Honda unveils next-generation FCX fuel cell concept vehicle

Honda's new FCX fuel cell concept vehicle, unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show, is a stylish sedan featuring a redesigned fuel cell system that delivers more power and increased range in less space than the current FCX 2005 model on the road, and a low-floor design that maximizes cabin space.

Honda's new fuel cell stack is compact enough to fit neatly into the center tunnel but robust enough to deliver 100kW of power. It takes advantage of gravity to discharge water formed during electricity generation. This improves cold-weather startup, which had been a key obstacle to the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles. The FCX-V Concept drive train powers all four wheels, which combined with the low-center-of-gravity platform delivers torquey performance and agile handling.

To increase the driving range, Honda engineers chose not to increase storage tank pressure, but to use a newly-developed hydrogen absorption material, with which the tanks supply enough hydrogen to extend the cruising range to 560 kilometers (350 miles) - exceeding the DOE's range target for 2010. By contrast, the current FCX 2005 model offers a range of 190 miles.

Honda also unveiled its current model of the Home Energy Station (HES), a home cogeneration and fueling system that uses natural gas to supply electricity and heat in addition to hydrogen fuel for vehicles. In addition to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by some 40%, the HES system is expected to lower by 50% the total running cost of household electricity, gas and vehicle fuel.

(2005-10-20 13:22:46 SGT) [Tech] Permalink

Southeast Asia faces diverse energy challenges : Morgan Stanley

peakoil.com -> news.yahoo.com, sunstar.com.ph :

Southeast Asian economies are facing diverse challenges in coping with high oil prices, among them removing costly fuel subsidies and attracting investments into the energy sector, US investment bank Morgan Stanley said in a report. Regional economies must also improve energy efficiency and cut a heavy dependence on imported oil.

Malaysia appears best placed to benefit from rising oil prices after consistently remaining a net oil exporter, but fuel subsidies are eating up gains. The country has improved energy efficiency and moved away from a heavy reliance on oil, while its investments in exploration and production activities have boosted oil exports.

The bank highlighted the need for Indonesia to substantially increase investments in oil exploration as current production is sourced mainly from its ageing fields, and warned that Indonesia runs the risk of becoming a permanent net oil importer.

Singapore's vulnerability to oil shocks is "exaggerated because oil bunkering trade is counted as domestic consumption and refined oil exports to Indonesia are not properly captured," the bank said. Singapore is a major global bunkering port - it sells fuel to ships on anchor here. Morgan Stanley said Singapore is an "efficient oil user", with oil consumption estimtated at 4-5.5% of GSP this year.

Greenspan on Peak Oil

energybulletin.net, peakoil.com :

"New technologies to more fully exploit existing conventional oil reserves will emerge in the years ahead. Moreover, innovation is already altering the power source of motor vehicles, and much research is directed at reducing gasoline requirements. We will begin the transition to the next major sources of energy, perhaps before midcentury, as production from conventional oil reservoirs, according to central-tendency scenarios of the U.S. Department of Energy, is projected to peak."

Ford VP : Oil production is peaking

energybulletin.net :

In a keynote address to the Society of Automotive Engineers' "Global Leadership Conference at The Greenbrier," Mark Fields, Ford executive vice president and president of the Americas, noted that the auto industry faces seven specific and serious challenges, one of them being that oil production is peaking.

The SAE Greenbrier conference, first held in 1950, is an annual event attended by automakers, suppliers and business leaders.

(2005-10-20 12:36:41 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Dynamic bean sorting

Biow was asking for a way to dynamically sort an ArrayList of bean objects. The beans are your typical JavaBeans with private attributes and getter/setter methods for each attribute. The JDK Collections.sort() method provides for a custom Comparator that you can implement yourself, but it gets tedious very quickly to have to write a bunch of Comparators to sort each field and also having to take into account ascending/descending order.

I had something in mind about using reflection to dynamically invoke the getter method, and then getting the values, and putting that to work in a custom Comparator, but of course someone must have encountered the same problem before. York Davis has written an article on Dynamic Sorting With Java with source code for a DynamicComparator which does exactly what is needed. It accepts Collection, which is even better, which means you can throw in not only ArrayList, but also Vector and so on.

(2005-10-20 11:09:28 SGT) [Java] Permalink Comments [2]

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