ELECTRIC VEHICLES AT WORK. If consumers aren't exactly begging for road-worthy electric vehicles, the demand for non-road electric vehicles seems healthy. As obvious at the Second Annual "Changing World of Industrial and Specialty Electric Vehicles" Conference in Orlando, Florida, business and industry seem ready to purchase any productive, self-propelled electric vehicle - from floor scrubbers to fork lifts - built more for work in mind than transportation. Lower maintenance and operating costs, quiet and clean operation appear key factors to chose electric over combustion engined equipment.

A variety of electric vehicle and component manufacturers exhibited at the Conference - here's a sample.

AeroVironment (fast chargers) http://www.aerovironment.com/ , Evercel (batteries) http://www.evercel.com/, H-Power (small fuel cells) http://www.hpower.com/ , Motor Appliance Corporation (MAC) (DC motors and chargers) http://www.macmc.com/ , Imperial Electric (AC/DC motors, pumps) http://www.imperialelectric.com/ , PowerDesigners (battery charge equalizer,monitoring and charger) http://www.powerdesigners.com/ , and Solectria (experienced road and non-road EV builders, motors, controllers and composite construction) http://www.solectria.com/ .

The Conference was hosted by EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute). EPRI's expertise is in science and technology solutions for energy and power generation worldwide. Visit EPRI at http://www.epri.com/ .

DIFFERENT DRUMMER. Fairly new, and slightly off-beat to the widening array of companies in the power generation and energy storage business, is Metallic Power, also at the EPRI Conference. The company is still in the development stage of its zinc-air fuel cell and zinc recycling/refueling technology; a combination that could be used for both stationary and vehicular applications.

While interested folks might have to wait until next year to view a real, working Metallic Power fuel cell, the company claims the technology meets important demands of potential users. Among them are short refueling time (5-10 minutes with zinc pellets in suspended liquid electrolyte), virtually instant operation (no warm-up time) and low operating temperature (65 C).

And yes, it is a fuel cell. Hydrogen fuel cells get free electrons from the oxidation of hydrogen. This zinc-air fuel cell gets free electrons from the oxidation of zinc pellets. Like hydrogen fuel cells, it is refueled, not recharged. Visit Metallic Power at http://www.metallicpower.com/ .

HYDROGEN FROM GASOLINE. Hydrogen to power fuel cells can be extracted from gasoline, but it isn't easy. Yet Ford claims some progress on fuel processor (reformer) development.

Typical fuel processors use technology known as Partial Oxidation (POX). In this process fuel, such as gasoline or methanol, is sent through four stages of reforming and gas clean-up at temperatures starting as high as 800-1300 C. Ford claims it can use different catalysts and bring those temperatures down while building less expensive fuel processors.

HYDROGEN FUELING FUEL CELLS. If hydrogen gas was not extracted from liquid fuels with an on-board processor; it would have to be stored in tanks as a chilled liquid or under high pressure.

Ford has developed the first hydrogen refueling station in North America at its Research and Engineering campus in Dearborn, Michigan. For research purposes only, the filling station can dispense both liquid and pressurized hydrogen.

To fill Ford's P2000 HFC (Hydrogen Fuel Cell) sedan, gaseous pressurized hydrogen is pumped in while an electronic connection with the vehicle monitors on-board safety systems and tells the proper valves when to open and close as the tank is filled. The filling station stores 1650 gallons of liquid hydrogen. Gaseous hydrogen is stored at both 750 psi and 5,500 psi. The P2000 HFC can be refueled at 3600 or 5500 psi.

Beyond hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Ford is also researching hydrogen powered internal combustion engines for cars. An internal combustion hydrogen powered car would also have improved fuel economy, but less than that of a fuel cell car because of the inherent inefficiencies of the more-than-a-century-old design.

E-BIKE UPDATES. Want to learn more about electric bicycles on a regular basis? (More than you'd get from this publication.) CSW Total EV is now offering a free, weekly, e-mail-only newsletter (not unlike this one) strictly about the niche market. CSW Total EV claims to be the largest distributor of e-bikes and scooters in the U.S., marketing six brands of products. Subscribers for E-Bicycle News can be can register at http://www.ebicycles.com/ .

TURN-KEY SOLAR. Siemens Solar Industries is now offering complete pre-engineered solar energy kits for residential installation. Developed, in part, for states with net metering programs (selling excess electricity back to the grid), Siemens earthsafe(tm) kits are available in 600, 900,1500, and 2400 watt packages with prices starting at $3395.

The systems are designed to be installed without the need for custom engineering and design services which add to the cost of most solar systems. Siemens hopes that the price is low enough to attract electrical contractors looking for new profitable products to sell to customers. Visit earthsafe at http://www.siemenssolar.com/ and learn more about net metering at the Solar Energy Industry Association at http://www.seia.org/netmeter.htm .

MICRO-HYDRO FOR ETHIOPIA. For the nation of Ethiopia to grow it needs distributed power. Small and micro hydro are its best bet according to an article in the Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa). Although the nation gets plenty of sunlight, photovoltaic solar is still too expensive. Wind power is out of the question - the country just isn't windy enough. The least expensive option is diesel generator sets, but Ethiopia has no petroleum reserves. Importing oil would add to the nation's trade deficit.

But there is an abundance of micro-hydropower potential in the African nation - up to 5000 sites by some estimates. In 1989 a preliminary investigation found 57 sites that could have a total of 10 megawatts of theoretical capacity, most of which would be from easily installed run-of-the-river systems.

The article was written by Dr. Fekadu Shewarega an Associate Professor at Addis Ababa University. (For full text contact this editor, bmulliken@nrglink.com)

Back Issues Visit Green Energy News on the Web at http://www.nrglink.com/ . For free ENERGIES subscription contact bmulliken@nrglink.com. Copyright Green Energy News Inc. 8/21/99 vol.4 no.20.