French Planemaker Plans Around-World Flight With Small Solar-Fuel Cell “Hy-Bird” LE BOURGET DU LAC, FRANCE - A new small French maker of recreational aircraft plans to give the big boys like Boeing a run for the money with a lightweight solar hybrid fuel cell airplane that it wants to fly around the world in 30 - give or take a few - easy stages.
Lowdown from Down Under (Continued): Australia Looks at Solar Steam Reforming BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - Amplifying on plans by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation to tap solar power for steam-reforming natural gas (See previous Part I of this report, July 2008), CSIRO’s Wes Stein estimated that scale-up and volume production advances would account for around 50% of future cost reduction, with another 50% from technical improvements.
Book Review: Planet Hydrogen: The Taming of the Proton. Joseph Conrad notwithstanding, most of us just shouldn’t write books in languages other than our mother tongue. This new book from Icelandic physicist and long-time hydrogen advocate Thorsteinn Sigfusson is a case in point. Planet Hydrogen: The Taming of the Proton, Sigfusson’s ambitious attempt to give us a historic, scientific, and policy overview of the nascent global hydrogen economy does have its merits. Ultimately, however, it falls flat due to his less-than-perfect command of English and some sloppy editing
Briefly Noted: Beijing Olympic Fuel Cell Cars Fighting Olympic Air Pollution: A total of 20 hydrogen fuel-cell cars are to provide zero-emission transportation services for the Beijing Olympic Games this month, China’s news agency Xinhua reports.
Briefly Noted: Three AAAS Papers Alternatives to expensive platinum as catalytic material in fuel cells and a new solid oxide fuel cell electrolyte expected to permit near-room temperature operations were the subjects of three important reports in the July 31 issue of “Science” and “Science Express.”
Briefly Noted: QuantumSphere QuantumSphere, Inc., a developer of advanced catalyst materials, says it has developed and is already selling advanced nano-augmented catalyst materials for electrolysis that increases the hydrogen output of electrolyzers up to three times while maintaining energy efficiency.
