Researchers are constantly working on ways to power our lives through alternative sources of energy. From power-generating insoles to thermoelectric flashlights, researchers know that plenty of energy could be harvested from the human body, through our movement, our heat, and now, our urine.
Scientists at Bristol University and Bristol Robotics Laboratory have created a fuel cell that uses bacteria to break down urine to generate electricity.
"No one has harnessed power from urine to do this so it's an exciting discovery," said engineer Ioannis Ieropoulos. "The beauty of this fuel source is that we are not relying on the erratic nature of the wind or the sun; we are actually reusing waste to create energy.
The team created the microbial fuel cell by growing bacteria on carbon fiber anodes and then placing them in ceramic cylinders. When urine is placed in the cell, the bacteria breaks down the chemicals in the urine, creating an electrical charge which is stored on a capacitor.
Currently the technology is the size of a car battery containing a stack of the microbial fuel cells and can power a cell phone enough to send texts, browse the web or for a short phone call, but the researchers want to make it even more compact and portable so that it can be carried around easily and used to charge any type of gadget.
The team ultimately hopes that the technology could lead to a smart toilet that can produce electricity from urine.
I’ve travelled a long way to meet Volkswagen’s prototype electric car, and at first blush it seems my journey has been in vain – because VW has brought along the wrong car. As the white Golf hatchback rolls across the carpark towards me I can’t help noticing the distinct rhythmic thrum of a V6 petrol engine.
But the mistake is mine, of course. The car is plastered in Blue-e-Motion stickers and the noise is a fake – a postmodern pedestrian warning. The simulated sound even varies in pitch as the car speeds up, to complete the illusion, up until 22mph when it falls silent.
I can’t hear the virtual burble from inside without first dropping a window, so the electric Golf remains as silent, smooth, unruffled and refined as you might imagine a Volkswagen would be, rolling along without an engine.
The hydrogen tanks mounted at the back of Hyundai’s ix35 Fuel Cell car can be pressurised to 700 bar. Which is an almost meaningless number, to me at least. In my world a bar is a unit of chocolate consumption.
So I’ve looked it up. A pressure of 700 bar equates to just under three quarters of a tonne per square centimetre – not the kind of thing you’d want to trap your toe under. Or put another way, 700 bar is roughly the squeeze a submarine must withstand once it’s ventured 4.4 miles under the ocean.
Quite a lot, in other words, and twice the pressure at which hydrogen is currently trucked around by commercial providers. But 700 bar has emerged as the target working pressure for hydrogen-powered cars, as a result of the need to carry a reasonable quantity of fuel in a feasible volume of space.
The ix35 has two tanks, divided to help squeeze them into the available slots at the rear of the car. One, roughly the size of a pub’s beer keg, holds 104 litres and sits under a slightly raised boot floor. The colossal pressures inside are held in check by a thick wall of aluminium wrapped in inches of carbon-fibre. A slimmer equivalent holds another 40 litres, just ahead of the rear axle.
At maximum pressure the pair can embrace just 5.6kg of hydrogen, which Hyundai says provides a range of 369 miles – a distance that will vary according to driving style just as it does with petrol or diesel.
On the move, the ix35’s hydrogen is piped through to a fuel-cell stack sitting under the bonnet. Inside, it does unfathomable things with catalysts and membranes to split the hydrogen molecules up into their component parts, before recombining them with oxygen from the air to produce water. Electricity and heat – the by-products of the reaction – are what the car can put to use.
From there, the ix35 Fuel Cell works like an electric car, with a 65kW (87bhp) motor driving the front wheels. That doesn’t sound like much power to lug around 1.9 tonnes of SUV, but the motor develops 300Nm of torque – enough to spin the tyres on dry tarmac if too much throttle is used from a standstill. Top speed is capped at 100mph and getting to 62mph takes 12.5 seconds but at urban speeds the ix35 Fuel Cell feels athletically quick. Throttle response is instant and the power delivery uncannily quiet.
A small battery is also included in the powertrain, doing the same duty as the battery in a Toyota Prius. It provides a short-term energy store for capturing braking energy and feeding it back to the motor during acceleration.
As with conventional cars, the efficiency of all the under-bonnet arrangements can vary. Evidently Hyundai is doing reasonably well, given its claimed range. I’m not sure miles per gallon is the right term, but in molecules per mile the ix35 beats the General Motors Hydrogen4 I drove in 2009 by almost a third. A similarly sized off-roader, the Hydrogen4 had a claimed range of 200 miles from 4.2kg of hydrogen (compared with Hyundai’s 369 miles and 5.6kg).
Unlike the Hydrogen4 and most other fuel-cell cars, Hyundai’s car is not a prototype, proof of concept or experimental science project. The company describes it as the first series-production fuel-cell passenger car. “Not hand built,” says Hyundai UK chief Tony Whitehorn, for emphasis.
He says so a bit cheekily, in my estimation, given that a limited run of 1,000 vehicles will be assembled at Hyundai’s factory in Ulsan, South Korea, over a two year period. At that pace, I can’t imagine there won’t be any hand-held spanners involved. However, from 2015, the goal is 10,000 units a year, which does start to sound like a real production-line task. At that point, Hyundai hopes, it might be feasible for the first private customers to order a fuel-cell car. It’s not saying how much they might cost yet, so I can’t say how hard you’ll need to save if you’re feeling keen.
There’s quite a trail to blaze first, assuming the first pioneers hope to fill up with hydrogen rather than use their ix35 FCs as lawn ornaments. About 1,000 filling stations would be needed to provide full coverage across the UK, but the current number is a very long way short of that total. The full count of public-access hydrogen filling stations within the M25 currently stands at one, for example. Sited at Heathrow, it was installed to feed five hydrogen taxis used to impress VIPs during last summer’s Olympic games.
And even that station needs to be upgraded. It pumps out hydrogen at only 350 bar meaning it can only offer the ix35 a half-full tank. Once redeveloped, it will have storage tanks pumped up to 900 bar, allowing it to dispense at 700 bar with ease. Another central London station is planned as part of government-backed efforts to kickstart some sort of hydrogen infrastructure.
According to product manager Robin Hayles, Hyundai’s car will use infra-red signalling to tell the filling station how much hydrogen it needs even before the driver has parked at the pump. Refuelling is designed to take no more than three minutes.
While the price of the car may be mystery, the hydrogen fuel itself can already be made cost-competitive with diesel, according to Dr Graham Cooley of ITM Power. His company builds hydrogen production apparatus designed to fit inside a shipping container, which he says can pump out hydrogen at £8 per kilogram, including capital outlay, when running at full capacity. The simplicity of the chemistry involved means the container needs only two readily available feeds – water and electricity. If the electricity is zero-carbon, from wind turbines or solar panels for example, so too is the hydrogen fuel.
This kind of setup might make a fleet of hydrogen vehicles feasible for companies, helping to make the case for broader adoption.
The fuel-cell ix35 itself feels good to go. Like battery-powered electric cars, fuel-cell cars require extra vigilance from the driver. The wary eye is not needed for anything untoward happening with the car itself, but to sweep ahead for inattentive pedestrians, who simply won’t hear the car coming.
I’ve seen it before in electric cars, and it happened again in Hyundai’s car. People stroll halfway across the road before abruptly clocking the big lump of metal heading silently their way, whereupon they jump out of their skins. Evidently, me hitting the brakes in good time doesn’t do much to lessen the shock.
So I’d recommend that Hyundai invest in some sort of audible alert – preferably the sound of a quietly warbling engine, just as VW plans to add to its upcoming electric Golf. Electronic warning noises might seem more appropriate but in my experience they don’t tend to work.
For the time being, urban ears remain attuned to internal combustion.
... filed more than 1,200 hydrogen-related patents. GM ... a fleet of nearly 120 hydrogen-powered cars function in the real ... egg problem facing hydrogen fuel cell technology ... investors want to see cars on the road before backing ...
... s next venture into hydrogen, beyond confirmation that a production car planned for 2015 will ... produces a fuel-cell car for the U.S. market ... technology. Currently, hydrogen fuel cell buyers are not ... credit offered on electric car purchases. Such subsidies ...
... spewing from tailpipes, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles fall ... experimental programs leasing hydrogen-powered cars in California, and three ... the state would need 68 hydrogen fuel stations in five ... by 2015 to serve these cars. According to the Energy ...
... Motor Co. rolled out the first 15 of its hydrogen-powered ix35 sport utility vehicles ... Europe already has a solid network of hydrogen fueling stations running from the boot ... ldquo;Hyundai Motor is committed to hydrogen as the fuel of the future for Europe ...
... It’s that the car will be powered by hydrogen. Aston announced Friday ... international racing that a hydrogen-powered car has competed. It&rsquo ... no immediate plans for a hydrogen-powered production car, Clarke said the race ...
... without combustion, from hydrogen.” Clean diesel ... Though clean diesel cars cost more than their ... presenting its latest Green Car Tour ride-and-drive ... nbsp;hybrids, hydrogen-powered cars, high-mpg gas vehicles ...
... competing technology. Musk has made no secret of his disdain for hydrogen fuel cell technology powering the nation's cars, once saying hydrogen "makes no sense" for powering cars. Musk refrained from commenting on Mutolo's statements, but ...
... rdquo; Ford said. “The car is really becoming a rolling group ... addition to sweeping changes to how the car moves -- electric power, hybrid ... drivetrains, and alternative fuels such as hydrogen -- cars will soon drive themselves and communicate ...
... carpool-lane access for electric cars and other zero-emission vehicles ... Blumenfield’s legislation, cars with white clean-air vehicle ... mdash; such as electric, hydrogen fuel cell or compressed natural ... program phases out in 2015. Cars with green stickers &mdash ...
... them figure out what mix of cars will meet it. Honda Motor Co ... wide variety of eco-friendly cars: electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, natural gas and hydrogen fuel cell. Under a European ... entity telling automakers what cars to produce," he said. Carmakers ...
Hydrogen-powered vehicles have been out of the spotlight for years, but they’re about to make a surprising comeback. Toyota says it will unveil a hydrogen fuel-cell-powered sedan later this year that will go on sale in 2015; several other automakers, meanwhile, have announced partnerships to commercialize the technology (see “Ford, Daimler, and Nissan Commit to Fuel Cells”), including GM and Honda, which announced such a collaboration this week.
While many challenges remain for hydrogen vehicles, in recent years researchers have made big improvements in the oft-maligned technology, including greatly lowering its cost. As a result, fuel-cell vehicles look poised to play a significant role in meeting ambitious vehicle emissions regulations, particularly in places such as California.
“GM, Toyota, and a couple of other automakers have done a lot of great work. Fuel cells are getting close to being viable, closer than most people might think,” says Brett Smith, co-director for manufacturing, engineering, and technology at the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Fuel-cell vehicles were once the darling of the Bush administration—President Bush called for $1.2 billion in funding for the technology in his 2003 State of the Union address. They emit only water vapor and could be as convenient as conventional cars, since they can be refueled in the time it takes to fill a gas tank and have a similar driving range. But fuel-cell vehicles proved extremely expensive, and would require a massive investment in hydrogen filling stations to be practical. There have also been questions about just how environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles actually are: while the cars themselves don’t emit carbon dioxide, hydrogen is produced from natural gas, a fossil fuel, in a process that releases large amounts of carbon dioxide. Hydrogen can also be made using solar and wind power, but that process is inefficient and expensive.
As the challenges with the technology became more apparent, interest waned (see “Hype about Hydrogen”), and Bush started emphasizing biofuels instead. In 2009, the Obama administration cut funding for fuel-cell vehicle R&D. The energy secretary at the time, Steven Chu, said it would take a miracle for fuel-cell vehicles to succeed. (Actually, he said it would take four. See “Q&A: Steven Chu.”)
But miracles do happen. Since 2009, the costs involved with fuel-cell vehicles have fallen. The prototypes that GM and Toyota built a few years ago cost well over $1 million each. Now Toyota says its goal is to sell its fuel-cell sedan for less than $100,000. Costs fell as Toyota found ways to reduce the number of parts in its fuel-cell system and to decrease the amount of costly platinum needed. The company says it’s pushing hard on R&D for manufacturing technology, among other things, to lower costs still more ahead of the 2015 launch. Chris Hostetter, vice president of strategic planning at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A, says the sedan might go for as little as $50,000, which would make it cheaper than Tesla’s Model S electric vehicle, which has a similar range (other electric vehicles are cheaper, but require frequent recharging). “We may surprise people with the advances we’ve made,” Hostetter says.
“Costs have come down at a pretty steady rate,” says Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis and a member of California’s Air Resources Board, which oversees vehicle emissions regulations. “Most people in the auto industry think that, once in large-scale production, cost won’t be a barrier.”
A careful look at the emissions of competing technologies such as electric vehicle and conventional cars shows that fuel-cell cars have significant environmental benefits, even when the hydrogen is made from natural gas. In May, the U.S. Department of Energy released its most recent analysis of the expected total carbon dioxide emissions from fuel-cell vehicles in 2035, including the emissions associated with making hydrogen from natural gas, compressing it, and transporting it. The analysis shows that the cars will emit less than half as much carbon dioxide as conventional gasoline-powered vehicles do now. They would also release less carbon dioxide than electric vehicles when electric vehicles are charged in parts of the U.S. that rely heavily on coal power. However, electric vehicles look better in places like California—which uses little coal—and in a hypothetical future when they’re charged exclusively with sources such as wind and solar power.
Fuel-cell vehicles could also be a boon to renewable energy by helping to address their intermittency. One option being considered in Germany is to use excess wind power generated at night, when demand is low, to electrolyze water, making hydrogen (see “Hydrogen Could Be Key to Germany’s Energy Plans”). Sperling says using hydrogen as a way to store excess renewable energy makes sense. He also notes that there are other promising routes to low-carbon hydrogen production in development, such as engineering plants to produce hydrogen from sunlight directly, although those are in early stages of development.
But the biggest challenge to fuel-cell vehicles remains a lack of hydrogen filling stations. Unlike electric vehicles, which can be recharged at home, hydrogen vehicles will require a network of filling stations. Some suggest that even a few filling stations in a city would be enough to encourage people to buy the vehicles, but Smith is skeptical. If there were only four filling stations in city, he says, drivers may need to go 10 to 15 minutes out of their way to fill up. “I’m not going to do that when I know there’s a gas station on every corner,” he says.
Automakers are well aware of this potential stumbling block. Toyota is currently working with governments and businesses in an effort to get more hydrogen fueling stations installed before it starts selling its fuel-cell vehicles. “Infrastructure is something we’re anxious about,” Hostetter says
The good news is that even 300,000 miles worth of water vapor still equals zero emissions. Acal Energy Ltd., a UK-based chemical engineering firm, says it started with the US Department of Energy's hydrogen fuel cell durability standard, then doubled it.
Acal says its so-called FlowCath technology, in which the usual platinum catalyst for fuel cells is replaced by a liquid catalyst that doubles as a coolant, makes fuel-cell technology lighter, cheaper and more durable. Specifically, the company says its fuel cell engine has been tested to run 10,000 hours, or the equivalent of about 300,000 miles of driving, with minimal degradation.
In February, the Department of Energy put out its durability target for new fuel-cell technology, setting a goal of 5,000 hours, or about 150,000 miles. Check out Acal's press release below.
Show full PR text
HYDROGEN FUEL CELL THAT'S AS DURABLE AS A CONVENTIONAL ENGINE
ACAL Energy system breaks the 10,000 hour endurance barrier
27 June 2013, Runcorn, UK: ACAL Energy Ltd, the British chemical engineering company, has announced today that its FlowCath® chemistry and engineering has enabled a PEM hydrogen fuel cell to reach 10,000 hours' runtime on a third party automotive industry durability test without any significant signs of degradation. ACAL Energy's breakthrough approach is also significantly cheaper than conventional fuel cell technology.
"No one has harnessed power from urine to do this so it's an exciting discovery," said engineer Ioannis Ieropoulos. "The beauty of this fuel source is that we are not relying on the erratic nature of the wind or the sun; we are actually reusing waste to create energy.
