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I wrote
a test report some while ago about a Duffy-Herreshoff 30 (“Picnic
Passage,” July 2002), a classic electric launch with an internal-combustion-type
generator/battery/electric-motor powerplant roughly analogous to those
found in today’s hybrid electric cars. The futuristic Herreshoff
made an impressive sea-trial showing. Among other things, her battery-charging
Northern Lights genset boosted her half-throttle operating range by almost
50 percent, from approximately 65 miles under electric power alone to
something like 95 miles in hybrid mode. Compelling stuff from the marine-technology
standpoint, for sure.
But
after the trial, something truly wild happened. I discovered during a
plant tour that the little company was stealthily working on a hydrogen
fuel-cell-powered version of the 30, perhaps with a tank of compressed
hydrogen as a fuel source—or maybe with something else, something
so radical no one would even talk about it.
I subsequently
tracked the project with a hound dog’s diligence, and recently the
folks at Duffy let me know they’d be introducing a fuel-cell-powered
Herreshoff at the World Maritime Technology Exposition in San Francisco.
The boat would transport attendees around the bay, thereby validating
Duffy’s developmental efforts as well as the efforts of other contributors.
These include Anuvu Fuel Cell Products, which had contributed an 8-hp
PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel-cell “stack” to the project;
Millennium Cell, which had contributed a Hydrogen-on-Demand system (the
“radical something” the folks at Duffy had refused to talk about);
and a host of other players and payers, including California State University
at Long Beach, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation,
and an outfit called Seaworthy Systems, noted for its expertise in marine
engineering, naval architecture, and overall marine project oversight.
A week
before the Herreshoff hit the road for San Francisco, I spent a day onboard,
examining the powerplant and exercising it on the waterways of Newport
Beach, California, Duffy’s homeport. Because I arrived extra early
at Duffy’s waterfront facility, I decided to find the test boat on
my own, there being nobody else around to guide me at the time. My plan
shortly began to falter, though. The fuel cell Duffy was darn near impossible
to locate because she looked so much like the 20 or so other Duffys on
hand. Finally, however, I stumbled across a Herreshoff with two little
differences: a clear Plexiglas engine hatch instead of a fiberglass one,
and a VHF-size, helm-mounted touchpad.
I peered
through the hatch like a sorcerer’s apprentice looking into a crystal
ball, examining an array of components that resembled the parts of a souped-up,
stainless steel air conditioning unit. I was scratching my head and mumbling
to myself when the three guys who’d been closest to the development
and construction of the boat arrived: Marshall Duffield, president of
Duffy Boats; Lyn Cowgill, R&D president for Anuvu Fuel Cell; and Mike
Strizki, senior lead scientist for Millennium Cell. We opened the hatch,
and Cowgill began telling me about “the next generation in marine
propulsion technology.”
Our
test boat was equipped with four 15-pound Anuvu Power-X fuel cells, each
capable of generating 1.5 kW, or the equivalent of 2 hp. They were assembled
side by side into a 60-pound, 8-hp fuel-cell stack and positioned against
the forward engine room bulkhead. Heavy-gauge wiring interconnected the
negative terminal of the stack, the positive terminal of the stack, a
20-hp electric motor in the bottom of the boat (linked to a three-blade
prop), a rheostat-type speed control (throttle), and an energy-stowage
bank of eight Trojan batteries—half the number found on the hybrid
version, which emphasizes batteries over internal combustion for power.
The
PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) cells in our stack worked like others of
the type. Hydrogen gas entered on the anodic (negative) side, splitting
into two hydrogen ions and two electrons, thanks to a platinum catalyst
bonded to a special, semipermeable membrane. The ions moved through the
membrane and gathered on the cathodic side, creating a positive charge
there and leaving the negatively charged electrons behind. Voltage ensued
due to the charge difference across the membrane.
Next page >
Part 2: Sound levels were generally lower than the hybrid’s, and operating
efficiencies were higher. > Page 1, 2,
3, 4, 5,
6, 7
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