Nisshinbo creates platinum-free carbon catalyst for fuel cells.

Monday, July 14, 2008 ^ | Monday, July 14, 2008 | ?

[DGHoodini]

Nisshinbo Industries Inc. (TSE:3105) has worked with the Tokyo Institute of Technology to develop the technology to use carbon instead of expensive platinum as the electrode catalyst for fuel cells.

The company hopes to have a practical version of the new catalyst ready in fiscal 2009, and will start by commercializing a product for the electrodes of residential fuel cells. Later, it will develop and commercialize a version for automotive fuel cells.

[Nathan Zachary]

"The oil producing nations may be raking it in now, but that goose they’re savoring now..is their proverbial golden egg laying gander."

I wouldn't say that. You can bet your last dollar that gasoline will be the most used fuel in an automotive fuel cell. They'll just refine it better to remove all the sulpher so it doesn't poison the cell. Using gasoline in a fuel cell is ok, because it's not being burned,thus producing pollutants like carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfer dioxide etc. They will be just as 'clean' as ethanol or hydrogen.

[null and void]

using regular gasoline in a fuel cell would be even cheaper, but because "fossil" fuels has sulpher in it it poisons the cell eventually.

Sulfur and lead poison Pt catalysts. Do they poison nanosphere carbon catalysts?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

T Boone Pickens Plan is somewhat like that,....cept he would use wind energy...and he has a company Clean Energy to sell Compressed natural Gas for Fleet use...

Orange county California runs the Bus system using CNG....from his source...

Also the Long Beach Harbor has a Fuel Station..

News:

T. Boone Pickens' $2 Billion Bet on Wind Energy

************************EXCERPT******************

By Jennifer Yousfi

T. Boone Pickens made his fortune in oil. But now the Dallas oilman and famed former corporate raider is betting $2 billion that he can have the same success with a new source of energy - wind.

Pickens’ Mesa Power LLP yesterday (Thursday) unveiled the first phase of an eventual $10 billion alternative energy project that has the potential to become the world’s largest wind farm.

"You find an oilfield, it peaks and starts declining, and you’ve got to find another one to replace it," Pickens, who once operated one of the largest independent oil-and-gas production companies in the country, said of the deal. "It can drive you crazy. With wind, there’s no decline curve."

Mesa Power will purchase 667 wind turbines from General Electric Co. (GE). Each turbine can produce 1.5 megawatts of electricity. The first phase of the project will produce 1,000 megawatts, enough energy to power 300,000 homes. GE will begin delivering the turbines in 2010, and current plans call for the project to start producing power in 2011.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Carbon’s funny stuff. The price goes from about $300/ton to about $35,000,000,000/ton."

Not likely. The earth is literaly bursting at the seams with the stuff. Coal mining is here to stay. The coal mine in Northern Alberta because of it's purity and low sulpher content is used mainly for making carbon electrodes for smelting plant furnaces and a whole lot of other carbon based products.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Nathan Zachary]

"(I’ve worked with hydrogen. I don’t like.) " It used to be that the guys who launched weather balloons to monitor weather had no eyebrows- until they switched to helium filled balloons.

[SpaceBar]

T. Boone isn’t heavily invested in uranium mining or reactor fabricators.

He’ll push what’s profitable for himself.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Yes.. that is great , but, for most people like you and I .. it all comes down to cost... most people are saying ? " How much is this going to cost me and my family ?
If the Hollywoodtards/environmentalist want people to use green tech, then ? why don't they start some kind of foundation ( With their own money.. not the governments ) to help pay for green vehicles/homes for lower income people.

[null and void]

Yeah?

Look bud, I checked the prices before I posted.

Find charcoal at a price significantly different than $300/ton, or premium gem quality natural diamonds at a price significantly different than $6000/carat (2268 carats/pound, 2204 pounds/metric ton - do the math) and get back to me.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

It is possible to do that with solar panels....
To bad the market can't build mini nuclear plants ( kind of like on a nuke aircraft carrier ) for small towns to make electricity and for hydrogen production.

[theBuckwheat]

>>
In 5 to 10 years we’ll have so many proven technologies to choose from we won’t know what to do.
<<

Nothing cures high prices like high prices.

Fuel cells, however, need “fuel”, and the issue then become price which translates to cost per KWh of fuel cell output.

[PapaBear3625]

They'll just refine it better to remove all the sulpher so it doesn't poison the cell.

If the carbon catalyst can be made cheap enough, they won't have to. If it would be cheaper to just replace the catalyst and recycle it with each oil change instead of removing the sulfur from the gasoline, then that's another option

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Yes,...isn't that the way capitalism works...?

And how we got to where we are....

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[SunkenCiv]

“Best Danged Buggy Whip” ping. Thanks Ernest.