The two leading French automakers, PSA Peugeot Citroen in Paris and Renault in Boulogne-Billancourt, are working to speed the development of a commercially viable, fuel cell-powered vehicle by 2010. This endeavor is supported by the Fuel Cell Technology Network, established by the French Ministry of Education, Research, and Technology to foster the introduction of zero-emission cars. Fuel cells convert hydrocarbon fuels into electricity chemically, without combustion emissions.

Peugeot and Renault gained experience designing fuel cell-powered cars from 1994 to 1998, when they and other European partners built an experimental zero-emission demonstrator based on a Renault Laguna Nevada grand touring car—about the size of a station wagon. It had a range of 250 miles, or about 400 km.

An experimental demonstrator car, based on the Renault Laguna Nevada, is a precursor to mass-production fuel cell vehicles being developed by Renault and Peugeot.

For their latest effort, the carmaking duo has enlisted the assistance of a host of European industrial concerns to develop the green car. Paris-based Air Liquide and De Nora of Milan, Italy, will develop the fuel cell system, while Air Liquide, Elf in Paris-La

Defense, and Total in La Tour de Salvagny will design the fuel supply and the reforming process to convert hydrocarbons into hydrogen fuel. Air Liquide will do triple duty, devising energy transfer and fluid systems with its partner and Paris neighbor, Valeo.

The work will be divided into three successive stages. First, a yearlong economic, environmental, and technological viability study will evaluate the most appropriate design of major components, including the fuel cell, reformer, and type of fuel.

The second stage will take two years to study and validate the optimum designs. The French Ministry of Education, Research, and Technology will provide 30 percent of the $5 million cost of the study.

During the third stage, Peugeot and Renault will produce prototypes on a small scale.

Currently, Peugeot engineers are working on a demonstrator model based on its Partner utility vehicle. That will be powered by a 30-kW fuel cell module that runs on hydrogen stored in high-pressure reservoirs. Peugeot hopes to complete the demonstrator by the end of this year.

Michael Valenti

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in Albany and TransiDrive Inc. of Brooklyn, N.Y., are working together to develop a hydraulic regenerative braking technology that will enable electric and hybrid electric buses to recapture the energy these vehicles lose during braking.

Both hybrid electric and fully electric-powered buses use batteries to store energy. Braking subjects the batteries to an intense charge and discharge cycle that shortens the batteries' life, typically to about three years. The project plans to use a hydraulic device that serves as a pump and motor, and an accumulator—basically a tank filled with an inert gas—to reduce the strain on the batteries, extending their life to last as long as that of the bus, around 12 years, and improving the overall energy efficiency of electric buses.

When the driver of a bus equipped with the TransiDrive regenerative system applies the brakes, a hydraulic pump that is coupled to the vehicle's drivetrain will force fluid into an orifice in the accumulator, increasing the pressure of the gas it contains to nearly 5,000 psi. When the driver accelerates, the pressurized gas in the accumulator will force the fluid out of the accumulator orifice and back into the hydraulic device, which then serves as a motor to assist the acceleration.

TransiDrive is working on a prototype of the regenerative system that Nyserda hopes to install on a used NYC transit bus by September.

Michael Valenti

For years, utilities and major industrial consumers of electricity have used compensation systems to protect larger electrical loads of eight megavolt-amperes or more from voltage sags and swells. These disturbances can cause costly interruptions in electronics or precision manufacturing.

Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution in Wendell, N.C., with assistance from the Electric Power Research Institute of Palo Alto, Calif., has developed a compact system that it calls Dynamic Voltage Restorer, Platform Mounted, or DVR PM, that extends this protection to smaller consumers of electricity in the 500 to 600 kilovolt-ampere range.

British Columbia Hydro deployed the first DVR PM system last year to protect voltage sent to the data processing systems at Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek, B.C. The compensating system was installed at an existing overhead power line. The voltage restorer's electronic controls monitor incoming voltage to the college. When the controls sense a disturbance, they direct the system's three independent, single-phase series injection transformers to provide the voltage needed to correct the voltage deviance within two milliseconds.

The load-side energy supply rectifier on the system can supply up to 50 percent of the total operating voltage, which enables the DVR PM to correct the most common voltage disruptions for at least one second. In addition, a hybrid solid state and mechanical bypass system protects the unit from over-current conditions.

More recently, Siemens scaled up its DVR technology for two units used to protect an electrical load up to 26 MVA apiece at a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility in Arizona. This pair of DVRs will be housed in a dedicated enclosure at the utility substation adjacent to the facility. Semiconductor companies can lose from thousands to more than a million dollars because of voltage sags that disrupt their manufacturing processes.

Michael Valenti

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