hydrogen

Making It interview with Dr. Mustafa Hatipoğlu, managing director of the International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (ICHET), a UNIDO project supported by the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.[read more]

Nico Hotz, a Duke University researcher, discusses solar power generation research that involves using hydrogen as a vehicle for creating electricity.  Full Transcript: Ben Lack:  You’ve got some pretty interesting findings on trying to get more generation capacity out of solar panels.What’s the problem that you were trying to...[read more]

The DOE’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future has published a draft of its report to the secretary of energy (http://brc.gov and BRC Draft Report, 192 pages long)The big thing the Blue Ribbon Commission was able to agree on, including the pro and anti nuclear members, is that our existing stock of spent nuclear fuel...[read more]

Alas, today I had intended to put up my book review of Amanda Little’s book Power Trip, but I left the book on my desk in the office and I need to review some notes first. So that should be posted for my Thursday column. If you haven’t noticed, I have fallen into a pattern of putting up a new column each Monday and Thursday. Because...[read more]

energyNOW! anchor Thalia Assuras talks with Jeremy Anwyl , CEO of car rating website Edmunds.com and Mary Beth Stanek, Director of Environment and Energy at General Motors to debate if electric plug-in and alternative fuel vehicles could replace internal combustion engines.[read more]

While not yet commercially cost competitive, the core value of hydrogen fuel cells is that it, depending on how the hydrogen was generated, has zero emissions. At minimum, widespread hydrogen adoption may be an upgrade from and substitute for petroleum gasoline. Eliminating oil from consumers’ lives is a more pressing problem in the UK,...[read more]

Science Magazine has the story of a potentially huge technological win, an "artificial leaf" made of cheap materials via MIT that uses ambient sunlight to catalyze the production of hydrogen and oxygen from water. If this works out, the "hydrogen economy" will suddenly be back on the table.It won't solve all of our problems by any means...[read more]

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants allow the combination of the production of hydrogen and electricity because coal gasification process produces a syngas that can be used for the production of both commodities. A hydrogen and electricity power plant has been denominated as HYPOGEN. This report starts by reviewing the...[read more]

Over the weekend I was catching up on articles, and one from Technology Review last week caught my attention. It was a brief interview with the new Secretary of Energy, Dr. Chu, covering nuclear power and fuel cells. In the back half, Secretary Chu explained why the DOE has cut funding for fuel cell R&D, suggesting that fuel cell...[read more]

My post yesterday on the drop in hydrogen fuel cell funding by the US government (Hydrogen: Happy trails time?) is getting a lot of hits over on The Energy Collective, and there were a couple of comments by Garry Golden that deserve a more thoughtful reply than a quick comment. So I’m taking the slightly unusual step of replying at...[read more]

Are we finally seeing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles heading off into the general direction of the sunset? Possibly, although I wouldn’t bet my keyboard on it. WSJ: Running on Empty: Obama Budget Cuts Funding for Hydrogen Car: President Obama’s proposed 2010 budget calls for cutting funding for a program at the Department of Energy that...[read more]

Fueling stations for fuel cell cars — even ones that generate hydrogen from fossil fuels and emit large amounts of greenhouse gases — cost 1000 times what charging stations for electric vehicles and plug in hybrid electric vehicles cost. There are countless reasons hydrogen fuel cell cars are not going to achieve significant market...[read more]

Even as BMW clean car honchos tour the globe with the Hydrogen 7, the German automaker could be coming to terms with reality. According to Drive, an Australian magazine The head of BMW’s clean-energy technology, Jochen Schmalholz, says hydrogen-powered cars are still 15 to 20 years away from being on the road “in significant numbers”...[read more]

Ballard — the Canadian fuel cell company that once hoped to be the Intel inside of the hydrogen car revolution — has sold off its automotive fuel cell business to Daimler and Ford. You can listen to a good CBC radio story on it, which includes an interview of me (click on “Listen to the Current,” Part 2). You can read Toronto Star...[read more]

It's been a long time coming, but Ballard Power is finally reading the tea leaves and realizing that the dream of a fuel-cell car powered by hydrogen is a dream that only a million-dollar prototype can occupy. The Vancouver-based fuel cell company, an industry pioneer and leader, confirmed today that it was in talks with part owners...[read more]