Ex-BMW development chief Dr. Herbert Diess to take over as Chairman of Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand

9 December 2014

The Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG has unanimously appointed Dr. Herbert Diess—formerly the Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Development—as a full member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG effective 1 October 2015. In his capacity as a member of the Group Board of Management, Diess will take over as Chairman of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand from Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, who will remain Chairman of the Group Board of Management.

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Dr. Diess left BMW at the end of September, to be replaced by Klaus Fröhlich.

In the context of Diess’ appointment, the Volkswagen Group is setting up the new function of “Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Passenger Cars” in the Group Board of Management.

With Herbert Diess we will be welcoming an outstanding personality and one of the most capable minds in the automotive industry to our Company. At the same time, this step puts the executive management of both the Group and the brand on an even broader footing.

Sandia study finds underground geologic storage of hydrogen could boost transportation, energy security

9 December 2014

Salt caverns such as the one depicted here could provide a low-cost solution for the geologic storage of hydrogen. The colors in the illustration represent depth, with blue as the deepest part of the cavern and red the most shallow. (Image courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories) Click to enlarge.

Underground large-scale geologic storage of hydrogen for transportation fuel and grid-scale energy applications could offer substantial storage cost reductions as well as buffer capacity to meet possible disruptions in supply or changing seasonal demands, according to a recent Sandia National Laboratories study sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Fuel Cell Technologies Office.

Geologic storage of hydrogen gas could make it economically possible to produce and distribute large quantities of hydrogen fuel for a growing fuel cell electric vehicle market. The main findings of the economic analysis, published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, show that geologic limitations rather than city demand cause a larger disparity between costs from one city to the next.

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The study, said Sandia’s Anna Snider Lord, the principal investigator, could provide a roadmap for further research and demonstration activities, such as an examination of environmental issues and geologic formations in major metropolitan areas that can hold gas. Researchers could then determine whether hydrogen gas mixes with residual gas or oil, reacts with minerals in the surrounding rock or poses any environmental concerns.

Should the market demands for hydrogen fuel increase with the introduction of fuel cell electric vehicles, the US will need to produce and store large amounts of cost-effective hydrogen from domestic energy sources, such as natural gas, solar and wind, said Daniel Dedrick, Sandia hydrogen program manager.

As automakers move ahead with plans to develop and sell or lease hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, practical storage of hydrogen fuel at large scale is necessary to enable widespread hydrogen-powered transportation infrastructure. Such storage options, Dedrick said, are needed to realize the full potential of hydrogen for transportation.

Additionally, installation of electrolyzer systems on electrical grids for power-to-gas applications, which integrate renewable energy, grid services and energy storage will require large-capacity, cost-effective hydrogen storage.

Storage above ground requires tanks, which cost three to five times more than geologic storage, Lord said. In addition to cost savings, underground storage of hydrogen gas offers advantages in volume. The massive quantities of hydrogen that are stored in geologic features can subsequently be distributed as a high-pressure gas or liquid to supply hydrogen fuel markets.

While geologic storage may prove to be a viable option, several issues need to be explored, said Lord, including permeability of various geologic formations.

Lord and her colleagues analyzed and reworked the geologic storage module of Argonne National Laboratory’s Hydrogen Delivery Scenario Analysis Model. To help refine the model, Lord studied storing hydrogen in salt caverns to meet peak summer driving demand for four cities: Los Angeles, Houston, Pittsburgh and Detroit.

She determined that 10% above the average daily demand for 120 days should be stored. She then modeled how much hydrogen each city would need if hydrogen met 10, 25 and 100 percent of its driving fuel needs.

Los Angeles has three times the population of Detroit and more than six and a half times the population of Pittsburgh, but the nearest salt formations are in Arizona, so Lord included the cost of getting the stored hydrogen from Arizona to Los Angeles.

Even so, Los Angeles’ modeled costs are significantly less than those for Detroit and Pittsburgh. Salt formations in Arizona are thicker than those for Detroit and Pittsburgh, with larger and fewer caverns. Houston has the best conditions of the four cities because the Gulf Coast offers large, deep salt formations.

To examine the cost of geologic hydrogen storage, Lord started by selecting geologic formations that currently store natural gas. Working with Sandia economist Peter Kobos, Lord analyzed costs to store hydrogen gas in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, aquifers, salt caverns and hard rock caverns.

Other fuels are already stored geologically. Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, for example, is held in large man-made caverns along the Gulf Coast. Natural gas is stored in more than 400 geologic sites to meet winter heating demands.

Lord envisions that excess hydrogen produced throughout the year could be brought to geologic storage sites and then piped to cities during the summer, when the demand for driving fuels peaks.

Although depleted oil and gas reservoirs and aquifers initially seem the most economically attractive options, hydrogen gas is a challenging substance to store as it is a smaller molecule than methane. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs and aquifers could leak hydrogen, and cycling—filling a storage site, pulling hydrogen out for use and refilling the site—can’t be done more than once or twice a year to preserve the integrity of the rock formation, Lord said.

Salt caverns or hard rock caverns have no permeability issues. Hard rock caverns are relatively unproven; only one site holds natural gas. But salt caverns, which are created 1,000 to 6,000 feet below ground by drilling wells in salt formations, pumping in undersaturated water to dissolve the salt, then pumping out the resulting brine, are used more extensively and already store hydrogen on a limited scale, Lord said.

Lord said her work could lead to demonstration projects to further cement the viability of underground hydrogen storage. Salt caverns are the logical choice for a pilot project due to their proven ability to hold hydrogen, she said. Environmental concerns such as contamination could also be further analyzed.

However, salt formations are limited. None exist in the Pacific Northwest, much of the East Coast and much of the South, except for the Gulf Coast area. Other options are needed for development of a nationwide hydrogen storage system.

Lord’s work adds to Sandia’s capabilities and decades of experience in hydrogen and fuel cells systems. Sandia leads a number of other hydrogen research efforts, including the Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Research and Station Technology (H₂FIRST) project co-led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a maritime fuel cell demonstration, a development project focused on hydrogen-powered forklifts and a recent study of how many California gas stations can safely store and dispense hydrogen.

Resources

• Anna S. Lord, Peter H. Kobos, David J. Borns (2014) “Geologic storage of hydrogen: Scaling up to meet city transportation demands,” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 39, Issue 28, Pages 15570-15582 doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.07.121

Samsung Ventures invests in Li-poly battery company Seeo; targeting 400 Wh/kg product

9 December 2014

Seeo, a developer of advanced lithium polymer batteries, has closed its largest funding round to date, and added Samsung Ventures Investment Corporation. Earlier investors Khosla Ventures and GSR Ventures also participated in the round. The invested capital will be used to accelerate the commercialization of Seeo’s high energy density advanced lithium polymer batteries. (Earlier post.)

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Seeo enables the production of safer batteries by replacing the flammable liquid electrolytes of conventional lithium-ion cells with Seeo’s DryLyte solid polymer electrolyte that is non-flammable and non-volatile. These enhanced safety characteristics, combine with high energy density. Currently, Seeo has cells cycling with an energy density of 350 Wh/kg, with a future target of 400 Wh/kg, roughly twice the level of batteries used in today’s EVs.

Among its current products, SEEO offers DryLyte Automotive Packs employing the Seeo DryLyte 1.6 kWh module as the basic building block. Scalable in voltage and capacity, the DryLyte Automotive Pack can be configured to meet a variety of requirements. The pack achieves 130 Wh/kg.

Originally developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with sponsorship from the US Department of Energy, DryLyte products are safer, lighter and longer lasting than competitive Lithium ion batteries. Seeo has an exclusive license to core patents from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and has more than 40 issued, exclusively licensed and pending patent applications.

New Enevate silicon-dominant composite anode for high energy density Li-ion batteries for mobile devices; claims roadmap to 1000 Wh/L

9 December 2014

Enevate Corporation has introduced its HD-Energy Technology for Li-ion batteries. The silicon-dominant composite anode, which offers four times the energy density of conventional graphite anodes, enables high energy density rechargeable Li-ion polymer cells. Enevate Corporation, based in Irvine, California, is focused on delivering advanced Li-ion batteries into smartphones, tablets, ultra-thin/hybrid notebook PCs, and wearable devices.

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We have developed very high energy density Li-ion cells for mass production with our new HD-Energy Technology utilizing silicon-dominant anodes. This new and different approach allows us to realize a roadmap to over 1000 Wh/L volumetric energy density which is very exciting to differentiate mobile consumer applications.

Enevate is using a unique technical approach for silicon anodes that is truly different and innovative to deliver high energy density Li-ion batteries. I’m impressed that their technology and process is practical, highly manufacturable, and can be sufficiently inexpensive for high volume consumer electronics.

The self-standing, flexible, and conductive anodes are composed of majority silicon in a complex micromatrix composite that is 100% active and contains no inactive or “dead space” binders and is engineered for high volume manufacturing. The HD-Energy Technology delivers a high capacity monolithic or “single-particle” anode which enables cell designs today up to 700-800 Wh/L core energy density with cycle life similar to graphite cells, the company says.

Competitive approaches using silicon nanowires or nanoparticles are difficult and expensive to manufacture in high volume, Enevate claims. Others using silicon oxide (SiO) as a dilute additive in graphite anodes do not deliver enough performance improvement.

Enevate’s custom cell designs using HD-Energy Technology also have very low AC impedance or internal resistance, typically less than half that of graphite cells. Utilizing available cathodes, separators, and electrolytes in today’s Li-ion ecosystem, Enevate’s Li-ion batteries are designed to meet UN, UL, and CTIA safety certifications. Enevate’s HD-Energy Technology delivers combined attributes ideal for use in sleek mobile devices to deliver more runtime, enable new energy-hungry features, and allow for thinner product designs.

Enevate investors include Mission Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Tsing Capital, Infinite Potential Technologies, Presidio Ventures – a Sumitomo Corporation company, and CEC Capital.

500,000th Mercedes-Benz passenger car rolls off production line in Beijing; about half in last two years

9 December 2014

The 500,000^th locally produced Mercedes-Benz passenger car, a long-wheelbase C-Class model, has rolled off the production lines at Daimler’s Sino-German production joint-venture Beijing Benz Automotive Co., Ltd. (BBAC), marking yet another milestone in Mercedes-Benz’s increasing local footprint in China. About half of these vehicles have been manufactured just within the last two years, highlighting the rapid growth that the production site has recently experienced.

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Continuous investment in localization is one of our key growth drivers for Mercedes-Benz’s future in China, and it is clear proof of our confidence in and dedication to this strategically important market. Going forward, we are determined to pick up the pace even more as we just signed a 1 billion Euro agreement with our partner for the localization of further compact car models. BBAC is undoubtedly on its path to become the largest Mercedes-Benz passenger car plant worldwide.

BBAC, a joint venture between Daimler and its Chinese partner BAIC Motor, has produced Mercedes-Benz cars since 2006 and engines since 2013. Last year, around 120,000 vehicles rolled off the Beijing-based production lines, accounting for approximately one-half of Mercedes-Benz’s total sales volume in China. This figure is expected to grow significantly by the end of next year, based on production capacities reaching well beyond 200,000 units.

The all-new long-wheelbase C-Class will significantly contribute to this in its first full-year after its launch this August, and the localized GLA compact SUV will, from early 2015 on, support as an additional growth driver. The constant growth of BBAC is backed by strong funding: the two shareholders are jointly investing €4 billion (US$4.95 billion) in the company through 2015.

About €400 million (US$495 million) has been spent solely on the first ever Mercedes-Benz passenger car engine plant outside of Germany. Inaugurated about a year ago, it marks another important milestone in Mercedes-Benz’s localization strategy. The facility produces 4- and 6-cylinder engines for locally produced passenger cars and vans built by Daimler’s local joint venture Fujian Benz Automotive Co., Ltd. (FBAC). The production line has been designed for flexibility, with an annual capacity of 250,000 units for the first phase. Higher numbers will be planned in line with the ongoing growth in unit sales.

This summer BBAC inaugurated an all-new RD Center, the largest of Daimler’s joint venture RD centers in the world. A team of about 180 experts is working on vehicle related series projects, component and vehicle testing and supporting all production tests as well as localization. The facility has various test laboratories and benches, such as for engines, emissions, and climate corrosion, and a proving ground. An endurance and analysis workshop is also on-site, as are laboratories for the quality teams. In Mercedes-Benz’s first prototype workshop outside Germany, offline try outs for homologation, training, and fitment tests are prepared.

Achates Power secures fifth OEM contract for opposed-piston 2-stroke CI engines; 3-cylinder configurations under test

9 December 2014

Achates Power, Inc., the developer of a family of efficient compression-ignition opposed-piston two-stroke (OP2S) engines (earlier post) has secured another contract with a leading global OEM. With this contract, the company has five concurrent customers the contracts for which encompass five different engine applications: passenger vehicle, light commercial vehicle, heavy commercial vehicle, military and marine/stationary power.

Achates Power’s engine allows OEMs to achieve the most stringent current and future fuel efficiency and emissions standards—including EPA 2010, Euro 6 and Tier 3/LEV 3—without additional cost or complexity. During 2014, Achates Power’s annual revenue has increased by more than 300%. The company has customers located in the US, Japan, Europe, China and India and its current engine programs range from 45 hp to more than 5,000 hp.

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Schematic of the combustion system with plumes from two side-mounted injectors. Source: Achates Power. Click to enlarge.

OP2S diesel engines, as optimized by Achates, offer several efficiency advantages compared to a conventional, four-stroke diesel engine: reduced heat losses; leaner combustion; and faster and earlier combustion at the same pressure rise rate.

Achates Power developed a proprietary combustion system comprising two identical pistons coming together to form an elongated ellipsoidal combustion volume in which the injectors are located at the end of the long axis.

This combustion system enables:

• High turbulence, mixing and air utilization with both swirl and tumble charge motion with the high turbulent kinetic energy available at the time of auto ignition.

• Ellipsoidal combustion chamber resulting in air entrainment into the spray plumes from two sides.

• Inter-digitated, mid-cylinder penetration of fuel plumes enabling larger λ=1 iso-surfaces.

• Excellent control at lower fuel flow rates because of two small injectors instead of a single higher flow rate.

• Multiple injection events and optimization flexibility with strategies such as injector staggering and rate-shaping.

There is no direct fuel spray impingement on the piston walls and minimal flame-wall interaction during combustion. This improves performance and emissions with fewer hot spots on the piston surfaces to further reduce heat losses.

The preferred air system combines a supercharger and a turbocharger.

Primary challenges of OP2S engines that Achates Power addressed included finding an effective way to reduce oil consumption; increase piston compression ring life; manage the thermal loads on the piston and liner; and support 200+ bar cylinder pressures at the wrist pin.

Within 2014, the company has tested two different three-cylinder engines in its dyno test cells. These new engine test results validated the company’s single-cylinder test results and multi-cylinder engine projections with results proving a 32% increase in the thermal efficiency versus production medium-duty diesel engines. To date, Achates Power’s engine technology has been proven in over 6,000 hours of dyno testing.

The Achates Power opposed-piston, two-stroke engine has demonstrated a cycle-weighted average brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of 41.8% with engine hardware and calibration that are still in an early stage of development. Higher engine thermal efficiencies will be achieved through hardware and calibration improvements, some of which are unique to the Achates Power engine architecture and some of which are industry-wide advancements.

In 2014 alone, the company has accumulated more than 1,000 dyno hours of testing and presented its engine results at 11 industry-specific conferences around the globe, including SAE World Congress, SAE Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress and the International Engine Congress. Achates Power also secured six new US patents and 13 new foreign patents, bring the patent portfolio to more than 1,800 unique innovations, 61 global patents and an additional 90 pending applications.

Given the increasing demand from the global automotive industry, Achates Power has expanded its business development team to enable a regional focus in China, Europe and India. In addition, the company has added 15 people to provide technical development support to meet its growing customer and RD demands.

To accommodate this growth, it has opened an additional office in San Diego. Achates Power expects to continue to hire employees in the next year as the company adds customers and advances its engine technology.

The engine performance test results we’ve shared with OEMs, media and industry, are accelerating all our activities and we are seeing this acceleration from all market segments and all regions of the world. For example, for passenger vehicles, we presented at the SAE World Congress in April that our engines will deliver a 30 percent increase in mpg, while meeting next generation emissions standards in comparison to an advanced diesel engine and an 86 percent mpg increase versus a production gasoline engine.

In September of this year, Achates Power raised more than $10 million in a Series D round of funding, bringing the company’s cumulative funding to more than $100 million. Achates Power is using this additional funding to continue its research and development programs, ensuring that the company stays at the forefront of Opposed-Piston engine technology.

Resources

• Gerhard Regner, John Koszewnik, Laurence Fromm and Zoltan Bako (2014) “Achieving the Most Stringent CO₂ Commercial Truck Standards with Opposed Piston Engine,” (Heavy-Duty, On-und Off-Highway Engines 2014 9^th International MTZ Conference)