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  • Hydrogen is

  • the most abundant element on earth.

  • It really is nature's fuel.

  • We're at a very interesting stage of development

  • of this technology where it's not quite ready for prime time

  • time but it's getting tantalizingly close

  • Fuel cell technology is evolving,

  • the technology is improving constantly.

  • We're competing in a market that we have to compete

  • with batteries and generators, and how do we do this?

  • I think hydrogen has great potential

  • to become one of our primary fuels

  • for the transportation industry in the future.

  • I would much rather drive my fuel cell vehicle

  • than my gasoline vehicle.

  • Funding provided by:

  • The U.S. Department of Energy

  • National Energy Technology Laboratory.

  • The Energy &amp. Environmental Research Center's

  • National Center for Hydrogen Technology.

  • and the members of Prairie Public.

  • [bass &amp. drums play in bright rhythm]

  • (female narrator) You've probably heard something about hydrogen.

  • You may know hydrogen can be used to fuel cars.

  • But did you know that hydrogen is used safely

  • all around you every day?

  • In data centers, warehouses,

  • golf courses, and even breweries.

  • Hydrogen is nature's fuel.

  • It can be made where you want, when you want.

  • Imagine living in a world without concerns about

  • energy security or pollution. where you can get

  • all the energy you need from domestic sources.

  • Imagine the world of fuel cells

  • using safe, clean, abundant hydrogen.

  • This is actually an electric car, it's got

  • an electric motor in the front that drives the car forward.

  • And it gets most of its electricity

  • from fuel cell system that converts hydrogen and oxygen

  • from the air into electricity and water as a waste product.

  • The concept of the fuel cell has

  • been around for 150 years as a chemical principle.

  • Starting about the '60s these devices were made for space

  • and over about last 15 years automakers have been

  • working very hard to develop the technology for automobiles

  • as a way of simultaneously reducing the use of oil,

  • reducing air pollution and also

  • reducing the release of greenhouse gases

  • This type of fuel cell is called

  • a PEM fuel cell, proton exchange membrane.

  • The way I like to explain it, it's like a sandwich where in

  • the middle of the sandwich, the meat of the sandwich,

  • if you will, you have a membrane material, you have hydrogen

  • on one side, and you have platinum as catalyst material.

  • That catalyst allows the hydrogen molecule

  • to split apart into protons and electrons.

  • The protons go through the membrane, the electrons have to

  • go around the membrane, and as those electrons are

  • going around the membrane, they are powering the electric motor.

  • Everything meets on the side with the oxygen

  • and forms water as the waste product.

  • Sometimes you'll hear it called a fuel cell stack.

  • It's a whole stack of these fuel cells just like you stack batteries

  • together in a flashlight to build up more voltage.

  • In a car like this you might have 400 fuel cells

  • all stacked together to give you a few hundred volts.

  • Currently we produce in the world

  • over 50 million tons of hydrogen

  • with about a fifth of that

  • being consumed in the United States.

  • That hydrogen is being used primarily as a feedstock

  • for making agricultural products such as fertilizer

  • and also a chemical feedstock

  • to take the petroleum in its raw form and make it

  • into e petroleum that we use in either diesel or gasoline.

  • It's also used for medical applications, food processing,

  • a variety of smaller type uses.

  • If you look down the road in the hydrogen economy,

  • some of those uses are for transportation

  • such as forklifts in a warehouse, backup power,

  • or even putting electricity onto the grid.

  • As always, when you start going into new markets

  • it becomes difficult for commercial companies

  • to invest in something that is years out,

  • so that's why we have programs

  • like the National Center for Hydrogen Technology

  • where you have some government support

  • because that federal support helps bridge that gap.

  • With that we work closely with commercial partners,

  • and we find opportunities to provide

  • developments in terms of being more effective, lower cost,

  • better environmental advantages, and these are all things

  • that are helping to buoy the hydrogen economy.

  • As we go down this path and we get those goals met,

  • we start grabbing more and more market opportunities.

  • becomes a matter of greatly reducing

  • the cost of producing the hydrogen as well,

  • the fuel cells, and also the end uses.

  • And we then reach more and more applications,

  • and we then see it accelerating, and as that happens

  • you get the benefit of more public buy-in.

  • The more they're familiar with technology,

  • the more they want it, and the more they are interested.

  • We see some very significant

  • technological evolution taking place which says

  • that hydrogen can be exceptionally competitive,

  • and we firmly believe that the ultimate

  • energy source in this world is going to be hydrogen.

  • Hydrogen is interesting. it can be made

  • a lot of different ways there's a lot of domestic resources

  • that can be used to make hydrogen.

  • Any source of electricity can be used

  • to make hydrogen from water.

  • Hydrogen can also be made through a lot of biomass pathways.

  • Right now it's made a lot from natural gas

  • which is not ultimately sustainable

  • but is sort of a bridge technology to potentially

  • getting to cleaner sources of hydrogen in the future.

  • (narrator) To get hydrogen from water,

  • we can use electricity

  • to break the chemical bonds between oxygen and hydrogen.

  • This process is called electrolysis.

  • Hydrogenics is a global leader

  • in the development of fuel cells and on-site hydrogen generation.

  • We can provide the hydrogen stations that produce the hydrogen.

  • The process starts with the electrolyzer-- that's where we make that hydrogen.

  • We take city water, and we purify it,

  • and put that inside our electrolyzer.

  • From then, the water's electrolyzed.

  • We produce hydrogen and oxygen.

  • Oxygen is vented and hydrogen is captured.

  • It is then purified through our dryer and purifier.

  • The purifier removes any trace oxygen

  • inside the hydrogen stream.

  • And the dryer removes any moisture

  • that was left over from the electrolysis process.

  • The gas comes out at about 150 psi.

  • From then on it's compressed to 6000 psi

  • where it is stored into storage tanks.

  • From the storage tanks, the gas is diverted into the dispenser.

  • (narrator) Most of the hydrogen we have today

  • comes from natural gas

  • through a process called steam methane reforming.

  • I would say about 90% of the world's hydrogen

  • comes from fossil fuels, from reforming natural gas.

  • For that you need the capital cost of millions of dollars

  • to create your plant.

  • And you produce thousands of kilograms in one day.

  • (narrator) We can get hydrogen

  • from coal through gasification.

  • (Tom Erickson) We've been using coal in this country for many many years,

  • and primarily it's been combusted.

  • We burn the coal d we essentially

  • convert it entirely to heat.

  • In a gasification system, we convert coal

  • into something very similar to natural gas.

  • Then that natural gas has an extremely high hydrogen content,

  • and we can then take that

  • and either manipulate it to pure hydrogen

  • or we can even produce liquid fuels from it.

  • Gasification has the promise of being one of the few sources

  • that we can use to produce

  • very, very large quantities of hydrogen.

  • So as we transition to a hydrogen economy, coal is

  • one of those domestic resources that can really step in.

  • We believe very strongly that

  • coal must remain a part of our energy future.

  • In order to do that we must find the technologies

  • to utilize it more efficiently and effectively.

  • We're convinced that because of the experience and knowledge

  • that we've gained from our Dakota Gasification Project

  • that we have a way in which to find the solution

  • to this very challenging issue

  • for our continued ability to utilize coal.

  • Hydrogen today is something we look to for the future.

  • If you want to talk about renewables,

  • you've got to find a way in which to store the energy.

  • Because electrical energy has to be used at the time it's produced.

  • And with renewables you don't have that opportunity,

  • because when the wind is blowing you may not have the load.

  • And so if you're producing it, how do we store it?

  • The hydrogen concept is one of those opportunities.

  • Hydrogen generation can happen

  • through a number of different routes.

  • The easiest route would have us making electricity

  • and then using that electricity to run an electrolyzer

  • which would split water electrochemically.

  • We can also drive chemical processes

  • which could then be used to produce fuels

  • such as hydrogen or even liquid hydrocarbon fuels.

  • Solar typically only works when the sun is up.

  • Wind only works when the wind is blowing.

  • Sun goes down then you have to make up

  • all that solar power with other sources.

  • Or if the wind is blowing

  • and suddenly it stops, it causes instabilities.

  • I need that power whenever there is a demand

  • The ability to store power is key to large-scale deployment

  • because it removes that instability.

  • (narrator) In the same way hydrogen stores

  • the energy from the sun and wind,

  • we can use hydrogen to store the energy in moving water.

  • (Michael McGowan) Although hydrogen is

  • the most abundant element in the universe,

  • it's not readily available in a usable form.

  • As a result it has to be manufactured.

  • The good news about hydrogen is, it can be manufactured

  • in a variety of ways and in large array of feedstocks.

  • Liquid hydrogen in general first came to the United States

  • as part of the space program,

  • and it was large government support for that program

  • helped subsidize the first plants.

  • Linde is one of the world's largest industrial gas companies.

  • Most of Linde's hydrogen comes

  • from this plant here in Magog, Quebec.

  • This plant utilizes a hydrogen waste stream that

  • comes from a sodium chlorate plant across the street.

  • That plant takes brine, electrolyzes it,

  • makes sodium chlorate and a 97% hydrogen waste stream,

  • Linde captures that hydrogen stream

  • and uses hydroelectric power

  • to purify it and liquefy it for delivery across the country.

  • (Michael Gagne) Essentially, the plant here uses

  • electricity as the driving force

  • to compress and liquefy the hydrogen.

  • Our electricity, fortunately in Quebec is,

  • essentially 97% comes from hydroelectricity

  • which is a renewable resource.

  • For green hydrogen I say it is hydrogen produced

  • with zero or minimal greenhouse gas

  • or other pollutants as by-products.

  • Other renewable ways of making hydrogen is to capture

  • solar, wind, wave, geothermal power

  • and electrolyze water to produce hydrogen.

  • We produce hydrogen in a very environmental friendly way

  • because of the fact that we have hydroelectric power.

  • However, we have to transport that hydrogen

  • and the transportation does have an impact

  • in terms of the carbon footprint.

  • (Michael McGowan) The reason we liquefy hydrogen is that it is

  • perhaps the most efficient way to distribute hydrogen

  • over long distances and you can deliver the most hydrogen

  • with the lowest carbon footprint as a liquid.

  • Currently the 3 traditional ways of storing hydrogen

  • have largely depended on the volume of hydrogen

  • you want to store and how far you want to transport it.

  • So if you need a couple kilograms of hydrogen,

  • typically steel cylinders is what you would use.

  • When we get to a few hundred kilograms of hydrogen

  • we look to employ stainless steel tube trailers.

  • When you get to larger, maybe several hundred

  • to several thousand kilograms of hydrogen consumption,

  • that's where liquid hydrogen becomes highly economical.

  • Beyond that is when you have to

  • seriously start thinking about an on-site production.

  • We know hydrogen can be delivered,

  • compressed, and dispensed into vehicles very safely,

  • as safely if not more safely than traditional fuels.

  • Just as electricity is an energy carrier, so is hydrogen.

  • Hydrogen is an excellent way

  • to transport energy in a usable form,

  • that can be fed to a fuel cell and generate electricity

  • where you need it, when you need it.

  • So whether you're moving your vehicles

  • or you're lighting your house or heating your homes

  • One of the beauties of hydrogen, it will be able to provide

  • a common energy currency throughout the world.

  • In a hydrogen economy, every area of the world will be able

  • to generate this currency with the resources available to it.

  • Hydrogen is produced today in large scales

  • at economies that would make sense for hydrogen fueling

  • We're confident that industry can respond.

  • And that is largely with the infrastructure.

  • Fueling stations that are fueling tens or hundreds of cars

  • instead of thousands of cars.

  • Obviously the infrastructure is very similar.

  • What you need to fuel one car, is pretty much

  • the same equipment you need to fuel 100 cars or 1000 cars.

  • When it comes to hydrogen refueling,

  • there is quite a big difference.

  • I'd rather fill at a hydrogen fueling station

  • than a gasoline station.

  • Due to the fact that gasoline stations have been developed

  • from the 1940s and '50s, many of the standards and many

  • of the safety guidelines have been grandfathered in.

  • When we look at development of standards, we are looking at

  • what is safe to fuel with the knowledge that we know today,

  • not from what we knew earlier.

  • With this knowledge we are able to ensure that we design

  • fully safe hydrogen stations.

  • Kraus Global is primarily

  • an alternate fuel dispenser manufacturer.

  • So that would encase propane, natural gas,

  • hydrogen, and very soon liquefied natural gas.

  • We got quite a good head start

  • in targeting from South America,

  • Middle East, Europe, Asia.

  • 80% of our business would be outside of North America.

  • At Kraus we are primarily an assembler and tester.

  • Mainly the components come into our factory,

  • assembled into subassemblies, and move down the line

  • to where they finally get put into the dispenser.

  • You do some final wiring, tubing.

  • Moves on to the test bay.

  • Every unit is tested fully.

  • And once it's approved, out the door off to the end customer.

  • When the public sees hydrogen at a station,

  • they see the dispenser.

  • They don't often see the storage or the compression

  • or any of the other equipment that's very vital but is hidden.

  • From the public's point of view, hydrogen is

  • about the vehicle that they are driving

  • and the dispenser that they are filling it at.

  • (Scott Bailey) To compare a hydrogen dispenser

  • to a gasoline dispenser,

  • you can't pump a gas, you have to move it

  • on the basis of pressure differential.

  • So instead of a pump that draws fluid out,

  • you have valving that opens and closes

  • to control the flow of gas to the vehicle.

  • Instead of a turbine meter in a gasoline dispenser that spins,

  • to give you a reading on volume, you have a mass flow meter

  • which senses the molecules of hydrogen flowing through it

  • and gives you that same mass reading on the display.

  • One of the challenges with any new energy is distribution.

  • In particular, the gasoline stations already exist.

  • You are trying to compete with something

  • that has been built up over 100 years.

  • Initially, there will be hydrogen projects,

  • where buses return to a depot to fuel at night

  • or where you have forklifts

  • operating under one roof at a warehouse.

  • The biggest barrier right now is probably the lack of vehicles.

  • Now if you talk to an OEM vehicle manufacture they'll say

  • the biggest barrier is the lack of stations.

  • I'd say we're both right--it's a chicken-and-egg challenge.

  • Do you bring the vehicles out first, or do you bring

  • the stations out first? Well, you need both.

  • You'll see reports that suggested that it's going to

  • cost up to a trillion dollars

  • to develop a new fueling infrastructure

  • if we're going to deploy hydrogen in this country.

  • The truth of the matter is, that is totally wrong.

  • The EERC has developed a technology

  • called hydrogen on demand and what it is,

  • we can use a wide variety of feedstocks

  • which are readily available.

  • to produce hydrogen as you're filling your vehicle.

  • No more than you need to fill it, produces it

  • on the spot in real time while you're filling the vehicle.

  • It eliminates the cost of pressurizing the hydrogen--

  • major cost out of the picture.

  • Secondly, we eliminate the need for storage--

  • another big cost out of the picture.

  • Third key thing, we can use just about every

  • existing gas station in this country for this technology.

  • You can drive up to that station you can buy gasoline,

  • you can buy an ethanol blend, you can buy diesel,

  • you can buy hydrogen.

  • Our mission basically is

  • to develop power systems that generate electricity,

  • because we firmly believe that electricity

  • will be moving people around

  • in the next wave of mobility for humankind.

  • In product development, like all companies

  • in the clean energy space, we are trying to deliver

  • on the 3 promises which are energy security,

  • environmental quality, and economic opportunity.

  • Nuvera got started by combining 2 emerging technologies.

  • On one side, the hydrogen generation technology

  • through reforming, and the fuel cell stack technology,

  • the electrochemical device that converts

  • hydrogen and oxygen into electricity.

  • Power Tap is our on-site hydrogen generation product,

  • which supplies on-site hydrogen to customers, forklifts,

  • and fuel cell vehicles.

  • The Power Tap on-site hydrogen generator is designed

  • to operate off of natural gas.

  • We do this because it is a readily available fuel.

  • There's over 2 million miles of pipeline

  • within the United States going to 69 million customers today.

  • We're using the same natural gas that you are in your home

  • running your boiler, running your hot water heater.

  • Nothing is different.

  • This box, we like to call it actually

  • a hydrogen generation appliance.

  • We've taken large-scale industrial process and intensified it.

  • We have natural gas and city water come in

  • on the utility side, it get's conditioned,

  • then is sent to a steam methane reformer.

  • It combines the steam as city water,

  • it combines the natural gas,

  • and it breaks the bonds into a hydrogen rich stream,

  • which in the industry we call syngas.

  • After that fuel processing it goes to a purification step

  • where we get high purity hydrogen

  • which is required for our fuel cell stacks.

  • Inside this canister is our steam methane reformer.

  • It is taking the fuel and city water,

  • it's converting them both into the syngas.

  • We do sell these both warehouses that are using forklift trucks,

  • and also we are looking at opportunities

  • to do merchant hydrogen, which is generating hydrogen

  • for outright sale of the gas.

  • The hydrogen refueling system that we have developed is based

  • on the reformation of natural gas reacting with water.

  • There's a lot of critics of this approach

  • because we are using a carbon-based fuel.

  • While it's not totally carbon free, it's an obvious choice

  • as a part of the roadmap to a carbon reduction.

  • The stack on top that you see is a commercially available stack

  • that goes into our Power Edge Systems.

  • These are systems that are provided to

  • the material handling market s battery replacements.

  • It's intended for industrial,

  • kind of heavy-duty industrial applications.

  • The real advantage of fuel cells over other power plant

  • type technologies is that they are inherently scalable.

  • So of I need a stack of just one kilowatt, there it is.

  • If I need this stack to be 90 kilowatts

  • I simply add cells to it.

  • In terms of the prime power plant,

  • the prime energy converter. it's real, it's today.

  • We're doing it, they're ready, they're reliable.

  • We're deploying them in fork trucks.

  • The fork truck market is an ideal proving ground

  • because it's a vehicle that's already electrified.

  • It already uses batteries, and we're proving that the fuel cell

  • has value in displacing batteries in that application.

  • This system is designed so that

  • the user can push out the lead acid battery

  • put in our system and the truck doesn't know the difference.

  • It's a hybrid system which has

  • instead of the gasoline powered engine,

  • we have a fuel cell engine, which actually is

  • one of the nice points about fuel cells is, with the growth

  • of hybrid technology in over-the-road vehicles

  • you can very easily see how you could take

  • the internal combustion engine out and put a fuel cell in.

  • In the traditional, power supply system for electric forklifts,

  • you have big racks and racks of lead acid batteries.

  • For every truck, you have up to 3 batteries.

  • And when the battery dies, you have to take it

  • to a specialized machine that pulls the battery out, puts

  • it up on the rack to be charged and puts a new battery in.

  • All of this is very time intensive.

  • A battery takes 8 hours to charge and 8 hours to cool.

  • This system takes about 2 minutes to refuel.

  • This is a fuel cell stack.

  • This is what I call the dry end of the system

  • because there is no water.

  • This is the wet end.

  • There is a condenser here for managing heat and water,

  • so as the fuel cell runs, it creates water.

  • This manages the water to keep it for getting

  • too high or too low and also rejects the heat.

  • Also in here we have the fuel handling components

  • that take the very high pressure from the tank and step it down.

  • There's an on-board computer, which allows

  • the fuel cell system to provide you with intelligent power.

  • A lead acid battery is just a dumb battery.

  • It can't tell you anything about how healthy it is

  • or how productive the operator is.

  • It will just slowly drain down in performance over

  • the course of the shift just like a flashlight going dim.

  • What you'll find with these is, you will have consistent power.

  • When you talk about family cars or SUVs, batteries will be

  • too heavy and too bulky to be deployed and too expensive.

  • To put a battery in a minivan today

  • you would have to add about 450 pounds.

  • And that's carrying a gorilla inside your car.

  • It's an invisible gorilla, but nobody wants a gorilla

  • in addition to the car you have.

  • That's where the fuel cell will come in

  • and will have the right substitute in that case.

  • (Mickey Oros) This is the world's first

  • automated fuel cell assembly line

  • We can do 1000 cells a day.

  • Some of out stacks require about 50 cells.

  • The reason for doing the line is again,

  • we are competing in a market

  • with batteries and generators. And how do we do this?

  • One of the things we found

  • in order to compete in a world market is,

  • we can't have exotic materials.

  • We figured out how we could design this in such a way

  • that we can build it with robotics that are the same as

  • the auto industry, that are the same in the computer industry.

  • Not exotics, not the super titaniums,

  • not the stuff that is just very, very costly, high expenses,

  • but we found low cost materials that we could go ahead and put

  • these together with everything that is readily available

  • wherever we need to to become a global competitor.

  • What we're building today we're actually finding

  • those markets we can go into--

  • the telcom industry, the data centers those backup supports

  • that we need that would replace the battery or the generator.

  • So right away we're going to go ahead and drive to those newer markets.

  • This happens to be a 1000-watt system

  • that we've created, this is a 5000-watt system.

  • We have communications-- we can actually from a remote distance

  • if the fuel gets to a certain level we can go ahead and have

  • this unit call the fuel provider and have them go ahead and say

  • hey, fuel's low, come and take care of it before

  • the incident happens before you start running this unit

  • and all of a sudden you find out you are out of fuel.

  • And this is just conventional batteries that you see

  • quite often in data centers, in telecom systems.

  • Just like any common generator it takes in some generators

  • it may take 2, 3 minutes to come on.

  • We can come on in within about 5 seconds, 3 to 5 seconds.

  • So we're instant.

  • But in order not to lose that power we bridge it

  • with a small battery for a short period of time

  • I can demonstrate this-- we turn on

  • these really super bright lights here, and right now

  • the fuel cell is armed, and it's watching the grid.

  • And it's intelligent enough to see if the grid starts to drop.

  • The fuel cell knows that it's time to come on.

  • As soon we shut off the power

  • the grid is there, the fuel cell is armed

  • The fuel cell immediately knew to come on

  • because it lost the power-- it no longer has any power,

  • but you didn't see any blinks in the light whatsoever-- not one.

  • There's all kinds of opportunities that are

  • open to what the fuel cell has to offer.

  • It's open for the imagination.

  • This is a 1000-watt system right here.

  • It's a unit that we can use outdoors.

  • This is the one that actually Gov. Schwarzenegger used

  • to light his Christmas tree every year,

  • normally a 60-foot Christmas tree that had at one time 5000

  • 5-watt light bulbs on it and consumed 25000 watts of power.

  • We were able to come back through, talk to them

  • about that, change their way of looking at it, put LED lights

  • on this unit-- ended up dropping the consumption

  • from 25,000 watts down to 450 watts.

  • We were able to use it with a small, little

  • 1000-watt fuel cell system that we have here.

  • So every year he delights in the fact that

  • he is running a Christmas tree cost effectively

  • and showing that there's other alternatives to power.

  • This is green, that's the great and wonderful thing about this

  • is, it's zero pollution low noise,

  • plus a tremendous amount of energy in a small package

  • These are real, these are pieces of equipment

  • we're gonna see being used on a daily basis.

  • Henry Ford in his true wit he had many years ago,

  • he was confronted with stockholders and news reporters,

  • and someone in the crowd said Mr. Ford,

  • I know you are going to mass-produce these things

  • but what are you going to do about the fuel,

  • where are you going to get the fuel for all these things?

  • He stopped for a second, he thought,

  • he said you know, I'm not going to worry about that.

  • We know that, in fact, hydrogen is everywhere.

  • As long as we build cost-effective

  • pieces of equipment that generate electricity

  • then we are going to look to those other companies

  • that create and develop hydrogen to be able to supply us.

  • SYSCO is an acronym, stands for System and Services Company.

  • We deal primarily with restaurants, schools,

  • hospitals-- anybody that's in the food service business.

  • We use triple pallet jacks to move the groceries

  • from our warehouse to the docks.

  • They're powered traditionally by lead core batteries.

  • The fuel cell we use here in Grand Rapids is

  • provided for us by PlugPower,

  • and they are used in place of batteries.

  • The fuel cell itself provides a consistent level of power

  • during its entire use of its fuel

  • which is different from our traditional batteries

  • which have a declining performance.

  • As soon as you start using that battery, the power

  • starts to decline, and therefore the performance of

  • the piece of equipment declines with the decreasing power.

  • The traditional battery lasts anywhere from 6 to 8 hours

  • depending on how new that battery is as compared to

  • the fuel cell which may last up to 14 hours per shift.

  • A huge savings for us because we're not changing batteries

  • we're not recharging batteries so we have utility savings

  • as well, but also our selectors stay busy

  • selecting groceries instead of swapping batteries out

  • They are a very smooth operating source of power.

  • We've had good results from a handling standpoint.

  • The units themselves weigh

  • 600 pounds less than our previous batteries.

  • If you take the 600 pounds off, replace it with a new power cell

  • the handle which the selector operates becomes

  • much easier to move around, and that's been an added benefit.

  • The employees that operate the triple pallet jacks

  • have been positive in their feedback

  • about how they operate, how smooth they operate, and

  • so far we have had no negative feedback

  • from them which is

  • probably the most important vote of confidence.

  • The people that actually use this day-in, day-out as part

  • of their tools to do their job are enjoying the experience.

  • The operators of these triple pallet jacks

  • are responsible to fuel their unit when necessary.

  • It operates much like a car does in terms of a fuel gauge.

  • When it does indicate it needs to be refueled

  • the selector comes to fuel station and goes through

  • a very quick process, usually less than a minute,

  • to refuel his or her particular triple pallet jack.

  • There are warehouses using this technology

  • to various degrees already.

  • We're on the front end of this change.

  • I'd like to think in the future this entire facility

  • will be powered by an alternative fuel source.

  • and if hydrogen is the answer

  • we're certainly one step forward in the right direction.

  • [no engine noise]

  • Our customers are asking for better solutions.

  • They want to be quieter,

  • they want to be lighter, they want to be smarter machines.

  • Many of our products are used for golf environments are

  • in a situation where they are used very early in the morning.

  • A lot of golf courses are built around houses

  • and they want quiet equipment.

  • [no motor noise]

  • Fuel cells are a solution for this.

  • We don't want to have to sacrifice performance

  • in order to get the benefits of electric power.

  • So first of all, one of our guiding principles is

  • that the machines will be able to do the same tasks

  • you are used to, and feel and operate in much the same way.

  • Given that assumption there are some differences.

  • The components are different size and different weights

  • so you have to repackage them in new areas.

  • They have to be weather protected and environmental protected,

  • they're basically off-road equipment.

  • The fuel cells that we are using are called a PEM fuel cell.

  • PEM stands for proton exchange membrane.

  • It's one of several types of fuel cells particularly suitable

  • for mobile applications because they're compact, lightweight,

  • they start up fast, and they follow loads very quickly.

  • We've chosen to use compressed hydrogen

  • as a fuel storage on board.

  • In order to get enough volume of hydrogen

  • we are operating at 5000 psi tanks.

  • To keep the tanks lightweight,

  • instead of thick, heavy-walled steel tank.

  • We've got a composite tank or bladder,

  • either aluminum or some kind of plastic

  • wrapped with threads to make the tank strong enough

  • We're able to get lightweight power

  • and we can refuel quickly with the hydrogen

  • where the batteries are heavy

  • and take a lot of time to recharge.

  • Hydrogen in a fuel cell is clean, it is completely green,

  • and you give off water.

  • There's a lot fewer moving parts than in an engine,

  • a lot less friction.

  • As the industry evolves there is no reason it shouldn't be able

  • to get long life as one of its better attributes.

  • In my opinion hydrogen is safe when used properly.

  • The systems have to be designed so they are safe.

  • People have to be trained, then it's just like

  • handling any of these high energy contents.

  • One of the key advantages that our industry has

  • is that we are a fleet operation.

  • Turf equipment on a golf course or a park system or something

  • comes home to roost in the same building every night,

  • then is deployed during the day and comes back.

  • The ability to put in one central refueling site to

  • take care of a bunch of product is inherent to our business.

  • It lets us become, I think, the niche market

  • that can start to use fuel cells quicker than many other places.

  • (man) We got started in 1980, brewed our first batch of beer

  • at a smaller facility

  • I was a home brewer who turned commercial brewer.

  • We've got 450 employees.

  • 7th or 8th largest brewery in the country.

  • We have distribution in every state.

  • I wanted to be more energy independent,

  • so we started to look at ways

  • to both conserve energy and be more energy efficient.

  • Actually going back to when we first started

  • I put in things like ice banks to store energy at night,

  • so we've been embracing some of those concepts for a long time.

  • We've done a lot of optimization and put in current technology.

  • Some of those projects have 2 or 3 year paybacks.

  • So it's not all done strictly for environmental benefit,

  • but it's nice to get both.

  • Some of the projects don't have great returns, so you really

  • couldn't justify them strictly on a return on investment basis.

  • We do a lot of what we do because we think it's the right thing.

  • As a manufacturer being in an industry

  • that does utilize a lot of resources

  • we see it as one of our obligations to do our business

  • in a sound manner and look for ways to minimize inputs

  • and to minimize waste streams.

  • As a manufacturer our power needs are 24/7 because we have

  • refrigeration and pumps and things that are operating.

  • It was both from energy efficiency and air emissions

  • that I guess I wanted to give the fuel cell a try.

  • We've got four 250-kilowatt units that are considered

  • a direct fuel cell, so they don't need

  • a separate source of hydrogen, they have an internal process

  • that reforms the hydrogen out of the feed gas.

  • So we feed it either biogas or natural gas,

  • and the process is part of the fuel cell stack.

  • So as the gas goes in the hydrogen gets separated,

  • and that's fed into the fuel cell.

  • We also have heat recovery boilers, we capture

  • about a million-and-a-quarter BTUs of energy back as steam,

  • and that goes back into our brewing process.

  • The fuel cell is, I think, at the top as far as overall

  • conversion of that input energy to output electricity.

  • Having the distributed power generation

  • you're not losing power through transmission line loss.

  • If you can cogenerate and use the heat and the electricity

  • you have picked up even more,

  • so I think our overall efficiency is approaching

  • 70% for our input energy with the heat recovery

  • which would be close to double, I think,

  • what the average fossil fuel plant would be putting out.

  • As far as nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide

  • and other things that are normal combustion by-products,

  • none of those are emitted from the fuel cell.

  • All of our fermenters are tied into pipes

  • where we can collect the carbon dioxide

  • that is naturally produced from fermentation.

  • That's compressed, cleaned up, stored,

  • and allows us to have our own source of CO2 here.

  • Normally breweries would purchase that

  • if they don't recover it, and now that we recover ours

  • we have our own source of naturally produced CO2

  • that's been captured rather than emitted.

  • Naturally produced carbon dioxide is used in

  • the bottling process and moving beer around and dispensing beer.

  • We just completed a pretty big solar array.

  • I think we'll have one of the largest in the country,

  • so that's pretty exciting.

  • And we're using new inverter technology

  • that's very efficient, and so we're doing a good job

  • of converting the sun's energy to electricity.

  • Middle part of the day we're drawing more power,

  • so when our solar panels are putting out their maximum

  • is when our power consumption is at maximum as well.

  • Then at nighttime when the solar is not working we have

  • our fuel cells giving us our base load,

  • so it's a good combination for us.

  • We actually have our own herd of cattle.

  • We feed our spent grain to the cattle, and the manure

  • from that is composted and put back on our hops field.

  • So we have a fairly closed loop on our hops here on site.

  • We do treat all of our own wastewater, so we take all of

  • our waste streams, our liquid waste from the brewing process,

  • spilled beer, yeast, bits of hops and malt

  • and that's fed into a digester which produces

  • between 35 to 70 cubic feet per minute of methane.

  • Then that methane is fed to the fuel cells.

  • We use a mix of biogas and natural gas.

  • Since this is more efficient

  • it'll be cheaper to produce power this way.

  • We are up to close to 80%

  • of our own electrical power needs generated here on site.

  • Our goal will be to get to 100% power generation through both

  • conservation efforts and some additional power generation

  • I think we can get there.

  • I think it works for a lot of other industries.

  • We get a lot of visitors here, I know there's quite a few

  • hotels in one group that's put in fuel cells,

  • one of the local casinos have put them in, so if you have need

  • for both heat and electricity on a continuous basis

  • you can justify this kind of technology.

  • (Catherine Dunwoody) The California fuel cell partnership

  • is a collaboration amongst industry and government

  • We have members from the automotive industry,

  • energy companies, fuel cell technology companies as well as

  • government from the state, local, and federal levels.

  • We're working together to promote the commercialization

  • of hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles.

  • Many years ago when we were dealing with

  • tying to reduce smog in the face of our continued population

  • and vehicle growth here in California,

  • we looked and said we really need to zero emission vehicles

  • or something that's very, very close.

  • There were 2 technologies available,

  • one was battery electric vehicles.

  • the other technology was fuel cell vehicles.

  • This particular vehicle actually has

  • a hydrogen fuel cell system in it, the system is,

  • we have high pressure hydrogen stored in the vehicle.

  • The fuel cell itself actually converts this electrochemically

  • to electricity which drives the vehicle.

  • I tend to get comments about the sound or the lack of it.

  • In this particular vehicle, this platform we have a compressor

  • that makes a little noise but overall it's about as quiet as it can be.

  • [no engine noise]

  • When we first started this program we had

  • a lot of vehicle issues and stuff like that.

  • I have to say we've definitely turned that around

  • to where these vehicles are very reliable.

  • We have them out in a fleet over the whole country.

  • We're very impressed with the way they perform

  • and handle and their reliability.

  • Oftentimes I get comments about how stable it feels,

  • how it doesn't feel like a prototype.

  • It feels very much like a car they go out and buy

  • Obviously the next question I get is, why can't I get it now?

  • The most common comment I see is that the vehicle is really cool.

  • When you get in the vehicle and drive around,

  • in general there is not much of a difference

  • between the vehicle and a conventional vehicle.

  • It drives about the same,

  • better pickup in the city, better acceleration,

  • a little quieter, but when they know that it's

  • boarding hydrogen and has a fuel cell, it has this

  • cool green feel to it, and that's what people respond to.

  • We have real-world customers, so we have real-world feedback.

  • The customer can cope with infrastructure,

  • with the vehicle durability, with range issues,

  • the customer compares the vehicle

  • to a normal standard car.

  • That's why we have customer operations because it's

  • not only important to have technology advancements

  • but also to listen closely to what the customer says,

  • because at the end of the day if the customer does not buy

  • your nice piece of technical equipment

  • the whole technology is a failure.

  • With a battery electric vehicle you have to make

  • the electricity somehow to recharge the batteries.

  • With this vehicle you have to make the hydrogen somehow.

  • The hydrogen tanks are right under the rear seats.

  • the fuel cell system is located under the front seats,

  • the driver and passenger seats.

  • The electric motor is up front.

  • Then in the back under the cargo compartment there is a battery,

  • and the battery works with the fuel cell

  • to provide electricity to the electric motor.

  • The battery does the same thing it does in a hybrid car

  • which is called regenerative braking,

  • and when we're slowing down the energy

  • that otherwise would have been wasted through the brakes

  • is actually captured in the battery.

  • Then when you need power to accelerate or go up a hill

  • both the battery and the fuel cell

  • can put electric power to the electric motor.

  • This vehicle is equipped with leak detectors that will

  • immediately tell you if there is a leak so you know to pull over

  • and get the vehicle towed to a place it can get repaired.

  • Hydrogen is very, very light, so if there is a leak, it tends to disburse very rapidly.

  • The hydrogen storage tanks in these vehicles are incredibly

  • well designed, very strong fiber wrapped cylinders.

  • They have done extensive testing with them to ensure

  • they are as safe as possible. It has a neat safety feature

  • where there are little side pillars in the rear of the vehicle.

  • There's tubes running up from the hydrogen tanks

  • through those side pillars up to a pressure release valve

  • which is a little bump you see on the roof of the car.

  • So if there's an accident, the system will detect the loss in pressure

  • and the hydrogen will be immediately vented

  • through the pressure release valve on the roof.

  • You can measure in terms of volume. you can talk about

  • gallons or liters of hydrogen, but because the volume changes at different pressures

  • we tend to think of it in terms of weight.

  • A certain amount of hydrogen is gonna weigh the same

  • no matter what pressure it's at. One kilogram of hydrogen

  • stores as much energy as one gallon of gasoline.

  • This vehicle stores about 2 kilograms of hydrogen

  • Because it's under high pressure that pump when I clamp

  • the nozzle onto the gas tank. it has to form a very tight seal

  • and unless the pump knows there is a tight seal, the pump

  • won't even turn on, so it's got a lot of safety build into it.

  • Right now we're at a very interesting stage

  • of development of this technology.

  • In some ways fuel cells are an easier fit for buses than they are for cars.

  • (man) You don't get much cleaner than a fuel cell bus,

  • that's for sure, it's a zero emission vehicle.

  • We're the first to actually build a fleet of fuel cell

  • buses for an actual heavy-duty transit application.

  • New Flyer Industries is the largest manufacturer

  • in North America of heavy-duty transit vehicles.

  • Currently have about 17,000 buses on the road

  • at almost 250 different transit agencies.

  • Because of the fact that we had the Vancouver Winter Olympics,

  • there was a drive to showcase

  • and demonstrate green technology.

  • When the contract was originally tendered

  • to do the fuel cell buses for the Olympics,

  • we proceeded to develop an initial prototype

  • which would eventually serve as the mold for our production.

  • One of the big challenges with developing the fuel cell bus

  • is to make sure that it can operate

  • in the cold temperature environment.

  • Once we were satisfied with that, then we proceeded with

  • production to build the 20 buses for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

  • In most ways the vehicle went through

  • our standard production line, our standard production stations.

  • The only difference was that there were a few extra steps

  • at certain points of the line where we had to install

  • the fuel tanks and some of the other hybrid components.

  • But we were able to incorporate that all

  • within our existing processes and equipment.

  • Because we are low floor design,

  • which all our buses are nowadays for wheelchair accessibility,

  • and ease of getting on and off for passengers.

  • One of the challenges with that is the buses are

  • very low to the ground, so there is no room under the bus

  • to really install much equipment.

  • With the large number of components that are required

  • for the fuel cell bus in terms of the hydrogen tanks,

  • the batteries, the cooling systems,

  • all that takes up a lot of space.

  • We ended up putting quite a few of the components on the roof

  • of the vehicle as well as in the rear engine compartment.

  • From an aesthetic standpoint, you would have a lot of trouble

  • from just a quick glance telling a fuel cell bus apart from a regular bus.

  • If you were to walk on and sit in the seat, you wouldn't notice

  • much out of the ordinary, the stuff that you don't see,

  • which is what makes the technology interesting.

  • The big challenge is operating

  • a hydrogen fuel cell coach in cold weather.

  • The primary by-product of the chemical reaction is water,

  • of course, we ran into the issue

  • of what happens when you drop below zero degrees Celsius.

  • If you don't design for that,

  • you can certainly run the risk of freezing that water,

  • which can definitely damage portions of your fuel cell.

  • One of the initial things we had to work on

  • was a way to plug in the vehicles overnight

  • to ensure that the fuel cell didn't freeze.

  • The other big challenge was how do you ensure that

  • on those cold day's you have enough heat available

  • so you can properly start the bus?

  • Then once the bus is running, how do you ensure

  • that you have enough heat available

  • so that everybody is comfortable within the vehicle?

  • One of the aspects about the fuel cell bus design

  • is that it uses electric motors to drive the wheels.

  • The fuel cell itself does not actually

  • directly drive the vehicle.

  • All it does is convert hydrogen to electricity.

  • So that electricity is used to drive motors

  • and other systems on the vehicle.

  • One of the advantages of an electric motor is that

  • at very low speeds they generate

  • a high amount of torque-- the acceleration is very good.

  • The other big advantage is the breaking.

  • Because we have an electric system on the bus

  • with very powerful storage batteries and generators,

  • we are able to regain energy from the braking system

  • when the vehicle stops.

  • Not only does that increase the life of the brake pads

  • and allow you to charge your electrical system,

  • but it also gives you a lot of stopping power.

  • Hydrogen buses are designed

  • to work very similar to the way

  • the diesel bus as far as duty cycle,

  • and they are able to perform

  • all the same functions as a standard diesel bus.

  • Our buses have a range of about 300 to 325 miles.

  • Diesel buses, and again, this fuel cell bus,

  • so depending on the route service they can be out

  • for a trip or run which is just a few hours

  • up to 16, 17, even 18 hours without any trouble.

  • These buses because of extra infrastructure

  • on the roof for gas, storage, for

  • all the additional components, they're

  • over 8000 pounds heavier than the comparable diesel bus

  • but in spite of that we're seeing

  • as much as 100% or double the fuel economy over a diesel bus.

  • The main thing everybody notices

  • is how quiet and smooth

  • the vehicle is in comparison to a standard diesel bus

  • There is no transmission on it

  • so it is very smooth, powers away very quietly.

  • We have had some comments from riders that the bus

  • is actually too quiet-- it can actually sneak up on them--

  • they have been surprised when it pulls up to the curb

  • and they didn't even realize it was there.

  • (Jamie Levin) With the fuel cell technology

  • this bus doesn't care where the hydrogen comes from.

  • And the value of hydrogen

  • in transportation applications

  • is that we can make hydrogen from solar, wind, and biomass.

  • Here we're using natural gas, and while it's not completely

  • zero emission it has some CO2 emissions.

  • Well to wheel it is still better than

  • our regular diesel internal combustion engine vehicles.

  • (Douglas Byrne) They're basically a large golf cart.

  • There's not a lot of maintenance on a golf cart.

  • One of the largest maintenance

  • items for any bus is the brakes.

  • With these vehicles having

  • regenerative braking we're hoping

  • to realize better brake life

  • and then a cost saving associated with that.

  • We're learning from these buses, we're learning

  • from other examples throughout the world.

  • All the supercomputers of the world, all the brilliant minds

  • that delivered the technology in the first place

  • can't think of every variable.

  • And what we do here is, we capture

  • almost all the variables that they can't think of.

  • And we're all learning from this, not just us as users

  • but the technology providers are seeing things

  • that they couldn't replicate in the labs.

  • We're very much committed to looking at alternative fuels

  • to improve our environmental footprint--

  • zero emission from the tailpipe.

  • virtually no noise from the engine

  • and the potential of addressing

  • global warming, climate change issues,

  • sustainable energy supplies to fuel our vehicles

  • to help us reach energy independence.

  • Our end-state goal is commercialization,

  • so that all of the transit buses in the United States

  • we would like to see as

  • zero emission fuel cell buses.

  • Hydrogen has been used safely

  • throughout our economy, we use

  • most of the hydrogen today to make cleaner gasoline.

  • But it's also used in food manufacturing and consumer products.

  • If you look at hydrogen compared to gasoline,

  • certainly both fuels have a lot of energy content.

  • you must pay attention

  • to safety considerations when using the fuel.

  • Hydrogen is no less safe than gasoline, it's just different.

  • If there is a hydrogen leak it's very light, so it will go up

  • and rise immediately and dissipate into the atmosphere.

  • It's totally nontoxic, it won't cause health problems

  • or environmental problems if it is released into the atmosphere.

  • All vehicle fuels can be dangerous.

  • If they weren't, they wouldn't be useful as fuel.

  • The trick for any fuel is to engineer it so that it is

  • as safe as currently available technologies.

  • Today, that's gasoline in conventional vehicles.

  • And most people I know working with hydrogen, believe that

  • hydrogen is either as safe or safer than gasoline is today.

  • It is safer than gasoline.

  • Most people were to say today that if you were to have

  • a gasoline engine today and you were trying to bring it on the

  • market for the very first time,

  • there would be no way that you would be able to put

  • that gasoline engine onto the marketplace.

  • It just wouldn't happen.

  • I quite sincerely believe

  • and I have seen test evidence that supports my conclusions

  • that the gas tank in the suburban that I drive

  • is more dangerous than a hydrogen fuel tank.

  • We have conducted 120,000 fuelings worldwide already.

  • we know that hydrogen can be delivered, compressed,

  • and dispensed into vehicles very safely,

  • as safely if not more safely than traditional fuels.

  • We've done extensive safety training

  • with our maintenance and service personnel.

  • We've worked with some very good partners that have

  • designed that have designed some very good systems.

  • Our fueling stations, our facility upgrades

  • all incorporate hydrogen sensors, and fire sensors,

  • and very robust systems to track that.

  • Safety was a big part of it.

  • I wanted to make sure the testing they had done

  • was adequate for our employees' benefit,

  • as well as for the community.

  • I have the good fortune to drive

  • a fuel cell car on a regular basis

  • and I use it to take my kids to school,

  • go to baseball practice, go grocery shopping, come to work.

  • When they fuel the car, there's no fumes or drips of gasoline.

  • I would much rather drive my fuel cell vehicle

  • than my gasoline vehicle.

  • Icelandic New Energy was founded in 1999.

  • It's a joint venture company.

  • it's owned 51% by Icelandic shareholders

  • which groups together the energy companies, the government,

  • the academia like the university,

  • the innovation center,

  • investment firms, and private investors.

  • So all the key players in Iceland who have anything

  • to do with hydrogen are joined into one company.

  • Then we have Daimler, Shell Hydrogen,

  • and Stockholm Hydro from Norway which are the other 3 investors.

  • The goal of the company is to be kind of an enabler to evaluate

  • the possibility of creating

  • the first hydrogen society in the world here in Iceland.

  • They foresaw Iceland as the perfect test ground

  • because they knew that all the energy sources

  • to produce the hydrogen would be renewable

  • coming from hydro or geothermal.

  • This ship is mainly a touristic boat, whale watching.

  • On this ship we have

  • 150 people traveling for 3 or 4 hours at a consecutive time.

  • We put a fuel cell engine on a commercial boat.

  • This is actually the fuel cell unit.

  • The hydrogen storage is actually

  • back in the engine room.

  • So you have hydrogen pipelines coming in

  • connected to the fuel cell unit.

  • Then we actually have a hybrid system

  • So we also have a little bit of battery packs to have

  • enough power for all the auxiliaries in the boat.

  • There have been some technical hiccups on the way,

  • but that's one of the reasons why you do projects like this--

  • to learn how and which problems we're faced with

  • taking hydrogen out to sea.

  • There is now a project in Germany to build a ship

  • powered solely by hydrogen

  • They designed the ship around the hydrogen.

  • What we did here is, we basically

  • put hydrogen on board an existing ship,

  • and there are some complications with that

  • The main issue is how to get certification,

  • and how to fulfill all the strict regulations

  • on having hydrogen on a ship.

  • I think those have been the most important learning steps

  • and teaches us a lot about how to do next steps

  • regarding using hydrogen as part of a marine fuel.

  • Usually when they go out for whale watching when

  • you see whales, they actually want to shut down the engines

  • to get rid of the noise, get ri of the vibration of the ship.

  • Before they had to run at least the auxiliary engine on diesel

  • So you still have some noise and some vibration

  • So what they do now when they find whales

  • they actually can shut down the whole system.

  • The only operation is the fuel cell,

  • and that means no vibration, no noise, and no emissions.

  • That's actually pretty cool

  • when you are sitting in the middle of the Atlantic,

  • absolutely no movement whatsoever

  • and you can see the whales peacefully.

  • I think people are very positive

  • towards using the domestic energy sources

  • to power everything we actually can.

  • We are quite confident about the hydrogen infrastructure.

  • We don't think that will be a hindrance

  • or a barrier to a hydrogen society.

  • People are very keen on what can we do,

  • and they are realizing that the things we can actually do

  • will also be clean, so that's a very big added benefit.

  • You also have to think about

  • how much CO2 savings are in using hydrogen.

  • It's all about the environment.

  • And if we can also power the ship partly by hydrogen

  • which is in at least in Iceland a totally clean energy chain,

  • that's, of course, a beautiful picture.

  • (narrator) From power plants to wind turbines,

  • city buses to lawn equipment,

  • breweries to warehouses, hydrogen and fuel cells are

  • quietly improving our ability to deliver clean,

  • economical energy in our homes or cars, and where we work.

  • As the world's thirst for energy continues to grow

  • and environmental costs mount,

  • hydrogen provides us with a choice

  • to create our own clean energy future.

  • Funding provided by:

  • The U.S. Department of Energy

  • National Energy Technology Laboratory.

  • The Energy &amp. Environmental Research Center's

  • National Center for Hydrogen Technology.

  • and the members of Prairie Public.

Hydrogen is

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氫氣;自然界的燃料 (Hydrogen; Nature's Fuel)

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    songwen8778 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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