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A Northwestern University team has demonstrated a remarkable new way to generate electricity, with a paperback-sized device that nestles in soil and harvests power created as microbes break down dirt – for as long as there’s carbon in the soil.

Microbial fuel cells, as they’re called, have been around for more than 100 years. They work a little like a battery, with an anode, cathode and electrolyte – but rather than drawing electricity from chemical sources, they work with bacteria that naturally donate electrons to nearby conductors as they chow down on soil.

The road ahead has not gotten much easier for fuel cell cars, but trucks are a different matter. Just a couple of weeks ago, Isuzu and Honda kicked off a months-long road test of their GIGA FUEL CELL heavy-duty truck, ahead of a commercial launch anticipated in 2027. They better act fast, because more fuel cell trucks are headed for the highways this year.

This two-day event will convene stakeholders from industry, academia, national laboratories, and government to explore strategies to develop and demonstrate clean hydrogen storage, delivery, and dispensing infrastructure in three high-impact sectors:

In a valuable contribution to ongoing research projects on development of innovative bipolar plate designs for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, scientists from the University of Seville and the Paul Scherrer Institute have published two papers, one in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energies, and one in Electrochimica Acta.

Hydrogen will play a crucial role in decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors, enable the at-scale transport of energy to resource-constrained regions, and enable a clean and resilient energy system. Its deployment is at an inflection point – on one hand there are tailwinds such as a growing and gradually maturing pipeline of projects and supportive decarbonization regulation. On the other hand, there are headwinds: cost increases, project delays, continued regulatory uncertainty, and higher financing costs.

North America is desperate for hydrogen breakthroughs, and GH Power’s new renewable energy technology is one of the latest. The technology uses exothermic reactions with only two inputs (end of life or recycled aluminum and water) to create three extremely valuable green outputs: hydrogen, alumina (aluminum oxide), and exothermic heat.

First Hydrogen will own all intellectual property developed during and in relation with the partnership, which shall be used for the sole purpose of manufacturing the Battery.

The Company’s engineering team and automotive partners have determined that the new battery system being developed and designed will have greater efficiency and increased performance for its hydrogen-powered-fuel-cell-vehicles (FCEV).

A team from HMC(KIA), led by Hyunsoo Sohn, the head of the Energy Materials Research Group at Hyundai Motor Group, visited Nexceris for the signing ceremony and project kickoff meeting on October 24, 2023.

The project plans to integrate HMC’s technologies and Nexceris’ expertise in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC)/SOEC manufacturing along with extensive single cell testing for Solid Oxide Cells (SOCs).

Platinum is scarce and expensive. Tsun-Kong Sham and Ali Feizabadi at Western University describe their cutting edge research that aims to replace much of the platinum. Their cobalt-doped palladium-platinum core-shell solution is much cheaper, yet maintains the performance and durability of the original. That’s why it has the potential to revolutionise fuel cell technology, say the authors.

This system will make its debut for North America in a version of the Honda CR-V—set to be Ohio-built starting in 2024. The hydrogen CR-V follows the Clarity Fuel Cell, which was introduced with the last-generation fuel-cell stack from Honda, in 2017.