ENFICA-FC Fuel Cell Inter-City Aircraft Ready for Flight Testing Posted on February 28th, 2010
The Environmentally Friendly Inter-City Aircraft powered by Fuel Cells (ENFICA-FC) project, led by Turin Polytechnic University, is ready for flight-testing its fuel-cell powered, manned inter-city aircraft. (Earlier post.)
The first high speed taxiing tests were successfully carried out on the Rapid 200-FC aircraft between 10 to 18 December of last year. The next step for the European team, coordinated by Professor Giulio Romeo of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, will involve obtaining the flight permit and then conducting the first test flight.
…the objective is that of building an aeroplane that works on hydrogen, taking advantage of the fuel cell technology at present available to create a demonstrator aircraft that is able to connect cities through flights while totally eliminating the environmental impact. The work plan financed by the EC is divided into two stages: modification of a light-weight two-seater airplane with an electric engine completely supplied by hydrogen; the test flights on this are aimed at identifying the technical advantages and improvements in performance obtained with the new generation electrical energy.
At the same time, more theoretical type studies have been carried out (in collaboration with the Israel Aircraft Industry, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Evektor (CZ) partners). These will not have an immediate practical application in the initial stages because of the present technological limits, but have the aim of using zero emission propellers in the future to equip aircraft for 20-30 passengers in the regional and intercity sector.
—Professor Giulio Romeo
The current Rapid 200-FC aircraft has an entirely electric 40 kW propeller. Power is supplied to the propeller through 20 kW hydrogen fuel cells; gaseous hydrogen is stored at 350 bar onboard. The airplane also has a second source of energy that consists of a set of 20 kW lithium polymer batteries which are able to guarantee alternative or supplementary power during take off and initial climbing.
The PEM fuel cell delivers 100-110 Amps of electrical current at 200-240 V, plus air and water vapor emitted at environmental temperature.
The aircraft (the final lay-out of which was achieved with the technical assistance of the Italian Skyleader importer T&T Ultralight) has a wing span of about 10 meters. With the current systems, the airplane has autonomy of 1 hour and can reach a cruising speed of 150-180 km/h (93-112 mph), using hydrogen alone.
The entire electric and energy system underwent laboratory testing on a bench model in the first six months of 2009, in collaboration with the Department of Electrical Systems and Automation at the University of Pisa. The starting up, functioning under power and taxiing tests of the aircraft were carried out along the 1,400 meter runway at the Reggio Emilia airport over the last few weeks.
The aircraft and the electric and energy system were developed according to a design by Professor Romeo, and tuned by the ENFICA-FC team, which includes:
- Politecnico di Torino (IT) (Design of the modified aircraft and experimental test flights)
- Skyleader (CZ) (manufacturer of the aircraft)
- Intelligent Energy (UK) (designer and manufacturer of the hydrogen fuel cells)
- APL (UK) (in charge of the tanks and supply of the high pressure hydrogen)
- Mavel Elettronica (IT) (designer and manufacturer of the power electronics)
- University of Pisa (IT) (laboratory tests on the electric system)
Mavel designed the power electronics system to guarantee the supply of the 40 kW of power necessary for takeoff while meeting the requirement of limiting weight (less than 15 kg) and size so that it could be installed on the airplane.
The ENFICA-FC project was chosen by the aeronautical and space planning committee from among hundreds of other programs presented. The overall cost of the project is €4.5 million (US$6.6 million) of which €2.9 million (US$4.2 million) is financed with funds allocated by the European Commission.
The project, which began in 2006, foresees finishing positively with the final test flights in February and March; flight testing will be based at the Reggio Emilio airport.
NREL Study Shows 20% Wind Power is Possible in US by 2024 Posted on February 15th, 2010
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released the Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS). The two-and-a-half year technical study of future high-penetration wind scenarios was designed to analyze the economic, operational, and technical implications of shifting 20% or more of the Eastern Interconnection’s electrical load to wind energy by the year 2024.
The study identified operational best practices and analyzed wind resources, future wind deployment scenarios, and transmission options. Among its key findings are:
- The integration of 20% wind energy is technically feasible, but will require significant expansion of the transmission infrastructure and system operational changes in order for it to be realized;
- Without transmission enhancements, substantial curtailment of wind generation would be required for all 20% wind scenarios studied;
- The relative cost of aggressively expanding the existing transmission grid represents only a small portion of the total annualized costs in any of the scenarios studied;
- Drawing wind energy from a larger geographic area makes it both less expensive and a more reliable energy source—increasing the geographic diversity of wind power projects in a given operating pool makes the aggregated wind power output more predictable and less variable;
- Wind energy development is a highly cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions—as more wind energy comes online, less energy from fossil-fuel burning plants is required, reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
- Carbon emissions are reduced by similar amounts in all scenarios, indicating that transmission helps to optimize the electrical system and does not result in coal power being shipped from the Midwest to New England States; and
- Reduced fossil fuel expenditures more than pay for the increased costs of additional transmission in all high wind scenarios.
To put the scale of this study in perspective, consider that just over 70% of the US population gets its power from the Eastern Interconnect. Incorporating high amounts of wind power in the Eastern grid goes a long way towards clean power for the whole country. We can bring more wind power online, but if we don’t have the proper infrastructure to move that power around, it’s like buying a hybrid car and leaving it in the garage.
—David Corbus, NREL project manager for the study
Resources
Folding Wind Turbine Concept: the Eolic Posted on February 8th, 2010
This concept is pretty cool and could be useful, especially for those who camp or move between homes or home and office. It’s limited in what it can do, but the concept is cool. In fact, some people like scientists and foresters or the like might find it useful in the field as a portable power source.
It’s Eolic, a foldable, portable wind turbine.
Designed by Sergio Phashi and Manuel Pantano of Marcos Media, the Eolic is also meant for disaster situations or even military applications. It’s a relatively small “pod” case that, when opened, can be unfolded and set up to be a stand, pole, and wind turbine with generator all in one unit. It should be capable of putting out more power than the smaller, basically hand-held units that are currently on the market.
It’s just a concept, but a good one that might have actual market potential.
Opening the pod, the unit folds out to reveal the tripod stand with the folded turbine at center. The pole under the turbine telescopes in three sections while the turbine unfolds to reveal three blades. Wiring runs down through the telescoping stand and out. When fully extended to its maximum height (unspecified), guy wires can be released and staked into the ground around it for added stability.
Pretty cool concept.
The Wind Turbines Glossary Posted on January 11th, 2010
I found a cool resource and wanted to pass it on. Whether you’re a school kid looking to write a report on wind turbines or someone who’s interested in the details of how wind turbines (great and small) work, this resource is pretty awesome and much better than the Wikipedia entry on the subject.
The Wind Turbines Glossary comes from MyWindPowerSystem.com and details wind turbines from top to bottom, inside and out. It goes through every part, alphabetically, from blades to yaw drives and motors and explains what they are (with pictures).
Great info!
Plants to Replace Oil in Plastics? Posted on January 4th, 2010
The idea of using plant oils to replace the petroleum normally used in plastics is not really new, but it’s still an emerging technology that isn’t quite there yet. Some plant oils, such as hemp seed and other “soft” oils are well-suited to light plastics such as those that make up the non-durable pieces of your dash board, water bottles, and so forth. Heavier plastics require other types of oil base, such as those that can be produced with some strains of algae. So far, however, there are few types of plastic that can’t be replaced with biological equivalents.
Most of the attention regarding how we use petroleum (crude oil specifically) is aimed at fuels, such as gasoline and diesel. While these are a large portion of what a barrel of oil is used to make, they are not the only thing crude is made into, with a lot of each barrel being used to make plastics: from consumer packaging to automobile dashboards to high-impact plastics for industrial use. We use a lot of plastic.
If you were to look around you right now, you would probably see at least a dozen (likely more) products whose primary makeup is plastic. Cell phones, the computer you’re reading this on, your beverage container, your lamp, the electrical outlet it plugs into, your shoes… Plastics are everywhere in our society. Yet they are one of the least-recycled trash items we produce – and we produce a lot of trash.
Back in October, I talked about the different types of plastics and how they are or aren’t recyclable in Know Your Plastics. In my booklet The Sustainability Factor, I talk about how much garbage we produce and how much of that is plastics that will literally sit in landfills for centuries. Many of the plastics made from biological sources are biodegradable, usually by exposure to sunlight, brackish water, specific (non-toxic) chemicals, or other simple, relatively cheap methods.
The problem right now is prices. Oil is heavily subsidized by both government here and abroad. Oil producing countries (or whomever they’ve leased the oil fields to, which is more often the case) often have heavy subsidies in which the oil is paid for in part through taxes. It happens in the same way that many agricultural subsidies are paid to force prices of some foods lower than their real market value. Corn is a great example of that. Many oil-producing countries or the countries from which the ships which haul the oil are subsidized through various government handouts or corporate deals involving futures investing. All of this means that the price of a barrel of oil is kept relatively low.
So competing technologies, such as Coreplast’s bio-based plastics made from starches from corn, tapioca, potatoes, etc., aren’t able to gain market share. The owner of that company, Frederic Sheer, is waiting for oil to reach $95/barrel, at which time his product becomes viable. He’s banking on that happening around 2013. He’s been waiting 20 years for that to happen. Cereplast is based in California and Indiana and holds several patents on bio-plastics processes.
“The day where we hit $95 a barrel,” says Sheer, “I think all of a sudden you’re going to see bio-plastics
basically explode.”
Until then, we’re still watching petroleum dominate this market. Plastics are currently a $1 billion market in the U.S. alone and have the potential of growing to ten times that over the next decade. The world market is $2,500 billion currently.
Until oil gets re-priced at its real value, most of the things we see, including plastics, will continue to be petroleum-dependent. This is true of most of our major commodities, especially here in the U.S. Corn will continue to be the (crappy) base for our ethanol fuel until we stop subsidizing corn.
This is the primary reason why I keep promoting the idea of not using government to “subsidize” or “promote” or “kick-start” anything: new “green” technology or not. In the end, it only gets in the way of innovation and moving forward.
