Originally published in PowerForward News

Super-efficient hydrogen fuel cell vehicles emit mostly water as a byproduct, absolutely no greenhouse gases, are quieter and more efficient than traditional vehicles, and are seen as the wave of the future by many experts. From the current presidential administration to technology and industry leaders all over the world, many people are talking about a hydrogen-powered future. So what’s the problem? Hydrogen production, storage and the infrastructure to support a hydrogen travel economy must be refined before the technology becomes a viable solution.

In addition, fuel cell vehicles themselves have limitations: at the current state of the technology, they cost many times more than traditional vehicles, have a relatively short range of travel, and can be unreliable in cold weather. As these and other issues are ironed out, a number of projects are experimenting with a midpoint solution: the hydrogen combustion engine.

EVermont, for instance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring and testing alternative vehicle technologies, has partnered with Northern Power Systems and Proton Energy Systems to create a $2 million hydrogen refueling station in Burlington, Vermont. The station will be located at the Burlington Department of Public Works, and once operational, will be awarded wind credits from the electric department’s on-site wind turbine, a so-called “wind-to-wheels” energy program.

This means that in essence, renewable electricity generated at the site will be converted directly to hydrogen for the fueling station, as opposed to other methods of creating hydrogen, which utilize fossil fuels and produce harmful greenhouse gases. EVermont and Northern Power plan to study the efficiency of the site’s hydrogen generation and storage, monitoring where energy gets lost along the way when converting electricity to hydrogen gas, how much is being lost, and how the system can be improved to conserve energy.

Also monitored will be the overall efficiency of the vehicle. After the refueling station is in place, the EVermont project will retrofit the gasoline engine of a Toyota Prius hybrid to run on hydrogen gas. The research group will be able to determine how many miles the car travels on a certain amount of hydrogen gas, and in turn, how much electricity was required to create that amount of gas.

Hydrogen combustion is not as efficient as fuel-cell technology, and the combustion car will, like most fuel-cell vehicles, have a large fuel tank and a short range of travel (an estimated 80 miles). But it is likely to be much more cost-effective in the short- to medium-term, and is expected to perform better in the cold winters of Vermont than fuel cell vehicles, which have had problems with cold climates due to the fact that their primary byproduct is water.

“We don’t always know what the best solution is going to be,” states Nick Borland of Northern’s Power Technology Group. “In the past, electric cars were seen as the wave of the future. But under certain circumstances, hybrid vehicles have actually been shown to be preferable to pure electric cars. And so while fuel cell technology may very well be our best option for the future, we also may find that certain technology combinations – ones that may not even exist yet – will supercede fuel cell technology as the better solution. We have learned lessons about keeping our options open.”

Beginning by testing the more economical hydrogen combustion engine in the U.S. before transitioning to fuel cells may prove a viable on-ramp to the eventual fuel-cell superhighway, but for either technology to work, an infrastructure must be developed for the creation, storage and dispensation of hydrogen gas. And projects like the one in Vermont may set a precedent for marrying renewable power generation technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels with hydrogen generator and storage systems.

Harold Garabedian, Project Manager of EVermont and Assistant Director of the Air Pollution Control Division at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources states, “Rather than waiting for elaborate and expensive technologies to become available, hydrogen can be used right now in technologies like this one that are available and affordable. This means we can – and should – begin developing and using the necessary infrastructure that will enable these future technologies.” Garabedian contends that implementing fueling stations like ones in Vermont, New York and Florida, can link pushpins on the map from one end of the east coast to the other. “Putting the entire system into place at once would be impossible,” he says. “But creating stations like this one in proximity to each other can show that hydrogen burning vehicles – or in the future, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles – would be able to drive from Vermont to Florida economically while emitting absolutely no harmful greenhouse gases.”

Originally published in PowerForward News

The Birth of Microturbines
During the 1990s, microturbine technology became a tremendously promising new development for advanced energy applications. By adapting the essential technology of a jet engine into something smaller, engineers were able to design a generation asset much more efficient than a traditional genset. Before long, corporate R&D spin-offs were focused on developing microturbine technology for the emerging commercial distributed generation (DG) market, and the technology gained a small foothold in the industry. It wasn’t long before other applications looked to leverage the new technology.

How the Technology Works
Microturbines are small combustion turbines, approximately the size of a commercial refrigerator, with outputs of 25 kW to 500 kW. Microturbines are comprised of a compressor, combustor, turbine, alternator, recuperator, and generator.

In a microturbine, combustion air is warmed and compressed at the front end of the turbine, while fuel is injected into the combustion chamber to drive the compressor to operating speed. Spinning at 50,000 to 100,000 RPM, microturbines are direct-coupled to high frequency alternators to produce premium quality electric power.

By capturing the full exhaust heat energy to produce steam or hot water, the microturbine lends its power density qualities to becoming a remarkably compact, combined heat and power (CHP) package. With overall efficiencies of up to 85%, the microturbine CHP product has a multitude of possible applications in varied commercial markets.

Advantages to the Technology
Microturbines burn hotter and cleaner, are acoustically quieter, and run more efficiently than reciprocating engines. With only one moving part – the center shaft – a microturbine requires very little maintenance. (Typically the only yearly maintenance requirement is a 2-hour igniter change.)

And while microturbines are approximately double the capital cost of a reciprocating generator, operation and maintenance costs are significantly lower over time.

Other distinct advantages include the small physical footprint, lightweight design, and the ability to utilize waste fuels and liquid fuels.

A New Client Emerges
While the microturbine manufacturers were focused on the commercial DG and CHP markets, the unexpected occurred. The oil and gas community began to take notice of the technology and its advantages, and realize that microturbines had a practical application in their industry as well, primarily for remote natural gas installations.

Major Benefits to Oil and Gas Applications

• Low Maintenance. Many oil and gas applications are in remote, hard-to-reach locations, making maintenance costly and difficult.
• Cleaner Burn. The remote power industry was anticipating upcoming emissions reductions standards, in cooperation with the Kyoto protocol (the global effort for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5% before 2006) and other initiatives. While diesel genset technology could be improved for emissions, microturbine technology was already there, with NOx output levels almost 20 times cleaner than a typical genset. What the industry was looking at was not only a superior technology to combustion, but also a more politically sound alternative.
• Lower Exhaust Temperatures and Spark Probability. In hazardous locations, microturbines operate at cooler temperatures and with less likelihood of producing sparks or open flame exposure than other, less efficient technologies.
• Cost-effectiveness. Microturbines may be more expensive initially than the alternatives, but their efficiency and low-maintenance requirements make them superior life-cycle cost solutions for owners and operators of gas projects.

As a result of these benefits, oil and gas industry professionals pursued the turbine manufacturers, and new market was born. Manufacturers had a new set of specifications to tailor to for safe, reliable use on remote offshore platforms, pipeline valve sites, terminals, and other service locations.

The Natural Gas Market Shifts
In the early nineties, natural gas was much cheaper than electricity. In recent years, the price of natural gas has risen steadily, and the spark spread has been correspondingly squeezed, making natural gas technologies less attractive. Concurrently, the past five years have seen significantly less federal support for initiatives aimed at cutting emissions. Those businesses that once relied on federal financial assistance to offset some of the costs of their microturbine projects were left to pursue projects that required less upfront capital investment. As a result, several microturbine manufacturers went out of business or experienced ownership changes.

A Gradual Return
Currently, there is $500 billion being invested in the development of natural gas over the next 20 years. Offshore platforms, terminals and pipelines are being built. When smaller-scale power generation is needed where there is an abundant gas resource and critical demands for electricity, the technologies are limited. Thermo Electric Generators (TEG) and ORMAT closed-cycle vapor turbines have capacities up to 5 kW. Reciprocating engine generators are less efficient and require higher maintenance costs than turbines.

A microturbine, however, can provide a range of reliable, low-maintenance electricity to the natural gas installation. Similarly, in the next five years, the natural gas and electricity markets are expected to become more favorable for microturbine CHP solutions. With the improvement in the significant DG markets, many critical-power users and designers are likely to awaken to the advantages of microturbines.
]]> http://vermontwriter.com/2010/07/14/micro/feed/ 0 nhartswick http://vermontwriter.com/2010/07/14/press-release-chad-brown/ http://vermontwriter.com/2010/07/14/press-release-chad-brown/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:37:22 +0000 nhartswick http://vermontwriter.wordpress.com/?p=189 ]]> Outdoors Enthusiast Converts Passion to Profession

NEW YORK, NY — When Chad Brown was serving as a Combat Explosives Engineer for the Navy SEALS and Marine Special Forces in Somalia, Cuba and Kuwait, scaling Mount Erebus in Antarctica or summitting Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, he never dreamed that someday he would be drawing on these experiences to start his own advertising firm in New York City.

“When I became a graphic designer it was one of two passions,” says Brown, “and I wanted to combine them in some way. When I found out there were very few marketing firms catered to the outdoor industry, it seemed like the perfect niche to try to fill, and Presher Design was born.”

But Brown did more than start an outdoors marketing company. He also hired a creative staff that was as active in the outdoors as he is. He then launched an adventure racing team, which he named “Team Xtreme Presher,” for which he designed the team jerseys.

“The motto at Presher is ‘Think Outside,’ and that’s what we’re always trying to do, figuratively and literally,” Brown says. “The racing team was something I’ve always wanted to do, and at the same time it’s a great way to show our clients exactly what we’re made of. Eventually, I’d like to offer our own outdoor services and gear, and provide an online clearinghouse for information about outdoor sports and equipment.”

It is just this kind of thinking that has earned him praise in outdoors and marketing circles alike. And this brand of ingenuity many outdoors companies find not only attractive, but essential to success in their industry.

CEO of EARK Adventures Terrance Oneal states, “To get noticed in the outdoors industry, your marketing image has to have attitude. Chad accomplishes this by encouraging his people to break creative convention, and with his military level-headedness and discipline, brings it to realistic fruition. And since his employees aren’t afraid to get out of their chairs and hit the trail, they completely understand the target market.”

Brown’s determination is both infectious and inspiring.

“I’d like to reach the top of Everest one day with a Presher flag on my back,” he says. For the humble Texan with the big dreams, it seems fitting that nothing less will do than the top of the world.

HTML email promoting offer from Kraft's gourmet mail-order coffee club.

Gateway page offering a free market report on health trends for those who register with Smith Barney.