The early bird registration deadline for Fuel Cells Science & Technology 2010 ends tomorrow.
Don’t forget to reserve your place, register now.

Fuel Cells Science & Technology 2010 will be held 6-7 October in Zaragoza , the capital city of the Zaragoza province, Spain. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers and technologists working on fuel cell developments from across the globe. They will have the opportunity to address the key scientific, engineering and technology challenges underpinning this innovation.  Attendance will benefit all those interested in or affected by the key research and development issues facing fuel cell science and technology.

Conference fees

Early Bird¹ Registration: €815 +16% VAT = €845.40
Conference Registration €900 +16% VAT = €1044
Registration for Students² :€395 +16% VAT = €458.20
¹The early bird deadline is 31 July, 2010.
²Student registration forms must be accompanied by a signed letter from your head of department attesting to student status

Topics and Themes

• Fuels, Infrastructure and Fuel Processing
• Modelling and Control
• Materials for Fuel Cells
• Fuel Cell Systems and Applications
• Fuel Cell Electrochemistry
• Cell and Stack Technology

The conference will be comprised of keynote lectures, plenary presentations, concurrent submitted oral presentations, interactive poster sessions as well as presentation of the Grove Medal.

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Peabody Energy is the world’s largest coal company, still growing in Australia, and an innovative provider of low-cost energy. Our mission is to be a leading worldwide producer and supplier of sustainable energy solutions.

In Australia, Peabody Energy Australia has nine operations located in Queensland and New South Wales and is an active coal trader in all major coal regions. Our Australian operations currently employ more than 3,500 highly skilled people, all of whom are helping us to achieve our goals of being a long-term participant in the Australian coal industry – powering economic prosperity and delivering a better quality of life.

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Department of Energy

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Helps Save Fuel, Swiss Study Finds

Science (June 22, 2010) — Automobile air conditioning systems do not run “free of charge.” In fact in the hot parts of the world they can account for up to thirty per cent of fuel consumption. Even in Switzerland, with its temperate climate, the use of air conditioning systems is responsible for about five per cent of total fuel usage, rising to around ten per cent in urban traffic, as shown by a new study undertaken by Empa on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). Furthermore, two thirds of the additional fuel usage could be saved if air conditioning systems were simply turned off when the air temperature falls below 18 degrees Celsius.

Car air conditioning systems require energy to compress the cooling agent, and the greater the degree of cooling required the more energy (i.e. fuel) they use. Little known, however, is the fact that these systems also used fuel when the outside air temperature is cooler than in the vehicle. For this reason the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) gave Empa the task of investigating in detail the fuel consumption of six modern cars — both diesel and petrol models — with their air conditioning systems switched on and off under varying ambient temperatures and humidities.

The study, the results of which have just been published in the scientific journal “Environmental Science and Technology,” shows that the fuel consumption of the test vehicles with air conditioning systems in operation increases with rising ambient air temperature and humidity, reaching a value of some 18 per cent on a typical Swiss summer day with an air temperature of 27 degrees and relative humidity of 60 per cent. In addition, the researchers noted that the air conditioning systems in cars with automatic transmissions (which today are the most widely sold models) only turn themselves off when the external temperature drops below 5 degrees, when the cooling system could ice-up. This occurs because air conditioning systems not only cool the air before blowing it into the vehicle interior but also dry it, so as to avoid causing condensation on the front windscreen when it rains, among other reasons. This is of course perfectly sensible and important for safe driving, but only when the air humidity is high, and not all the time — as is currently the case.

Using the standard climate model defined by the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA, Bern^*) and allowing for the measured increase in consumption (plus the use of the vehicle during the day), the average annual extra consumption of a petrol-engined car works out to 5.4 per cent. Differentiating between urban, suburban and motorway driving gives additional fuel usage values of 10, 2.8 and 1.3 per cent respectively.

It is known from physiological studies that the average driver feels comfortably warm when the air temperature around the head is 23 degrees. This means that if the outside temperature is below 18°C the car’s air conditioning system could be turned off without any loss of comfort. For the petrol-engined vehicles investigated this would represent a saving of some two-thirds of the additional fuel usage, which is after all 3.6 per cent of the total consumption. When the outside temperature is higher, it is advisable to keep the air conditioning switched on since otherwise the heat may affect the driver’s concentration and reduce safety.

With the diesel fuelled vehicles tested, the additional consumption due to the use of air conditioning, particularly for urban driving, is somewhat lower (2.7 per cent in total). The individual values for urban, suburban and motorway driving in this case are 4.5, 2.3 and 1.2 per cent respectively. The potential saving possible through switching off the air conditioning unit when the outside temperature falls below 18 degrees remains, however, two thirds of the additional consumption for the diesel vehicles tested.

If the entire Swiss automobile fleet is evaluated — that is, including vehicles without air conditioning systems as well as older models with inefficient compressor units — then a figure of 3.1 per cent of additional consumption is arrived at, assuming all air conditioning units are in use over the whole year. This drops to 1 per cent if air conditioning units are switched off when the ambient air temperature falls below 18 degrees. This simple measure could therefore result in a reduction in total fuel consumption of some two per cent across the whole country.

^* The SIA standard climate model contains hourly weather data such as temperature and relative humidity over a compete year and is used by architects to calculate insulation and heating requirements for buildings.

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