Toyota is the undisputed world leader in hybrid vehicle sales, so it unsurprisingly follows that the company dominates the charts when it comes to patents for “electric propulsion vehicles.” A recent study conducted by the Japan Patent Office on global trends in the EV industry found that 76 percent of the 16,670 patents filed for electric propulsion vehicles (here defined as pure electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, excluding railroad vehicles) came from Japanese companies.

As you can see in the tables above (unedited version here), Toyota has filed dramatically more patent applications than anyone else. What’s surprising is this this list only takes into account patent applications filed from 2001 to 2006, which is after the Prius debuted. Many more applications were filed in this time frame than in 1995-2000, and the numbers are still climbing.

[Source: Tech-On]

REPORT: 76% of “electric propulsion vehicle” patent applications come from Japan originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apparently New Mexico is the new Hollywood and a 35-foot film truck will be using hydrogen gas to cook food for the crew and have an oxygen bar to keep stars and staff alert. The hydrogen and oxygen will be created from wind turbines from Jetstream Wind that will electrolyze water to create hydrogen and oxygen for the film truck.

According to the Hydrogen Journal, “The truck will also supply oxygen (generated when water was electrolysed with electricity from the wind turbine) for ‘oxygen bar therapy’ to actors and film crew so they can breathe it directly. This is thought to increase energy, stamina, concentration and alertness, promote relaxation, ease headaches and hangovers and make skin look fresher.”

New Mexico is often used for the on-location shooting of major motion pictures. The name of the film has not be disclosed yet, nor the actors or director. Leave it to Hollywood to come up with a creative use for electrolysis of water. And, let’s hope that sniffing a little pure oxygen is all they do on set.

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Kia and their partners at Hyundai are still moving full speed ahead on developing fuel cell technology for their vehicles. For its part, Kia has released new footage of their latest fuel cell prototype, the Borrego/Mohave FCEV. (The Borrego is badged as Mohave in the Korean market). The video explains some details of this latest-generation hydrogen test vehicle that we weren’t aware of before.

While the base Borrego is a rear/all-wheel drive body-on-frame SUV, the FCEV drives the front wheels through a 110 kW AC electric motor. The fuel cell stack is located under the passenger compartment and puts out 115 kW. Interestingly, Kia claims its stack is designed to work with air at ambient pressure, eliminating one of the issues of other fuel cells – the need for a compressor. Kia also claims its fuel cell can utilize 98 percent of all the hydrogen to produce power.

Electrical energy from regenerative braking is stored in a super-capacitor module and then released for extra power boost when needed. Kia does not say what the capacity of the 700 BAR hydrogen storage system is, but the range of the vehicle is claimed to be 425 miles. Kia is still planning low volume series production in 2012 and mass production three years after that. Watch the video after the jump and check out our First Drive report of the last-gen Borrego FCEV is here.

[Source: Kia]

Continue reading VIDEO: Kia remains committed to fuel cells, shows more of Borrego FCEV

VIDEO: Kia remains committed to fuel cells, shows more of Borrego FCEV originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that over a million miles have been put on the 100+ Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell vehicles that make up Project Driveway, GM is changing the focus from individual customer test drives to business fleets. As Green Car Advisor points out, the shift makes sense, since it’s almost a given that fleets will be the first real users of production fuel cell vehicles. Learning how fleet drivers will use them makes more sense than how easy it will be for Joe V6-pack to make the change to hydrogen cars. Of course, some fleets (e.g., Disney) have been participating for a long time.

Project Driveway was started in 2007 and the first keys were handed to customers in early 2008. Participants were given the hydrogen SUVs for three months, and were only required to tell GM how the vehicles operated and fit into their lives – fuel and insurance were paid for. The Equinox vehicles have a range of about 160 miles.

[Source: Green Car Advisor]

Project Driveway moves hydrogen Chevrolet Equinox over to business fleets originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ballard has announced they will sell their FCvelocity fuel cell to Daimler for approximately $24 million over 18 months with distribution in the 2010 and 2011 timeframe. This money may help the struggling company to stay afloat.

What will also help Ballard is that they are selling a 19.9-percent stake in the Automotive Fuel Cell Co-operation (AFCC) to an unnamed financial institution. AFCC is a joint venture with Ballard, Ford and Daimler.

Ballard has backed away from fuel cells for the automotive industry in recent years to concentrate on their stationary fuel cell business. But, it’s good to see that they are managing to stay solvent and keep involved in manufacturing hydrogen fuel cells to help the carmakers progress to the next level of production vehicles.

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I’m starting to think that the “hydrogen advocate” Greg Blencoe (always an AutoblogGreen fave) might be working against the hydrogen industry. In a new post on his Hydrogen Car Revolution blog, he responds to five energy efficiency arguments against hydrogen fuel cell cars. The problem? His rebuttals are not convincing (sorry, Greg). One of his points is a real head scratcher: “Regarding renewable energy, there is far more high-quality wind and solar power available than could ever be used. Therefore, why is it so important to use this energy in the most efficient manner?” That just has fail written all over it.

Blencoe also wrote an extended version of the cost issue item, which you can read here. He uses some absurd math and reasoning. To wit: he says that replacing all of the cars on the road with $40,000 Chevy Volts would be an additional cost of $4.4 trillion. Of course, no one is suggesting we do any such thing, not even GM, but his response is that “the cost per vehicle for the hydrogen fueling station is $2500.” Why he compares the PHEV’s cost with the cost of an H₂ station is unknown, because a fair look at the numbers would be to add up the cost of PHEVs and a recharging infrastructure and compare that to the cost of H₂ vehicles and how much it will cost to put in hydrogen refueling stations, right? It almost feels like Blencoe’s making the case for plug-ins. Strange.

[Source: Hydrogen Car Revolution]

Hydrogen cars + math. Worth the trouble? originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last year, HydrolectricPower LLC had a stand in the basement of the LA Convention Center promoting their HH2 Hydrogen Generator Clean Air Combustion System and claiming improvements to fuel economy of up to double your MPG. This year, the company will be back, and we expect to see a lot of the same amazing claims and similar skepticism from visitors.

HydrolectricPower says their system is emphatically not an HHO system (which they call “a rolling bomb”) and instead talks about their CARB certification and how their introduction of separate hydrogen and oxygen streams (generated on board from distilled water) into the engine results in a cleaner exhaust. In short, the same story as last year.

[Source: HydrolectricPower]

Continue reading LA Preview: HH2 will be back to tout onboard hydrogen generation. Can you believe it?

LA Preview: HH2 will be back to tout onboard hydrogen generation. Can you believe it? originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The hydrogen was then pushed through a fuel cell along with ambient air, which powered the wheels of the vehicle. From the start line, the Aluminator traveled 76 feet, 5 inches to a finish line that was 77 feet from the start. The closest car to the finish line, the Aluminator won the competition.

Now, I’ve talked about using water, aluminum and some other chemical compound to create hydrogen many times over the past couple of years. I think this is a viable idea that needs more research and development.

When I read the article in Boston.com, however, I was taken aback. According to this source, “A group of Northeastern University students showed the judges at a competition last week in Nashville how autos can make hydrogen under their hoods – thus eliminating the need to create a new nationwide network of hydrogen filling stations.”

The eliminating the hydrogen filling stations part caught my eye. Perhaps this new hydrogen-aluminum fuel could be sold at traditional filling stations and perhaps not. Or perhaps it will be sold at Wal-Mart, Costco, 7-Elevens, bought off eBay or any number of places.

But, the point is that some kind of national fueling infrastructure will need to be in place for the production and dispensing of this hydrogen-aluminum compound and the disposal and recycling of the compound. The infrastructure may not be as expensive as building a nationwide network of thousands of hydrogen fueling stations at $2 million a pop, but there will be a need for some sort of well thought out infrastructure nonetheless.

Perhaps even this hydrogen-aluminum fuel can be used right at the pump to create hydrogen on demand for cars that use compressed H2 gas. Or perhaps this hydrogen-rich chemical compound would be used inside the vehicle and the spent materials disposed of and recycled to be used once again.

The aluminum and water idea is not a new one but it takes us down a whole new path than the compressed or liquid hydrogen scenario. More research is needed not only of the viability of this chemical compound, but how the infrastructure will work needs to be well thought out and mapped out as well.

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But, nonetheless, the United Technologies Corporation (UTC) mini helicopter did take flight recently and performed better than expected. Now, I have talked about UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles) which are basic fixed wing remote control airplanes powered by fuel cell many times over the past several years.

What makes RC hydrogen fuel cell helicopters unique is that they require more power for lift and maneuvering than do fixed wing aircraft. The mini FC helicopter was created by the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) where they took a helicopter that had previously run on lithium ion batters and swapped these out with a compressed hydrogen tank plus fuel cell (see the video on this same page).

The hydrogen tank was rated at 4,200 psi, the fuel cell at 1.75 kW and the mini helicopter is capable of carrying a 5 lb. payload. With a longer range and the capability of spending more time in the air, this would make such as aircraft ideal for military surveillance or police surveillance keeping friendly personal out of harms way while keeping track of enemy soldiers or criminals.

Like I had stated before this mini FC helicopter may also one day make it into the hobby marketplace just like battery operated versions that have already penetrated this market. The exception is that the fuel cell version will fly longer, at higher altitudes and with more payload than is possible with a traditional battery powered mini helicopter.

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