|
For additional spotlight stories please visit the Archive page.
|
They Followed Fulton with Fuel Cells |
By Lynne Robinson
Posted on: 11/3/2009 12:00:00 AM... Chicago’s O’Hare Airport was not where Will Gathright had planned to get the news.
After roughly nine months of preparation, and the last two weeks embroiled in almost continual troubleshooting, Gathright and his team had hoped he would be positioned on a Hudson River dock to welcome the New Clermont home. Instead, standing in an epicenter of fossil fuel transportation, he heard the voice of the New Clermont’s captain from 800 miles away reporting that the tiny, experimental craft powered by hydrogen had finally completed its journey from Manhattan to Albany, New York.
“Of course, I was ecstatic,” said Gathright, a National Science Foundation IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program) Fellow at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) who was on his way to Vienna to present a paper when the call came. “People in the airport must have thought I was crazy.”
People elsewhere were applauding that, despite some significant challenges, the student crew of the New Clermont had proved its point.
Floating an Idea
Gathright is passionate about the role of science in preserving and protecting the environment. After working for several years at Baxter Healthcare, he decided to refocus his career on clean energy and is currently pursuing a doctorate in fuel cell research in RPI’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Troy, New York. A convergence of historic events gave him the idea in January 2009 to embody his professional interests in a very public demonstration of green technology.
|
|
The New Clermont crew. Seated left to right: Will Gathright, RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson, Natalie Korn, Jennifer Gagner. Standing left to right: Leah Rollhaus, Jason Kumnick, Casey Hoffman. (Click on image to enlarge.)
|
New York was marking both the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of his namesake river, as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s successful launch of the world’s first commercial steamboat, the Clermont. Belching smoke and “shaking the river with its roar,” Fulton’s vessel lacked the aesthetics of the graceful sailing ships of his day, but it more than made up for these shortcomings in speed and efficiency, eradicating any doubts that steam was a viable power source for river transportation. Demonstrating an innovative power source of the current century seemed, to Gathright, the perfect way to mark Fulton’s accomplishment.
“I believe that hydrogen power is an interesting and underexplored option for marine propulsion,” said Gathright, who is also a graduate student liaison for RPI’s Material Advantage chapter. “Today, the technological descendants of the steam engine are ubiquitous in the internal combustion engine. I would like to think that this project would add a small part to the snowballing demand for alternatives.”
Gathright’s concept was straightforward—Build a boat powered by hydrogen fuel cells and then retrace Fulton’s historic journey up the Hudson in roughly the same timeframe. “I tapped a few of my friends and it was easy to get them excited,” said Gathright. “From there, we told anyone and everyone who would listen. The story was compelling enough, and the challenge inspiring enough, that I got a few takers right away.”
One of the first to sign on to Gathright’s project was Jennifer Gagner, a third-year doctoral student in RPI’s Materials Science and Engineering Department and a Material Advantage member. “Will gave a presentation to the department and I came up to him afterward and told him I’d help in any way I could,” said Gagner, whose research focuses on the biological interaction between proteins and metallic nanostructures. “It seemed like a genuinely good cause. It’s not every day that you get the chance to work on something that will be fun and also potentially have a large impact.”
The Pieces Come Together
Christening the undertaking as the “New Clermont Project” after Fulton’s iconic steamboat, Gathright and his team initially focused their efforts on gathering resources. A critical donation was scored in March 2009 when an anonymous benefactor agreed to loan them a boat—a 40-year-old Bristol Caravel fiberglass sloop, measuring 22 feet from aft to bow. Infested with live wasps and mummified fish, the vessel had been sitting in a field on blocks for nearly seven years, with holes drilled in the hull to drain out standing water. Besides the obvious repairs, converting the New Clermont from a sailboat to a powerboat driven by hydrogen fuel cells presented its own set of unique challenges.
|
|
The New Clermont’s GenDrive fuel cell system. (Click on images to enlarge.)
|
|
|
Will Gathright and Leah Rollhaus with the fuel cells onboard the New Clermont.
|
|
|
The New Clermont’s hydrogen tank solution.
|
|
|
Natalie Korn demonstrates alternative energy technology at a local festival.
|
“We encountered a lot of disbelief that this would work, that the boat could carry and move 1,200 pounds of fuel cell technology,” said Gagner.
“Squeezing the fuel cell systems and gas cylinders onto that boat was a challenge,” said Gathright. “Doing everything safely and effectively took a lot of planning.”
For instance, the two GenDrive™ 2.2-kilowatt fuel cell systems loaned to the New Clermont from Plug Power, based in Latham, New York, were designed to power fork lift trucks, not little boats. The 500-pound fuel cells had to be lifted by crane and seated on homemade mounts devised by the New Clermont crew in what used to be the boat’s galley. Four gas storage cylinders were braced horizontally against the walls on either side of the head, and two Minn-Kota motors, modified to accept input from the fuel cell units, took their place where the mast used to be. Airgas, Inc., a national distributor of specialty gases that was donating the hydrogen, built a customized manifold to facilitate refueling from the edge of the boat into the hydrogen tanks.
In addition to raising funds and preparing the boat, the New Clermont team took every opportunity to educate the public about hydrogen and other sustainable fuel technologies. Students who joined the team from RPI’s Lally School of Management built a network of online tools that enabled the interested to follow the project’s every move on a Web site, blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed, and Flickr photo upload. Using a remote-controlled boat powered by a five-watt fuel cell, the crew demonstrated the New Clermont's fuel technology at public festivals and generated excitement about the impending voyage.
Then, less than nine months from Gathright’s initial brainstorm, the New Clermont was ready to set sail.
Rough Currents
The route for the New Clermont had been carefully mapped out, driven largely by the need for docks that could accommodate the boat’s physical needs. “Being a sailboat hull with a deep keel, we needed at least five feet of water to stay afloat, so certain docks along the way weren’t accessible,” said Casey Hoffman, another IGERT Fellow at RPI who is studying fuel cell electrode manufacturing and an experienced boater who had been recruited by Gathright to captain the New Clermont. “The refueling truck also had to get within 50 feet of the boat when it was docked—We just couldn’t pull into any old place.”
The New Clermont’s journey was set to begin on September 21 from Manhattan and end on September 25 in Troy, about 10 miles past Albany, with stops along the way for media and educational events. Like Fulton’s Clermont, the RPI vessel would travel at about five miles per hour in an attempt to show the viability of a new technology for travel and transportation. The similarities between the two voyages ended there. “Unlike Fulton we aren’t burning anything,” said Gathright in a blog post. “The New Clermont is rather more unimposing. Instead of spouting fire, the fuel cell units create only pure water—cleaner even than the river we sail upon.” Another positive difference, said Gagner: “When Fulton started his steamboat, it didn’t work on the first try. We had a much stronger start.”
Not only did the New Clermont start successfully, it ended up traveling significantly ahead of schedule on the first day of its journey.
On the second day, the electric motors failed.
|
|
Casey Hoffman works on a wiring issue. (Click on images to enlarge.)
|
|
|
Welding a solution.
|
|
|
The New Clermont’s reconfigured motor controller.
|
“While we didn't have the equipment to do a root-cause analysis, we did measure some higher than expected voltages across our motor,” said Gathright. “That caused our motor controller to fail due to an over voltage.”
“Giving up wasn’t an option,” said Hoffman. “We had put in so much work, so we were going to do every last thing to make it up the river.”
For three long days, recalled Hoffman, the team put their “lives and classes on hold” to figure out how to get the New Clermont out of the dock and back on its journey. After several unsuccessful workarounds, the team finally replaced the standard electric motor controller in an undamaged trolling motor with a 60 amp electric motor drive rated for 24 volts and configured to accelerate to maximum propeller speed over five seconds to protect the motor from any potential faults or high currents. A large headsink and direct current fan were also installed to prevent overheating of the unit. If this didn’t work, a “final solution,” as Hoffman termed it, was to couple a golf cart motor to the shaft of an old gasoline outboard. “Fortunately, we never had to go that far,” he said.
“Devices engineered for one application often don’t play well with others,” blogged Gathright about the New Clermont’s technical difficulties. “This situation showcases an interesting duality inherent in the hydrogen economy. The technology is here today and it works. It is the endless permutations and the unimagined combinations of these technologies that can introduce quirks. . . It is important to remember just how many hundreds of millions of engineer hours have been spent refining the existing technologies before dismissing any emerging ones.”
Down to one trolling motor, the New Clermont made slow, but steady progress up the Hudson. “It wasn't exactly as planned, but the team did an excellent job coming up with solutions on the fly,” said Gathright. “That last week we had very few resources of any type: money, parts, equipment, and sleep.”
A Watching World
Despite the technical delays, word had spread about what the New Clermont was trying to accomplish. Scientific American followed their progress in a five-part online series and newspapers as far away as Ethiopia told their tale. “I could not believe how much people already knew about us,” Hoffman said. “We would stop at marinas and people would show up to meet us, saying ‘We saw you on the news.’ ‘We’re following you on your Web site.’ ‘Can I climb in and see the hydrogen tanks?’ They were interested and understood what we were trying to do. Our message was actually getting out there.”
“We were not just trying to get the word out about hydrogen feasibility,” said Gagner. “We were also trying to get across the need to be more conservative and responsible—generally thinking about energy in a new way. When things were getting rough, we knew people were watching us, so it made us very averse to giving up.”
|
|
Albany at last. (Click on image to enlarge.)
|
The weather had turned cold, at this point, and the New Clermont crew was fighting strong winds, bone-chilling rain, and occasional snowflakes, as well as the uncertainty of the reconfigured motor. Finally, 12 days after it launched from Manhattan, the New Clermont inched past the Port of Albany and docked in Troy, propelled the entire way by hydrogen.
In a bittersweet twist on the accomplishment, the delays in the journey meant that Gathright not only missed the New Clermont’s homecoming, but wasn’t able to return from his conference until after the boat had been completely dismantled. The hydrogen fuel cell systems were returned to Plug Power and the New Clermont, said Hoffman, “was turned back into an old sailboat,” and parked in the field once more.
It may take months or even years to assess the New Clermont’s impact on public perception of hydrogen power, although Gathright is hopeful. “In the future, perhaps someone will hear of a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car or computer and remember that they saw this project, that it was safe and effective, and they will be more familiar and less afraid than they would have otherwise been,” he said.
The impression that the New Clermont has made on its crew, however, has been immediate and lasting. Said Gathright. “I've learned that sometimes you have to have faith that you'll be able to learn what you can and attract people who know what you don't.”
Gagner echoed his observations, offering this advice to others who would embark on a similar project: “As long as you know that things will work out, don’t cave when other people tell you that they won’t. You have to believe that your team can pull it off.”
Lynne Robinson is the news and feature writer for Materials Technology@TMS.
All images used in this article were provided courtesy of the New Clermont Project/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
For additional spotlight stories please visit the Archive page.
|