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At the Paris Motor Show last month, Volvo announced that their C30 electric model was ready for delivery. But, the company is already adding a major new feature – a PEM fuel cell “range extender” with a gasoline reformer – that could put this car above and beyond the rest.

First, I should note that the basic C30 model currently can be found on Sweden’s roads, where Volvo has leased 90 cars to track how the vehicle manages the rigors of everyday use. While this test group is supposed to add insights for additional refinements to the C30, the fuel-cell assistance option is going to be a big leap, one that Volvo chief executive officer Stefan Jacoboy says, and ultimately lead to a product that, “sets the standard in the industry.” The full launch is expected in 2013.

Cars with fuel cells aren’t novel by themselves. Toyoto, for example, demonstrated a model at ACerS’ “Materials Innovations in an Emerging Hydrogen Economy” conference in 2008. But, practically speaking, these efforts haven’t gone far: The classic fuel-cell-in-auto dilemma arises because it is based on a paradigm that imagines having to refuel the vehicles with hydrogen, much the same way cars are now get a gasoline fill up. With no hydrogen distribution network, the concept collapses.

Volvo’s solution, however, is to leverage the existing gasoline infrastructure: Feed gasoline into a reformer, strip off the hydrogen and then pump the hydrogen into the PEM.

Volvo says it building two C30s prototypes equipped with the fuel cells and hopes to have them road-ready by 2012. These prototypes are being developed with technical assistance from Powercell Sweden AB and financial assistance from the Swedish Energy Agency. Volvo is the main shareholder in Powercell, and the Swedish government last year also began to invest in the company.

All fuel cells types have their unique problems, including the more ceramic-oriented solid-oxide fuel cell. For PEMs, the problems have been things such as a low tolerance for carbon monoxide or the drying of membranes. Powercell claims its technology resolves the CO problem.

Volvo anticipates that these fuel cell units will provide the C30 with at least 155 miles of additional range.

The company isn’t ready to bet all its chips on the fuel cell option. “We have just taken the first steps and it is naturally too early to talk about market introduction of electric cars with range extenders. The industrial decision will come after we have learned more about fuel cells and the opportunities they offer,” says Jacoby.

Volvo first presented a drivable electric C30 prototype in September 2009, which we introduced here. The newest design includes lithium-ion battery, and no gears. Top speed is estimated by Volvo at 81 mph, with acceleration from 0-60 mph in under 11 seconds. The all-electric range will be up to 93 miles. A completely depleted battery takes about eight hours to recharge.

This crash test (briefly shown in the video above) shows battery location under the car, marked in green, and how the car withstands a 30 mph head on collision. It’s amazing to watch - the battery barely budges at all.

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Fuel cells will be playing a role in cleaner energy production and energy storage, and produce only a fraction of the CO₂ that other fossil fuel energy production technologies currently use. Here are some of the stories we have covered about fuel cells:

Adaptive Materials scores Michigan $3M microtubular solid oxide fuel cell award

Video: PNNL’s Jeff Stevenson on solid oxide fuel cells

Bloom Box boom leaves lots of questions

60 Minutes’ look at ‘Bloom Box’ fuel cells

Ohio Funding to bring better Li-ions and SOFCs

Can natural gas-SOFC combo be cheapest route to cleaner electricity?

Commercial rollout of residential SOFCs planned for Japan in 2014

First marine SOFC test

Lowering the temperature of SOFCs

Plans underway to market mobile SOFC products

Microtubular SOFC: Small is beautiful - and cooler and powerful

Planar anode-supported fuel cells

NexTech shows off big SOFC

DOE pumping $42 million into fuel cells

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Grain boundary and adjacent space-charge. Credit: Conrad and Yang

According to a paper just published in Philosophy Magazine, researchers at North Carolina State University, who have been playing around with how ceramic materials behave in the presence of DC electric fields, apparently think they may have discovered an approach that could “revolutionize” ceramics manufacturing. At a minimum, they say that using a modest electric field can affect grain boundaries, and may make the process of shaping ceramics significantly more energy efficient and inexpensive compared with traditional manufacturing methods.

The researchers, lead by Hans Conrad, emeritus professor of materials science and engineering at NC State, wanted to look at how to influence the mechanical and electrical forces at grain boundaries in crystalline materials, such as ceramics.

“We found that if we apply an electric field to a material, it interacts with the charges at the grain boundaries and makes it easier for the crystals to slide against each other along these boundaries. This makes it much easier to deform the material,” says Conrad.

According to Conrad, the material becomes superplastic, allowing the ceramic to be shaped using a relatively small amount of force.

“We’ve found that you can bring the level of force needed to deform the ceramic material down to essentially zero, if a modest field is applied,” Conrad says. “We’re talking between 25 and 200 volts per centimeter, so the electricity from a conventional wall socket would be adequate for some applications.”

Diagram of DC electric field testing rig. Credit: Conrad and Yang

Conrad and his team say their findings could transform ceramic manufacturing of products from fuel cells to spark plugs to rocket nose cones. “It will make manufacturing processes more cost-effective and decrease related pollution,” Conrad says. “And these findings also hold promise for use in the development of new ceramic body armor.” Conrad says he intends to carry out more work particularly aimed at performance–cost improvements for body armor manufacturing

Conrad and Di Yang, a senior research associate at NC State, paper is titled, “Influence of an applied DC electric field on the plastic deformation kinetics of oxide ceramics.”

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According to a new report from Lux Research, the market for batteries, supercapacitors and fuel cells targeting transportation and smart grid applications will more than double from $21.4 billion in 2010 to $44.4 billion in 2015.

ACerS’ upcoming Ceramic Leadership Summit will introduce key figures in the energy storage technology sector that will expound on how to harness that $44 billion. The Energy Innovations track on Tuesday, June 10, will include talks on enabling a nuclear renaissance, current and future prospects of fuel cells, the strategic field of energy conversion. A representative from United Technologies will also present an industry perspective on energy storage, SOFCs and energy and emission reduction in gas turbines.

The Lux report, titled “Emerging Technologies Power a $44 Billion Opportunity for Transportation and Grid,” analyzes the prospects for several technologies, including batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells in transportation and storage, distributed generation and transmission and distribution technologies on the power grid.

Some key findings are listed in the summary:

• Electric vehicle storage technology markets will nearly double from $7.7 billion in 2010 to $14.5 billion in 2015, a CAGR of 13.5 percent. Surprisingly, markets for electronic bike (e-bike) and scooter batteries will lead the charge, growing from $6.4 billion this year to $10.9 billion in 2015, a CAGR of 11 percent.
• Lead-acid batteries will drive 93 percent of China’s e-bikes in 2010, and dominate the micro-hybrid automotive market. However, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries in e-bikes are growing fast, and have gained further momentum from plug-in and electric vehicles. The upshot: With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22 percent through 2015, Li-ion battery markets are growing almost three times faster than those for lead-acid.
• Markets for emerging technologies in the power grid will skyrocket from $13.7 billion in 2010 to $30 billion in 2015, a CAGR of 17 percent. Here the largest market is the smart-grid, which will grow at an explosive CAGR of 23 percent, from $5.4 billion this year to $15.8 billion in 2015.

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Ann Arbor-based Adaptive Materials Inc, a specialist in making microtubular solid oxide fuel cells, announced yesterday that it has won $3 million in new funding through Michigan’s Centers of Energy Excellence Program.

AMI, until now, has focused most of its efforts on military uses for its SOFCs, such as soldier-worn units, power sources for unmanned vehicles and field uses. The company has both 50- and 250-watt SOFCs that can be fuel with off-the-shelf propane and butane canisters.

While AMI’s business plan has always mentioned applications in the recreational vehicles, boating and medical devices markets, the reality is that it has been easier for military customers to justify the relatively high costs of these portable power devices.

However, a press release from AMI notes that, “The company will use the funding to support the commercialization of its fuel cells within the consumer leisure market.”

AMI may be on to something. It has always struck me that there is some pretty strong logic behind developing small SOFC products whose form factor incorporates safe, cheap and easy to find fuel cartridges. Generations of campers, for example, have grown up using portable stoves and lamps that use these small gas canisters.

Michelle Crumm, AMI chief business officer, says, “Funding from COEE provides the extra boost we need to break into the consumer market and deliver a truly game-changing technology. . . By focusing our technology on readily-available fuels, Adaptive Materials solved a problem associated with fuel cells: Consumers could certainly find need for a fuel cell, but no fuel to actually sustain the unit.”

Presumably, AMI will use the funds to continue to drive down the production costs of making their SOFCs. The company uses a unique co-extrusion method to form its microtubular SOFCs. Earlier this year, in the pages of ACerS’ International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology, the University of Birmingham’s (U.K.) Kevin Kendall praised recent developments in microtubular SOFC science and applications:

Significant progress is being made in the development of microtubular SOFCs. Since its invention in the early 1990s, information about its benefits has been disseminated, leading to the start-up of several companies interested in applications from laptop power supplies to combined heat and power to transport and APUs.

Plastic extrusion is the main method for producing microtubular cells. This is an economic process, which can lead to high-quality ceramics with good strength and Weibull modulus. Co-extrusion is also a promising possibility that could produce one-step processing of cells.

A key benefit of microtubular SOFC is the increased power density, inversely proportional to diameter. Power densities of 1 kW/L are possible but the number of cell connections rises with the square of power density and could become the limiting factor. Thermal shock resistance of microtubes is many orders of magnitude better than that of planar SOFCs. Ramp rates of 8000 K/min are possible.

Aaron Crumm, Adaptive Materials’ chief visionary officer and co-founder, along with John W. Halloran, published an excellent paper in ACerS’ Journal of the American Ceramic Society back in 1998 about innovative methods to micromanufacture complex ceramic–metal structures:

These structures are fabricated by multiple pass co-extrusion of a feedrod comprised of several powder-filled thermoplastic compounds. The compounds contain either ceramic, metal or fugitive powders. To illustrate the capabilities of microfabrication, a demonstration part containing lead manganese niobate-lead titanate ceramic and silver palladium was fabricated. The final part was microconfigured, with a fenestrated structure containing 3110 repeat units per square centimeter. The repeat unit feature sizes were 15 and 5 µm for the ceramic and electrode, respectively. Microfabrication by co-extrusion is proposed as a fabrication technique for the production of smart structures and materials.

Illustration from Crumm and Halloran paper. Credit: JACerS

The COEE program, administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corp., supports the development, growth and sustainability of alternative energy sectors throughout the state. The COEE program focuses on where the state has competitive advantages in areas of the workforce, intellectual property and natural resources but where funding is required to overcome technical and supply-chain hurdles that could prevent or stall the commercialization process.

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