Back-Up/ Peak Shaving Fuel Cell System

This Final Report covers the work executed by Plug Power from 8/11/03 – 10/31/07 statement of work for Topic 2: advancing the state of the art of fuel cell technology with the development of a new generation of commercially viable, stationary, Back-up/Peak-Shaving fuel cell systems, the GenCore II. The Program cost was $7.2 M with the Department of Energy share being$3.6M and Plug Power’s share being $3.6 M. The Program started in August of 2003 and was scheduled to end in January of 2006. The actual program end date was October of 2007. A no cost extension was grated. The Department of Energy barriers addressed as part of this program are: Technical Barriers for Distributed Generation Systems: o Durability o Power Electronics o Start up time Technical Barriers for Fuel Cell Components: o Stack Material and Manufacturing Cost o Durability o Thermal and water management Background The next generation GenCore backup fuel cell system to be designed, developed and tested by Plug Power under the program is the first, mass-manufacturable design implementation of Plug Power’s GenCore architected platform targeted for battery and small generator replacement applications in the telecommunications, broadband and UPS markets. The next generation GenCore will be a standalone, H2 in-DC-out system. In designing the next generation GenCore specifically for the telecommunications market, Plug Power is teaming with BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc., a leading industry end user. The final next generation GenCore system is expected to represent a market-entry, mass-manufacturable and economically viable design. The technology will incorporate: • A cost-reduced, polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack tailored to hydrogen fuel use • An advanced electrical energy storage system • A modular, scalable power conditioning system tailored to market requirements • A scaled-down, cost-reduced balance of plant (BOP) • Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS), UL and CE certifications

Nano Goes Magnetic to Attract Big Business

Glenn Research Center has combined state-of-the-art electrical designs with complex, computer-aided analyses to develop some of today s most advanced power systems, in space and on Earth. The center s Power and On-Board Propulsion Technology Division is the brain behind many of these power systems. For space, this division builds technologies that help power the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, and Earth-orbiting satellites. For Earth, it has woven advanced aerospace power concepts into commercial energy applications that include solar and nuclear power generation, battery and fuel cell energy storage, communications and telecommunications satellites, cryocoolers, hybrid and electric vehicles, and heating and air-conditioning systems

Superfast broadband: the future is in your hands

The National Broadband Network (NBN) will deliver a comprehensive upgrade to Australia’s national broadband infrastructure. This will be of profound importance to Australia’s long-term productivity agenda. This paper, commissioned by Vodafone Australia, assesses new opportunities for the NBN. In particular, we examine how the growth of mobile services has transformed the telecommunications industry and how NBN has the potential to dramatically improve mobile telecommunications. It makes the case that the NBN, far from becoming redundant due to the explosion in mobile internet access, is in fact crucial to delivering better mobile services to both regional and urban areas without any significant increases in cost. It argues that the recent development of small mobile base stations (able to be placed on lampposts for example), connected to the NBN, can significantly increase and improve mobile coverage in both urban and regional Australia. This has the potential to radically reshape Australia’s economic and social future

Current developments in electrochemical storage systems for satellites

The need for batteries with greater power capacity and service life for power satellites is examined. The Ni/Cd and Ni/H batteries now being used must be upgraded to meet advanced space requirements. Improvements in power capacity, service life, and cycle count for various satellites in LEO and GEO orbits are discussed. The Ni/Cd and Ni/H cell reactions are explained, and the solubility and volume changes for various charged and uncharged masses are described. A chart of the energy content and cycle count for various cell systems is presented, and the factors which cause aging and failure in the Ni/Cd and Ni/H cell systems are discussed. The advantages of the Ni/H battery are given and the need for more developed electrochemical storage systems because of an increase in the mass of satellites is explained. The requirements for space batteries and the work currently done by NASA and West Germany on advanced batteries are discussed

Failure analysis of some Toyota Prius battery packs and potential for recovery

The Toyota Prius battery pack consists of 38 individual battery blades, each blade contains 6 NiMH cells in series. This means that each pack contains 228 NiMH cells. Each cell has the potential to fail. This report investigates the mode of failure of Prius battery packs by first analysing a number of packs in the lab, and then road testing them in a Toyota Prius. The analysis of the battery packs shows that some packs had aged “linearly”, that is in a balanced manner, such that the state of health of all blades remained similar. However, in other packs discrete blades had significantly different states of health. A pack that consists of cells that are matched in both state of health and state of charge delivers the best performance. The research also showed that the worst cell in the pack determines the overall pack performance. This was demonstrated by substituting reducedcapacity or short-circuited blades into a functioning battery pack. A vehicle with a pack consisting of 37 2400 mAh battery blades and one 1200 mAh battery blade was only able to drive 1.3 km in Electric Vehicle mode, as opposed to 2.6 km with a pack consisting of 38 2400 mAh battery blades

Transformasi Pekan Parit Raja: kajian terhadap kesejahteraan hidup masyarakat

Isu utama yang dibangkitkan dalam kajian ini adalah mengenai isu kesejahteraan hidup masyarakat ekoran transformasi yang berlaku di Pekan Parit Raja dan kesannya. Transformasi pembangunan yang berlaku di pekan kecil pada asasnya menunjukkan pencapaian positif dalam pelbagai sudut mencakupi perkembangan ekonomi, perindustrian, prasarana dan perumahan. Namun turut memberi kesan kepada persekitaran fizikal. Kesan daripada keadaan itu turut membawa ke arah kemerosotan serta memberi tekanan yang kuat terhadap kesejahteraan hidup masyarakat setempat. Objektif kajian ini ialah (i) meninjau perkembangan pembangunan di Pekan Parit Raja, (ii) mengenalpasti perubahan sosio ekonomi penduduk setempat, (iii) mengenalpasti keperluan penduduk setempat mengikut perkembangan semasa dan (iv) membentuk indeks penunjuk kesejahteraan hidup bagi masyarakat Pekan Parit Raja. Skop kajian tertumpu di Pekan Parit Raja dengan tumpuan terhadap transformasi pembangunan yang dialami dari segi perkembangan fizikal, sosial dan ekonomi. Responden yang terpilih terdiri daripada wakil Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan, wakil komuniti dan masyarakat setempat. Kajian dijalankan berdasarkan kepada pengumpulan data primer dan sekunder. Sejumlah 367 responden telah dipilih secara persampelan rawak bersrata. Data yang dikumpul telah dianalisis menggunakan program SPSS. Analisis kajian mendapati perubahan ruang ekonomi yang berlaku di Pekan Parit Raja adalah sangat ketara. Hasil kajian menunjukkan keluasan had pembangunan di Pekan Parit Raja telah meningkat sebanyak 2.51% antara tahun 1998 sehingga tahun 2003 dan tertinggi berbanding lima (5) bandar utama lain. Faktor pembangunan sosio ekonomi yang positif menyebabkan unjuran penduduk dijangka mencapai sehingga 9.9% sehingga tahun 2020. Sebanyak 53.8% responden telah berjaya meningkatkan pendapatan sehingga hampir sekali ganda dalam tempoh 20 tahun. Sebahagian besar responden pula berkemampuan dari segi pemilikan perumahan dan kereta masing-masing dengan peningkatan sehingga 86.6% dan 98.0% pada sekitar tahun 2010. Ianya sangat berbeza dengan 20 tahun lepas. Walau bagaimanapun, 72.5% responden menyatakan beberapa keperluan perlu ditambah atau diperbaiki dengan jalan raya merupakan keperluan utama. Pada masa yang sama, 75.7% responden menyatakan jenis keperluan yang paling penting perlu disediakan adalah perpustakaan awam. Dapatan keseluruhan kajian akhirnya telah membentuk indeks penunjuk kesejahteraan hidup dari aspek ekonomi, kualiti perumahan, keharmonian sosial dan alam sekitar kesan transformasi pembangunan ke atas kesejahteraan hidup masyarakat setempat. Beberapa cadangan telah dikemukakan agar pembangunan yang membawa perubahan kepada sosio ekonomi dan persekitaran seharusnya mengambil kira kesejahteraan hidup masyarakat dan kelestarian alam sekitar untuk mencapai kualiti hidup yang lebih baik di masa akan datang

Energy Power, Digital Infrastructure and Elearning Platforms: Afrrican Experience.

Information and communication technologies are one of the most pervasive technologies in the world, second only to 'human intelligence' or the human brain. Thus, understanding the factors that determine the diffusion of new technologies across african countries is important to understanding the process of economic development. And whereas, energy is linked with the capacity to perform, the rate at which energy is consumed for the acceleration of the pace of socio-economic activities is regarded as power. Consequently, it will be obvious that the magnitude of the standard of living in any society; the growth and development of such an economy; and its ability to affect the course of events(such as ICT revolution)will be a function of the extent to which its energy(power) resources are developed and utilised. This paper therefore argued for the need to provide assistance in reducing vulnerability and building the capacity of african countries to more widely reap the benefits of the clean development mechanism in areas such as the development of cleaner and renewable energies. Inevitably, this is the critical condition for the sustainability of the emergent e-learning platforms and digital networks in africa.ICT, learning, elearning, development, energy, power, information, communication, solar, electricity, wind, governance, africa, electronics, telecommunications, internet, digital, satellite, renewable energy, gas turbine, power plants, bandwidth, coal, hydro, biomass, steam, transmission, distribution, utilisation

The interplay between standardization and technological change: A study on wireless technologies, technological trajectories, and essential patent claims

In many technology fields, standardization is the primary method of achieving alignment between actors. Especially if strong network effects and increasing returns are present, the market often ends up with a single standard that dominates the technical direction, activities and search heuristics, for at least one full technology generation. Although literature has addressed such decision processes quite extensively, relatively little attention has been paid to the way in which standards affect - and are affected by - technological change. Building upon the concepts of technological regimes and trajectories (Dosi, 1982), and on the methodology proposed by (Hummon & Doreian, 1989) to empirically investigate such trajectories, this papers aims to study the interplay between standardisation and technological change. We conclude that the empirically derived technological trajectories very well match the standardisation activities and the main technological challenges derived from the engineering literature. Moreover, we also observe that the Hummon & Doreian methodology can indeed reveal technological discontinuities. To the best of our knowledge, this has not been the case in earlier studies using this technology, and refutes concerns that this methodology has a (too) strong bias towards incremental, continuous technological paths. Finally, we compare the set of patents in the most important technological trajectories to the set of so-called essential patent claims at standards bodies, and conclude that there is no significant relationship. This confirms earlier arguments that essential patents are not necessarily ‘important’ patents in a technical sense.technological trajectories, standardization, innovation

Conceptual design of a synchronous Mars telecommunications satellite

Future missions to Mars will require a communications system to link activities on the Martian surface with each other and with mission controllers on Earth. A conceptual design is presented for an aerosynchronous communications satellite to provide these links. The satellite provides the capability for voice, data/command, and video transmissions. The mission scenario assumed for the design is described, and a description of a single aerosynchronous satellite is explained. A viable spacecraft design is then presented. Communication band selection and channel allocation are discussed. The communications system conceptual design is presented along with the trades used in sizing each of the required antennas. Also, the analyses used to develop the supporting subsystem designs are described as is the communications impact on each subsystem design