Sun Catalytix, a company that's trying to develop a revolutionary clean-energy system, has finished a round of seed funding and secured a technology license from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company was formed about one year ago to commercialize research from MIT professor Daniel Nocera in which he attempts to mimic the process of photosynthesis.
Polaris Ventures finalized a $3 million seed round of funding for Sun Catalytix and expects to raise a series A round next year, said Polaris' Bob Metcalfe, who is also on the board.
Sun Catalytix is pursuing a breakthrough system that would use cheap solar panels to produce hydrogen, which would be stored and then used to produce electricity in a fuel cell.
(Credit: MIT)The core of the company's technology, which Nocera has sought to patent, is a low-cost catalyst for an electrolyzer, a device that splits water to make hydrogen. That hydrogen can be used with a fuel cell to make electricity. Or the hydrogen could be combined with other materials to store energy in a liquid fuel, such as methanol or ammonia, Metcalfe said.
Nocera envisions that homes would be equipped with solar panels to produce hydrogen from water during the day. At night, the stored hydrogen could power a home without releasing carbon emissions.
The key difference with the Sun Catalytix electrolyzer is that it is being designed to be made with cheap materials and work with all sorts of water, said Metcalfe.
"Splitting water to make hydrogen is as old as the hills. The breakthrough here is that it's dirt cheap. They operate in dirty water like water from the Charles River and they've used salt water from the Boston Harbor," he said.
The catalyst that splits the water molecules uses cobalt phosphate, which is cheap and abundant compared to expensive metals such as platinum, Metcalfe added. So far, the five-person company has built a number of prototypes made from PVC plastic.
A fully functioning system would take a number of years to develop and depend on other components being cheaper, including solar panels and hydrogen storage, Nocera has said.
But Metcalfe said that Polaris believes the company can commercialize the technology "in the short attention span of a venture capitalist." Typically, venture capitalists expect to generate a big return in five to seven years.
Nissan will begin taking orders for its LEAF EV in Spring 2010.
(Credit: Nissan)The EV Project, a pilot program to develop a nationwide public charging system for electric vehicles, is expected to give people an opportunity to inspect the Nissan LEAF EV more closely on Thursday and announce expansion plans that include San Diego.
The unveiling will take place at a press conference in San Diego and include representatives from San Diego Gas & Electric, the City of San Diego, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), and Don Kramer, the president of Ecotality's subsidiary eTec.
Electric-charging station manufacturer Ecotality has received $100 million in stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and is one of the lead partners on the EV Project which will span 11 U.S. cities in five states: Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington.
While the company has been partnering with Nissan to make public charging options a reality in the U.S., Ecotality has repeatedly said its stations are designed to fit Society of Automotive Engineers standards so that they'll be compatible with any electric cars built to that standard.
Ecotality announced Wednesday that its CEO Jonathan Read is currently in China as part of a 40-person delegation accompanying U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. The group is taking part in the China Clean Energy Roundtable as part of President Barack Obama's visit to China.
Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao announced Wednesday a U.S.-China "Electric Vehicles Initiative" to encourage research and develop joint standards for electric transportation, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell has licensed a patent from CalTech to build methanol-based gadget chargers, a week after Toshiba took the wraps off its own portable fuel cell.
The patent will allow Direct Methanol Fuel Cell to design smaller portable charging packages for devices, such as mobile phones, said Viaspace, the parent company of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell. The company said Monday it has a partnership with Samsung and others to commercialize methanol fuel cartridges.
Toshiba introduced a methanol fuel-cell charger for Japan last week.
(Credit: Toshiba)A direct methanol fuel cell converts the liquid fuel methanol into electricity through a chemical reaction between oxygen and methanol. It's a technology that a number of electronics companies are looking at to extend the life of power-hungry devices, such as laptops and mobile phones.
Last week, Toshiba unveiled the Dynario, an external charging device which is now available in Japan at a cost of about $325. The company has not said if it has plans to introduce the methanol fuel cell in other countries.
The Dynario can store enough energy to charge about two mobile phones and it uses an embedded lithium ion battery to store electricity.
Simon Hacket and Emilis Prelgauskas at their 313-mile mark in Coober Pedy, South Australia.
(Credit: Hackett)A record for a Tesla Roadster driven on a single charge was set at 313 miles (501 km) in Australia on Tuesday.
Tesla Roadster owner Simon Hackett and his friend Emilis Prelgauskas drove his electric sports car from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, to Coober Pedy, South Australia, as part of an alternative-fuel vehicle rally called the Global Green Challenge.
The Tesla's electric-charge port door was sealed shut at the start of the 313-mile journey and the trip was filmed for a documentary, as well as monitored by contest officials. The Tesla's lithium ion battery, which the company assures owners will last over 200 miles between charges under normal driving circumstances, had 3 miles to spare when the team reached its destination in Coober Pedy, according to Hackett's chronicles of the race experience on his company blog. (Hackett happens to also be the founder and managing director of Internode, an Australian national broadband and Internet services company.)
Hackett said in his blog the achievement is actually a record for any production electric car, not just a Tesla Roadster, which is why his team was so careful to record it. To squeeze as much distance out of the Tesla's battery as they could, Hackett and Prelgauskas tried to drive at a consistent speed of 55 kph (roughly 34 mph) for a large portion of the almost 12-hour journey.
"The security seal was applied to the charge port door when we started the journey. As this is being done as part of the Global Green Challenge, we have a full set of official verifiers here who will attest to the results and to achieving the outcome. We were followed along the journey by our support crew and a documentary film crew--so we have it on film," said Hackett.
While Tesla Motors is not an official sponsor of the contest or Hackett, the company has shown support by spreading the news of Hackett's success. It's not hard to imagine why as Tesla poises for a major retail expansion.
The stunt may certainly speak to consumers who likely drive nowhere near 313 miles in a single day, but are still reluctant to hem themselves in with a car restricted to a limited number of miles between recharges.
Automakers are expected to agree this week to use the SAE J1772 five-pin charging system and coupler as the standard connection for plug-in vehicles.
(Credit: SAE International)The Society of Automotive Engineers International, the organization that sets the standard for aerospace and automotive industry technology, will vote this week to make the SAE J1772 charging system and coupler the standard connection for plug-in vehicles, according to a General Motors executive.
Britta Gross, director of GM's Global Energy Systems, shared the news during a live Web chat at GM's Fastlane blog on Tuesday evening.
"As Jon Lauckner said this morning, the Volt comes with a 120-V charger and if you can find a normal outlet, you can charge the Volt," Gross said.
She went on to add that all major automakers will eventually equip cars with the same charging coupler when their respective plug-in cars in the pipeline reach the consumer market because a standard agreement was being reached.
"Yes, GM's Gery Kissel is chair of the SAE J1772 standards committee. The standard is going to a vote this week after two and a half years of work. All major automakers are expected to agree to adhere to these charging standards. All infrastructure that goes in from now on should be J1772 compliant so all plug-in vehicles can use it," Gross said.
Gross is referring to the SAE J1772 or SAE electric vehicle conductive charging cable and coupler which has five pins and can be used with 120V or 240 V single phase electrical systems.
The agreement would allow charging stations throughout the world to plug in to any standard plug-in vehicle in the same way nozzles at gas stations are standardized to fit gas- or diesel-powered vehicles, respectively.
Tesla Motors in Los Angeles, Calif.
(Credit: Tesla Motors)Tesla Motors has garnered $82.5 million in "Series F" funding for the purpose of expanding its chain of stores in North America and Europe.
The deal was first announced Monday by participating investor Fjord Capital Partners. Tesla Motors then confirmed the deal to several news outlets on Tuesday. Daimler, already a 10 percent investor in Tesla, and Abu Dhabi fund Aabar Investments also contributed to the fund.
The California-based electric-vehicle manufacturer has had stores in Los Angeles and Menlo Park, Calif., for some time. It recently opened stores in New York, Chicago, Miami, London, Seattle, and Munich. It has plans to open a store in Monaco before the end of the year, and has said it's scouting for locations in Washington, D.C., and Toronto.
But don't call them dealerships.
Because the electric cars are light on service work, and don't need things like oil changes, Tesla plans to forgo the traditional dealership/service business model of yesteryear's car industry. Instead the company plans to maintain full retail control over its cars and brand, Tesla announced in early September.
Tesla Motors in Menlo Park, Calif.
(Credit: Tesla Motors)"Tesla takes its showroom cues from Apple, Starbucks and other customer-focused retailers. Tesla stores provide a welcoming spot to surf the Web, test drive cars and learn more about Tesla, the only production automaker selling highway-capable EVs in North America or Europe," Tesla said in statement.
News of the latest funding deal also follows the unveiling of Tesla's production model of the Model S sedan, as well as a tuner version of its Roadster, at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show this week.
The prototype of the Model S was unveiled in March as a way to augment Tesla's lineup with a more "economical" option to its Roadster luxury sports car. The Model S is expected to cost around $50,000--about half the cost of the Roadster.
While the U.S. military has several incarnations of airplane drones running on various alternative fuel sources, it's not something the average person, or even company, can go out and buy.
That might be changing.
BlueBird Aero Systems and Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies announced Thursday that they've co-developed the Boomerang, the "world's first commercial fuel cell Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)."
So far the Boomerang only seems to have flight approval for Israel, but it's about to be unveiled next week at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Washington, D.C., which could garner it significantly more attention and interest.
The plane contains a 2kg hydrogen fuel cell power pack called the Aeropak made by Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies. The company claims it can provide 900Wh (Watt-hours) of power allowing the Boomerang to fly for over nine hours straight. In addition to supporting flight, the power pack can also support ancillary devices like electro-optical sensors, infrared cameras, and laser designators.
Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies is the same company that developed the power packs for the Hyfish fuel cell-powered "flying car" as well as a wide assortment of fuel cells for remote control cars and educational products.
This might be the first print ad ever for a fuel cell-powered UAS.
(Credit: BlueBird Aero Systems)Congress is seeking to maintain funding for fuel cell vehicle research, rebuffing the Department of Energy's proposal to cut $100 million in funding.
The Appropriations committees from the House and Senate earlier this month published budgets that have significant sums devoted to hydrogen research and specifically for fuel cell vehicles.
The House plan calls for $40 million in research through the Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies program and the Senate plan would provide $190 million to various hydrogen technologies, according to Environment & Energy Daily. (Click for PDFs of House appropriations and Senate appropriations.)
In May the Department of Energy proposed slashing fuel cell vehicle research by about 60 percent, which would have been a cut of about $100 million. At the time, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that after years of research, hydrogen-fueled cars were still years away from commercial viability.
"We asked ourselves, 'Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will convert to a hydrogen car economy?' The answer, we felt, was 'no,'" Chu said in May.
That proposal was criticized by hydrogen industry trade groups, arguing that fuel cells have a role among other power train technologies.
All the major automakers have fuel cell vehicle programs with small numbers of cars leased to consumers for testing. Although these cars are available, they can only be fueled in the few locations that have hydrogen filling stations.
In addition to the lack of distribution infrastructure, storage of hydrogen remains a technical challenge. Hydrogen also has to be produced from other sources, such as natural gas.
The House Energy and Water appropriations, which includes Energy Department funding for 2010, passed on Friday with $45 million for "hydrogen vehicle technologies" added to the $40 million the appropriations committee had originally called for, according to the National Hydrogen Association.
Robert Rose, executive director of the United States Fuel Cell Council, told The New York Times that he hopes a vote on the Senate appropriations bill comes before the August recess.
It's a gas: the tank for preparing onion juice to be turned into biogas
(Credit: Gills Onions)Bill and Steve Gill have gone from onion farmers to power producers.
Their company, Gills Onions of Southern California, on Friday will take the wraps off a system that converts up to 300,000 pounds a day of agriculture waste into electricity. At an event at its facility, Gills Onions will receive a check for $2.7 million from SoCal Gas, which offers incentives to customers that reduce natural gas consumption through on-site generation.
One of the main components of the system is an anaerobic digester that converts treated onion plant waste into biogas. That gas is then conditioned and turned into methane, the main component of natural gas. Then the natural gas is fed into a 600-kilowatt fuel cell from Fuel Cell Energy to make electricity.
Gills Onions estimates that the $9.5 million project will have a six-year investment pay back. Among the financial benefits are reducing its electricity bill by $700,000 a year and $400,000 annual savings from handling onion wastes, which used to be spread on their land. The project also received $499,000 from a state waste-to-energy research program.
The technologies to do this sort of waste-to-energy system have been available for some time. But the project, called the Advanced Energy Recovery System, required a group of engineers to assemble and test the pieces as a system based on onion wastes. An important breakthrough in the project was finding a fuel cell that can make electricity from natural gas.
"Many of the things we did took a leap of faith, since nobody knew anything about onion gas," said Steve Gill in the company newsletter.
The combination of products can generate electricity at any farms that generate a large amount of agricultural waste or at waste-water treatment facilities, said SoCal Gas Vice President Hal Snyder, who heads up the utility's research and development. "Any facility that ends up with a bioproduct that an anaerobic digester can work with would work," he said.
A fuel cell from Fuel Cell Energy that can convert methane into electricity.
(Credit: Gills Onions)SoCal Gas is looking at other ways to generate biogas, including collecting "green waste" from homes and dairy farms. Eventually, methane produced at customers' premises could be fed into SoCal Gas' pipeline.
From an economic point of view, the technology is still relatively immature and requires a hefty up-front investment. But the general direction on cost is favorable, particularly when there are financial incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Snyder said.
In addition to using its waste for energy, Gills Onions forecasts that it will eliminate the equivalent of 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Updated at 8:20 a.m. PT with corrected figure for the amount of onion waste generated per day.
Light for Life uses ultracapacitor technology.
(Credit: 5.11 Tactical)Last year, 5.11 Tactical, which makes clothes and gear aimed at law enforcement officers (but sells to civilians), announced a new high-tech flashlight called Light for Life. Only recently, however, has it become available to order.
What's special about it? Well, the flashlight uses three LEDs, but its key component is Flashpoint Power technology, an ultracapacitor energy storage system from Ivus Energy Innovations.
Light for Life recharges in just 90 seconds and shines at 90 lumens for 90 minutes per charge. The flashlight has three modes: bright (270 peak lumens), standard (90 lumens), and strobe, which is good for dance parties or scaring the neighbors' dog and kids (OK, I'm kidding, but you get the picture).
According to 5.11 Tactical, the 50,000-hour LEDs never have to be replaced and the flashlight is engineered to "offer 10 years of maintenance-free service under typical conditions." (You can recharge it up 50,000 times or one time a day for 135 years.)
I got a chance to play around with the thing at a recent event, and I have to say I was pretty impressed. It's lighter (16 ounces) than it looks, and it feels very durable. The one question I asked was: what happens when the power goes out and you have to recharge the thing? Answer: it comes with a 12V DC automotive charger, so you can use your car to charge it up in the event of a power outage.
The only drawback: Light for Life costs a whopping $169.99. But 5.11 Tactical says that when you add up the cost of all those D batteries over the lifetime of a battery-powered police flashlight, it's still a deal. And then there's all that good karma you get for not chucking those batteries into the garbage or landfill. It's hard to put a price on that.
Comments?
See one more photo after the break. ... Read more
