The General Assembly of the European Hydrogen Association (EHA) has appointed Ian Williamson as its new President. Ian, who has led Air Products' Hydrogen and Bio Energy Systems business for seven years and was a founding member of the EU Joint Technology Initiative, succeeds Lars Sjunnesson who has led the organisation since 2005.

Promoting hydrogen for over a decade, the EHA has become a key point of reference for EU, national and local decision makers. The Association currently represents the main European companies that are active in the development of hydrogen infrastucture and 19 national hydrogen and fuel cell organisations from across Europe - including the UK Hydrogen Association of which Ian is Vice Chair. In addition, the EHA also hosts the secretariat of HyRaMP, which is the European Regions and Municipalities Partnership for hydrogen and fuel cells. HyRaMP represents more than 30 active regions in the area of hydrogen application deployment..

In his new role, Ian will oversee the EHA's continued promotion of hydrogen as an important energy carrier in a low carbon economy. Utilising its unique membership structure, he will ensure the Association continues to leverage its close-up insight into national and local developments. This enables the EHA to communicate important hydrogen and fuel cell industry issues regarding industrial and regulatory needs to key decision makers at EU level.

"It's crucial that the EU, national and regional governments demonstrate a commitment - backed-up by financial and non-financial incentives - to support the hydrogen and fuel cell industry," commented Ian. "Recent developments such as the EU Competitiveness Council's conclusions on the EU Clean and Energy Efficient Vehicles Strategy, clearly show we're making progress. I'm certain that, with the knowledge and expertise of EHA's members, this momentum will continue build."

SK Energy, Korea's largest refiner, has selected Pennsylvania-based Air Products and Chemicals Inc. to build the largest hydrogen fueling station in Asia.

The station, which will be located in the World Cup Park in Seoul, is Air Product's sixth hydrogen fueling station in South Korea.

The World Cup Park comprises of several smaller parks located beside the World Cup Stadium where the 2002 FIFA World Cup was held. Today, the park is home to several ecofriendly projects like the zero-energy house, which solely operates on solar energy, and other clean energy technologies.

For its new station, Air Products will use its compression, storage and dispensing technology to fuel hydrogen-powered fuel cell buses for public transportation, as well as up to 100 public vehicles.

The station is scheduled to be operational in July this year.

The project will move Seoul one step closer to its goal of generating 10 percent of its energy consumption from renewable energy sources by 2020, with hydrogen accounting for 30 percent of the switch.

In 2009, SK Energy, a subsidiary of SK Group, made news when the South Korean government tapped the company to build the world's first landfill-fuelled hydrogen station in Nanjido Island, which is located on the outskirts of Seoul.

SK Energy (KRX:A096770) is capable of refining 1.12 million barrels of petrochemicals per day, making it the fourth largest refiner in Asia. The company has expanded its business area to include renewable energy technologies like hydrogen, biobutanol and thin-film solar cell.

Meanwhile, Air Products is at the forefront of hydrogen energy technology development, with more than 50 patents in hydrogen-dispensing technology and 50 years of expertise under its belt. Its technology accounts for 175,000 hydrogen fills per year, which is still expected to increase in the coming years due to increasing demand from people seeking for alternative energy sources to offset the use of fossil fuels.
Air Products (NSYE:APD) has successfully installed more than 110 fueling stations in the United States and in 18 other countries worldwide. The company's technology has powered various vehicles such as automobiles, locomotives, planes, submarines and even cell towers.

"Processing a waste stream to make hydrogen for use as an alternative fuel is a direction Air Products, together with its customers, is pursuing to take advantage of underutilized hydrogen sources," said Bob Kelly, business development manager for hydrogen energy systems at Air Products.

Solvay announces today that it has decided to increase its stake in the UK-based fuel cell developer ACAL Energy by investing GBP 1.5 million (EUR 1.75 million). ACAL will use the funds to accelerate the next stage in the development of ACAL Energy's FlowCath platinum-free cathode technology for low cost fuel cell systems.

This technology uses a proprietary low cost liquid catalyst in the cathode instead of the more expensive precious metal catalyst used in the cathode of conventional fuel cells.

Solvay and ACAL Energy are currently preparing to install the world's first demonstration fuel cell system using FlowCath at Solvay Interox's industrial site at Warrington, Cheshire, UK. This installation will be a major step on the commercialization road map for this innovative technology. The project represents an investment of £1.9 million and has been awarded funding by the Technology Strategy Board.

The system is expected to become operational in the second half of 2010 and will consist of three demonstration fuel cell stacks with an electric power of 5 kilowatt per unit. One of the fuel cell stacks will be equipped with membrane electrode assemblies containing Solvay's innovative special polymers. These assemblies are manufactured by SolviCore, a European leader in its field and a 50-50 joint venture of Solvay and Umicore.

"Solvay expects fuel cells to quickly become one of the new important energy conversion technologies. The FlowCath fuel cell in Solvay's Warrington plant gives Solvay and SolviCore an industrial stage to demonstrate the efficiency of their fuel cell technology in view of a significant upscale of this promising technology", comments Leopold Demiddeleer, Executive VP Future Businesses at Solvay.

Fuel cells are a highly efficient and clean energy conversion technology, with a wide variety of applications including remote and distributed power, residential cogeneration, as well as automotive and mobile applications. In fuel cells hydrogen binds with oxygen into water in a catalytic reaction and this reaction produces electrical energy and heat.

ACAL Energy is a developer of a new fuel cell technology that will enable low cost and highly reliable fuel cell systems for a wide variety of applications. The company was founded in August 2004 by FlowCath inventor Dr Andrew Creeth and is headquartered in Runcorn, United Kingdom.

The islands of Aloha are buzzing with tidings of green cars coming to their tropical shores. On May 6, Korean electric car company CT&T unveiled plans to build an electric car production facility in Hawaii. General Motors then announced that Hawaii would be a test site for a modest but significant fuel-cell car project using hydrogen as the fuel source.

These deals joined the ongoing Hawaii effort of Better Place, the highly touted Silicon Valley electric car startup that has raised over $300 million under the guidance of rock-star CEO and former SAP top executive Shai Agassi. While Hawaii still lags Santa Clara County (home of Silicon Valley) in its percentage of hybrid cars on the road, this troika of efforts will make Hawaii one of the new epicenters of green vehicles. Is there something in the water out there?

Actually, that Hawaii is becoming such a hotbed of green car activity is somewhat understandable. Drivers in Hawaii tend not to travel for long distances due to the relatively compact size of most of the islands, and people in the state tend to live closer to their workplaces than people on the U.S. mainland. Better Place has specifically targeted locations that are islands and peninsulas such as Hawaii, Japan and Denmark or that have island-like characteristics in terms of economy and political geography such as Israel as sites for its electric car networks.

For GM's hydrogen fuel-cell car effort, the automaker says it intends to tap into an existing gas pipeline infrastructure and deliver hydrogen through those pipes to gasoline service stations. This would dramatically cut the upfront infrastructure cost. The potential cost of building this type of infrastructure has been one of the key impediments discouraging widespread adoption of fuel-cell technology requiring hydrogen fill-ups.

CT&T's Hawaii announcement is particularly interesting. At present, there are no car manufacturing facilities in Hawaii, likely due to its high real estate prices and the high potential shipping costs of producing goods for export. Indeed, Hawaii has a very small industrial production base. Yet CT&T plans to build 10,000 cars per year there, ostensibly to serve the local market.

With roughly a million cars on the road in Hawaii, CT&T will not have an enormous market to access. That said, CT&T's extremely cost-effective two-seaters that top out at 40 miles per hour seem tailor-made for an environment like Hawaii, with its shorter commutes and limited distances. Indeed, Hawaii residents are already used to seeing similar types of cars on the road: Stripped-down electric vehicles that are basically souped-up golf carts are common sights in the state's capital of Honolulu.

Hawaii will certainly need far more of all these alternative-fuel cars if the state is going to meet its extremely ambitious goal of cutting petroleum use by 70% by 2030.