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ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES
Fuel cell makers charging ahead
Energy source isn't powering cars as expected, but startups, others making progress on smaller scale.
By Bob Keefe
WEST COAST BUREAU
Sunday, September 09, 2007
LIVERMORE, Calif. â In a nondescript industrial park not far from one of the nation's biggest nuclear laboratories, researchers at a small startup company have spent the past five years developing a new kind of energy source.
This week, UltraCell Corp.'s book-sized, hydrogen-powered portable fuel cells move past research and closer to the real world, when the company officially opens what it says will be the first high-volume factory of its kind, near Dayton, Ohio.
The $74 million factory, which could eventually employ more than 300 workers, is indicative not only of UltraCell's growth, but also of a significant shift in the long-promising â but also long-sputtering â fuel cell industry.
Just a few years ago, researchers and government leaders from President Bush on down were saying fuel-cell-powered cars were the nation's answer to high gasoline prices, environmental issues and dependency on foreign oil.
The movement to fuel-cell-powered cars has been slow, although GM, Ford and other companies have been showing off demonstration vehicles. But companies making portable fuel cells designed to power everything from laptop computers to remote surveillance equipment are leaving carmakers in the dust.
"This is going to be the first place the common person sees a fuel cell," UltraCell CEO Jim Kaschmitter said while holding one of his devices. They weigh less than conventional batteries and, with a large enough supply of hydrogen-based methanol fuel, can power a laptop for weeks.
Bob Rose, executive director of the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, an industry trade group, agreed. Portable fuel cells, he said, "are the hot area now."
Kaschmitter was a researcher at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in California before he started UltraCell in 2002. Along with small companies like his, electronics giants such as Sanyo, Samsung, Motorola and Matsushita have said they're looking at portable fuel cells to power laptops, radios and other devices.
Other companies have other ideas.
New York manufacturer Plug Power Inc., for instance, in July installed a $70,000, 5-kilowatt fuel cell that helps power the Florida governor's mansion. Plug Power also sells portable fuel cells to power remote cell phone towers and forklifts used in warehouses and shipping docks.
In West Palm Beach, Fla., fuel cell maker EnerFuel Inc. plans to soon start selling $2,000 remote surveillance camera systems that can run for months on the company's hydrogen fuel cells.
Early next year, EnerFuel and the State of Florida plan to open a motorist rest stop outside Orlando that gets its power from a fuel cell that converts methanol from citrus waste to electricity. In the future, the company plans to make emergency power generators that run on hydrogen fuel cells.
EnerFuel is still pursuing automotive applications for its fuel cells. But impatient investors looking for profits, not just promises, are pushing it and other companies toward easier-to-make portable fuel cell products.
"Investors in general don't like to sit around and fund something for 10 to 20 years," EnerFuel President Rex Hodge said. "They like to see a product and a company become profitable as soon as they can. One of the ways to do that is to go after these smaller devices."
The idea behind fuel cells has been around for decades, but only recently have technology advances made them more feasible.
Fuel cells are a power source like batteries, but they're really more like miniature power plants. Typically, they generate energy by stripping hydrogen electrons from a fuel source â either pure hydrogen or something containing hydrogen, such as methanol, ethanol or natural gas â and then using those electrons as electricity.
Typically, the only byproduct of the conversion is water, so fuel cells have been considered an ideal way to eliminate smog-belching cars.
But as much as people wanted to see hydrogen cars and fueling stations across the country, "There's an awful lot of infrastructure necessary to make that happen," said Mark Henwood, managing director of Camino Energy in California, which tracks clean energy companies.
Makers of portable fuel cells already have more than 30 products on the market, according to the U.S. Fuel Cell Council. Carmakers have only prototypes.
"You can buy a fuel cell today in a small size," Rose said. "But you can't buy a fuel cell vehicle today."
Many makers of portable fuel cells admit that it will be a few years before they have products cheap enough and small enough to appeal to most consumers.
At fuelcellstore.com, for instance, you can buy a portable hydrogen fuel-cell-powered battery charger today â for $7,300.
While declining to give specifics, UltraCell officials said their fuel cells cost thousands of dollars.
That's too expensive for most consumers. But the company says its product is well worth the price for military and industrial applications because it is lighter and can last longer than conventional batteries. The Army, Air Force and other agencies in the U.S. and elsewhere are testing UltraCell's fuel cells, the company said.
As production ramps up in Ohio, Kaschmitter said, prices should come down.
"We'd like to see them in the hundreds (of dollars) range," he said.
The potential of the portable fuel cell industry has charged up government leaders, especially in places that missed out on the last technology boom.
In 2002, the state created the Ohio Fuel Cell Initiative and earmarked more than $100 million in economic development funds to attract the industry.
To lure UltraCell, state and local economic development agencies in Ohio anted up more than $5 million in grants and other incentives. Officials as high up as former Gov. Bob Taft lobbied the company.
Other states are jockeying to get in the game, too. In South Carolina, lawmakers last month set aside $15 million to entice fuel cell companies.
Elsewhere, universities are taking the lead.
Georgia Tech's Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies researches fuel cells. Last year, the center built and flew a fuel-cell-powered remote-control airplane. The plane could be a prototype for unmanned aerial vehicles that can study hurricanes, patrol borders or replace some types of satellites.
The Texas State Technical College in Waco started a first-of-its-kind fuel cell curriculum in 2002 that now offers a two-year associate degree.
Ohio is shaping up as a leader in the fuel cell industry, Rose of the fuel cell council said.
"You've got to give Ohio credit for being a pioneer in both this technology and putting out the welcome mat and also some money," he said. "They've emboldened other states to follow."
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/09/09//0909fuelcell.html
Fuel cell makers charging ahead
Energy source isn't powering cars as expected, but startups, others making progress on smaller scale.
By Bob Keefe
WEST COAST BUREAU
Sunday, September 09, 2007
LIVERMORE, Calif. â In a nondescript industrial park not far from one of the nation's biggest nuclear laboratories, researchers at a small startup company have spent the past five years developing a new kind of energy source.
This week, UltraCell Corp.'s book-sized, hydrogen-powered portable fuel cells move past research and closer to the real world, when the company officially opens what it says will be the first high-volume factory of its kind, near Dayton, Ohio.
The $74 million factory, which could eventually employ more than 300 workers, is indicative not only of UltraCell's growth, but also of a significant shift in the long-promising â but also long-sputtering â fuel cell industry.
Just a few years ago, researchers and government leaders from President Bush on down were saying fuel-cell-powered cars were the nation's answer to high gasoline prices, environmental issues and dependency on foreign oil.
The movement to fuel-cell-powered cars has been slow, although GM, Ford and other companies have been showing off demonstration vehicles. But companies making portable fuel cells designed to power everything from laptop computers to remote surveillance equipment are leaving carmakers in the dust.
"This is going to be the first place the common person sees a fuel cell," UltraCell CEO Jim Kaschmitter said while holding one of his devices. They weigh less than conventional batteries and, with a large enough supply of hydrogen-based methanol fuel, can power a laptop for weeks.
Bob Rose, executive director of the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, an industry trade group, agreed. Portable fuel cells, he said, "are the hot area now."
Kaschmitter was a researcher at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in California before he started UltraCell in 2002. Along with small companies like his, electronics giants such as Sanyo, Samsung, Motorola and Matsushita have said they're looking at portable fuel cells to power laptops, radios and other devices.
Other companies have other ideas.
New York manufacturer Plug Power Inc., for instance, in July installed a $70,000, 5-kilowatt fuel cell that helps power the Florida governor's mansion. Plug Power also sells portable fuel cells to power remote cell phone towers and forklifts used in warehouses and shipping docks.
In West Palm Beach, Fla., fuel cell maker EnerFuel Inc. plans to soon start selling $2,000 remote surveillance camera systems that can run for months on the company's hydrogen fuel cells.
Early next year, EnerFuel and the State of Florida plan to open a motorist rest stop outside Orlando that gets its power from a fuel cell that converts methanol from citrus waste to electricity. In the future, the company plans to make emergency power generators that run on hydrogen fuel cells.
EnerFuel is still pursuing automotive applications for its fuel cells. But impatient investors looking for profits, not just promises, are pushing it and other companies toward easier-to-make portable fuel cell products.
"Investors in general don't like to sit around and fund something for 10 to 20 years," EnerFuel President Rex Hodge said. "They like to see a product and a company become profitable as soon as they can. One of the ways to do that is to go after these smaller devices."
The idea behind fuel cells has been around for decades, but only recently have technology advances made them more feasible.
Fuel cells are a power source like batteries, but they're really more like miniature power plants. Typically, they generate energy by stripping hydrogen electrons from a fuel source â either pure hydrogen or something containing hydrogen, such as methanol, ethanol or natural gas â and then using those electrons as electricity.
Typically, the only byproduct of the conversion is water, so fuel cells have been considered an ideal way to eliminate smog-belching cars.
But as much as people wanted to see hydrogen cars and fueling stations across the country, "There's an awful lot of infrastructure necessary to make that happen," said Mark Henwood, managing director of Camino Energy in California, which tracks clean energy companies.
Makers of portable fuel cells already have more than 30 products on the market, according to the U.S. Fuel Cell Council. Carmakers have only prototypes.
"You can buy a fuel cell today in a small size," Rose said. "But you can't buy a fuel cell vehicle today."
Many makers of portable fuel cells admit that it will be a few years before they have products cheap enough and small enough to appeal to most consumers.
At fuelcellstore.com, for instance, you can buy a portable hydrogen fuel-cell-powered battery charger today â for $7,300.
While declining to give specifics, UltraCell officials said their fuel cells cost thousands of dollars.
That's too expensive for most consumers. But the company says its product is well worth the price for military and industrial applications because it is lighter and can last longer than conventional batteries. The Army, Air Force and other agencies in the U.S. and elsewhere are testing UltraCell's fuel cells, the company said.
As production ramps up in Ohio, Kaschmitter said, prices should come down.
"We'd like to see them in the hundreds (of dollars) range," he said.
The potential of the portable fuel cell industry has charged up government leaders, especially in places that missed out on the last technology boom.
In 2002, the state created the Ohio Fuel Cell Initiative and earmarked more than $100 million in economic development funds to attract the industry.
To lure UltraCell, state and local economic development agencies in Ohio anted up more than $5 million in grants and other incentives. Officials as high up as former Gov. Bob Taft lobbied the company.
Other states are jockeying to get in the game, too. In South Carolina, lawmakers last month set aside $15 million to entice fuel cell companies.
Elsewhere, universities are taking the lead.
Georgia Tech's Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies researches fuel cells. Last year, the center built and flew a fuel-cell-powered remote-control airplane. The plane could be a prototype for unmanned aerial vehicles that can study hurricanes, patrol borders or replace some types of satellites.
The Texas State Technical College in Waco started a first-of-its-kind fuel cell curriculum in 2002 that now offers a two-year associate degree.
Ohio is shaping up as a leader in the fuel cell industry, Rose of the fuel cell council said.
"You've got to give Ohio credit for being a pioneer in both this technology and putting out the welcome mat and also some money," he said. "They've emboldened other states to follow."
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/09/09//0909fuelcell.html
