Department of Energy awards $825,000 grant on Hydrogen

[Apoptosis]

FST Energy Selected By DOE To Help Solve Hydrogen Storage and Delivery Dilemma for Fuel Cell Market

Department of Energy awards $825,000 grant to improve methods for safely storing and delivering hydrogen to power cars and electronics.

San Francisco, CA (November 10, 2005) - FST Energy, Inc. (http://www.fstenergy.com ), a hydrogen storage, transport, and distribution company, today announced receipt of a multi-year grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop methods that safely store and release hydrogen for commercial use. Expensive precautions and special handling have so far stifled hydrogen's widespread use as a fuel. Solving this storage and delivery problem will help propel the fuel cell market, one expected to grow to $13.6 billion by 2010 as petroleum costs and international energy consumption increase.

"This grant award demonstrates to business and industry leaders that FST Energy's research program has substantial merit and will help change the hydrogen storage and delivery marketplace," said Scott Redmond, FST's Chief Technology Officer. "Technology that safely holds and releases hydrogen at lower temperatures and in smaller housings will deliver superior operating efficiencies for all hydrogen sectors including industrial, commercial, and consumer," said Redmond.

The study, to be undertaken by FST in-house research staff, will evaluate methods that store hydrogen in a solid state using advanced metal hydride chemistry that absorbs hydrogen at ambient temperature and pressure levels.

The research will also evaluate specialized transportable containers that increase the efficiency of the chemistry, the safety of the hydrogen storage, and substantially reduce infrastructure needs for a domestic hydrogen delivery system.

Preliminary research shows that FST's patented storage system holds three times the amount of hydrogen than present-day cylinder storage methods. The technology eliminates the explosive nature of hydrogen-air mixtures providing for safer, lighter storage, and economical transport using existing carriers such as UPS and FedEX. The system can meet the needs of today's industrial gas user - a $3.3 billion dollar market - and is adaptable to developing automotive and portable electronics fuel cell applications.

About FST Energy, Inc.

FST Energy, Inc. is a start-up seeking seed funding and is committed to the development and commercialization of cost-effective, readily-transportable, safe and reliable energy technologies for the emerging Clean Technology industry. Through a flexible and scalable universal interface, FST's hydrogen energy products deliver commercial users with cost-effective solutions to meet their hydrogen storage and delivery needs. For more information, visit http://www.fstenergy.com or call 415-504-1020

[Nobahar]

There's good and bad to this.

The good is at least they're giving some money. The bad is that 825K in funding for something so necessary as alternative fuels research is a ridiculously small sum.

I can't even describe to you how much biotech funding gets in comparison (think millions+) and health is even a fraction of the amount of spending that goes into capital employees, government itself, and especially military which owns everything in funding (billions upon billions).

[sbohdan]

There's good and bad to this.

The good is at least they're giving some money. The bad is that 825K in funding for something so necessary as alternative fuels research is a ridiculously small sum.

I can't even describe to you how much biotech funding gets in comparison (think millions+) and health is even a fraction of the amount of spending that goes into capital employees, government itself, and especially military which owns everything in funding (billions upon billions).

right said. also they should be looking into free alternative energy (waterfuel) instead of hydrogen which will be even more expensive then gas (due to extraction and storage)

[Nobahar]

lol, it's funny though- hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. If we could just have a pipe to the sun we'd have unlimited supply.

[-mogwai]

apparently, jupiter's atmosphere is 90% hydrogen. i was pretty shocked when i found that out during trivia night, last night. i got it wrong. i said it was helium. i told the moderator "you do realize that by claiming that jupiter's atmosphere is 90% hydrogen, you're saying that it's almost all made of pure energy"

[kenc51]

The air we breath is 78% Hydrogen!!!!!

Water is 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, why not make it from water, you get twice as much hydrogen AND produce some clean Oxygen!!! (i think all you need to do is pass an electrical current through water, as far as i can remember)

[Nobahar]

Yeah I remember that bit about Jupiter. They say that this could have been a two-star system if Jupiter was larger. The mass isn't large enough for it to sustain fusion, but otherwise Jupiter would've lit up.

Actually breaking water requires alot of energy. And mass producing hydrogen and storing it is another problem.

[kenc51]

Yeah I remember that bit about Jupiter. They say that this could have been a two-star system if Jupiter was larger. The mass isn't large enough for it to sustain fusion, but otherwise Jupiter would've lit up.

Actually breaking water requires alot of energy. And mass producing hydrogen and storing it is another problem.

Hydro elec plants WASTE alot of energy, and are surrounded by H2O!!!
I've forgotten all the Chemistry I studdied in school, so I mayby Wayy off...

[T-Shirt]

The air we breath is 78% Hydrogen!!!!!

UM NO!
air is 78% Nitrogen, Hydrogen is a minor trace gas.

"Air is a mixture of gases and aerosols that composes the atmosphere surrounding Earth. The primary gases of air include nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). Trace gases and aerosols make up the remaining 1% of air. The trace gases include the noble gases argon, neon, helium, krypton and xenon; hydrogen; and the greenhouse gases. The aerosols are solid or liquid particles having diameters in the region of 0.001 to 10 microns (millionth of a metre), and include dust, soot, sea salt crystals, spores, bacteria, viruses and a plethora of other microscopic particles, which may be natural or man-made."

[kenc51]

The air we breath is 78% Hydrogen!!!!!

UM NO!
air is 78% Nitrogen, Hydrogen is a minor trace gas.

"Air is a mixture of gases and aerosols that composes the atmosphere surrounding Earth. The primary gases of air include nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). Trace gases and aerosols make up the remaining 1% of air. The trace gases include the noble gases argon, neon, helium, krypton and xenon; hydrogen; and the greenhouse gases. The aerosols are solid or liquid particles having diameters in the region of 0.001 to 10 microns (millionth of a metre), and include dust, soot, sea salt crystals, spores, bacteria, viruses and a plethora of other microscopic particles, which may be natural or man-made."

Opps..I said I forgot everything i learned in school

[T-Shirt]

early in the life of the universe (3 seconds after the big bang) the first elements (hydrogen, helium and lithium) formed, all other elements from those, mostly in solar reactions.
http://www.pbs.org/deepspace/timeline/
great program BTW, be sure and see it when it's on in your area.

[Nobahar]

Making hydrogen gas from water would work, it's just that it requires energy to do it- I think the easiest way for them to make it is at nuclear power plants.

Storing it is another mess. Hydrogen gas is very flammable, and needs to be at very high pressure or very very low temperatures to keep it liquid. Fuel cell storage is another very expensive mess and currently there is no means of distribution or cars other than prototypes that can even run on it.

[kenc51]

early in the life of the universe (3 seconds after the big bang) the first elements (hydrogen, helium and lithium) formed, all other elements from those, mostly in solar reactions.
http://www.pbs.org/deepspace/timeline/
great program BTW, be sure and see it when it's on in your area.

I don't get PBS over here..... (the only PBS prog we get is sesame street lol)

[T-Shirt]

Actually breaking water requires alot of energy. And mass producing hydrogen and storing it is another problem.

Yes it does. one of the most promising ideas is a new type of solar cell the allows sunlight to break down water into H+O+O directly (some sort of catylst is envolved) without converting it to electrical energy first (electrical solar cells are very inefficient, and electrial Hydrolisys is too.)

http://www.hydrogensolar.com/
this is already undergoing testing in Nevada and other places around the world.
combine that with more effective transport and storage and we could very quickly limit the need for fossil fuels and all the problems they cause.
many current powerplants and vehicles could be converted to use hydrogen very easily. with fuelcells>electrial energy being wide spread in a matter of years.
plenty of water and sunlight are available everywhere (and the waste product is very pure water )

[T-Shirt]

I don't get PBS over here..... (the only PBS prog we get is sesame street lol)

For the most part you are lucky, PBS is not what it once was many station have been reduced to at least 50% begging for donations. )
still a few great projects slip out every year.

[sbohdan]

actually water as fuell was ready for a long time. actually many different people invented the procedure independently from each other (in hungary, canada, germany etc.) but big corporations don't want you to have free energy, instead now that fossil fuels are running out, they want to have controll over alternative energy and in a way that THEY would benefit from it not you, so they try to extract hydrogen themselves and then sell it to you for even more then oil. oil corporations (OPEC) does sabotage every attempt to distribute this knowledge to the general public. some inventions were bought up and then stashed away in safes, other inventors were reportedly even killed. there are some inventors who try to develop this technology despite the danger envolved and not being funded, try to do it anyway from their own resources. here I did post couple of links before but nobody took it seriously or seemed to care much:

http://forums.legitreviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=2742

[kenc51]

This all reminds me of "The Saint" movie with Val Kilmer!!!

What we need to a large corporation or country to really back research...and when I mean corporation I don't mean any OPEC or us companies, alot of corporations are just part of a bigger umerella company...
If there is an independant group who do this, who are also well respected, then OPEC countries, or whoever haven't got a leg to stand on....If the people belive and respect the research, then how can someone keep it quiet?
The problem is finding someone who we can trust, not to take back-handers to slow research etc.