Hy9 releases hydrogen generators for FC backup power applications

The Hy9 HGS-M series of hydrogen generators, using planar metal membranes, are designed for PEM fuel cell backup power applications requiring extended runtime hydrogen supply. It operates on a fuel mixture of methanol and water to provide extended runtime with a fuel consumption rate of under one-third of a gallon per kilowatt-hour. A 1.7 kW fuel cell can be powered for 24 hours on just 11 gallons of fuel. From standby, the unit will ramp to full output of hydrogen in less than one minute.
Links:
1) http://hy9.com/Hydrogen5-27-09.pdf
2) http://hy9.com/staproducts.html

Hy9 Corporation: Based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts (USA), and a manufacturer of high performance fuel processing and hydrogen purification systems for the portable power, stationary and backup power, industrial gas and transportation markets. Hy9 Corporation’s technology portfolio for producing and purifying hydrogen is built around a planar metal membrane that extracts pure hydrogen from hydrogen containing gas mixtures much like a filter.

Australian residential fuel-cell cogenerator debuts in the market in early 2010

The Premier of Victoria has officially launched “BlueGen”(residential SOFC cogenerator) manufactured by Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd. on May 22, 2009.
Product name = BlueGEN, type of fuel cell = SOFC, fuel = natural gas, output power = 2 kW (max.), size = dishwasher, price = $8,000/unit, Sales = negotiating with potential customers, payback period = 7 years, product lifetime = 15 years.
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SOFC (in Japan): Next generation fuel cell. Power generation efficiency is higher than that of current PEFC. In Japan, the SOFC cogenerators will enter a real commercialization stage around 2015, and are under demonstration test. If you have some questions about this matter, please contact us (infonenryo@fcpat-japan.com).

Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd. (CFCL):
Formed in 1992 by Australia's CSIRO (Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation) and a consortium of leading energy and industrial companies.
Under the agreement, CFCL and Paloma will work together to evaluate and develop a commercial m-CHP product by integrating CFCL's advanced fuel cell module with a Paloma home heating appliance.
VicUrban:
Victorian Government's sustainable urban development agency committed to delivering prosperous and successful communities in regional and metropolitan Victoria.

Direct observation of Fermi surface of heavy electron, and new solid electrolyte for batteries

SPring-8 has emitted two excellent technologies recently. SPring-8 = large-scale synchrotron radiation facility located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.
1) World’s first direct observation of actual formation of the Fermi surface of the heavy electron
The Fermi surface of the heavy electron was observed when the researcher team selectively observed specific electron orbitals in a “resonant angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy” experiment, which used soft x-ray radiation in SPring-8. The successful observation provides a clue to the attractive superconducting mechanism coexisting with magnetism. The study result will be online published on Physical Review Letters, May 27, 2009/05/28.

2) New solid electrolyte for batteries
The solid electrolyte developed has extremely high ion conductivity even at room temperature, and is stable and highly heat resistive at atmospheric pressure. It will accelerate the development of high performance batteries. The battery user will be released from dangerous accident (e.g., explosion) inherent to the liquid electrolyte thus far used.
The study result was online published on Nature Materials, May 17, 2009
(title)
"Size-controlled stabilization of the superionic phase to room temperature in polymer-coated AgI nanoparticles"
Rie Makiura, Takayuki Yonemura, Teppei Yamada, Miho Yamauchi, Ryuichi Ikeda, Hiroshi Kitagawa, Kenichi Kato & Masaki Takata

If any interesting in those technologies, please contact the sources or us
(=infonenryo@fcpat-japan.com)

EBARA decides to pull out of fuel cell business and to dissolve Ebara-Ballard

The difficult economic turndown that is originated from the global financial crisis continues, and there is still uncertainty in economical recovery. In the present stage of the residential fuel cell cogenerator business having entered its real commercialization, further management resources must be invested for the mass-production and cost reduction of the cogenerators. Under this economic situation, the company has decided that it is difficult to further continue the fuel cell business. It is true that the company has thus far utilized every resource available with hope that the residential FC cogenerator business would be a promised business in the medium- and long-range forecast.

Source: Excerpted from Ebara’s press release

20-cm-Long Fault-Current Limiter Element Using Superconducting Oxide Thin Film, Remarkably Improved

Contents:１) Improvements, 2) Brief summary, 3) Background description, 4) Principle description, and 5) New fault-current limiter element

1) Improvements
a) Increase of fault-current limiter element capacity
The research team succeeded in increasing the capacity of the new fault-current limiter to 500 V/200 A.
b) Remarkable cost reduction of the fault-current limiter element
Withstand voltage of the fault-current limiter element is significantly increased.
The fault-current limiter element can withstand the voltage 4 times as high as of the previous fault-current limiter element. In other words, the required length of the superconducting oxide thin film could be reduced to 1/4 or shorter, and this fact leads to remarkable cost -reduction of the current limiter element.

The improvements were made by a research team, led by Hirobumi Yamazaki, in superconductor technology group, Energy Technology Research Institute (RTRI), AIST (national institute of advanced industrial science and technology)

2) Brief summary
A new fault-current limiter element of only 20 cm long was constructed, and tested while being placed in liquid nitrogen. It was confirmed in the test that current of 237 A (effective value, rms) flowed through the fault-current limiter element, at zero resistance. A further test of the fault-current limiter element was conducted under high voltage of 500 V.
It was confirmed that the fault-current limiter element instantaneously limited fault-current to 1/3 or smaller. Unless the fault-current limiter element is used, the fault-current was 2.26 kA. Also in the test, current flow of five cycles was observed (also see Figs. 4 and 6). Connection of eight fault-current limiter elements could form one phase of a fault-current limiter element of a 3-phase 6.6 kV/200. “From the above experimental facts, it is confident to realize a practical superconducting fault-current limiter of several tens kV/several hundreds amperes, which is featured by low cost, compact, low loss, and quick response,” said AIST.

3) Background description
Wind power generators are increasing and will be more increasing in the near future.
If a fault, for example, a short-circuiting fault, occurs in one of the wind power generators, which are connected to the existing electric power distribution network,
short-circuit current flows into the power distribution network and will give rise to a serious problem, for example, damaging of the power facilities, in the network.
The fault-current limiter prevents such an overcurrent from flowing into the power distribution network. The superconducting thin film fault-current limiter element, developed this time, will be, for sure, one of the effective solutions to the problems which will occur when a number of the distributed power systems based on new energy#1 are connected to the existing electric power distribution network.
Actually, there is a strong demand for the superconducting fault-current limiter of low cost and high reliability. The reality is far from this demand, however.
A major reason for this is that the superconducting thin film is expensive.
There are many approaches to developing a fault-current limiter, which uses a superconducting tape wire having a metal base material.
The fault-current limiter needs the wire of which the length is 100 times the length of the superconducting thin film. From this it is readily seen that the current limiter has many problems to be solved, for example, high cost, large size and large loss (in the normal conducting state).

4) Principle description
Related diagrams = Figs. 1 and 2
The superconducting thin-film fault-current limiter element is made up of a superconducting oxide thin film, a gold-silver alloy layer, and a non-inductive winding shunt resistor.
The superconducting oxide thin film was formed by using the MOD process, originally developed by AIST. (The S - N transition property of the super conducting thin film is utilized for the fault-current limiter. S = superconducting and N = normal.)
The gold-silver alloy layer (having high resistivity) was vapor-deposited on a superconducting oxide thin film (having a large area).
The gold-silver alloy layer serves as a shunt protecting layer.

In terms of circuit connection, both ends of the superconducting oxide thin film is connected to the power source terminals. The shunt protecting layer and the non-inductive winding shunt resistor are connected in parallel with the superconducting oxide thin film (Fig. 1). The shunt protecting layer and non-inductive winding shunt resistor are provided to avoid the hot-spot phenomenon#2, which inherently occurs in the superconducting oxide thin film.
In the fault-current limiter element constructed above, with high resistance of the superconducting oxide thin film, the voltage (tolerable electric field) that is allowed to be applied to the superconducting oxide thin film per unit length of the film, could be increased to have a voltage value, which is about 4 times as large as that when the Au-Ag shunt protecting layer of high resistivity is not used. In other words, the necessary length of the superconducting thin film could be reduced to 1/4 or shorter, resulting in cost reduction of the current limiter element. This fault-current limiter element well operated where it is small in size. The current limiter element was proposed on November 2004.
[Copyright by FuelCell japan]
[Copyright by FuelCell japan]

5) New fault-current limiter element
In the electric power distribution network including the fault-current limiter elements coupled to the network, when the electric power handled by the network is large, the fault -current limiter element must be designed to have a large rated current.
Accordingly, the ampacity of the superconducting thin film of the fault-current limiter element must also be increased. The increase of the ampacity raises the level of the hotspot problem. The researchers have made a try of supplementing the overcurrent shunting function that the external shunt resistor has. Exactly, a capacitor of small capacitance, commercially available, was connected across the superconducting thin film (Fig. 2). The external resistor and the capacitor, together with the superconducting thin film, were placed in liquid nitrogen. ….
More (in English) >> please contact us (= infonenryo@fcpat-japan.com)
Source: AIST’s press release

Tags: fault-current limiter, fault-current limiter element, superconducting oxide thin film, AIST, wind power generators, short-circuiting fault, electric power distribution network

Succeeded in Directly Observing a Change in Nanoparticle Surface Structure

JASRI and NEC have collaboratively developed a world’s first method for observing in real time a change in the surface structure of a nanoparticle in an aqueous solution by using the large-scale synchrotron radiation facility, Spring-8, and succeeded in clarifying in atom level a deterioration mechanism of the electrode catalyst in the fuel cell.

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