Scientists from Ohio University have come across a way to harvest large amounts of cheap hydrogen from a rather unlikely source: urine. Apparently, plucking hydrogen atoms from urine is much easier than getting it from water.
Gerardine Botte, one of the Ohio University professors actively developing this "pee power" technology, attributes this difference to urea, a cleaner of diesel emissions and major component of urine. A molecule of urea is composed of four hydrogen atoms and two nitrogen atoms. Applying an electric current using a special nickel electrode causes those hydrogen atoms to pop right off. The trick is that it requires about 97 percent less electricity to release the hydrogen from the urea molecules than from a water molecule--specifically 0.037 volt for urine versus 1.23 volts for water.
Imagine a future where fuel cell vehicles get 90 miles per gallon (of pee) and farms generate their own power from livestock waste. That future could be here sooner than you think. Botte currently has a working small-scale prototype that generates up to 500 milliwatts of power, and she plans to have large-scale examples up and running in about six months.
I imagine this will probably change the nature of stopping for a fill-up during a long road trip.
(Via Discovery News)
The Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell takes part in the Hydrogen Road Tour.
(Credit: GM)Electric cars have been getting plenty of buzz lately, but the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is still going strong. The California Fuel Cell Partnership, along with Powertech Labs, National Hydrogen Association, and U.S. Fuel Cell Council, will seek to regain the spotlight with a road trip to demonstrate the practicality of these vehicles.
The road tour route runs up the West Coast, from Chula Vista to Vancouver.
(Credit: California Fuel Cell Partnership)Twelve fuel cell cars from seven automakers will drive from Chula Vista, in Southern California, up to Vancouver, Canada, a trip of 1,700 miles. Vancouver was chosen for the destination because it will play host to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, where a fleet of fuel cell buses will provide transportation.
Fuel cell cars that will be making the trip include the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell, Mercedes F-Cell, Honda FCX Clarity, Hyundai Tucson FCEV, Kia Borrego FCEV, Nissan X-Trail, Toyota FCHV-adv Highlander, and Volkswagen HyMotion. The cars, which have ranges of 200 to over 500 miles, will be relying on a mobile refueling station for their hydrogen needs.
The tour starts on May 26 in Chula Vista, and ends on June 3 in Vancouver. Stops have been scheduled along the route so the public can get a chance to see these cars. Check the Hydrogen Road Tour '09 Web site to see if there's an event near you.
MTI Micro, a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Incoporated, unveiled a portable charger on Wednesday that uses replaceable fuel cartridges.
MTI Micro is not the first, and hopefully won't be the last, company to go to the fuel cell for portable convenient power. (People refer to these new tries as "fuel cell gadget chargers," though to me that seems like it refers to a charger for powering fuel cell gadgets.)
MTI Micro's Mobion prototype uses replacement fuel cell cartridges.
(Credit: MTI Micro)Just this past September, Medis came out with the 24-7 Power pack, a charger powered by a liquid fuel cell, for only $40 with replacement packs for about $20.
The MTI Micro Mobion prototype works with cartridges of the liquid fuel methanol. Each cartridge offers about 25 hours of power. When it's depleted, users just pop it out of the charger and replace it with another one.
Sounds promising, but we're still waiting to hear back from MTI Micro on the pricing of the charger and those cartridges. The company says the MTI Micro Fuel Cell Charger will be available as a product toward the end of 2009.
So, what does 25 hours of fuel cell power get you?
According to MTI Micro, you could use it to fully recharge any cell phone 10 times. You could also use it to power an MP3 player to play 10,000 songs or watch 100 hours of video.
As a person who travels a lot and tires of carrying various adapters, this is definitely something I'd want to try. As I'm generally a carry-on only traveler, it's a good think this "liquid" gadget could be taken onboard.
Among the many other problems with the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace, I was particularly struck with its seemingly careless stance on technology.
The latest Bond flick does get those bloody stares right. But what happened to the cutting-edge gadgets?
(Credit: Sony Pictures)While I know they're just movies, the Bond franchise films--like Ian Fleming's novels--have always been geopolitical snapshots of the time in which they were made.
According to this movie, the British are pinning their hopes on skillful driving and fisticuffs to get the job done, while those dabbling in high-tech solutions to solve world problems are off-the-mark.
As in Casino Royale, there is no Q. Apparently, in this Bond's world, MI6 does not arm its agents with insight and tools from teams of high-tech experts. The few gadgets used are pitifully unimaginative. (CNET News readers wrote in better gadget ideas.)
In Quantum of Solace, Bond has a cell phone he can use to call MI6 and give the name of a potential villain he's met. MI6 can look up the name and send a photo of the guy to Bond's cell phone to confirm it's the same guy. Guess what? I, too, can call a friend, have them look up a name, background, and photo; and have the info sent to my cell phone. So can millions of teenagers.
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World's first Honda FCX Clarity customers
(Credit: American Honda, Susan Goldman)The first Honda FCX Clarity customers Ron Yerxa, center, and wife Annette Ballester received a ceremonial key to their Honda hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle at Honda of Santa Monica on Friday.
Honda announced that the zero-emissions vehicle would be available for 36-month leases only, beginning in late summer. Initial availability is limited to the Southern California and Japanese markets. Availability is expected to expand as hydrogen fueling stations become more widespread.
MTI Micro and Korean manufacturer NeoSolar said on Thursday they will build prototype ultra-mobile PCs powered by fuel cells.
The two companies said they will develop digital devices that use MTI Micro's Mobion fuel cells, which use liquid methanol cartridges as a fuel.
Dr. James Y. Yu, president of NeoSolar, showing off his company's Wibrain ultra mobile PC and the Mobion chip.
(Credit: NeoSolar)The development could lead to external chargers, snap-on attachments or devices with the Mobion fuel cell embedded in them, the companies said.
Fuel cells are being developed for a wide range of applications, from back-up electricity in buildings and data centers to transportation.
Rather drawing on tanks of hydrogen to make electricity in a fuel cell, MTI Micro's Mobion uses methanol. The advantage is that it's a liquid fuel that can be easily transported and store, say backers. The byproduct of using the fuel is water and carbon dioxide, in relatively small amounts.
MTI has signed on a partners to develop GPS devices and digital cameras that use its fuel cells.
Other consumer electronics manufacturers, including Sharp, are also developing direct methanol to fuel cell chargers.
You've been driving a hybrid car (good for you, by the way!) and eating veggie burgers, and yet still don't feel environmentally conscious enough? Well, you are probably not alone. And now there's a way for your life style to get even greener: the Medis 24/7 fuel cell powered flashlight/charger.
Your flashlight could be greener than you think.
The lengthy name says it all, this is a flashlight and a charger kit that's powered by one Medis fuel cell. The cell can provide enough power for the flashlight to be used, on a "real world" basis, for up to six weeks and hours of charge time for your handheld devices including, but not limited to, cell phones, smart phones, and GPS receivers. When the fuel cell is depleted, you just need to recycle and replace it with another, much like a regular battery.
You can get the Flashlight Charger Kit as soon as next week at this web site or at retail stores. The charger itself is slated to cost $29.99 and comes with one fuel cell, a power cable, and a selection of handheld device tips. The complete 24/7 Kit that also includes the flashlight will go for $39.99.
It looks like this is a great device for home and office emergency preparedness, as well as other applicable applications where regular battery-operated devices are used. On a large scale, this new environmentally friendly, lightweight, cost-effective lighting and charging solution can help reduce your total environmental impact. Of course, this depends a lot on how cheaply and conveniently the fuel cells are produced and distributed, which is, for now, still unclear. What is clear, however, is the fact the kit is considered airplane-friendly by the Department of Transportation and it is RoHS-compliant.
Now, if you are one of us, who can't afford to replace our current vehicle with the Toyota Camry Hybird or even the ever-popular Prius, this might just be the next best thing to contribute to the green movement and feel better about ourselves.
XX25 powers a MiTAC V100 rugged laptop.
(Credit: UltraCell)A California company has introduced a 25-watt mobile fuel cell system designed to power a ruggedized laptop computer for up to 14 hours at a time using a single 250cc cartridge.
The XX25, as it is called, internally generates fuel cell-ready hydrogen from a highly concentrated methanol solution, providing power to a field computer and communications equipment at weight savings of up to 65 percent, according to Livermore, Calif.-based UltraCell.
(Credit:
UltraCell)
Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, and continue to produce it as long as the fuel lasts. This is not only ecologically correct, but it also weighs less. The company calculates that on a typical 72-hour mission, each soldier requires 27 pounds of rechargeable military batteries.
The Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) and DARPA (PDF) have extended UltraCell's development contract so that tests can continue. A year ago, CERDEC deemed the 25-watt model safe enough to be worn by soldiers in the field and used to power portable devices, a first for this type of fuel cell.
The $150,000 Scorpion would produce hydrogen as it drives.
(Credit: Ronn Motor Company)
A Texas company is offering a glimpse of a high-end hydrogen-gasoline sportscar it hopes to sell by the fall.
Rather than using fuel cells to power an electric motor, the Scorpion from Ronn Motor Company would have an internal combustion engine burning both gasoline and hydrogen, achieving 40 highway miles per gallon.
Unlike with a hydrogen fuel cell car, the Scorpion's "hydrogen on demand" system wouldn't require a high-pressure hydrogen storage tank. Nor would a driver need to find and fill up at a hydrogen fueling station.
Instead, electricity from the Scorpion's alternator sends an electric charge through the water in a storage tank, fracturing molecules and releasing hydrogen, which is injected into the motor, explained Ronn Maxwell, CEO of Ronn Motor in Horseshoe Bay, Texas.
"This means that as we're driving down the road, we're producing hydrogen in real time, and blending it with gasoline at a ratio of 30 to 40 percent," he said.
The hydrogen-gasoline hybrid technology comes from Hydrorunner.
"We are still using gasoline, but we're gonna be using 40 percent less," Maxwell said. "The hydrogen cleans up the emissions. It actually consumes carbon. It's not the perfect car, not electric, but it is something that'll work right now."
Ronn Motor showed off a working prototype of the Scorpion, sans body, Tuesday in downtown Austin.
The hydrogen internal combustion engine can achieve between 30 to 50 percent greater efficiency over standard gasoline cars, Maxwell added. Under the hood is a 2009 Acura 3.5 Vtech motor with 280-horsepower stock, or 450-horsepower with a twin turbo option. The car has a 6-speed manual transmission.
Ronn Motor has taken several orders so far and has plans to build 200 Scorpions this year, eventually ramping up to 500, Maxwell said. He believes his will be the first company to market a passenger car with a hydrogen-on-demand system, which gearheads already tinker with in private garages and which are available for the trucking industry.
Maxwell is targeting the sort of automotive aficionados who might collect Lamborghinis, Ferraris, or an electric Tesla, but said he wants to create a sedan next. It remains to be seen whether Ronn Motor will succeed in delivering its roadster to customers by October as planned.
The company's stock was listed on the Pink Sheets May 29.
Meanwhile, building the necessary fueling infrastructure remains just one of the barriers to wider adoption of hydrogen fuel cell cars, which primarily reside in the garages of a wealthy and famous few.
The company showed off the Scorpion, without its shell, on Tuesday in Austin, Tex.
(Credit: Ronn Motor Company)
(Credit:
Crave Asia)
A patent has been filed by Canon for a technology that uses fuel cells to power dSLRs instead of the conventional lithium-ion batteries.
For those not familiar with fuel cells, they are often mentioned as a greener alternative power source, with some cars already running on it. Another interesting fact is that, unlike traditional batteries that supply a constant voltage, the current will fluctuate in accordance to the device's needs.
What this means for Canon is that its cameras, if powered by fuel cells, can draw power from the source more effectively, leading to a longer-lasting battery while at the same time saving Earth.
(Source: Crave Asia)
