Fuel Cell Technology

Hybrid?

I have been looking at this issue for my own requirements.
The only possibility I can find that seems to be 1-3 years out is to use diesel electric. There are some developments in the solar panel industry that have been rumoured about substantially more efficient products. I've not been able to get hard confirmation but seems to be Samsung making progress on these photovoltaics. Essentially this would be a hybrid system with the panels augmenting and extending the normal range of the diesel by 20-40% depending on many factors including but not limited to, hours of sunlight, battery storage and overall system efficiency. I have not looked at the amount of surface area on the vessel that would be covered by the panels since the numbers on panel output are only rumoured at this point.
The only other option, near term, is a motor sailer.

The nuclear option, even if available, would severely restrict the choice of destination.
New Zealand's response, for instance is, absolutely not.

I came across this just over a month ago. I havn't googled any of the info and have no idea if it can be used in yachts yet. Looks interesting.
I have no idea which site I got it off, and I only have this exert because I thought it interesting enough to email.


"They (HDW,a shipyard in Germany) also produce non-nuclear powered submarines. As tonnage (size) litigation denies the usage of nuclear power, HDW and the German Navy spearheaded the usage of atmospheric air-independent propulsion technologies aboard their boats, and today the PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) hydrogen/ oxygen-based fuel cell system is not only fully functional, but also in active deployment. I wonder who will be the first innovative and environmentally friendly Owner to specify such a propulsion technology for a large yacht, assuming that such would be technically and financially appropriate. Certainly, virtually silent operation would be their reward. Christian Schäfer, Marketing and Sales Manager at HDW-Nobiskrug, told me that during NATO manoeuvres, German navy subs are particularly welcome sparring partners as they possess the capabilities to sneak past even formidable U.S. aircraft carrier protection lines, and manoeuvre themselves into fully feasible weapon launch positions."

Ben
Thank you.
Fantastic information.

Fuel Cell Propulsion

There is a company that makes hydrogen generators as well as fule cell power plant. The companies web sight is www.thehydrogencompany.com the only additional thing you would need is some solar panels for initial power for the hydrogen generator you would also need a way of producing distiled water, and some bateries to store electrycity. Also I think there is a way to get a conventional gas engine to run on hydrogen BWM is developing a car to run a hydrogen. Here is another couple of sights you might want to look at. www.cyberspaceorbit/water.html and www.switch2hydrogen.com

Good luck.

Rod

Fuel Cells

Crewagency et al
The US navy has quite a few fuel Cell powered ships running about as well as droppable packages for field power. The small size, efficiency, low noise, low pollutant emission (a source of fresh water)and fuel flexibility are all distinct advantages and would fit well in a light commercial or recreational marine application if cost were not an overwhelming concern.

I believe the marriage of the fuel cell to hydrogen is not sacred and any hydrocarbon will serve as a fuel and provide upwards of 70% efficiency (vs. ~35% for a diesel) on naptha, gasoline, natural gas, diesel, etc. anything with C=H bonds. This alone will provide increased range which you desire. Maintaining freedom from fouling seems to be the only hurdle for widespread commercial application. Perhaps starting with an onboard generator will help "break the ice". I managed installation of a 6 MWe Pratt and Whitney fuel cell in New York City in 1969 and only catalyst fouling prevented widespread adoption at that time. View www.usfcc.com for details of technical progress and current applications and contracts.

Also, the diesel /electric revolution for light craft has arrived . New higher voltage batteries, improved motors and improvements in management software promise leaps in range and efficiency as well as improved vessel layout in the very near future. Steve Dashew has just commissioned and taken delivery of a power boat (yikes) using this technology.

Finally, something new in light commercial and recreational power!

Ken Lionarons
Algoma, WI

Hybrid?

http://www.cata-lagoon.com/420_pres_uk.php

5 hours cruise with 100% loaded without fuel, but then party is over and generator will take off. Also propellers decrease your sailingspeed between 0,5 - 1 knots.

This is first massproduction boat I had seen at so far using hybrid, all other technologies like nanotechnology are still lagging and there´s no help yet for a long time for decreasing your ExxonMobile bill

Also check out www.waterfuelcell.org for information "outside the box".

There are experiments coming along way to extract hydrogen from regular tap water or even salt water, which will allow us to power engines with hydrogen on demand. It will require a few modifications to regular engines, but once such systems are fine-tuned it will allow a vessel to run entirely without gasoline.

The present technology allready have methods to extract hydrogen/oxygen from water using gated high frequency pulses to stress water molecules to the point where their bonding forces are overcome by electromotor forces and they split into their separate parts forming a highly combustible gas mixture.

Presently the output from such systems are not enough to power large engines with just one fuel cell, but if someone designed a system with multiple (10-20) water fuel cells, water purifiers and perhaps would throw in laser energizing of the modified electrolysis process....we could start to see boats and cars running on nothing but tap water/sea water, with increased performance, no loss of practicability, and increased safety because there would be no stored energy/gasoline that could explode in the event of a fire or high velocity impact.

Present experiments have proven that it is possible to extract higher amounts of hydrogen by using pulsed electricity and varying the frequency, and it is well documented that the required energy consumption to entertain the water fracturing process is reduced using such pulsed DC -- to a point where faraday's law of "the electricity you put in equals the amount of electrolysis you get out" is proven wrong. It is possible to extract more energy from water than the power required to do it. As you all know, water is the largest and most easily available source of hydrogen available on this planet - and hydrogen is also the purest and quite close to the most explosive gas there is. It is just a matter of separating the hydrogen from the water molecule.

Of course, many people see to it that no serious research will take place on the water fuel cell technology, both because it "seems too good to be true", and also because it would have an serous impact on oil company profits as well as the world economy in general. Although the focus should be on "How To Get Hydrogen Out of The Water" because that's where there is most of it, present human efforts tend to focus on how they can get hydrogen from natural gas from the least accessible places - far below the ocean floor, or under the sand in foreign countries.

If I just had some money beyond what I need to put gasoline on my suv, I'd buy assorted electrical equipment and start experimentation myself

Interesting news segment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF__Qlhtnws

Exactly the same technology I'm wabbling about. The fuel cells doesnt have to be as big as this company have made it. All you need is a small circuit to make an oscillating high frequency electrical current...a high voltage converter and a small 6" wide by 15" high tube with water...with 5-6 stainless steel electrolyters inside. Add a water pump, electrical sensors, a bubbler for safety and a digital control unit to regulate the amount of gas, and it will be possible to build a hydrogen-on-demand unit at a slightly smaller size than a typical desktop computer cabinet.

You'd also need to find out what combination of voltage, frequency and amperage this company is using to produce the high gas output, but it is generally wide known by now.

Say you'll need 10 such units to make enough gas for a really large engine. It will take up much less space than the fuel tanks!!

I'm not sure, but I believe I read that salt water actually works better in electrolysis because of lower dielectic or something. Really not sure. It is technically possible to use salt water, because all the pipes and components are corrosion free.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3333992194168790800

I'm guessing the next person to climb up on the list together with Bill Gates, Buffet, Allen and such, will be whoever manages to capture the next generation power market.

Imagine the profits that could arise if a major financially strong company would develop and market a converter kit for all vehicles to run on water, and introduce it to the market in such a way that all vehicles would be converted within a few years. It would require setting up mechanics shops all over the country with quick and easy service, so that customers would pay to have the convertion done within a few hours, and the price would probably be around $300-$500 if one started mass production of the fuel cells. (material costs are likely very cheap, it could be produced in any current production line facility). It would mean an immidiate end to the street-level gasoline industry. For the company handling it, it would definitivly be a peak-profit period during the first few years.

Imagine 50 million vehicles, $50 per kit in production cost, $20 labor, $2 distribution, $200 in profit per installation...total cost for customers around $300. The total profit could be $1*10^13, but would only be possible with a high initial investment, and large scale marketing (read: probably largest in history, comparable to Hollywood movie pre-marketing, Coca Cola etc), and of course moving fast enough to sell the product before hi-jackers, black-marketers and pirates get together a competing product. If anyone does this, it would also mean cleaner air in cities, significant reductions in astma and air pollution illnesses, and generally an overall improvement on the global environment.

The introduction of fuel cell technology is quite possible a major power-turnover, and whichever company that successfully captures the market, will be getting a major amount of the worlds total wealth.

...just food for thought.

One can Google "Joe Cell" as well as on YouTube.com and see some most interesting phenomena along these lines. We plan to test this out later this year now that kits are becoming available. Fascinating stuff, to say the least.

Getting back to the possible, you can use fuel cells with a reformer and kerosene as the fuel, RR have come up with a submarine design using such a system.The kero fuels a GT electric system for hi speed, and provides H2 through the reformer for cruising on the FCs. IIRC a liter of kero holds 160 times more H2 than a liter of H2, forget what state it was in. The 212 submarine can travel about 3000 km on its FCs at about 5 knots, but H2 and liquid O2 can be dangerous fuels and not something you can top up at many marinas.

Just came across this article about a Hydrogen Fuel Cell generator to be built by Volvo. Sounds like a good direction for the technology.

The link is:
http://www.boattest.com/Resources/view_news.aspx?NewsID=3536

Cheers
Dainis

I want to follow this subject thread so I'll make this posting. It sure would be nice to see some really interesting fuel cell products reach production status in this technology that has been worked on for so long now.

Bloom Box...New Fuel Cell Technology

Did anyone happen to see this story on 60 Minutes this past Sunday?

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6228923n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bloom-box-revolutionary-energy-source/

They plan on a big coming out party this coming week. This could be extremely exciting, and very far reaching.

This appears to be the whole reason for Denny Klein's company. It isn't about a new energy source, it's about separating scientifically ignorant investors from their cash:

Board of Directors
Investor Relations

Shareholder Packages Sent 16 December 2009
Sharehold packages were sent via US mail on 16 December 2009 from our main office in Clearwater, FL. We are missing or have invalid addresses for about 20% of our shareholders. Thus, if you are a shareholder in HTA and do not receive a shareholder package by 25 December 2009, please contact us (727) 531-5979 to update your contact information. Be prepared to identify information such as holder name, certificate number, and number of shares owned.

Hydrogen Technology Applications, Inc. (HTA) is a privately held company that has been operating as a Florida Corporation since 1997. We often receive inquires from the public wanting to know how to invest in our company. If you would like to obtain more information about investing in HTA, please go to our contact us page and indicate your investment interests. In the event that HTA's status as a private company should change, we will post all necessary information on our website.

Interesting read: http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=56705

Would someone really try to do that on the internet? I am shocked and disappointed ...

I know, next thing you know someone will try and tell me my Nigerian business partner is not really going to send me millions!

Confused??

Excuse me but I think you have the wrong company here ??

What does HHO have to do with Bloom technology??