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Daimler and Ford Motor are partnering on a privately held company to develop automotive fuel cell technology, both companies announced Thursday.

The companies plan to buy the automotive fuel cell business unit of Ballard Power Systems, a British Columbia-based supplier of hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles. From that asset, they plan to start a private company, according to a joint statement.

Daimler will own a 50.1 percent share of the new company, Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC), the companies said. Ford Motor will own a 30 percent share, and 19.9 percent will be owned by Ballard.

AFCC will consist of about 150 employees and specialize in developing fuel cells for cars and buses. Ballard on its own will continue to concentrate on nonautomotive fuel cell applications.

The new company will allow Daimler to "go full steam ahead in our preparations for the series production of fuel cell cars," according to Daimler.

"The fuel cell remains one of the most viable solutions to develop a sustainable, zero-emissions vehicle. The creation of the Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation is an investment in our future," Gerhard Schmidt, Ford's vice president of research and advanced engineering, said in a statement.

In October, Daimler invested in Choren Industries, a company that specializes in renewable-fuel technologies.

Here's a renewable energy source most of us haven't thought of: dirt.

Living Power Systems, a company being spun out of Harvard University, has made a microbial fuel cell that is able to tease a trickle of electricity from garden-variety bacteria in the ground.

The ability to generate a tiny flow of electrons from organic material has been understood for decades and is a staple at elementary school science fairs.

Living Power Systems has developed a system that it says can create a useful amount of power, at least for specialized uses.

A sonar beacon powered by the dirt it sits on.

(Credit: Living Power Systems)

Its technology consists of a material that encourages microbes in the ground to grow across the surface of an electrode and specialized circuitry that siphons off the electricity microbes create during metabolism.

"There are terawatts moving through our biosphere. Solar energy ends up in our soil and sediment," Peter Girguis, the founder and chief scientist of Living Power Systems and professor of microbiology at Harvard. "Think of it as underground solar energy."

The company, which is now looking for funding, has built prototypes of a few products for low-wattage applications.

One, called the Light Bucket, will provide enough electricity for an LED light and a cell phone charger to people in the developing world who are not connected to an electricity grid. The company is also designing a power supply for wireless sensors and outdoor lighting.

These devices only need to plug into the ground to operate, according to Girguis, who made a presentation along with other clean tech companies at the Conference on Clean Energy in Boston on Tuesday.

Although the company is targeting a few specific markets initially, Girguis said that microbial fuel cells have the potential to provide 15 percent to 20 percent of household energy by tapping into the electricity in people's yards or septic systems. The technology could be used to power a cell phone tower today, he said.

Right now, its devices can generate about one half a watt per day from a square meter of ground, or 12 watt-hours per day. In its labs, it's been able to generate 10 times that amount, according to Michael Keating, the company's co-founder and acting CEO.

That kind of power generation won't run a refrigerator or even a PC screen, but it does make sense in the developing world, Keating said.

Company executives call microbial fuel cells the "bicycle of electricity" because they are simple to operate and can be manufactured locally in developing countries.

Natural versus designer microbes
Wireless sensors, too, are compelling use for microbial fuel cells because of the high costs involved in replacing sensor batteries, company executives said.

A sketch of a planned light and cell phone charger for developing countries.

(Credit: Living Power Systems)

For the past two years, a device using the company's technology has been drawing electricity from the sediment at the bottom of Monterey Bay in California. The sonar navigational beacon for nuclear submarines was deployed as part of a military grant. A device in a lab has been operating for six years.

"The best implementation of this is to use it in a setting where you want to deploy a device and leave it alone," Girguis said.

A number of organizations are researching microbial fuel cells, including universities that are designing microbes specifically to generate electricity. Synthetic Genomics, headed by genetics pioneer J. Craig Venter, and other firms are looking to make power from human waste by manipulating microorganisms.

By contrast, Living Power Systems is focused on trying to harness energy from naturally occurring bacteria rather than those specially designed for power generation, said Girguis.

Next year, the company intends to have products for a combined light and cell phone charger aimed at the developing world. It expects to have its garden light and wireless sensor power supply next year as well, according to Keating.

Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicle

(Credit: Donovan R. Unks)

Chevrolet is in the midst of launching "Project Driveway," an ambitious program where more than 100 fuel cell electric vehicles will be put in the hands of select consumers for the largest market test ever of its kind.

Fuel cell power train

(Credit: Donovan R. Unks)

Testing will take place over the next several months in the Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., metro areas. Drivers range from average consumers to business owners to policy makers. Chevy reps also promise that some cars will go into the hands of "celebrities," but no names have been dropped yet.

The cars are modified Chevy Equinox crossover SUVs that draw hydrogen from three on-board, carbon fiber tanks to power an electric motor. In addition, a nickel-metal hydride battery pack captures and stores energy from a regenerative braking system to provide extra power when needed. The fuel cell Equinoxes get a range of about 150 miles on a single fill-up with 700-bar hydrogen.

The Equinox fuel cell cars run solely on hydrogen, which, at this point in time, is a drawback for the average consumer. Although we produce 40 billion kilograms of hydrogen globally every year--enough to power 130 million fuel cell-powered cars--hydrogen fueling stations are still scarce.

Interior display

(Credit: Donovan R. Unks)

The three test metro areas were chosen, in part, because drivers have access to hydrogen filling stations within a reasonable radius of their homes and/or places of business. General Motors reps say building a hydrogen fueling station infrastructure wouldn't be as difficult as some might think; they say the initial investment of about $10 billion to $15 billion required to put 12,000 stations within two miles of the top 100 urban areas is close to the amount of money being currently spent on maintaining existing oil pipelines and gasoline manufacturing equipment.

The specs for the vehicle aren't overwhelming--it goes zero to 60 in 12 seconds and has a top speed of about 100 miles per hour. But that's still impressive considering the only thing that comes out of the quad exhaust is water vapor.

Carbon fiber quad exhaust

(Credit: Donovan R. Unks)

Features include antilock brakes (ABS), driver and passenger front air bags, roof rail side-impact air bags, and StabiliTrak stability system. The cars are also equipped with the OnStar navigation system, which testers are encouraged to use to ask questions and provide feedback as they drive.

But don't get in line at the local Chevy dealership just yet; the test fleet won't be available for sale to the public. However, the information gleaned from this market test will help shape the next generation of fuel cell vehicles, which GM is working on now.

For a further look at the Equinox vehicles, see "Photos: GM's Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell."

CHIBA, Japan--BiCS. It's the acronym that could extend Moore's Law.

BiCS, which stands for Bit Cost Memory, is a three-dimensional flash memory chip developed by Toshiba in which transistors can be stacked vertically. Stacking vertically, ideally, will allow engineers to continue to add more transistors to a chip at a steady pace, which in turn means continual, steady improvement in electronics. Cost goes down, performance goes up, and everyone can continue to sell new products to willing customers.

Yellow is silicon and green is the gate in this BiCS model of stacked transistors.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)

The company has created working samples and discussed the technology at academic conferences, but is showing the concept for the first time to the broader public at Ceatec Japan 2007, the tech trade show taking place here this week.

The key is that the chip is rewritable: data can be inserted and erased, as it can on regular flash memory chips. Matrix Semiconductor, which was bought by SanDisk in 2005, has a 3D chip, but the memory cells aren't rewritable. Whatever data is inserted the first time stays there forever.

The model pictured here helps explain how it works. The green layers are silicon gates. The empty spaces are sources and drains (the output terminals). The presence or absence of electrons going from the source to the drain are registered as ones and zeros and form the basis of computer data.

Those long, thin yellow poles are silicon piers. The piers control the flow of electrons. In a standard transistor, the surface area that connects the gate (the input terminal) and the silicon (which controls the flow of electrons) is relatively limited. Here, the entire circumference of the junction between the pier and the gate is used, increasing the surface area that connects the gate and the silicon and thereby improving performance.

The idea is similar to the tri-gate transistor and fin-fet transistors developed in labs by, respectively, Intel and IBM.

The BiCS prototype made by Toshiba.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)

Toshiba has made samples on the 90-nanometer process.

And what else did Toshiba, which probably had the most comprehensive booth at the show, show off? The SpursEngine, a chip based on the Cell processor architecture.

These are smaller versions of the chips found inside the PlayStation 3. Rather than having eight identical cores for processing data streams, the SpursEngine has four. The idea behind the chip is that it can serve as a co-processor inside PCs, accelerating graphics, letting the computer conduct searches via images in pictures, etc.

Toshiba also showed off a working mini-TV with an integrated fuel cell. The TV operates 10 hours on a dose of methanol. In the past, the fuel cell has been an add-on appendage.

The company has committed to coming out with a fuel-cell-based product. The first one may come in the next year or two, a company spokesman said.

Bob Lutz

(Credit: Ray Wert)

Love him or hate him, Bob Lutz is somewhat of a celebrity in the automotive world. From GM to BMW to Ford and back again, Lutz has seen firsthand the growth, as well as the trials and tribulations, of the automotive industry over a span of more than four decades. Oh, and in his early days, he flew fighter planes in the Marine Corps.

When I told some of my colleagues I was invited along with a small group of bloggers to have dinner with "Maximum" Bob, some beamed in envy, others snarled in skepticism. After all, GM has had its share of bad publicity over the years. But Bob and company claim those days are over. General Motors is hoping to please the entire customer spectrum, from eco-minded conservationists to speed-loving gearheads.

On the "green" side of the scale, GM seems to realize what alternative-fuel experts have been saying for a long time: No single fuel can fully replace our dependency on petroleum-based oil. Fuel diversification--using different ways to power the various cars on the road--eases both ecological and economic strain on our resources. During the first half of our meeting, GM carted us over to Universal Studios and outlined some of the technologies they're either testing or currently employing:

Hybrid systems. GM is introducing two types of hybrid powertrains: a two-mode hybrid system that will soon be available on the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon (as discussed in a previous post) and a "mild" hybrid system that will be incorporated into smaller cars like the Chevy Malibu. And yes, it looks like that two-mode hybrid Escalade will make its way onto the market in the next year or so.

Flex fuel. Several vehicles, including trucks and SUVs, have been modified to run on up to 85 percent ethanol (E85). Although not yet widely available to the public, GM uses lots of these cars internally; they're often transport vehicles during promotions and press events. Of course, vehicle availability is only part of the equation, as E85 fueling stations are hard to come by in many areas. California, for example, only has four E85 pump locations in the entire state.

Hydrogen fuel cells. Real-world testing will soon begin on fuel cell-powered Chevrolet Equinoxes in Los Angeles and New York. It will be the largest market test ever of electric vehicles powered by hydrogen. Cars will be driven by consumers, although no specific details are available yet.

Electric cars. The all-electric Chevy Volt concept was unveiled at the Detroit auto show in January of this year. The Volt uses lithium-ion batteries, which are less toxic than nickel-metal hydride. GM folks say they're getting closer to a production car, but, they say, the battery technology still needs to get better before these cars hit dealerships.

On the other end of the spectrum, Lutz admits there's a horsepower race going on between car manufacturers. He says, for example, that a new version of the Corvette will most likely be faster and more powerful than the C6 and Z06 models on the market today. And although such muscle cars might seem the antithesis to gas-saving Saturns, Bob said not to rule out the possibility of any fuel-saving technologies on those vehicles in the future, either, should regulations so require. Electric-powered 500 hp sports car, anyone?

A big fuel cell from UTC Power was in the news here in Silicon Valley this week when Fujitsu installed it as a backup power source for its local campus. CNET's Michael Kanellos wrote a good story about the event here, and took pictures ("Photos: Fujitsu unveils king-size fuel cell").

Although the fuel cell itself runs on hydrogen, there's no convenient source of pure hydrogen in Silicon Valley, so UTC Power also provided a steam methane reformer that yields hydrogen from natural gas.

One place where pure hydrogen is readily available is NASA's Cape Canaveral facility, and BMW recently completed an eight-week test of its Hydrogen 7 prototype vehicle there. (See the Edmunds review of the car, and a story of the test, with a great photo of the car posed in front of the Endeavour before the recent launch.)

BMW has now handed the keys to one of these cars to actor Will Ferrell (BMW press release), though I suspect BMW will learn less from Ferrell than it did from the NASA testers.

Interestingly, however, the Hydrogen 7 is not a fuel cell car, in spite of stories like this one. BMW just uses its big 6-liter V12 engine with minor modifications allowing it to run on hydrogen as well as gasoline. This is may be the most practical way to run a car on hydrogen, but it's not the wave of the future.

Ford has made a true fuel-cell car, the Fusion 999, and it's considerably faster than the Hydrogen 7. In fact, Ford's unique vehicle, derived from its production Fusion sedan, recently set a speed record for fuel-cell vehicles, reaching 207.297 mph on the Bonneville salt flats. This isn't a car you'll be seeing on the road anytime soon; it has a 770-horsepower electric motor and several huge pressure tanks, it weighs 6,700 pounds, and its range is only just good enough for the high-speed runs on the salt. Richard S. Chang blogged about the event for The New York Times and there's also an interesting video on the Popular Mechanics site.

Ford worked with Ohio State University on the Fusion 999 and on OSU's scratch-built Buckeye Bullet 2, a fuel-cell streamliner that may be able to exceed 350 mph. There's a blog for that project, and it's fascinating reading if you like cars and high technology.

But when can we regular folks have fuel cells of our own? Other than expensive and clumsy solutions like the Trulite and Medis products I blogged about last month (somewhat disparagingly), it won't be soon.

EE Times recently reported that Toshiba, for example, expects it will take several years to bring practical fuel cells to market. "Practical," in this case, means fuel cells based on DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell) technology, which can be powered by inexpensive methanol (also known as wood alcohol).

Samsung has demonstrated a version of its Q35 ultraportable notebook running on a DMFC power supply, achieving 240 hours of operation over the course of a month, but don't get too excited-- the supply is fairly bulky (see some photos and a video on AVING.net) and I'm not entirely convinced that the full month's worth of fuel is stored internally.

It's no coincidence that Samsung chose the Q35 for the demonstration; even the best DMFC fuel cells have much lower power density (watts of output power per cubic inch) than lithium batteries, so they'll have to be very large to support high-performance notebooks.

I'm sure DMFC technology will reach the consumer market soon enough, and then we'll see how it compares with batteries. I suspect lithium batteries will remain the most popular solution for laptops, and I'm sure handheld electronics will stick with batteries unless there's some breakthrough in fuel cells. But it'll be good to have another choice in portable power supplies.

Las Vegas adds two Ford H2 Ice E-450 buses to its fleet.

(Credit: Ford Motor)

Here's something you can brag about to your family the next time you get back from Las Vegas.

The city has added two hydrogen fuel buses from Ford Motor to its downtown bus routes. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman hosted an inaugural launch for the press on Monday.

The city of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Valley Water District's Springs Preserve have already been participating in municipal hydrogen pilot programs. The Springs Preserve hydrogen filling station makes its own hydrogen from water and electricity generated by the station's solar panels.

Now tourists and citizens interested in hydrogen as an alternative fuel source can test out what it's like to ride in such vehicles themselves. The buses will be part of the City Ride program and offer express rides between the city's downtown area and the Las Vegas Premium Outlets shopping district.

The Ford E-450 model, referred to as the Ford H2 Ice, is not a hybrid using hydrogen to power fuel cells, but a vehicle with a 6.8-liter V10 engine that has been converted to run on hydrogen fuel. Las Vegas already has some trucks in its city fleet that were combustion engine vehicles converted to run on hydrogen fuel, but these are the first that will be frequented by tourists and average citizens.

The two buses, which are being leased for two years from Ford for $500,000, are being paid for by a U.S. Department of Energy grant that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid helped Nevada to get.

"First, they will encourage people to use public transportation downtown. Second, they rely on clean energy that won't pollute our air. I am proud to see the city of Las Vegas taking even more steps to reduce Nevada's reliance on oil," Reid said in a statement.

GM's hydrogen fuel cell Volt, shown at the Shanghai Auto Show.

(Credit: General Motors Photo/ Natalie Behring)

Hydrogen is lightweight and efficient as a fuel. When it burns, you get water as the exhaust, and the fuel cell technology that burns the gas is well developed. The major hang-up has been how to produce hydrogen without needing lots of fossil-derived energy.

Apparently, the way to cheap hydrogen is through aluminum. Purdue researchers earlier this year announced they'd found a way to use aluminum to get hydrogen from water. Today a Chinese ceramicist who did graduate work in Portugal says there's an even simpler way to derive hydrogen. This process uses powdered aluminum at room temperature, under normal atmospheric pressure. This use of modified aluminum powder could promise a cheap way to produce hydrogen for fuel cells.

It's long been engineers' hope to power everything from portable devices to cars with power cells. We have video of experimental hydrogen-powered cars here.

The Chevy Equinox

(Credit: GM)

General Motors looks like it is serious about this whole hydrogen fuel cell business. The company announced today that it had moved over 500 engineers from development duties over to groups focused on the production of fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

According to GM, more than 400 of its fuel cell engineers will now report to its Powertrain Group to begin production engineering of fuel cell systems. A further 100 fuel cell experts are being moved to a separate group focused on integrating fuel cells into future models.

While GM has already committed itself to putting 100 fuel-cell-powered Chevy Equinoxes on the road this year as part of its Project Driveway program, the sheer number of engineers that it is reallocating suggests that the company has its sights set on a much bigger deployment of hydrogen fuel cell cars in the foreseeable future.

There has been much hoopla around hydrogen fuel cell development of late, with the likes of Honda, Mercedes, and Ford trotting out prototypes and concepts to feed the demand for alternatives to gas engines, but GM's announcement represents one of the biggest commitments to developing the technology for the real-world market.

Today's news follows last month's news from Purdue University that scientists there had found a potentially new method for onboard creation of hydrogen in cars.