, www.plugpower.com

OWI project reports

success in testing fuel
cell APU using diesel

German project has achieved

an important milestone in the
development of a modular, diesel-driven
fuel cell system for use in an auxiliary
power unit (APU), with successful
demonstration of system functionality in
isolated operation of the fuel cell stack
and the electronics module.
The Mwe III (Seagull) project aimed to
prove the technical maturity of a modular,
diesel-driven 3 kW fuel cell system by
developing a self-sufficient prototype. The
three-year project, which recently concluded,
was coordinated by the OWI Oel-WaermeInstitut GmbH part of RWTH Aachen
research university working with research
partners Inhouse Engineering GmbH, Enasys
GmbH, and Mahle Behr GmbH. It was
funded by the federal ministry for economic
affairs and energy (BMWi).
The system consists of diesel and water
tanks, a steam reformer module, and a fuel
cell module featuring a low-temperature PEM
fuel cell with 90 cells, as well as a battery and
power electronics. The system is intended for
use in caravans and yachts, and creates 34
kW of electric power, which is sufficient to
power air-conditioning or a refrigerator on a
boat or in a caravan. Diesel from the regular
fuel tank is converted into a hydrogen-rich fuel
gas (reformate) by steam reforming, and then
turned into electric power by the fuel cell. The
system is started using the energy stored in the
battery, which is automatically recharged after
the system is started up.
OWI has previously worked on developing a
compact system comprising a methanol steam
reformer coupled with a high-temperature
PEM fuel cell stack, and completed life-span

EDITORIAL

ultiple-value streams are increasingly being used to enhance the

proven economic benefits of fuel cell
systems, by adding to their provision
of combined heat and power (CHP,
also called cogeneration).
FuelCell Energy has been working on
this enhanced value proposition for some
time. In this issue we report that the
companys commercial molten carbonate fuel
cell power plants now also offer affordable
onsite generation of high-purity hydrogen
for transportation and industrial applications
[see pages 7 and 9], which is referred to as
trigeneration (heat, power, hydrogen). The
company recently completed an industrialscale trigeneration project at its manufacturing
plant in Torrington, Connecticut [FCB, May
2015, p1]. FCE has also been operating a
250 kW DFC-H2 project at the Orange
County Sanitation District in Fountain Valley,
California, converting renewable biogas into
hydrogen for vehicle fueling [FCB, August
2011, p1]. And it is participating in the
first renewable energy quad-generation
installation, which in addition produces
food-grade CO2 for greenhouses in British
Columbia [FCB, April 2014, p5].
Last month we had an item on the deal
between AFC Energy and Dubai Carbon to
assess the deployment of 300 MW of alkaline
fuel cell generation capacity in Dubai by 2020
[FCB, May 2015, p6]. The deployment offers a
significant economic opportunity to monetise
not only energy generated by the fuel cell power
plants, but uniquely also from the sale of water
by-product from the catalytic process.
We have three news features in this issue. In
the first, we report on a new process developed
at the US National Institute of Standards
and Technology to synthesise platinum nanoraspberries for improved DMFC catalysts [page
12]. These microscopic clusters of nanoscale Pt
particles, 100 nm in diameter, could help make
direct methanol fuel cells more practical.
In the second, France-based McPhy Energy
has signed a contract to supply a Wind to
Hydrogen (i.e. Power-to-Gas) system to
recover surplus energy generated by a 200 MW
wind farm site currently under construction
in the Chinese province of Hebei [page 13].
The system will combine McPhys advanced
electrolysis and hydrogen storage products.
And in the third one, Toyota and the Japan
Fine Ceramics Center have developed a new
observation technique that allows researchers to
monitor the behaviour of nm-sized particles of
platinum during chemical reactions in PEM fuel
cells [pages 1415]. This will allow observation of
the processes leading to reduced catalytic reactivity.
Steve Barrett

Fuel Cells Bulletin

NEWS
testing of a reformer and offgas burner for a
truck APU fuel cell system [FCB, November
2013, p10].

Hydrogenics Europe Fuel Cell Power Systems,

Hydrogenics GmbH, Gladbeck, Germany.
Tel: +49 2043 944133.

OWI Oel-Waerme-Institut GmbH, Fuel Cell Systems:

http://tinyurl.com/owi-fuelcells

Alstom Rail Systems: www.alstom.com/transport

Horizon launches
Hycopter fuel cell
Hydrogenics, Alstom to multirotor UAV
commercialise fuel cell
company Horizon
trains in Europe
Energy Systems (HES) unveiled
Singaporean
Mwe III project: http://tinyurl.com/owi-moewe3

n Germany, Hydrogenics GmbH has

signed a 10-year exclusive agreement
to supply Alstom Transport with
hydrogen PEM fuel cell systems for
regional commuter trains in Europe.
Alstom Transport is a unit of Francebased Alstom, a global leader in power
generation, transmission, and rail
infrastructure.
The agreement, valued at over E50 million
(US$56 million), includes the supply of at
least 200 engine systems, along with service
and maintenance as necessary over the 10-year
period. Hydrogenics was selected by Alstom
following a rigorous technical review process.
The fuel cell systems, based on the companys
HD series heavy-duty PEM fuel cells, will be
developed to meet European train compliance
regulations. The first units are expected to be
delivered in 2016, following prototype work
planned for late 2015.
Alstom recently signed a Letter of Intent
with the Calw district in southwestern
Germany, for the planned use of new fuel
cell powered trains on the Hermann Hesse
scenic railway line in the Black Forest [FCB,
April 2015, p5]. The company has done
likewise with the German states of Lower
Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)
and Baden-Wrttemberg, and the Hesse
public transport authority, for the use of
its new generation of zero-emission trains
[FCB, October 2014, p11].
Last autumn Hydrogenics introduced its
Celerity heavy-duty fuel cell system for buses
and trucks [FCB, November 2014, p3], and
will demonstrate the CelerityPlus fuel
cell drive system in a drayage truck and a
SunLine Transit bus in California [FCB, April
2015, p3]. Hydrogenics also manufactures
electrolysers it has just built a 1.5 MW PEM
electrolyser system for E.ONs Reitbrook site in
Hamburg, as part of a Power-to-Gas hydrogen
injection plant that utilises excess renewable
energy [see page 9].
Hydrogenics Corporation, Mississauga, Ontario,
Canada. Tel: +1 905 361 3660, www.hydrogenics.com

Fuel Cells Bulletin

its Hycopter unmanned aerial vehicle

(UAV) at the recent AUVSI 2015 event
in Atlanta, USA. The Hycopter is a
hydrogen PEM fuel cell powered
multirotor UAV, and is being readied
for a record flight endurance of 4 h,
which is 810 times the average flight
duration of current equivalent systems.
Hycopter uniquely makes use of its frame
structure to store hydrogen gas, eliminating
energy storage weight. This platform stores
the equivalent energy of 3 kg of lithium
batteries as 120 g of hydrogen. Requiring
less lift power, Hycopters ultralight fuel cell
converts the 120 g of hydrogen stored inside
its structural frame into 4 h of electric power
for its rotors.
HES a subsidiary of Horizon Fuel Cell
Technologies says that this breakthrough
technology will extend todays 2030 minute
multirotor UAV missions to flights lasting
several hours. Aerial surveys will become
significantly cheaper and quicker, and drone
delivery more feasible over longer distances.
The special fuel cell powering the Hycopter
was designed by HES, which also recently
announced a new solid chemical hydrogen-ondemand fuel cell that achieves up to 700 Wh/
kg at system level [FCB, April 2015, p1].
By removing the design silos that typically
separate the energy storage component from
the UAV frame design teams, we opened up
a whole new category in the drone market,
between battery power and combustion power
drones, says Taras Wankewycz, CEO of the
Horizon Group.
This has led to the creation of a new sister
company, Horizon Unmanned Systems
(HUS), which will apply lightweight fuel cells
in optimised platforms and vehicles. HUS
brings together experience in energy storage
optimisation and carbon composite expertise
to design a new breed of high-performance,
mini-electric UAVs. HUS will also embed
proprietary GPS-independent, precision
navigation and collision avoidance technologies,
to match the need for power-autonomous
UAVs in off-grid and remote areas.

Multirotor applications are attracting

wider interest Canadian-based EnergyOr
Technologies recently demonstrated its PEM
fuel cell powered multirotor vertical takeoff and
landing (VTOL) UAV [FCB, April 2015, p5].
Parent company Horizon Fuel Cell
Technologies has recently launched the MFC
3000, a 3 kW PEM fuel cell system combined
with a methanol reformer, for use as a highcapacity uninterruptible power supply for
telecom sites [see page 5].
Horizon Energy Systems, Singapore.
Tel: +65 6872 9588, www.hes.sg
Horizon Unmanned Systems, Hycopter: www.hus.sg

SMALL STATIONARY

PowerCell fuel cell for

energy-efficient house
in Gothenburg

ordic fuel cell developer PowerCell

Sweden has received an order from
H-O Enterprise AB, to deliver a fuel
cell system for a low-energy house in
Gothenburg, Sweden with the project
being implemented in the autumn.
The Gothenburg facility is a self off-grid
low-energy house, which includes 23 kWp
of solar photovoltaic cells on the roof and
facades, energy storage in batteries and hot
water tanks, a 2 Nm3/h electrolyser, hydrogen
tanks (storing 4 m3 at 700 bar), and a 1 kW
fuel cell. The solar cells will generate electricity
during daylight hours, and the electricity will
be used both to run the house and recharge the
batteries, and to produce hydrogen from water
using an electrolyser.
This is a breakthrough order for this type
of energy-smart house, a use that we see that
our fuel cell system has great potential to
operate within, as increasing electricity prices,
climate change, and the desire for more energy
independence means that the interest in energyefficient houses is growing, says PowerCell
CEO Magnus Henell.
In the evenings, at night, and during the
winter the electric power will come from the
144 kWh of batteries and the 1 kW PowerCell
S1 hydrogen fuel cell. The fuel cell also
produces heat that is channeled to the houses
3800 litre hot water tanks, and used for heating
and hot water. The stored hydrogen will also be
used as a refueling station for the households
planned hydrogen car.
In other news, PowerCell is one of four
Swedish companies displaying innovative
environmental technology in a special fullscale facility in Qatars capital, Doha. This

June 2015

NEWS / IN BRIEF
opportunity may lead to a number of Gulf
States choosing Swedish technology in a major
investment in sustainable development. The
demonstration facility, in Qatar Science &
Technology Park, will contain a number of
functions, from living quarters and workplaces
to greenhouses. The idea is that visitors will
be able to see all these different technologies
together in one place, from late summer.
PowerCell has combined its PEM fuel cell and
autothermal reactor (ATR) reforming technology
to develop a fuel cell system that efficiently
and cleanly converts diesel to electricity. The
company is collaborating in a Norwegian project
to reduce diesel consumption for electricity
generation during vehicle loading and unloading
[FCB, April 2015, p3]. PowerCell recently
launched its S2 next-generation stack, which
will allow the company to target additional
applications and expand its market potential
[FCB, May 2015, p10].

Acumentrics SOFC is developing and

providing remote power generators for
applications requiring from 250 W to 10 kW
of clean, efficient, and reliable off-grid power.
The company is also working with the military
and government agencies to develop larger
systems for off-grid and hybrid power, including
operation on diesel and military jet fuel.
Last year Acumentrics teamed up with the
US Department Energy and stock car race
organiser NASCAR to test four SOFC units
as replacements for gasoline-powered power
generators at the Daytona 500 race [FCB,
March 2014, p6]. And in 2012 it installed a
propane-fueled SOFC unit at the Exit Glacier
Nature Center in Kenai Fjords National Park in
Alaska, to provide 1 kW for all of the centres
electrical needs including lights, power outlets,
and basic appliances [FCB, July 2012, p4].

PowerCell Sweden AB, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Tel: +46 31 720 3620, www.powercell.se

Acumentrics SOFC Corporation, Westwood,

Massachusetts, USA. Tel: 1 800 332 0277
(tollfree in US) or +1 781 461 8251,
www.acumentrics.com

Acumentrics delivers
250+ SOFC units to
remote power users

Horizon unveils 3 kW
methanol reformer fuel
cell in South East Asia

assachusetts-based Acumentrics
SOFC Corporation reports that it
has now delivered more than 250 of its
high-efficiency RP remote power solid
oxide fuel cell generators to more than
three dozen customers in the field.
Customers across the US, Canada, and Mexico
are benefiting from SOFC technology that utilises
natural gas and propane to produce electricity
for off-grid locations at dramatically lower costs
than the alternatives. These power generators are
being used in many applications where there is no
grid power available, including telecoms, cathodic
protection, equipment monitoring and control,
and data gathering and relay.
Acumentrics has been developing highly
efficient and reliable tubular SOFC technology
for more than 15 years, and is now entering
full-scale commercialisation in the US, Canada,
and Mexico. The companys tubular (rather
than planar) design provides for a highly
manufacturable, durable SOFC that is proven
with more than 2 million operating hours
accumulated from units in the field.
Our fuel cells do not require hydrogen, and
are very simple and durable, says Gary Simon,
president and CEO of Acumentrics. Using
conventional fuels is a huge advantage for us.
We do not need to wait for an entirely new fuel
delivery system in order to bring big benefits to
our customers.

June 2015

ingapore-based Horizon Fuel Cell

Technologies has launched the
MFC 3000, a 3 kW PEM fuel cell system
combined with a methanol reformer.
Horizon has appointed Singaporean
green solutions provider Innoverde as
distributor and system integrator for
industrial solution applications of the
MFC 3000 across South East Asia.
The MFC 3000 is designed as a highcapacity uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
that provides an eco-friendly, quiet alternative
to battery-based or genset UPS for telecom
sites. It can be supplied in an IP54-rated
outdoor cabinet, and offers remote monitoring
and control functionality. The light and
compact system is ideal for rooftop locations.
The integrated reformer/fuel cell system runs
on a low-volatility, low-cost methanol/water blend.
Fuel consumption is 0.9 litres per kWh of output,
across a wide range of loads. A 200 litre drum of
fuel would provide 222 kWh of electric power, or
a runtime of up to 74 h at an average 3 kW load
and even longer with a larger fuel tank.
Horizons new system can be combined with
a solar PV system (or wind turbine) to reduce
fuel consumption and provide an even longerlasting power source. If the solar modules
produce sufficient electric power for the
application, the solar system takes over and the
MFC 3000 goes into standby mode.

IN BRIEF
Hydrogen storage potential in salt caverns
Storing hydrogen deep underground in
abundant salt caverns and converting it into
power could help meet the UKs future peak
energy and load-following demands, according
to a new report published by the Energy
Technologies Institute (ETI, www.eti.co.uk).
The
report
(http://tinyurl.com/etipeakenergy) argues that using salt caverns to
store hydrogen for power generation would
reduce the investment needed in new clean
power station capacity. Today, salt caverns are
already used for storing oil and natural gas, and
there are around 30 large caverns in the UK.
One of the main benefits is cost, as
hydrogen storage could provide low-cost and
clean power, explains report author Dennis
Gammer, the ETIs carbon capture and storage
strategy manager. Large amounts of energy
can be stored, with one cavern providing
enough storage capacity to satisfy the peak
demands of a single UK city. By storing
hydrogen produced continuously by modestly
sized hydrogen plants in salt caverns, we could
generate electricity only when its needed.
Proton OnSite awards $100k scholarship
Three exceptional US high school senior
students shared the $100 000 scholarship from
the Proton OnSite Scholarship and Innovation
Program and its entrepreneur benefactor Tom
Sullivan, chairman of Proton OnSite (www.
ProtonOnSite.com). Each student wins a
scholarship prize of $36 000 to help them
through four years of college.
An independent panel of judges chose the
winners Ashish Vankara (Westerville, Ohio),
Farita Tasnim (Columbus, Georgia), and Mayia
Vranas (Danville, California) from more than
1400 applications from students across 47 states.
Sullivan has awarded more than $2 million
to 25 high school students over the past six
years through the programme. This looks for
the brightest high school seniors, to offer them
the financial support they need to gain an
undergraduate degree in science and technology.
Nuvera utilises manure for FCEV fueling
Massachusetts-based Nuvera Fuel Cells (www.
nuvera.com) used its PowerTap steam methane
reforming onsite hydrogen generation and
dispensing equipment in support of Toyotas
Fueled by Everything video campaign, which
debuted in April (http://tinyurl.com/kl9nch8).
The first film in the campaigns series, directed
by no-nonsense filmmaker Morgan Spurlock
(Super Size Me), explains how cow manure can
be used as a source for renewable natural gas in
the production of hydrogen. Nuvera was selected
by Toyota for its ability to reform biogas into
hydrogen, which is used to fuel its Mirai fuel cell
sedan [FCB, November 2014, p1].

Fuel Cells Bulletin

NEWS
Horizon is partnering with Innoverde, which
will act as the distributor and system integrator
for industrial applications of the MFC 3000
across South East Asia. Innoverde will offer the
MFC 3000 as a continuous power supply or as
a UPS for backup power.
Our strategic partnership allows us to
continue our focus on technology enhancement
and R&D, while Innoverde takes the product
to the right end-users, explains Craig Knight,
Horizons director of industrial solutions.
Last year Innoverde placed a major order
with German-based SFC Energy for its
integrated hybrid power solution, comprising
EFOY Pro direct methanol fuel cell generators
and solar modules [FCB, May 2014, p3].
The systems will mainly be used for powering
CCTV in applications such as safety
monitoring of construction sites.
Horizons subsidiary Horizon Energy Systems
recently unveiled the Hycopter, a hydrogen
PEM fuel cell powered multirotor unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV), designed to offer flight
durations 810 times longer than current
equivalent systems [see page 4].
Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, Singapore.
Tel: +65 6872 9588, www.horizonfuelcell.com
Innoverde Pte Ltd, Singapore. Tel: +65 6694 1814,
www.innoverde.com.sg

LARGE STATIONARY

AFC Energy on track

for KORE unit startup
at Stade site in July

K-based alkaline fuel cell

developer AFC Energy has
reported continuing progress towards
delivery of the companys first 240 kW
KORE system at Air Products facility
in Stade, near Hamburg in northern
Germany. The Power-Up project
remains on track for initial power
production in July.
Following a process hazard assessment of the
KORE fuel cell module design using the Hazard
and Operability (HAZOP) methodology, in
March KORE passed a further independent
and rigorous examination of its design safety
functions. This builds on the previous HAZOP
study in 2013 [FCB, January 2014, p6]. The
recent HAZOP review was organised and
moderated by German process engineering
consultancy plantIng GmbH, with the support
of AFC, consultancy firm Efficientics, and
industrial gas partner Air Products.
AFC then commissioned an explosion
protection report drafted by Efficientics
6

Fuel Cells Bulletin

according to German industrial health & safety

regulations and relevant technical standards. A
further HAZOP assessment of the structure and
facilities designed to house the KORE system
in Stade has been undertaken, led by plantIng
GmbH. This is the first time a HAZOP has
been undertaken on the facilities set to house the
KORE, and further validates the robust design
being adopted by AFC across the integrated
hydrogen supply, facilities, structures, and
KORE system within an industrial setting.
A HAZOP has also been completed for the
Air Products hydrogen letdown station and
supply pipeline to the AFC facility. Orders
have been placed for all key hydrogen supply
components required for connection to the
KORE plant.
AFC, Artelia, and plantIng continue to work
with local regulatory authorities on the final
building permit for the Stade facility. Work has
been completed on the deep foundations to house
the KORE system, and final activities are being
concluded on the shallower plant foundations.
The KORE module itself continues to be
developed and constructed in Coventry, UK
and is on target for completion in time to allow
commencement of operations at Stade in July.
The Power-Up project will demonstrate the
worlds largest alkaline fuel cell system [see the
AFC Energy feature in FCB, November 2011].
The 240 kW KORE system demonstration
has been fast-tracked to December 2015,
representing the final phase of AFCs precommercialisation technical development
programme [FCB, January 2015, p6 and
February 2015, p6]. AFC has also recently
announced large-scale projects in Asia and the
Middle East [FCB, March 2015, p1 and May
2015, p6].

local PG&E grid, even before the use of biogas.

Biogas is methane captured from decomposing
organic matter such as from landfills or animal
waste, and it avoids the use of fossil fuel natural
gas [see the waste-to-energy features in FCB, June
and July 2014].
The project also includes uninterruptible
power modules that are configured to protect part
of the data centres energy load from electrical
outages, reducing reliance on traditional backup
equipment. The deployment supports Equinixs
long-term sustainability goal of using 100% clean
and renewable energy across its global platform of
more than 100 data centres.
Companies are increasingly turning to
data centre co-location services in order
to interconnect with other businesses, and
they want to do this in an environmentally
responsible way, says Peter Gross, VP of
mission critical systems at Bloom Energy.
The clean and modular nature of Blooms
technology makes us uniquely suited to meet
the growing demand for renewable power
to support cutting-edge IT infrastructure.
Bloom provides grid-independent power for
critical loads in data centres and manufacturing
through its Mission Critical Systems practice.
Bloom Energy Servers produce more than
150 MW for major companies and organisations
in the US and Japan [FCB, April 2015, p7],
including a 6 MW deployment at an eBay data
centre in Utah [FCB, October 2013, p3], and
installations in Japan through its joint venture
with SoftBank [FCB, July 2014, p6]. The
company recently installed systems to power the
Western New England regional headquarters
of broadcasting giant Comcast, and the Irvine,
California data centre of telecoms company
CenturyLink [FCB, May 2015, p6].

AFC Energy, Cranleigh, Surrey, UK.

Tel: +44 1483 276726, www.afcenergy.com

Bloom Energy Corporation, Sunnyvale, California, USA.

Tel: +1 408 543 1500, www.bloomenergy.com

Power-Up project: www.project-power-up.eu

Equinix: www.equinix.com

Equinix installs 1 MW
Bloom unit at Silicon
Valley data centre

Doosan PureCell fuel

cells enter service at
South Korea utility

n California, data centre operator

Equinix is installing a 1 MW solid
oxide fuel cell power plant from Bloom
Energy, in a biogas fuel cell project
at its SV5 International Business
Exchange data centre in Silicon Valley.
The 1 MW Bloom Energy SOFC will
provide an estimated 8.3 GWh per annum of
clean, reliable electricity to power part of the
SV5 data centre. The installation will result in
a 15% reduction in CO2 emissions over the

ix power plants from US-based

Doosan Fuel Cell have gone live
at the Korean South East Power Co
(KOSEP) facility in Ansan, a suburb of
the capital, Seoul. The 400 kW Doosan
PureCell Model 400 phosphoric acid fuel
cell systems are together providing 2.6
MW of clean energy and heat to the
local electric grid and KOSEP customers.
Ansan is the second Doosan-KOSEP
partnership, following the installation in 2013

June 2015

NEWS
of seven PureCell systems at the KOSEP plant
in Bundang, another Seoul suburb [FCB,
December 2012, p4]. Doosan, with its strategic
focus on fuel cell growth in the US and Korea,
now has 35 units supplying clean energy in and
around Seoul.
Doosan FC came into existence last summer
[FCB, August 2014, p1], as a new subsidiary
of Korean-based industrial conglomerate
Doosan Corporation following its acquisition
of ClearEdge Power [FCB, July 2014, p5]. The
company is focusing primarily on the PureCell
Model 400 stationary products that ClearEdge
Power acquired from UTC Power in early 2013
[FCB, January 2013, p8, and see the PureCell
feature in FCB, February 2012].
Overall, Doosan has six projects in South
Korea totaling 35 active fuel cell power plants,
which equates to more than 15 MW of
electricity generation. They include 12 units
producing a total of 4.8 MW at GS Power
[FCB, January 2009, p6], two systems for the
Lotte World Tower skyscraper in Seoul [FCB,
February 2013, p7], and one at the Busan
International Finance Centers Landmark Tower
in Busan [FCB, July 2013, p6]. There is a
growing demand for electric power throughout
South Korea, and all utility companies must
adhere to Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS),
which establish regulations for clean energy
integration throughout the country.
Doosan Fuel Cell America, South Windsor, Connecticut,
USA. Tel: +1 860 727 2200, www.doosanfuelcell.com
KOSEP: www.kosep.co.kr/kosep/en/main.do

FCE unit at California

water facility, fuel cell
park proposed in CT

onnecticut-based FuelCell Energy

has signed a deal to install a 1.4 MW
combined heat and power (CHP) fuel cell
system at the Regional Water Quality
Control Plant in Riverside, California. The
company is also part of a project that
is proposing a 63 MW fuel cell park in
Beacon Falls, Connecticut.
FuelCell Energy is executing a 20-year power
purchase agreement (PPA) with the City of
Riverside, California to install a 1.4 MW
Direct FuelCell power plant at the Riverside
Regional Water Quality Control Plant. The
city is forecasting cost savings under the PPA,
paying only for power produced. FuelCell
Energy will install, operate, and maintain the
plant under a long-term service agreement for
a term of 20 years, with the plant expected to
enter operation in 2016.

June 2015

The molten carbonate fuel cell power plant

will convert biogas from the wastewater treatment
process into a continuous supply of ultra-clean
electricity to power the facility and two electric
vehicle charging stations [see also page 9], as
well as provide thermal energy for the water
treatment process. The Riverside wastewater
treatment facility processes approximately 40
million gallons of wastewater per day in roundthe-clock operations. The continuous power
profile of the fuel cells will support the treatment
process, utilising approximately half of the biogas
generated to provide about half of the power
needs for the facility.
FuelCell Energy is also partnering with
O&G Industries, a leading construction
company in the northeastern US, and project
developer CT Energy & Technology LLC,
on a proposed 63.3 MW fuel cell park in
Beacon Falls, Connecticut. The Beacon Falls
Energy Park will be the worlds largest, if built
as designed.
The project was recently presented to Beacon
Falls officials during a special meeting by O&G
Industries and CT Energy & Technology.
Under a Letter of Intent, FuelCell Energy has
been identified as the fuel cell supplier, and if
the park becomes operational, is expected to
be retained to operate and maintain the plants
under a long-term service agreement. O&G
Industries owns the property, while CT Energy
& Technology is developing and will own the
project. The electric grid interconnection study
is in process with ISO New England, and site
engineering is at an advanced stage. The next
steps are to finalise the off-taker of the power
and prepare contracts.
FuelCell Energy, Danbury, Connecticut, USA.
Tel: +1 203 825 6000, www.fuelcellenergy.com
O&G Industries: www.ogind.com

FUELING

CEP opens first

hydrogen station on
German autobahn

aimler, Linde, and Total have jointly

taken an important step towards
expansion of the hydrogen refueling
infrastructure in Germany, with the
inauguration of the countrys first
motorway hydrogen station, as part of
the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP).
The new hydrogen pump at the Total
motorway service area in Geiselwind, on the
A3 between Wrzburg and Nuremberg, links
the existing hydrogen refueling facilities in
the metropolitan regions of Frankfurt/Main,

Stuttgart and Munich, forming the first hub for

fuel cell electric vehicles in southern Germany.
Total has invested more than E250 000
(US$280 000) in the Geiselwind installation,
covering all construction and approval costs, as
well as project management for installing the
hydrogen technology, including service and
maintenance components. Geiselwind is the
seventh hydrogen station that Total operates in
Germany, with four in Berlin, and one each in
Munich and Hamburg. The project is supported
by the federal ministry of transport and digital
infrastructure (BMVI) as part of its National
Innovation Programme Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
Technology (NIP), which is managed by the
National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel
Cell Technology (NOW GmbH) in Berlin.
Linde has installed around 90 hydrogen
stations in 15 countries, and is contributing
refueling technology and sustainably produced
hydrogen to the Geiselwind facility. The
company operates the worlds first small-series
production facility for hydrogen fueling stations
in Vienna, Austria [FCB, July 2014, p1],
featuring its IC90 ionic compressor [see the
Linde feature in FCB, September 2014]. Linde
recently opened a hydrogen refueling station
in Innsbruck, Austria with OMV, to make the
journey across the Alps from Germany to Italy
feasible for FCEVs [see page 9].
The Geiselwind site is part of the expansion
plan, launched in 2012, that will initially expand
the German hydrogen refueling network from
its current 18 locations to 50 stations by 2015
[FCB, June 2012, p1]. Reaching 50 hydrogen
stations will allow nationwide mobility between
metropolitan areas along the main roads
throughout Germany. Within this expansion
programme, the Daimler-Linde initiative is
participating in a total of 20 new hydrogen
stations with a total investment of approximately
E20 million ($22.5 million) [FCB, October
2014, p1]. The Clean Energy Partnership
recently announced a new Shell hydrogen station
in Hamburg [FCB, April 2015, p10], and
additional stations for the states of North RhineWestphalia (NRW) and Baden-Wrttemberg
[FCB, December 2014, p9, and see the CEP
feature in FCB, June 2011].
Clean Energy Partnership:
www.cleanenergypartnership.de/en
The Linde Group, Hydrogen Energy:
http://tinyurl.com/linde-hydrogen-energy
Daimler, Fuel Cell Drive Technology:
http://tinyurl.com/daimler-fcevs
Total, Germany: www.de.total.com/en-us
Total, Electro- and Hydrogen Mobility:
http://tinyurl.com/total-electro-h2-mobility [in German]
NOW GmbH: www.now-gmbh.de/en

Fuel Cells Bulletin

NEWS

Air Liquide installs its

own hydrogen station
to fuel HyWay project

H2 Logic acquired by
NEL, to create global
leader in hydrogen

ndustrial gases giant Air Liquide has

installed a hydrogen fueling station at
its Sassenage site in Isre, in the RhneAlpes region of France, which will allow
the first users of the French HyWay
project to refuel their vehicles with
hydrogen. A second, higher-capacity
hydrogen station will be installed in
nearby Grenoble in the autumn.
The HyWay project, coordinated by the
Tenerrdis new energy technologies cluster, is
the first French project that aims to deploy
fleets of hydrogen-powered electric vehicles. It
is jointly supported by the French government
(through the DREAL vehicle testing agency
and the ADEME Agency for Environment and
Energy Management) and the Rhne-Alpes
regional council.
A major project milestone was reached
on 10 June, with the delivery of the first 21
Renault Kangoo ZE-H2 utility vehicles to
Grenoble. These vehicles constitute the largest
electric vehicle fleet currently deployed in
Europe that is equipped with a hydrogenpowered range-extender, utilising a 5 kW
PEM fuel cell supplied by Symbio FCell
[FCB, April 2015, p2].
Air Liquide is supporting the HyWay
project by investing in the development of
the first station in Sassenage, at its own site,
which will serve users such as the French
postal service La Poste. It will also acquire
three Kangoo ZE-H2 vehicles.
Air Liquide has hydrogen fueling stations in
operation around the world, including in SaintL in northwestern France [FCB, February
2015, p7], Rotterdam in the Netherlands
[FCB, October 2014, p7] and Dsseldorf
in Germany, part of the national hydrogen
network in Denmark [FCB, July 2014, p8],
in Nagoya and Toyota City in Japan [FCB,
February 2015, p7], and plans for a network
in the northeastern US in collaboration with
Toyota Motor Sales USA [FCB, December
2014, p8]. The company is also providing
hydrogen fueling for fuel cell powered forklifts
at FM Logistics logistics platform near Orlans
in central France [FCB, April 2015, p10].
Air Liquide, Hydrogen Filling Station:
http://tinyurl.com/airliquide-h2filling
Tenerrdis energy cluster, HyWay project:
www.tenerrdis.fr/en/News/hyway-project.html
Symbio FCell: www.symbiofcell.com

Fuel Cells Bulletin

enmark-based H2 Logic, a leading

manufacturer of hydrogen fueling
stations, has agreed to become part
of Norwegian company NEL ASA,
a major electrolyser manufacturer
which operates as NEL Hydrogen. The
combined business will be a global
leader in hydrogen production and
fueling for fuel cell electric vehicles.
NEL and H2 Logic together represent a
world-leading commercial technology and
product portfolio, that addresses the mature
and profitable market in hydrogen production
for industrial applications. Furthermore,
the combination of sustainable hydrogen
production from NEL and fueling systems
from H2 Logic will serve the growing hydrogen
demand resulting from the accelerating
market introduction of FCEVs by the major
automakers, as well as the substantial global
growth potential for hydrogen in renewable
energy storage.
The terms of the H2 Logic acquisition
include cash payment and new NEL shares
totaling NOK300 million (E35 million,
US$39 million) to the shareholders and
founders of H2 Logic. H2 Logic will become a
subsidiary in the NEL Group, with the existing
management and employees continuing
operations.
NEL originally as Norsk Hydro was split
off from the Norwegian oil & gas giant Statoil
in 2011, and is the first dedicated hydrogen
company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
The company has manufactured hydrogen
production plants based on electrolysis
technology for 88 years, and has delivered more
than 500 large-scale electrolysers to customers
in more than 50 countries for various industrial
and fueling applications.
H2 Logic has developed and manufactured
H2Station hydrogen fueling stations since it
was founded in 2003 [see the H2 Logic feature in
FCB, May 2013]. The company has delivered
more than 20 fueling solutions to customers in
seven European countries, operating in daily
use for refueling of hydrogen vehicles. H2
Logic is also the first in the world to operate
a countrywide network of hydrogen fueling
stations in a single country Denmark in
collaboration with leading oil & gas companies
[FCB, July 2014, p8 and March 2015, p8]. The
network has demonstrated very high availability
and performance for vehicle users.

Last summer H2 Logic made a strategic

decision to concentrate on commercialising its
H2Station hydrogen refueling station products.
To this end, it sold its H2Drive fuel cell
activities, including its materials handling
intellectual property portfolio, to Dantherm
Power, the Danish subsidiary of Canadian-based
Ballard Power Systems [FCB, July 2014, p3].
NEL Hydrogen, Notodden, Norway. Tel: +47 3509 3838,
www.nel-hydrogen.com
H2 Logic, Herning, Denmark. Tel: +45 9627 5600,
www.h2logic.com

Don Quichote project

adds green hydrogen
at Belgium warehouse

he EU-funded Don Quichote project

has installed a renewable energy
powered hydrogen generation system
at a large logistics centre operated by
Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt. The
project aims to demonstrate improved
efficiency and operating costs of a large
logistics facility, evaluating and validating
the market readiness of the components
needed for storing renewable energy in
the form of hydrogen.
The Don Quichote system will be connected
to an existing hydrogen refueling facility
that supplies hydrogen to a fleet of materials
handling vehicles, to form an integrated energy
storage and dispensing system in a smart
grid setting [FCB, December 2012, p1]. The
integrated system receives its energy from
a 1 MW wind turbine and solar PV panels
producing 1.05 MW. The existing hydrogen
refueling facility consists of a 30 Nm3/h
alkaline electrolyser system with diaphragm
compressor, steel hydrogen storage vessels, and
a 350 bar (5000 psi) dispenser system.
The system comprises a PEM electrolyser
supplied by Hydrogenics, which offers a wider
operating range, higher efficiency, and faster
response time than alkaline electrolysers; an
electrochemical compressor from HyET BV
Hydrogen Efficiency Technologies in the
Netherlands, which offers scalability, higher
efficiency, and contamination-free operation
compared to traditional compressors; composite
storage vessels; and a Hydrogenics 90 kW PEM
fuel cell system.
HyET is continuing development of its
Electrochemical Hydrogen Compressor, a 2.5
kg/day stand-alone test system, referred to as
the MoHyTO (Mobile Hydrogen Test Object)
[see the HyET feature in FCB, May 2014]. This
system can be expanded to 5 kg/day by adding

June 2015

NEWS
a second compressor stack. Development of a
60 kg/day compressor system is continuing for
the Don Quichote system.
The first operation of the Don Quichote
project, expected this month, is being
supported by the Italian Federation of the
Scientific and Technical Associations in
cooperation with the European Hydrogen
Association. The other partners include
inspection service TV Rheinland and
sustainability software specialist PE
International in Germany, and Icelandic New
Energy. The five-year project scheduled for
completion in September 2017 is funded
through the New Energy World Industry
Grouping (NEW-IG), one of the constituent
members of the European Fuel Cells and
Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU).
Don Quichote project: www.don-quichote.eu
New Energy World Industry Grouping: www.new-ig.eu
Hydrogenics Europe Electrolysers, Oevel, Belgium.
Tel: +32 14 462110, www.hydrogenics.com
WaterstofNet: www.waterstofnet.eu/english.html
HyET BV, Hydrogen Efficiency Technologies: www.hyet.nl

Linde, OMV open

transalpine hydrogen
station in Innsbruck

he Linde Group and Austrian oil &

gas company OMV have inaugurated
a hydrogen refueling station in
Innsbruck. The new facility in Tyrol,
which can refuel six vehicles per hour,
is located on one of Europes key transit
routes, and will make the journey across
the Alps from Germany to Italy feasible
for fuel cell electric vehicles.
This is Austrias second public hydrogen
fueling station, and bridges the existing
hydrogen hubs in Munich, Germany and
Bolzano, Italy. It was built as part of the
EU-funded HyFIVE (Hydrogen for Innovative
Vehicles) project, which aims to equip a
number of cities across Europe London,
Copenhagen, Stuttgart, Munich, Innsbruck,
and Bolzano for the ongoing initial
commercialisation of FCEVs [FCB, April 2014,
p1]. The hydrogen station in Tyrol is part of
the Hydrogen Cluster South in HyFIVE,
which runs from Stuttgart via Munich to
Verona. Four hydrogen stations have already
been built in these cities.
The Innsbruck fueling station is equipped
with Lindes 700 bar (10 000 psi) IC90 ionic
compressor [see the Linde feature in FCB,
September 2014]. In order to meet rising

June 2015

demand for hydrogen infrastructure, Linde

has been running the worlds first small-series
production facility for hydrogen fueling stations
at its R&D centre in Vienna since last summer
[FCB, July 2014, p1].
OMV has been operating Austrias first
public hydrogen fueling station in Vienna since
2012 [FCB, November 2012, p5]. Further
stations are being planned in partnership
with Linde for the greater urban areas of
Linz in Austria, and in Munich, Nuremberg
and Stuttgart in southern Germany [FCB,
December 2014, p9, and see page 7]. Its
subsidiary OMV Deutschland GmbH recently
joined the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) in
Germany [FCB, April 2015, p10].
Linde has also launched its new
Hydroprime line of compact, cost-effective
hydrogen generators, based on proven steam
methane reforming technology. Hydro-Chem, a
division of Linde Engineering North America,
has tested and proven the reliability and
suitability of these units in various applications,
as a competitive local production alternative to
trucked-in bulk gases, including for hydrogen
refueling stations.
The Linde Group, Hydrogen Energy:
http://tinyurl.com/linde-hydrogen-energy
OMV, Hydrogen Mobility:
http://tinyurl.com/omv-hydrogen
Hydro-Chem: www.hydro-chem.com

FCE offers renewable,

affordable hydrogen
for transport, industry

onnecticut-based FuelCell Energy

says that its commercial fuel cell
power plants can now also offer
affordable onsite generation of highpurity hydrogen for transportation
and industrial applications.
Renewable hydrogen is produced for
transportation by converting biogas,
with the companys onsite hydrogen
generation model structured to attract
private investment.
A MW-scale FuelCell Energy hydrogen
delivery system can generate more than
1200 kg/day of hydrogen, suitable for larger
industrial applications or sufficient to power
a fleet of more than 1500 fuel cell electric
vehicles, while also producing 2 MW of ultraclean electricity. The hydrogen and power
are generated in a low-carbon manner when
operating on natural gas, or this is carbonneutral when utilising renewable biogas as the
fuel source [see also page 7].

Our commercial distributed power

generation solutions are configurable to provide
multiple value streams, including high-purity
hydrogen along with ultra-clean electricity
and usable heat, says Chip Bottone, president
and CEO of FuelCell Energy. Resiliency
of supply is enhanced with our affordable
onsite delivery system, delivering power and
hydrogen independent of external events
that can interrupt the electric grid or surface
transportation network.
FuelCell Energy power plants support
hydrogen fueling for FCEVs, illustrated
by a three-year demonstration project for
the Orange County Sanitation District in
California to convert renewable biogas from
wastewater into high-purity, 100% renewable
hydrogen for transportation [FCB, August
2011, p1]. The ability of the FuelCell Energy
solution to utilise onsite renewable biogas also
offers an attractive opportunity to affordably
and cleanly provide green hydrogen fueling for
materials handling vehicles.
In addition, industrial users of hydrogen
including metal processors, glass makers,
and petrochemical applications can benefit
from affordable onsite hydrogen generation.
FuelCell Energy is demonstrating this at its
own Danbury manufacturing facility, with a
Direct FuelCell power plant that converts
clean natural gas into power and heat for the
manufacturing process, and hydrogen that
will be used as an oxidation preventative in
the manufacturing ovens, replacing purchased
hydrogen [FCB, May 2015, p1]. The fuel cells
also power an electric vehicle charging station
located onsite.
The financial profile including the multiple
value streams of our onsite power and hydrogen
generation systems, can attract private capital,
minimising the need for the site owner to
directly invest in the hydrogen delivery system,
as we source the private capital to own the
asset, explains Bottone.
FuelCell Energy, Danbury, Connecticut, USA.
Tel: +1 203 825 6000, www.fuelcellenergy.com

ENERGY STORAGE

Hydrogenics wraps up
factory test of 1.5 MW
PEM electrolyser

anadian-based Hydrogenics reports

that its 1.5 MW PEM electrolyser
system has passed factory acceptance
testing at its German facility in
Gladbeck, witnessed by representatives
from customer E.ON. The system will

Fuel Cells Bulletin

NEWS
be delivered to E.ONs Reitbrook site
in Hamburg, as part of a Power-to-Gas
(P2G) hydrogen injection plant that
utilises excess renewable energy.
The P2G plant, backed by a consortium
of German companies and scientific
organisations, is expected to begin operation
this summer. Funding has been provided
by the National Innovation Programme
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP),
under the auspices of the German federal
ministry of transport, buildings and urban
affairs (BMVBS) in coordination with the
National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel
Cell Technology (NOW GmbH).
At the core of this application is a single
1500E PEM electrolyser stack rated for 1.5
MW of continuous power, which is believed
to be the worlds most powerful PEM
electrolyser. This single 1.5 MW stack delivers
a power density of 4000 W/litre.
Hydrogenics has already supplied large-scale
electrolyser systems to German P2G projects,
i.e. for RH2-WKA at a 140 MW wind farm
at Grapzow [FCB, October 2013, p8] and
for E.ON in Falkenhagen [FCB, September
2013, p9]. The company is also supplying a 1
MW electrolyser for the MefCO2 project in
Germany, which will generate hydrogen and
then create methanol using CO2 emissions
from a coal-fired power plant [FCB, February
2015, p9]. Hydrogenics has also signed a
10-year deal to supply Alstom Transport with
PEM fuel cell systems for regional commuter
trains in Europe [see page 4].
Germany is a key energy storage player in
Europe, because of its huge installed capacity
of intermittent renewables. In 2014, power
from renewables in Germany accounted for
28% of total electricity generation, with
the ambitious goal of getting one-third
of the nations electricity from renewables
by 2020 known as the Energiewende, or
energy transition so it must find a way to
integrate and store many GWh of energy. The
German Energy Agency (DENA) says that
significant investments in energy storage will
be required to meet these renewable energy
commitments. Power-to-Gas is considered to
be a key energy storage solution for providing
the capacity needed for large-scale renewable
power generation [see the feature on the
commercialisation of energy storage in Europe
in FCB, April 2015].
Hydrogenics Corporation, Mississauga,
Ontario, Canada. Tel: +1 905 361 3660,
www.hydrogenics.com
Hydrogenics Europe Electrolysers, Oevel,
Belgium. Tel: +32 14 462110.
NOW GmbH: www.now-gmbh.de

10

Fuel Cells Bulletin

COMMERCIALISATION

Ballard wins order for

PEM fuel cell catalyst
project with Nisshinbo

anadian-based Ballard Power

Systems has received a purchase
order from Nisshinbo Holdings Inc
in Japan, for the next phase of
work to develop a breakthrough
catalyst technology to reduce the
manufacturing cost of protonexchange membrane (PEM) fuel
cells. The Technology Solutions
project has now been under way for
approximately two years.
Environmental and energy company
Nisshinbo provides low-carbon, optimised
products across a range of business lines,
including chemicals, precision instruments,
electronics, automotive brakes, textiles and
paper. The company has supplied Ballard
with compression moulded bipolar flow-field
plates for more than 10 years, for use in the
manufacture of PEM fuel cell membraneelectrode assemblies (MEAs) for a variety of
applications.
The volume of platinum catalyst coating
material used in a fuel cell has been successfully
reduced over time, so that today it represents
1015% of total fuel cell cost. The next phase
of project work to be conducted jointly by
Ballard and Nisshinbo will focus on a new
PEM fuel cell catalyst technology that is
intended to further reduce the cost of Ballards
air-cooled fuel cell stacks. These stacks are used
in various market applications, such as telecom
backup power [FCB, May 2015, p4] and
materials handling (with Plug Power) [FCB,
November 2014, p5].
We are pleased with progress made in our
joint work with Ballard, and look forward
to completing development of this new
commercial technology in the foreseeable
future, says Toshihiro Kijima, director and
managing officer of Nisshinbo. This will
position Nisshinbo even more strongly in the
marketplace, with a unique capability.
Ballards Technology Solutions group works
to help customers solve difficult technical
and business challenges in their PEM fuel cell
programmes [FCB, March 2015, p2 and p10].
This is delivered through customised, bundled
technology solutions that include specialised
engineering services, access to the companys
substantial intellectual property (IP) portfolio
and know-how, as well as the supply of
technology components.

Ballard Power Systems, Burnaby, BC, Canada.

Tel: +1 604 454 0900, www.ballard.com
Nisshinbo Holdings: www.nisshinbo.co.jp/english

Trenergi unveils 1 kW
fuel-flexible HTPEM
fuel cell prototype

assachusetts-based fuel
cell developer Trenergi has
demonstrated its 1 kW fuel cell
prototype to a group of investors.
The company says that its hightemperature PEM (HTPEM) fuel cell,
based on a radically different design
to conventional fuel cells, is capable of
efficiently and cleanly generating onsite
electricity, heat and hot water from most
existing fuels, including hydrocarbons.
Trenergi utilises a patented HighTemperature Proton Exchange Membrane-Plus
(HTPEM+) design, which it says represents a
major advance on previous HTPEM designs
that utilised BASF material for the membrane.
CTO Dr Mohammad Enayetullah has
achieved significant progress in the membrane/
electrode technology, which allows for higher
power density and lower manufacturing cost
than previously achievable. It also has greater
impurity tolerance, allowing the fuel cell to
operate using readily available fuels, such as
propane, natural gas, and even jet fuel, instead
of the pure hydrogen required by conventional
PEM fuel cell technologies.
The high-temperature operation of the
Trenergi system means that it can operate at
up to 90% energy efficiency, and the company
says that the system is also three times more
durable than competitor solid oxide and lowtemperature PEM fuel cells.
Trenergi also has developed a 3 kW fuel cell
prototype, which has been sold to a major defence
contractor for testing as part of distributed energy
systems or in mobile defence applications.

Trenergi Corporation, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.

Tel: +1 508 497 2355, www.trenergi.com

RESEARCH

Ulsan researchers find

noble way to low-cost,
high-stability DMFCs

team of engineers at the Ulsan

National Institute of Science and
Technology (UNIST) in South Korea have

June 2015

NEWS / IN BRIEF
Materials Center, Ulsan National Institute of Science
and Technology, Banyeon, Ulsan, South Korea.
Tel: +82 52 217 2510, Email: jbbaek@unist.ac.kr,
Web: http://eche-eng.unist.ac.kr/index.sko

developed a low-cost and reusable

material for fuel cell cathodes, by
selectively plating antimony with
graphene through a mechanochemical
process. They suggest that direct
methanol fuel cells using these cathodes
would suffer no loss of electrocatalytic
activity in the oxygen reduction reaction
(ORR) even after 100 000 cycles.
Most low-temperature fuel cells utilise
platinum catalysts, but the recent surge of
interest in renewable energy has triggered
a corresponding increase in the need for
developing new fuel cell catalysts that are
renewable, energy-efficient, and low-cost at the
same time. As a result, graphene is regarded
as a possible alternative to replace expensive
platinum [see the two graphene News Features
in FCB, December 2014]. However, its low
electrochemical performance means that use of
this non-metallic element has resulted in damage
to the graphene crystals.
Now a team of UNIST scientists, led by
Professor Jong-Beom Baek in the School
of Energy and Chemical Engineering, have
reported in Nature Communications that
they have successfully developed a low-cost
and reusable fuel cell electrode material, by
selectively plating antimony with graphene
through a mechanochemical process.
The researchers plated the edges of graphene
nanoplatelets (GnPs) with semimetal antimony
(Sb), using the low-cost and scalable ballmilling technique to overcome the limitations
of the non-metal materials.
According to Professor Baek, these Sb-doped
GnPs may be a significant breakthrough in
fuel cell technology, as they display zero loss of
electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction
reaction even after 100 000 cycles. We expect
that this unique material will provide new insights
and practical methods for designing stable
carbon-based electrocatalysts, and accelerate the
commercialisation of graphene, says Baek.
UNIST scientists are busy in fuel cell
electrode research. Last December they
reported on a new material for direct
hydrocarbon solid oxide fuel cells running on
natural gas, with an anode featuring a new
multilayer oxygen-deficient double perovskite
material [FCB, January 2015, p11]. And in
2013 they collaborated with researchers at the
Korea Institute of Energy Research as well as
Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US, to
discover a new family of low-cost, non-precious
metal catalysts that exhibit better performance
than platinum in the oxygen reduction reaction
[FCB, October 2013, p9].

he US Department of Energy has

announced funding for two projects
to demonstrate fuel cell-battery electric
hybrid trucks, and develop a realtime, in-line optical detector for the
measurement of fuel cell membrane
thickness for manufacturing quality
control. The awards are made under
the 2015 Small Business Innovation
Research and Small Business Technology
Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Phase I Release 2.
U US Hybrid Corporation (www.ushybrid.
com) in Torrance, California [FCB, June
2014, p10] will develop and demonstrate
PEM fuel cell-battery electric hybrid technology for medium- or heavy-duty bucket
trucks with drivetrain-integrated electric
power take-off systems. The company will
help establish a business case, mitigate the
cost of hydrogen fueling infrastructure, supplement utility industry evaluations of introducing hydrogen generation on their grids,
and demonstrate fuel cell-battery electric
hybrid truck technologies.
U Mainstream Engineering Corporation
(www.mainstream-engr.com) in Rockledge,
Florida will develop a real-time, in-line optical detector for the measurement of fuel cell
membrane thickness. Previously, the DOE
Fuel Cell Technologies Office funded the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) to develop non-destructive in-line
quality control techniques for production
of membrane-electrode assembly (MEA)
components. This Mainstream Engineering
project involves technical transfer of NREL
intellectual property on optical techniques.
Mainstream will now design and fabricate a
QC device that is readily implementable in
a roll-to-roll production line for the production of one or more MEA component materials. The QC device will help to drive down
the costs of fuel cells, by reducing waste and
improving the process efficiency of roll-toroll manufacturing of PEMs.

Contact: Professor Jong-Beom Baek, School of Energy

& Chemical Engineering and Low-Dimensional Carbon

DOE Fuel Cell Technologies Office:

http://energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/fuel-cell-technologies-office

June 2015

Research paper (Open Access):

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8123

DOE project funding

for hybrid truck, fuel
cell manufacturing QC

IN BRIEF
GEI sells 5 kW fuel cell for Mexico demo
Michigan-based GEI Global Energy (www.
geiglobal.com) has received a purchase order
for a complete 5 kW biofuel demonstration
fuel cell system from its strategic alliance
partner, Golden Age Resources (GDAR, www.
gdarinc.com), an energy provider for largescale green power plants in Latin America
and the Caribbean. The GEI X5 fuel cell will
be an integral part of the 100 kW cogeneration
pilot project that GDAR is planning for
construction in Mexico.
This unit allows us to produce and store
electricity from produced methane biogas
as biofuel, and to show its effectiveness to
both private and public entities, says Thomas
Wolff, VP of Golden Age Resources Mexico.
The 5 kW high-temperature PEM fuel cell
with energy storage can be interfaced with solar
panels, to give 120/220 Vac and 48 Vdc outputs,
and will also include a heat-exchanger for
heating water. The 100 kW cogeneration pilot
project is being built as part of a 2 MW scalable
Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant using organic
municipal and/or sisal waste. Construction
is set to begin in Q4 of 2015, with the plant
scheduled to begin operation by Q2 of 2016.
Last summer GEI Global announced the
deployment of its 5 kW fuel cell system in
the Italian city of Due Carrare, near Padua,
in a joint venture with the Italian Association
for Economic Development [FCB, September
2014, p4].
Mantra highlights fuel cell scooter demo
BC-based Mantra Venture Group (www.
mantraventuregroup.com) has demonstrated
its novel Mixed-Reactant Fuel Cell (MRFC)
powering a small scooter, the Mantra Spark.
The MRFC produces power from a mixture of
fuel and oxidant, eliminating the requirement
for a membrane and simplifying the system
balance-of-plant. Mantar says that this leads
to reduced size, weight, and cost compared
to conventional systems. Utilising liquid
fuels, the MRFC does not face the challenges
associated with the storage and distribution of
gaseous hydrogen.
While the MRFC can produce power from
many different fuels, the Spark is powered by
formate salts, explains CTO Dr Sona Kazemi.
This fits well into Mantras business, as our
other technology, ERC, produces formates
from waste carbon dioxide.
By utilising formate salts, the Spark
represents part of an energy storage cycle
created by two innovative electrochemical
technologies that Mantra is developing through
its subsidiary, Mantra Energy Alternatives. The
ERC (Electro-Reduction of CO2) technology
uses electricity to convert CO2 into a range of
high-value chemicals, including formate salts.

Fuel Cells Bulletin

11

NEWS FEATURE

NIST process to synthesise

platinum nano-raspberries
for improved DMFC catalysts
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in
the US have developed a process for making platinum nano-raspberries, i.e.
microscopic clusters of nanoscale Pt particles approximately 100 nm in diameter.
The research could help make direct methanol fuel cells more practical.

Fast synthesis protocol

Researchers at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology have developed a fast,
robust synthesis protocol for making platinum
nano-raspberries, i.e. microscopic clusters of
nanoscale particles of the precious metal. The
berry-like shape is significant because it has a
high surface area, which is helpful in the design
of catalysts. The researchers have also figured
out when and why the berry clusters clump into
larger bunches of nano-grapes.
Nanoparticles can act as catalysts to help
convert methanol to electricity in direct
methanol fuel cells. NISTs 40-minute
process for making nano-raspberries,
described in a recent paper in the Journal of
Nanoparticle Research, has several advantages.
The high surface area of the berries
encourages efficient reactions. In addition,
the NIST process uses water, rather than a
toxic solvent. The bunches catalyse methanol
reactions consistently, and dynamic light
scattering shows that they are stable at room
temperature for at least eight weeks.

Pt demo shows promise

for alternative catalysts
Although the berries were made of platinum,
the metal is expensive, and was used in this
demonstration only as a model. The study will help
guide the search for alternative catalyst materials,
and clumping behaviour in solvents is a key issue.
For fuel cells, nanoparticles are often mixed with
solvents to bind them to an electrode. To learn how
such formulas affect particle properties, the NIST
team measured particle clumping in four different
solvents for the first time. For applications such as
liquid methanol fuel cells, catalyst particles should
remain separated and dispersed in the liquid, not
clumped.
Our innovation has little to do with the
platinum, and everything to do with how new
materials are tested in the laboratory, says project
leader Dr Kavita Jeerage, a materials research
engineer in the Cell & Tissue Mechanics Group.
Our critical contribution is that after you make
a new material, you need to make choices.
Our paper is about one choice: what solvent to

use. We made the particles in water, and tested

whether you could put them in other solvents.
We found out that this choice is a big deal.
The NIST team measured conditions under
which platinum particles, ranging in size
from 3 to 4 nm in diameter, agglomerated
into bunches 100 nm wide or larger. They
found that clumping depends on the electrical
properties of the solvent. The raspberries form
bigger bunches of grapes in solvents that are
less polar, i.e. where solvent molecules lack
regions with strongly positive or negative
charges. (Water is a strongly polar molecule.)
The researchers expected this. What they
didnt expect is that the trend does not scale
in a predictable way: particles are found
to agglomerate abruptly as solvent polarity
decreases. The four solvents studied were water,
methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol, ordered
by decreasing polarity. There wasnt much
agglomeration in methanol; the bunches were
about 30% larger than they were in water. But in
ethanol and isopropanol, the clumps were 400%
and 600% larger, respectively. This is a very poor
suspension quality for catalytic purposes.
Because the nanoparticles clumped up
slowly and not too much in methanol, the
researchers concluded that the particles could
be transferred to that solvent, assuming they
were to be used within a few days effectively
putting an expiration date on the catalyst.

Reference
Indira Sriram, Alexandra E. Curtin, Ann N.
Chiaramonti, J. Hunter Cuchiaro, Andrew R.
Weidner, Tegan M. Tingley, Lauren F. Greenlee,
and Kavita M. Jeerage: Stability and phase transfer
of catalytically active platinum nanoparticle
suspensions, Journal of Nanoparticle Research
17:230 (22 May 2015). Full paper available at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11051-015-3034-1

Figure 1. Colourised micrographs of platinum nanoparticles made at NIST. The raspberry colour
suggests the corrugated shape of the particles, which offers high surface area for catalysing
reactions in fuel cells. Individual particles are 34 nm in diameter, but can clump into bunches
of 100 nm or more under specific conditions discovered in a NIST study. [Image: Curtin/NIST]

12

Fuel Cells Bulletin

For more information, contact: Dr Kavita Jeerage,

Applied Chemicals and Materials Division, National
Instrument of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO
80305, USA. Tel: +1 303 497 4968, Email: jeerage@
boulder.nist.gov, Web: www.nist.gov/mml/acmd

June 2015

NEWS FEATURE

McPhy wins major contract to

supply Wind-to-Hydrogen unit
for Hebei province in China
France-based McPhy Energy has just signed a E6.4 million (US$7.2 million)
contract to supply a Wind to Hydrogen (i.e. Power-to-Gas) system for the
recovery of surplus energy generated by a 200 MW wind farm site currently
under construction in the Chinese province of Hebei. The 4 MW Wind-toHydrogen system will combine the McPhy groups most advanced electrolysis
and storage products.
McPhy Energy, which specialises in hydrogenbased solutions for industrial and energy
storage, has signed this substantial contract
with Jiantou Yanshan (Guyuan) Wind Energy.
The customer is a member of state-owned
Hebei Construction and Investment Group
in Hebei province, with which McPhy Energy
has previously signed a long-term partnership
agreement. This supply agreement represents
the first concrete outcome of this partnership.
The new contract is subject to administrative
authorisations that must be granted to the
construction company before the end of July.
Delivery is scheduled for July 2016, with the
equipment to be commissioned in January 2017.
Hebei province is a pioneer in China,
investigating technologies related to clean
energy generation based on renewable energy
technologies, and their integration into both
the existing and future energy networks. In
October 2013, a Chinese delegation was led
by the Secretary of the province, Mr Zhou
Benshun, to explore examples of the best
practice with new and clean technologies being
developed in Brandenburg, Germany.

McPhy Energys 2 MW alkaline electrolyser

stack is a modular technology, allowing it to
be integrated into multi-stack systems for
larger applications.

June 2015

The State of Brandenburg and Hebei Province

have a joint development agreement for renewable
energy, environmental protection, and other fields
of technology. Within this framework, Hebei
intends to build a hydrogen hybrid power plant,
similar to the one in Prenzlau, to demonstrate the
economic viability of hydrogen on the path to
renewable energy integration [see the News Feature
on the Prenzlau hybrid power plant in FCB, May
2012, p14]. A Letter of Intent (LOI) between
Hebei Construction and Investment Group,
the German subsidiary of McPhy Energy, and
the environmental consultancy company Encon
Europe has now been signed.
This province is a model in China for
renewable energy development. This Wind-toHydrogen project is by far the most important
ever carried out to date in China, with
installed renewable energy production capacity
exceeding 200 GW, says Pascal Mauberger,
chairman and CEO of McPhy. Entering this
market at the very time Chinese authorities
are seeking to optimise their solar and wind
power generation sites represents an enormous
opportunity for McPhy Energy.
The heart of the Prenzlau hybrid power plant
technology is a 500 kW alkaline electrolyser,
which was built by an Enertrag division, Enertrag
HyTec GmbH, which was subsequently acquired
by McPhy Energy in September 2013 [FCB,
October 2013, p7]. McPhy applied its expertise
in electrolysis technology, in combination with its
know-how on integrating electrolysers into energy
infrastructures such as electrical or natural gas
networks. The company subsequently modified
and adapted the existing Prenzlau hybrid power
plant, and built the interface to the networks gas
injection system [FCB, March 2015, p9].
As the first concrete deliverable for this
partnership, McPhy Energy will provide two
production lines and hydrogen storage, each
consisting of:

U
7ViiiVi]i>i
addition to the McPhy Energy range,
delivering hydrogen at pressure of 30 bar
(435 psi).
U
>>Li]`>i`}i>}i
unit used in conjunction with traditional
tanks to store and transport hydrogen.
The companys German subsidiary, McPhy
Energy Deutschland GmbH, produces
McLyzer large-scale hydrogen production units,
manufactured to CE and TV standards.
These production modules generate between
100 and 400 Nm3/h at 30 bar, and are
integrated into reliable, complete hydrogenproduction systems that are easy-to-use,
with long lifetimes. Modular equipment
technology allows the parallel implementation
of multiple modules, to achieve the production
of the required amounts of hydrogen (several
thousand Nm3/h or several MW of power
consumption).
McPhy has also developed a proprietary metal
hydride-based technique for storing hydrogen in
solid form [FCB, May 2010, p9]. The company
is involved in the German H2BER project,
which features a wind-hydrogen production
plant and a hydrogen vehicle fueling station at
the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport [FCB, May
2014, p1], and is participating in the French
Power-to-Gas GRHYD programme [FCB,
February 2014, p9].
McPhy Energy has three production sites
in France, Germany and Italy, and an R&D
laboratory in France. The companys assembly
site for large-scale hydrogen production units is in
Wildau, near Berlin, and its Italian manufacturing
operations are now in an ultra-modern 5000 m2
plant in San Miniato, near Florence.
The Group also has sales subsidiaries
covering North America (based in Newton,
Massachusetts), the Asia-Pacific (based in
Singapore), and the Russia-Eastern EuropeCentral Asia region (based in Moscow).
McPhy Energy, La Motte-Fanjas, France.
Tel: +33 4 7571 1505, www.mcphy.com
Large-scale electrolysers: www.mcphy.com/en/
products/electrolyzers/large-units

Fuel Cells Bulletin

13

NEWS FEATURE

Toyota, JFCC breakthrough in

real-time observation of fuel
cell catalyst degradation
Toyota Motor Corporation and the Japan Fine Ceramics Center (JFCC) have
developed a new observation technique that allows researchers to monitor the
behaviour of nanometre-sized particles of platinum during chemical reactions
in PEM fuel cells, so that the processes leading to reduced catalytic reactivity
can be observed. This breakthrough could lead to a new generation of more
efficient and durable fuel cell stacks.

Observation of
Pt nanoparticle
coarsening
Platinum is an essential catalyst for the
electrochemical reactions occurring between
oxygen and hydrogen in fuel cell stacks. But
a key problem is reduced reactivity, the result
of coarsening of the platinum nanoparticles,
whereby the nanoparticles increase in size and
decrease in surface area. Until now, however, it
has not been possible to observe the processes
leading to coarsening, making it difficult to
analyse the root causes.
The new observation method developed
by Toyota and JFCC can enable discovery
of the points on the carbon carrier where
platinum coarsens, as well as level of voltage
output during the coarsening process. The
method can also help determine the different

characteristics of various types of carrier

materials. This all-aspects analysis can provide
direction to R&D focused on improving the
performance and durability of the platinum
catalyst, and of the fuel cell stack.

Electrochemical
reaction in a
PEM fuel cell
Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel
cells generate electricity through the chemical
reaction of onboard hydrogen gas with
airborne oxygen. More specifically, each
individual cell generates electricity through
the electrochemical reaction between each
oxygen cathode and hydrogen anode, with
water as a byproduct.
During the electrochemical reaction,
hydrogen molecules are separated into

Figure 1. Technique for observing platinum nanoparticle behaviour, to recreate a fuel cell catalyst
electrochemical reaction in a transmission electron microscope.

14

Fuel Cells Bulletin

electrons and hydrogen ions (protons) at

the hydrogen anode, where the platinum
catalyst strips away the electrons from the
hydrogen molecule. The electrons travel to
the oxygen cathode, generating electricity to
power the motor. Meanwhile, the hydrogen
ions cross the electrolyte membrane to
reach the oxygen cathode, where water is
produced as a byproduct of hydrogen ions
and electrons being exposed to airborne
oxygen. Platinum also functions as the
catalyst for this reaction.
Platinum is essential for electricity
generation in fuel cells, playing a vital role
in increasing fuel cell electricity generation
efficiency. However, platinum is scarce
and costly. Furthermore, as electricity is
generated, the platinum nanoparticles
coarsen, leading to reduced fuel cell output.
To prevent coarsening and maintain
catalytic performance, the behaviour
underlying the coarsening process must be
identified. However, the minute scale of
the platinum nanoparticles makes it very
difficult to observe this by conventional
means.

Newly developed
TEM observation
technique
The conventional method of platinum
nanoparticle observation is a fixed-point
comparison of pre-reaction platinum particles
with post-reaction particles. This method led
to the discovery that post-reaction platinum
nanoparticles are coarser, with reduced
reactivity. But the causes of this reduction can
only be hypothesised, because of the inability
to observe the behavioural processes leading
up to the coarsening.
In contrast, the observation technique
involves a new scaled-down observable sample
that can simulate the exact environment and
conditions occurring in fuel cells. This is in
addition to a newly developed method of
applying voltage to samples mounted inside

June 2015

NEWS FEATURE / RESEARCH TRENDS

a transmission electron microscope (TEM),
which is capable of observation and analysis
of atomic-sized (0.1 nm) materials. This new
approach allows the coarsening process to be
observed in real time at all stages as electricity
is generated.
Download PDF of presentation:
http://newsroom.toyota.co.jp/en/download/7903723
Video of real-time coarsening:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUW4nm4bcAA

Figure 2. Real-time observation of the coarsening of platinum nanoparticles on top of a carbon

carrier (dotted yellow lines). The Pt particles have migrated over the carbon and joined together
to form larger, coarser Pt nanoparticles.

Research Trends
Tuning of Pt nanoparticles using Au
in binary alloy for DEFC
A. Dutta et al.: J. Power Sources 283 (1 June
2015) 104114.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.01.113

PEMFC GDL with microporous

hydrophilic CNT layer enhances low
and high humidity performance
T. Kitahara et al.: J. Power Sources 283 (1 June
2015) 115124.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.02.115

Stability of LSCF/CGO cathodes

during sintering, SOFC operation
R. Kiebach et al.: J. Power Sources 283 (1 June
2015) 151161.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.02.064

Effect of RH cycles with

intermittent start/stop on PEMFC
MEA performance degradation
Y. Qiu et al.: J. Power Sources 283 (1 June
2015) 171180.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.02.134

Paper-structured catalyst for SOFC

operation on biodiesel fuel
T. Quang-Tuyen et al.: J. Power Sources 283
(1 June 2015) 320327.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.02.116

N-doped hierarchically porous

carbon spheres as metal-free ORR
electrocatalyst in DMFC cathode
Y.-L. Liu et al.: J. Power Sources 283 (1 June

2015) 389396.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.02.151

Manipulating water in hydroxide

exchange membrane fuel cells via
asymmetric humidification and
wetproofing
R.B. Kaspar et al.: J. Electrochem. Soc. 162(6)
(June 2015) F483488. [Open Access]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/2.0131506jes

Co-deposition and poisoning of

Cr and S contaminants on LSCF
cathodes for SOFCs
C.C. Wang et al.: J. Electrochem. Soc. 162(6)
(June 2015) F507512. [Open Access]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/2.0231506jes

Alcohol-soluble, sulfonated
poly(arylene ether)s as hydrocarbon
ionomers for PEMFC catalyst layers
A. Strong et al.: J. Electrochem. Soc. 162(6)
(June 2015) F513518. [Open Access]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/2.0251506jes

Performance of proton-conducting
ceramic-electrolyte fuel cell with
LSM cathode
D.-K. Lim et al.: J. Electrochem. Soc. 162(6)
(June 2015) F547554.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/2.0551506jes

Diol-crosslinked electrospun
composite anion-exchange membranes
A. Park et al.: J. Electrochem. Soc. 162(6) (June
2015) F560566. [Open Access]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/2.0711506jes

Zirconia-based electrolyte stability

in direct carbon fuel cells with
molten Sb anodes

Toyota Fuel Cell Vehicle:

www.toyota-global.com/innovation/environmental_
technology/fuelcell_vehicle
Japan Fine Ceramics Center:
www.jfcc.or.jp/en

X. Zhou et al.: J. Electrochem. Soc. 162(6)

(June 2015) F567570. [Open Access]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/2.0871506jes

In situ grown, graphene-supported

PdPt alloy nanoflowers
as methanol oxidation
electrocatalyst
K. Wu et al.: Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 40(20)
(1 June 2015) 65306537.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.03.115

Synthesis of PtCu/C nano-materials

with surface-enriched Pt as active
DMFC anode catalyst
M. Huang et al.: Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 40(20)
(1 June 2015) 65466551.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.03.099

Fabrication of nano-network
anode by ZnO nanorods
template for passive DMFCs
J. Chai et al.: Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 40(20)
(1 June 2015) 66476654.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.03.121

TiN, CrN, multicoated stainless

steel PEMFC bipolar plates
fabricated by rubber forming
C.K. Jin et al.: Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 40(20)
(1 June 2015) 66816688.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.03.080

Integration of renewable
energies with hybrid
battery-PEMFC to replace
IC engine in sailboat
V. Alfonsin et al.: Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
40(20) (1 June 2015) 66896701.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.02.113
15

June 2015

Fuel Cells Bulletin

PATENTS

Patents

Fabrication of SOFC multilayer

barrier structure, for oxygen side of
interconnect, reduces Cr poisoning

PEMFC cathode with highly active

Co-based catalysts for improved
power generation

Coating carbon-based electrodes

and thick electrodes without mudcracking, PEMFC MEA fabrication

Assignees: Technical U of Denmark (DTU),

Denmark and Topsoe Fuel Cell, Denmark
Inventors: K.A. Nielsen et al.
Patent number: US 8945782
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 13 Nov. 2007)

Assignees: Daihatsu Motor Co, Japan

and University of New Mexico, USA
Inventors: K. Asazawa et al.
Patent number: US 8945791
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 23 Mar. 2011)

Adaptive limitation of standby

mode enhances PEMFC system life

PEMFC separator with integrated

injected gaskets for increased
productivity, lower production cost

Assignee: General Motors, USA

Inventors: J. Zhang et al.
Patent number: US 8940461
Published: 27 Jan. 2015 (Filed: 25 Mar. 2010)

Mass production of large PEMFC

metal separators by thermoplastic
deformation using rubber moulding
Assignees: Hyundai Motor Co, Korea,
Kia Motors Corporation, Korea
and Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology, Korea
Inventors: D.Y. Yang et al.
Patent number: US 8945241
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 31 July 2012)

Highly hydrophobic porous medium

with micro/nano dual structure, for
GDL in PEMFC MEA
Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Korea
and Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology, Korea
Inventors: B.K. Hong et al.
Patent number: US 8945409
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 16 Aug. 2011)

PEMFC with highly hydrophobic

porous GDL with micro/nano dual
structure to enhance mass transfer
Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Korea
and Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology, Korea
Inventors: B.K. Hong et al.
Patent number: US 8945410
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 19 June 2012)

Assignee: General Motors, USA

Inventors: D.I. Harris et al.
Patent number: US 8945785
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 6 Jan. 2012)

DMFC stack featuring bipolar plate

with improved cooling efficiency
and flexural strength
Assignee: Samsung SDI, Korea
Inventors: S.-J. An et al.
Patent number: US 8945786
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 7 Dec. 2010)

Using solenoid valve to stop fuel

supply if leak occurs in automotive
PEMFC system
Assignee: Honda Motor Co, Japan
Inventors: S. Asano et al.
Patent number: US 8945787
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 17 Dec. 2012)

Minimising crossover in DOFC by

controlling supply of fuels with
different vapour pressures (e.g.
ethanol and ethylene glycol)
Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan
Inventors: H. Nakanishi et al.
Patent number: US 8945788
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 17 Oct. 2008)

Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company, Korea

Inventors: S.M. Baeck et al.
Patent number: US 8945792
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 13 Mar. 2013)

Ceria and strontium titanate based

composite SOFC anodes for very
high activity in wide temperature
range (650850C)
Assignee: Technical University of Denmark
(DTU), Denmark
Inventors: P. Blennow et al.
Patent number: US 8945793
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 27 Aug. 2008)

Continuous manufacturing of
PEMFC stacks with reduced cost
and enhanced reliability
Assignee: PowerCell Sweden AB, Sweden
Inventors: M. Berggren et al.
Patent number: US 8945795
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 29 Oct. 2007)

Low-cost PEMFC fabrication method

with reduced amount of conductor
(Au) coating on GDL
Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan
Inventors: K. Maeda et al.
Patent number: US 8945796
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 4 Nov. 2008)

Method for conditioning MEAs for

HTPEMFCs, capable of high current
density at high voltage

SOFC anode with appropriately

sized Ni and YSZ grains and pores in
anode/electrolyte interface region,
for low reaction resistance

Assignee: BASF Fuel Cell GmbH, Germany

Inventors: O. Uensal et al.
Patent number: US 8945736
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 24 Oct. 2012)

Assignee: NGK Insulators, Japan

Inventors: A. Kobayashi et al.
Patent number: US 8945789
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 16 Mar. 2012)

Assignee: Stanford University, USA

Inventors: F.B. Prinz et al.
Patent number: US 8951605
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 28 Oct. 2009)

PEMFC power source for portable

device, control method for purging
byproduct water and impurities

Microporous layer structures and

GDL assemblies for improved water
management in PEMFCs

Control detection method to enable

gas composition observation during
automotive PEMFC system startup

Assignee: Canon, Japan

Inventor: M. Katsumata
Patent number: US 8945750
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 12 May 2006)

Assignee: Ford, USA

Inventors: Z. Lu et al.
Patent number: US 8945790
Published: 3 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 15 Mar. 2013)

Assignee: General Motors, USA

Inventors: S.E. Lerner et al.
Patent number: US 8951684
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 10 Feb. 2010)

16

Fuel Cells Bulletin

Fabrication of ultrathin-film MEAs

for PEM or SOFCs with lower
operating temperature (20800C)

June 2015

PATENTS
Automotive PEMFC system with
controller to reduce time required
to stop system, suppress freezing
Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan
Inventors: S. Aso et al.
Patent number: US 8951685
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 17 Oct. 2008)

Method for stopping automotive

PEMFC system, with control to
prevent deterioration by consuming
cathode-side oxygen
Assignee: Nissan Motor Co, Japan
Inventors: R. Shimoi et al.
Patent number: US 8951687
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 4 June 2009)

Increasing PEMFC service life, by

reversing cell functioning in use to
limit carbon corrosion at cathode
Assignee: CEA, France
Inventors: A. Franco et al.
Patent number: US 8951688
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 9 July 2010)

Automotive PEMFC system with

coolant additive and ion-exchange
resin to maintain coolant electrical
conductivity
Assignees: Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan
and Showa Water Industries Co, Japan
Inventors: K. Sato et al.
Patent number: US 8951689
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 9 Sep. 2011)

Apparatus and method for in situ

measurement of oxygen crossover
from cathode, which may cause
membrane degradation
Assignee: Nissan North America, USA
Inventors: G. Dileo et al.
Patent number: US 8951690
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 29 Oct. 2012)

SOFC interconnect structure for

improved stack stability even in hot
oxidising atmosphere
Assignee: Samsung SDI, Korea
Inventors: G.-J. Bae et al.
Patent number: US 8951691
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 7 Aug. 2012)

Automotive SOFC stack with

reactant gas supply passages
(i.e. manifold) in single section, to
suppress separator distortion

June 2015

Assignee: Honda Motor Co, Japan

Inventor: T. Kotani
Patent number: US 8951692
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 26 Oct. 2011)

PEMFC MEA structure capable of

satisfying water discharge and gas
diffusivity and improving voltage
Assignee: JX Nippon Oil & Energy, Japan
[Eneos CellTech]
Inventors: H. Takami et al.
Patent number: US 8951693
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 28 Sep. 2012)

Novel PEM fabrication based on

higher intrinsic oxidative stability
of un-crosslinked membranes
Assignee: Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland
Inventors: H. Ben-Youcef et al.
Patent number: US 8951694
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 1 Feb. 2010)

Redox fuel cell with improved

catholyte redox mediator
Assignee: ACAL Energy, UK
Inventors: K. Knuckey et al.
Patent number: US 8951695
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 23 Jan. 2009)

Anode catalyst with excellent

resistance to CO poisoning, and use
in MEA for PEM or DMFC
Assignee: JX Nippon Oil & Energy, Japan
Inventors: K. Kadoma et al.
Patent number: US 8951696
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 28 Mar. 2008)

PEMFC MEA with GDLs containing

carbon nanotubes for improved
reaction activity
Assignees: Tsinghua University, China and
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, Taiwan
Inventors: L.-N. Zhang et al.
Patent number: US 8951697
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 9 Apr. 2009)

Efficiency-based standby mode for

automotive PEMFC drive systems

Assignees: Chung-Hsin Electric &

Machinery Mfg Corp, Taiwan and
Wuhan Haixinneng Electric Ltd, China
Inventors: S. Quan et al.
Patent number: US 8952666
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 22 Feb. 2012)

Improved impedance measurement

in automotive PEMFC system with
multiphase voltage converter
Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan
Inventors: T. Hasegawa et al.
Patent number: US 8952702
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 22 Mar. 2011)

PEM or DMFC electrode made by

plasma sputtering of thin layers
of porous carbon, catalyst on
substrate
Assignees: CNRS, France,
Universit dOrlans, France
and Aprim Vide SA, France
Inventors: P. Brault et al.
Patent number: US 8956509
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 28 Nov. 2006)

Fabrication of PEMFC composite

separator lowers contact resistance
and raises surface hydrophilicity, for
efficient water removal
Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Korea
and Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology, Korea
Inventors: D.G. Lee et al.
Patent number: US 8956767
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 25 June 2010)

Optimising conductivity from

displacement of H+ protons
and/or OH ions in conductive
membrane
Assignees: Areva, France, Socit des
Cramiques Techniques (SCT), France,
ARMINES, France and CNRS, France
Inventors: B. Sala et al.
Patent number: US 8956770
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 30 May 2008)

Assignee: General Motors, USA

Inventor: O. Maier
Patent number: US 8952649
Published: 10 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 19 June 2012)

PEM, phosphoric acid or DMFC

electrode catalyst comprising
crystalline catalyst particle
incorporating ORR precious metal
and B and/or In in unit lattice

Energy adjustor coupled between

fuel cell and secondary battery
clusters, improves voltage control

Assignee: Samsung SDI, Korea

Inventors: K.-H. Lee et al.
Patent number: US 8956771
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 21 Sep. 2012)

Fuel Cells Bulletin

17

PATENTS
Detecting anode gas composition
in automotive PEMFC operation, for
improved recirculation and purging
Assignee: Ford, USA
Inventors: M. Milacic et al.
Patent number: US 8956773
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 26 Sep. 2012)

Subzero shutdown of automotive

PEMFC system with effective water
removal, to eliminate or reduce
cold-start failure
Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company, Korea
Inventors: S.U. Kwon et al.
Patent number: US 8956774
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 25 Nov. 2009)

Detecting abnormalities in PEMFC

system by monitoring cell voltages,
suppresses degradation [2 patents]
Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan
Inventor: M. Kato
Patent number: US 8956775
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 24 Sep. 2009)
Patent number: US 8956776
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 29 Oct. 2013)

SOFC with fixed contact oxidation

catalysed section of multi-section
cathode air heat-exchanger
Assignee: Ballard Power Systems, Canada
Inventors: K. Saito et al.
Patent number: US 8956777
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 7 Jan. 2013)

Cathode flow split control and

pressure control for automotive
PEMFC system, to control cathode
backpressure and bypass valves
Assignee: General Motors, USA
Inventors: Y. Zhang et al.
Patent number: US 8956778
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 25 Oct. 2012)

Sealed water vapour transfer

unit with integrated load transfer
structure, to support end plate in
automotive PEMFC stack
Assignee: General Motors, USA
Inventors: B. Andreas-Schott et al.
Patent number: US 8956779
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 2 Apr. 2007)

Planar SOFC stack with alternating

layers of cells and supporting
interconnects, for greatly reduced
electrolyte electric resistance
18

Fuel Cells Bulletin

Assignee: NGK Insulators, Japan

Inventors: M. Ohmori et al.
Patent number: US 8956780
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 8 Jan. 2009)

SOFC perovskite cathode with

tricobalt tetroxide subphase,
lower cathode deterioration,
more durable
Assignee: NGK Insulators, Japan
Inventors: M. Ohmori et al.
Patent number: US 8956781
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 13 Sep. 2012)

Fabrication of lightweight PEMFC

plate with corrosion-resistant
coating, to power portable
devices
Assignee: Apple, USA
Inventors: V.M. Iyer et al.
Patent number: US 8956784
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 14 Apr. 2010)

Amorphous carbon coatings with

activated hydrophilic surface for
automotive PEMFC bipolar plates
Assignee: General Motors, USA
Inventors: G.V. Dadheech et al.
Patent number: US 8956785
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 17 July 2013)

Starting device and control method

for FCEV high-voltage components,
improves startup by eliminating
DC-DC converter
Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company, Korea
Inventor: C.H. Lee
Patent number: US 8957611
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 14 Feb. 2011)

Electronic device powered

by DMFC, with suppressed
deterioration of secondary
battery regardless of temperature
Assignee: Sony, Japan
Inventors: J. Shimura et al.
Patent number: US 8957622
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 18 Jan. 2010)

Shunt system for series-connected

cells in PEMFC stack, for stopping
stack or isolating defective cell
Assignee: Belenos Clean Power, Switzerland
Inventor: A. Toth
Patent number: US 8957637
Published: 17 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 26 May 2010)

Manufacturing PEMFC separators,

eliminating play between rolls and
bearings in production process
Assignee: IHI Corporation, Japan
Inventor: N. Tazoe
Patent number: US 8959969
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 21 Dec. 2009)

Mesoporous hollow metal sphere,

e.g. for Pt-based PEMFC electrode
catalysts, manufacturing method
Assignee: National Tsing Hua
University, Taiwan
Inventors: C.-M. Yang et al.
Patent number: US 8962075
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 5 June 2012)

Composite PEM support with

cylindrical pores holding reduced
noble metal or noble metal oxide
Assignee: Giner, USA
Inventors: H. Liu et al.
Patent number: US 8962132
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 4 Oct. 2010)

Power cell and power chip

architecture, using semiconductor
fabrication techniques to create
PEMFC array on wafer
Assignee: Encite LLC, USA
Inventor: S.A. Marsh
Patent number: US 8962166
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 1 July 2013)

Power supply with high-pressure

hydrogen generator reacting water
vapour with solid fuel, and PEMFC
in low-pressure chamber
Assignee: Honeywell International, USA
Inventor: S.J. Eickhoff
Patent number: US 8962198
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 22 Mar. 2007)

PEM, phosphoric acid or SOFC

system with steam reformer, water
supply unit consumes less power
when filling purifier
Assignee: Panasonic, Japan
Inventors: A. Yukimasa et al.
Patent number: US 8962199
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 8 July 2010)

Device and method for accurately

measuring humidity of gas stream
in PEMFC system
Assignee: Ford, USA

June 2015

PATENTS
Inventors: S. Butt et al.
Patent number: US 8962200
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 15 Feb. 2006)

PEM or SOFC power source for

portable devices, with hydrogen
produced from Fe or Mg alloy, and
control of reduction reaction
Assignee: Konica Minolta, Japan
Inventors: S. Uratani et al.
Patent number: US 8962201
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 3 Sep. 2010)

MW-scale internal reforming

tubular SOFC stack, manufacturing
Assignee: POSTECH Academy-Industry
Foundation, Korea [Pohang University
of Science & Technology]
Inventor: J.S. Chung
Patent number: US 8962202
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 9 June 2011)

Using thermal sensor for

operating automotive PEMFC
system outside desired thermal
operating range
Assignee: General Motors, USA
Inventors: M.C. Kirklin et al.
Patent number: US 8962203
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 10 Jan. 2008)

Automotive PEMFC control, using

heat-exchanger to maintain gas
supply temperature within set
range
Assignee: Nissan Motor Co, Japan
Inventors: K. Yonekura et al.
Patent number: US 8962204
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 12 Sep. 2008)

Automotive PEMFC stack with

simple, low-cost sealing via single
insulating collar on end plate
Assignee: Honda Motor Co, Japan
Inventors: E. Terada et al.
Patent number: US 8962205
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 22 Feb. 2013)

June 2015

Measuring hydrogen concentration

in anode exhaust of PEMFC stack,
without hydrogen sensors
Assignee: Daimler, Germany
Inventor: R.W. Schmidt
Patent number: US 8962206
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 24 Nov. 2008)

Predictive cathode compressor

speed control in automotive PEMFC
power system
Assignee: General Motors, USA
Inventors: J. Mussro et al.
Patent number: US 8962208
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 25 Oct. 2012)

Patent number: US 8962212

Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 3 Mar. 2010)

Free-standing MPL with direct

catalyst coating, use in reinforced
PEMFC MEAs with high durability
Assignee: General Motors, USA
Inventors: R. Jiang et al.
Patent number: US 8962213
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 25 Mar. 2011)

Microporous PVDF films for

composite ion-conductive
membranes, fabricated by thermally
induced phase separation, e.g. for
PEMFC MEAs

Adding layers to monolithic Fuel

Cell Stick to generate more
power and/or use thinner layers,
miniaturisation for SOFC devices

Assignee: 3M, USA

Inventors: S.D. Smith et al.
Patent number: US 8962214
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 17 Jan. 2014)

Assignees/Inventors: A. Devoe and L. Devoe,

USA [Violet Fuel Cell Sticks]
Patent number: US 8962209
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 26 Dec. 2012)

Cation-exchange membrane
comprising polymer with cation
exchange groups and cerium ions,
for use in PEM or DMFCs

Modular multi-stack assembly with

anode gas oxidiser and integrated
external manifolds for use in
(MCFC) stack modules
Assignee: FuelCell Energy, USA
Inventors: Z. Ma et al.
Patent number: US 8962210
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 5 June 2009)

Rechargeable cylindrical fuel cell,

with ultrathin PEMFC enclosing
reversible metal hydride storage
Assignee: Honeywell International, USA
Inventor: S.J. Eickhoff
Patent number: US 8962211
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 15 Dec. 2008)

Unit cell module and polymer

electrolyte gasket for double seal
structure in PEMFC
Assignee: Panasonic, Japan
Inventors: Y. Yamamoto et al.

Assignee: Asahi Glass Company, Japan

Inventors: E. Endoh et al.
Patent number: US 8962215
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 22 Dec. 2006)

Ion-conducting composite
electrolyte membrane with higher
strength without impairing ionic
conductivity, for PEM or DMFC
Assignee: Sony, Japan
Inventors: T. Hirakimoto et al.
Patent number: US 8962216
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 21 July 2010)

Low-temperature (2080C) fuel

cell with steam-treated metal
oxide electrolyte layer (NaCO2O4,
LaFe3Sr3O10 or Bi4Sr14Fe24O56) for
high hydroxide ion conductivity
Assignee: Hokkaido University, Japan
Inventors: W. Ueda et al.
Patent number: US 8962217
Published: 24 Feb. 2015 (Filed: 10 July 2009)

Fuel Cells Bulletin

19

CALENDAR

EVENTS CALENDAR
30 June3 July 2015
5th European PEFC & H2 Forum, with
Exhibition & Demonstration
Lucerne, Switzerland
More information: www.efcf.com

610 July 2015

Journes dElectrochimie 2015,
Conference on Electrochemistry and its
Applications
University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy
More information: www.je2015.it/?lang=en

1315 July 2015

Discussions conference: Challenges

Towards Zero Platinum for Oxygen
Reduction (with Fuel Cell Fundamentals
Short Course on 13 September)

Cancun, Mexico
More information: www.zingconferences.com/
conferences/3rd-zing-hydrogen-fuel-cells-conference

2026 September 2015

19 November 2015

Joint European Summer School on

Fuel Cell, Electrolyser and Battery
Technologies, JESS 2015
Athens, Greece
More information: http://tinyurl.com/jess-2015

30 September2 October 2015

University of York, UK
More information:
http://tinyurl.com/rsc-fd-soe-2015

Amsterdam & Friesland, The Netherlands

More information: www.plugboat.com

2631 July 2015

International Conference on New

Devices for Energy Conversion and Storage

Glasgow, Scotland, UK
More information:
www.electrochem.org/meetings/satellite/glasgow

2930 July 2015

California Hydrogen Business Council,
2015 CHBC Summer Summit
Downey, California, USA
More information:
www.californiahydrogensummit.com

1622 August 2015

2nd International Conference on
Electrochemical Energy Science and
Technology, EEST2015
Vancouver, BC, Canada
More information:
www.iaoees.org/events/EEST2015

3rd Zing Hydrogen and Fuel Cells

Conference 2015

La Grande Motte, France

More information: www.efcd2015.eu

Royal Society of Chemistry Faraday

Discussion on Solid Oxide Electrolysis:
Fuels & Feedstocks from Water & Air

14th International Symposium on Solid

Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC-XIV), within ECS
Conference on Electrochemical Energy
Conversion & Storage

1720 November 2015

PlugBoat 2015, 2nd World Electric &

Hybrid Boat Summit (including fuel cells)

13 October 2015
Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology, China
More information: ww.cbme.ust.hk/ISE2015HK

49 October 2015
66th Annual Meeting of the
International Society of
Electrochemistry: Green Electrochemistry
for Tomorrows Society
Taipei, Taiwan
More information: http://annual66.ise-online.org

1114 October 2015

15. Jahrestreffen des Netzwerks

Brennstoffzelle und Wasserstoff NRW
(15th Annual Meeting of the Hydrogen
and Fuel Cells Network North RhineWestfalia) [in German]
Dsseldorf, Germany
More information:
www.fuelcell-nrw.de/events/?no_cache=1&L=4

14 December 2015
European Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell
Electric Vehicle Congress, EEVC-2015
Brussels, Belgium
More information: www.eevc.eu

68 December 2015
4th International Hydrogen & Fuel Cell
Conference, Hydrogen Association of
India
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
More information: www.hai.org.in/home.html

1618 December 2015

Piero Lunghi European Fuel Cell
Conference & Exhibition, EFC15
Naples, Italy
More information: www.europeanfuelcell.it

6th World Hydrogen Technologies

Convention, WHTC 2015
Sydney, NSW, Australia
More information: www.whtc2015.com

1214 October 2015

2016

1821 January 2016

World Future Energy Summit, WFES 2016
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
More information:
www.worldfutureenergysummit.com

30 August4 September 2015

World of Energy Solutions 2015,

including 15th f-cell Forum for Producers
& Users (alongside Battery+Storage and
e-mobil BW Technologietag)

16th International Conference on

Advanced Batteries, Accumulators and
Fuel Cells (16th ABAF)

Stuttgart, Germany
More information:
www.world-of-energy-solutions.de

Brno, Czech Republic

More information: www.aba-brno.cz

1921 October 2015

Tokyo, Japan
More information: www.fcexpo.jp/en

International Conference on Hydrogen

Safety, ICHS 2015

1517 March 2016

69 September 2015
H2YPOTHESIS XI Conference, Hydrogen
Power Theoretical and Engineering
Solutions International Symposium 2015
Toledo, Spain
More information: www.hypothesis.ws

610 September 2015

Euromembrane 2015 Conference
RWTH, Aachen, Germany
More information:
www.euromembrane2015.com

International Renewable Energy Storage

Conference, IRES 2016

811 November 2015

Dsseldorf, Germany
More information: www.eurosolar.de/en
Call for abstracts deadline: 15 September 2015

International Conference on Innovative

Electrochemical Energy Materials and
Technologies, EEMT2015
Nanning, China
More information: www.fuelcellscn.com/EEMT

1011 November 2015

3rd Dresden Conference on Energy in
Future: Materials for Energy

8th Annual Low Carbon Vehicle Event

(LCV2015), organised by UK Cenex
Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and
Fuel Cell Technologies

Dresden, Germany
More information:
www.zukunftenergie-dresden.de/en.html

Millbrook, Bedfordshire, UK
More information: www.cenex-lcv.co.uk

1619 November 2015

1316 September 2015

Los Angeles, California, USA

More information: www.fuelcellseminar.com

20

Fuel Cells Bulletin

FC EXPO 2016, 12th International

Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Expo (within World
Smart Energy Week 2016)

Yokohama, Japan
More information: www.ichs2015.com

910 September 2015

2015 EFCD, Electrolysis & Fuel Cell

24 March 2016

2015 Fuel Cell Seminar & Energy

Exposition, Featuring Hydrogen Fuel

28 March1 April 2016

Materials Research Society Spring
Meeting & Exhibit, including Symposia
on Mechanics of Energy Storage and
Conversion, Grid-Scale Energy Storage,
and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies
for Transportation
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
More information: www.mrs.org/spring2016

46 April 2016
Green & Sustainable Chemistry
Conference 2016
Berlin, Germany
More information: www.greensuschemconf.com
Call for papers deadline: 2 October 2015

June 2015