U36: Another Fuel Cell Submarine for the German Navy

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://fuelcelltoday.com/news-events/news-archive/2013/may/u36-another-fuel-cell-submarine-for-the-german-navy

[font face=Serif][font size=5]U36: Another Fuel Cell Submarine for the German Navy[/font]

16 May 2013

[font size=3]One of the most modern non-nuclear submarines in the world has been named during a ceremony at the shipyard of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems GmbH, a company of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG. This marks another important milestone in the ongoing shipbuilding programme for the German Navy: U36 is the second boat of the second batch of HDW Class 212A submarines destined for operation in the Navy. The German town of Plauen has assumed sponsorship for U36. The ultra-modern submarine was named by Silke Elsner, companion to the Mayor.

The contract to deliver a second batch of two HDW Class 212A submarines was signed on 22nd September 2006 in Koblenz with the German Office for Military Technology and Procurement/BWB (now the German Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Employment of the Bundeswehr/BAAINBW). The submarine building activities are taking place at the shipyards of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems in Kiel and Emder Werft- und Dockbetriebe in Emden.

The two additional units will be largely identical to their sister ships from the first batch. They are also equipped with the HDW air-independent fuel cell propulsion system which has already given excellent results in operations with the boats of the first batch. The German Navy submarine U32 gave renewed proof of this in April 2013. On the way to participate in naval exercises in the USA the boat produced a new record for non-nuclear submarines with 18 days in submerged transit without snorkelling.

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The Italian Navy has also decided in favour of a second batch of two HDW Class 212A submarines, which are being built under licence by the Italian shipyard Fincantieri. That means that the Italian Navy will soon also have four boats of this class available for operations.

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[Deep13]

1. Uh-oh.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. That couldn't happen again

[Deep13]

3. I know. Just a joke. nt

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Likewise

Although an old one…

[hunter]

4. The "trickle down" of military technology is glacial. There are too many secrets to be kept.

I have in my electronics junk box some surface mount logic that didn't pass inspection for use in the Apollo program. This technology was developed for ICBM missiles and other military hardware but it was all very secret until NASA needed it.

[quadrature]

6. not enough platinum in the world ...

for fuel cells cars

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. If platinum is the problem, then, let’s eliminate it. A lot of researchers are working on it.

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2012/10/catalyst

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Can cobalt-graphene catalyst beat platinum?[/font]

October 16, 2012 | Contact: Kevin Stacey | 401-863-3766

[font size=4]Platinum works well as a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells, but it has at least two drawbacks: It is expensive, and it degrades over time. Brown chemists have engineered a cheaper and more durable catalyst using graphene, cobalt, and cobalt-oxide — the best nonplatinum catalyst yet. Their report appears in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.[/font]

[font size=3]PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — There’s a new contender in the race to find an inexpensive alternative to platinum catalysts for use in hydrogen fuel cells.

Brown University chemist Shouheng Sun and his students have developed a new material — a graphene sheet covered by cobalt and cobalt-oxide nanoparticles — that can catalyze the oxygen reduction reaction nearly as well as platinum does and is substantially more durable.

The new material “has the best reduction performance of any nonplatinum catalyst,” said Shaojun Guo, postdoctoral researcher in Sun’s lab and lead author of a paper published today in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

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