Long ago in autumn 2005, when Len was lank and my hair was full (okay it was less thin), I sat in one of the many cafeterias at our university as Len came by and asked if I had a little time. Distracted by my coffee and the nice view (the cafeteria was nearly the only place to see some women) I said yes. If I had guessed then…I would probably had said yes, too. So he explained to me that he had found a competition. This was the Berblinger Competition, with the objectives of the preliminary design of a two-seated aircraft which should be outstanding in environmental friendliness, safety, construction and economics. He had already talked to our Professor Rudolf Voit-Nitschmann, who has been formally winner of this competition in 1996 with the solar powered aircraft icaré 2. He was very pleased about that idea so he supported Len to take part in this competition. So Len and Prof. Voit-Nitschmann made some brainstorming and came to the conclusion that the best idea would be a fuel cell powered aircraft with a very aerodynamic design causing less drag and therefore low energy consumption. Additionally will this drive train emit no exhaust fumes except for water vapour and very little noise. This was the moment when I got involved. He asked me if I liked to participate in this competition and do the work for the drive train. Well, I was at that time on the lookout for a diploma thesis so why not?! After we elaborated the preliminary design under the name Hydrogenius and sent it to the city of Ulm, organizer of the Berblinger Competition, we finalized our diploma thesis and waited for the result.


Autumn 2006: Victory at the Berblinger Competition

We won the Berblinger Competition. Now we had a preliminary design of an aircraft comparable to conventional aircraft in performance and range and which is environmental friendly and economic if you desist from the purchase price. In addition we had some price-money from the competition. With the money we celebrated our victory and invited lots of people from science and industry. One of these visitors was Artur Fischer, founder of the Fischerwerke, honour senator of the Universität Stuttgart. He was so convinced by the project Hydrogenius that he donated us the first 100.000 €. Well, we choked up and clearly moved decided to realize the Project Hydrogenius.

Spring 2007: Artur Fischer and the model of our HydrogeniusEditorial Note: Club of Pioneers stands for the support of upcoming pioneers in the field of sustainable mobility. Since we are already covering the development of the Ventomobil, we are proud to present another promising project coming from exactly the same University in Stuttgart. It's about the amazing idea to fly with Hydrogen: The Hydrogenius project! Enjoy the first guestblog written by Steffen who founded with Len the Hydrogenius Team... and stay tuned, the guys will keep you updated!

Club of Pioneers is searching for sustainable mobility ideas deserving awareness and support. The first project we've found is an airplane which is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell: The Hydrogenius! We talked with Steffen Geinitz, research associate of the Hydrogenius Team at the University of Stuttgart about the vision of zero emission flying.How efficient is your hydrogen concept in comparison with conventional power systems? What can you tell us about the range and the power “Hydrogenius”? Steffen Geinitz: Hydrogenius will be equipped with an electric motor which delivers a maximum shaft power of about 60 kW. Using an electrical and fuel cell based power train we achieve an improvement of about 50 % compared to existing aircrafts of the same power level. Besides that we obtain additional efficiency by the configuration (integration of the propeller in the vertical tail) of the aircraft of about 20 %. In the figure we compared two-seated conventional powered aircrafts of the same power level. The Scheibe SF 25C is a widely used older motor glider. The HK 36 Super Dimona TT80 is a newer one and the WT 9 Dynamic is a recent ultra light aircraft. All information is based on manufacturer’s data.


What is the special challenge in developing “Hydrogenius”?The special challenge is to design an aircraft which is in performance and operation comparable to existing ones. This means that Hydrogenius should not merely be a prototype but rather a series-production aircraft. So we have to deal with the challenges of a fuel cell propulsion system fed by hydrogen such as high amount of weight and volume and the low amount of energy stored on board. Therefore we are designing the whole aircraft for low energy consumption and high performance at the best point of efficiency of the propulsion system. This only works by developing a new aircraft and not by integrating a fuel cell system in an existing one.
A graphic illustraion of Hydrogenius
The usage of hydrogen in aviation triggers bad memories, we all know about the Hindenburg disaster. This happened a long time ago but is the utilization of hydrogen really safer today?The Hindenburg disaster is one of the unfounded prejudices concerning hydrogen. The main cause of the disaster was the non-conducting and highly flammable coating of the Hindenburg. The hydrogen contributed to the fire but was not the cause. Hydrogen has been used in research and industry for more than hundred years without greater complications than other gases. In contrast to many other gases it is not poisonous and volatilizes very fast. That is also much better than gasoline especially in the aviation, where several accidents happened by toxication of the occupants by carbon monoxide which got into the cabin through a damaged heating system.
So I think there are more prejudices than real concerns, which argue against the use of hydrogen as a fuel.What do you think about the potential of hydrogen as an energy source for airplanes?

If the fuel cell prices decrease and hydrogen infrastructure will be disposable several new construed propeller driven aircraft will be operated by hydrogen in the future. The very low energy consumption and the absence of mechanically high loaded parts in the power train leads to low direct operating costs of the aircraft. Furthermore the low noise level makes fuel cell propulsion very attractive for two to ten seated aircraft to General and Business Aviation.
The cage in the airframe
We still have the problem of the underdeveloped hydrogen infrastructure. How could we solve this problem?This is mainly a problem of demand and supply. 100 years ago there haven’t been many petrol stations for cars either. If someone can earn money with the supply of hydrogen on an airfield he will do that. And with very few hydrogen stations on airfields and airports a big area is made accessible for fuel cell powered aircraft. That is much easier than a complete new infrastructure for cars.When will “Hydrogenius” take off? Do interested persons have the chance to get on board of “Hydrogenius”?The maiden flight is planned for mid/end of 2010. After doing some test flights and eliminating the teething troubles interested persons and sponsors of the project are invited to go for a flight with Hydrogenius in 2011.When do you think does the first hydrogen airplane transport passengers?As said by one of our technical partners, “To answer this question we need a very good crystal ball to look into the future and unfortunately we don’t even have a bad one.”Images: Hydrogenius

High on Hydrogen that's really what we were when we spent a day at the H2 Lab at the BMW Museum in Munich. The speakers André Heinrichs and Florian Trost, the Special Prize Winners of the "Youth Research" competition 2008 developed a procedure to turn physical power into hydrogen. Watch our video!

She is one of Germany`s most renowned actresses: Martina Gedeck earned her outstanding reputation in movies like the Oscar-winning “The Lives of Others” or “Bella Martha”. She is noted for her careful choice of roles and her sincere screen incarnations of characters – which she impressively demonstrates again as Ulrike Meinhof and Clara Schumann in movies coming up this year.When it comes to environmental matters, Martina Gedeck is no less sincere, as she told us when we met her at the Brandenburger Hof Hotel in Berlin. This is one of the reasons why she gave us her testimonial about the BMW Hydrogen 7 which she used for several months. Watch our video interview!

In the future, water and its “by-product” hydrogen will play a vital role in any city’s infrastructure. That’s if the design from Californian Architects Iwamotoscott, for the History Channel’s City of the Future competition is anything to go by.
The competition asked architects to envision and design a city 100 years from now.Iwamotoscott's concept and design for "Hydro-Net" came first in the San Francisco section of the competition. They are now up against the winners from EDAW/Praxis 3/BNIM/Metcalf and Eddy (Atlanta) and Beyer Blinder Belle (Washington). The voting by the public ends Monday, April 28th. All competitors had only one week to envision what their city might look like in 100 years, a mere 3 hours to construct their models, and just 15 minutes to present their vision to the judging panel.If this sounds unbelievable, have a look at our slide show. Here you can see their model and Iwamotoscott’s plans for Hydro-Net, as real as they can be at the moment anyway.

What is Hydro-Net City?

By taking into account the natural evolution of San Francisco, HYDRO -NET actually takes advantage of the rising water levels of the Californian coastline.
A whole new “Aquaculture zone” will be used to grow algae, which in turn will produce the hydrogen fuel used to power the city. This fuel is then stored and distributed through a series of underground tunnels made from “nanotube wall structures”. Tests have shown that carbon nanotubes, 50,000 times narrower than a human hair, can be a promising material for hydrogen storage. Out of this new watery city, emerge tall sinuous towers, where the algae is stored to produce hydrogen.
Traffic consists of hydrogen-fuelled hover –cars, which travel underneath the city. These cars also collect, store and distribute the water and power tapped from liquid and geothermal sources beneath San Francisco.

With their all-hybrid vehicle Prius, Toyota hit a real home run. Since the carmaker launched the model, a big green badge has been following them wherever they go. To highlight their image as a green car company, Toyota promoted an even newer green approach at the LA Auto Show: The hydrogen-hybrid fuel cell development program!

It is the hour for pioneers in the automotive branch. Climate change, higher oil prices, and dwindling fossil fuels don’t demand simple short-term answers – they demand a new vision of mobility! Almost all manufacturers are working on the research and development of models with innovative, eco-friendly engines. BMW’s pioneers are designing a comprehensive 3-stage strategy for a clean automotive future called “Efficient Dynamics” – culminating in the hydrogen-powered automobile “Hydrogen 7”. In the first stage of this program sustainable and efficient solutions are integrated into the vehicles of the current series. Part of this stage is the “clean production initiative” that integrates the aspect of sustainability into the entire production process. With its “Concept X6 Active Hybrid”, BMW presented at the IAA 2007 its vision of how a hybrid engine should be introduced medium-term into the range of models. Through a novel transmission system, two compact, high-capacity electric motors and a gearbox with a solid gear transmission ratio are combined. The effect deserves serious attention: The system reduces waste up to 20 percent in contrast to the corresponding model with a conventional internal combustion engine. By the end of 2009 the vehicle will be ready for serial production.Through its Hydrogen 7 model the Bavarian auto maker not only gives the crowning touch to its clean environmental program, but also presents no less than an ideal vision of future mobility that is already now suited to daily use. “In the long run we will have to depart from fossil fuels”, states BMW press relations officer Daniel Kammerer. “It is our fervent conviction that hydrogen is the only real alternative to gasoline and diesel.” In contrast to other hydrogen prototypes, hydrogen 7 has already reached a high stage of development. All components of this innovative technology were developed according to the usual criteria for mass-production vehicles. In the interim a small series of 100 vehicles has been produced. The Club of Pioneers captured the immense excitement over the Hydrogen 7 in its video blogs.While most of the automobile manufacturers attach importance to fuel cells, the Hydrogen 7 does not transform hydrogen into electricity, but burns it immediately. One aspect of technology that should enhance the typical BMW driving pleasure is this: The 12-cylinder vehicle has an output of 260 HP and 230 km/h at top performance. And when there is no hydrogen refueling station nearby, the fun is not over yet. A short push on the H2 button of the steering wheel switches the bivalent engine from hydrogen to high-octane gasoline.For Hydrogen 7 to be 100% ecologically compatible, several tasks must be tackled. Hydrogen is currently extracted from petroleum gas. The vision for the future is to manufacture hydrogen from biomass, sun, wind and water – but that is all very expensive at the present. Fortunately there are enough pioneers who have accepted the challenge and are working with great vigor for a sustainable future!Several of these pioneers from Germany will be together with BMW on 3 October, the Day of German Unification, to present their sustainable ideas in the “Garden of Ideas” in the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. The Club of Pioneers has already presented a series of these projects in this special and will also be in Washington, D.C. for you – so stay tuned!Picture: BMW