The following link provides a really good description of a fuel cell. It is published by the US Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy department. I do not know if there is a British equivalent body but the article and concept makes for fascinating reading, especially after the BBC documentary on Chernobyl last night. The World Nuclear Association website has some useful links on this and a number of related subjects.

Energy consumption is rising at such a high rate in the UK – 19% between 1990 and 2001. This dramatic rate of increase is one of the main reasons why we have a power protection industry and why we as an industry must constantly strive for better operating efficiencies in our UPS.

This technology called ‘Fuel Cells’ is fast changing and could be one of the big paradigm shifters in how we provide energy in the years to come. To those outside this specialist field, many of the pitfalls and problems are unknown of course. But as any industry starts to move up the life cycle curve greater access is provided to such information.

Here is one such piece. Fuel cells are suspectible to carbon monoxide poisioning which causes a ‘bottleneck’ inside the device. I also did not realise that fuel cells operate with such high internal core temperatures. Nuvant Systems Inc now offers single fuel cells on-line through its e-commerce facility. Are we moving closer to a replacement for the good old sealed lead acid battery that dominates the uninterruptible power supply industry ?

This is one of those great sites on the internet – How Stuff Works. I came across it looking for information on batteries and how they work. This piece helps those wanting a basic understanding. When we run our Riello UPS Seminars we always get questions on batteries. They are one of the most common items in a UPS to fail and yet the easiest to ignor from a maintenance view point.

Another page of interest is the one covering Fuel Cells – still very expensive but I suspect that we will seem them used in Uninterruptible Power Supplies within the next five years.

DEFRA has recently published a new report covering ‘Hazardous Waste Regulations – List of waste regulations 2005″.

Sites producing hazardous waste in England and Wales from 16 July 2005 must inform the Regulator – The Environment Agency. Exclusions include offices, shops, farms, schools/colleges, prisons, residential, and nursing homes, hospitals, dental, veterinary and other medical, practices, premises used by charities and places used for the purpose of collecting waste electrical and electronic equipment do not need to notify if they produce less than 200kg of hazardous waste.

The batteries we use in our UPS and standby power systems are classified as hazardous waste. This means that any site that cannot be excluded must notify the Regulator. It is an offence to remove waste from a site that has not been notified to the Regulator both for the site, and the removal company.

Riello Galatrek has an environmental management system certified to ISO 14001. As part of the approach to environmental management the company is a registered Waste Carrier (NOW/269999/CB ), Waste Management Company – storage of waste (NAP653) and Mobile Service Operator (NCC322). The last registration – Mobile Service Operator – allows Riello Galatrek to take hazardous waste up to 200kg from customer sites. Above 200kg the customer site itself must be notified to the Regulator.

To notify the Regulator the following information is needed:
1. The number of employees (within a range)
2. Your Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC 2003) – UPS are SIC 51.86.
3. Companies House registration number (if you are Ltd or Plc)
4. A valid e-mail address

Contact details are:
Telephone 08708 502858
Website The Environment Agency
Website forms to register your site as a waste producer.

Alternatively you can ask your Waste Management contractor – for example Riello Galatrek – to notify on your behalf but you are held responsible for the accuracy of the information provided and the registering company is responsible for your annual site license. The fees for notifying range from £18 for electronic forms, £23 for telephoned information and £28 for written forms.

Due to the annual license and accuracy of information issues, Riello Galatrek has taken the view that sites producing over 200kg of waste per annum must be responsible for notifying the Regulator directly.

The Ninth Grove Fuel Cell Symposium takes place between 4-6 October 2005 at the QEII Centre, London. siGEN appear to be specialists whose mission is to lead the field in the design and implementation of commercial Fuel Cell power solutions. There newsletter covers a range of applications and case studies for alternative energies. Fuel cells are still too expensive an option to use in Uninterruptible Power Supplies which continue to rely on Sealed Lead Acid technologies.

We just came across a new hand held battery tester called ‘The Interrogator Battery Analyzer”. It is the first ever handheld battery analysis system that determines the level of sulfation – the most common failure mechanism in lead acid batteries and can also determine the level of dry out in electrolyte starved systems. Fully non invasive The Interrogator looks like an interesting piece of kit that we will be testing shortly for use by Riello Galatrek engineers.