|
Cllr Paul Tilsey, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, welcomed delegates to the 7th International Conference entitled Generating the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Society. He said that the price of oil keeps rising and that supplies will peak within the next fifteen to twenty years. In that timescale, by 2026, Birmingham City Council is aiming to reduce their C02 emissions by 60%. Birmingham is aware of its responsibilities as the second UK city. They have introduced three new local distributed energy systems and are demonstrating electric vehicles, including fuel cell cars. Birmingham is accelerating manufacturing processes in order to bring forward fuel cell demonstrations and they look forward to leading the world into a new energy future with hydrogen and fuel cells.
STATIONARY FUEL CELLS
The Chairman of the Conference, Prof Kevin Kendall of Birmingham University, introduced Dr Peter Podesser CEO of SFC Energy and explained that small fuel cell generators, powered either by direct methanol or propane, have already found niche applications in auxiliary and portable power markets. SFC Energy has sold over 20,000 fuel cells so far in the low to mid-power range, said Peter Podesser. So far they have achieved over 8 million operating hours, with the advantage of long lifetime guaranteed by warranties. Fuel cells are now easier to use and are cheaper and have a more attractive supply chain. SFC finds that many customers are reluctant to abandon old technologies but they tell them “Whatever you have, forget it, fuel cells are the new thing!” SFC explores the gaps in the market and looks for the downside of an existing technology. Fuel cells provide a longer term energy supply than batteries for industrial and defence markets and SFC‟s portable units are lightweight. Peter Podesser showed a picture of a small girl holding a 10 litre methanol cartridge which contained 11kWh of electrical energy. Methanol cartridges are designed to be extremely safe and easy to use and SFC is expanding the number of outlets where they can be obtained. They are also supplying portable fuel cells for use in combination with solar PV. This adds more stages to the electrical value chain, as electricity is available on site whenever it is required.
SFC‟s EFOY brand means „energy for you‟. They already have fifty outlets in Canada while they are building up markets in Europe. Fuel cell costs are between €2,000 and €5,000 for markets including recreational vehicles, motor homes, cabins and boats. Many people want an eco-conscious way of generating power and the EFOY is a dependable energy source, giving longer run times off-grid and a better return on investment. SFC is making fuel cells acceptable as part of the low carbon market for consumers and industry and they give a five year warranty with no limit on use. The cost of fuel cells is not yet at grid parity, but the manufacturers are reducing it and the methanol fuel only costs 30 cents per litre.
Aaron Crumm of Ultra Electronics (AMI) explained that their solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are used mainly for military applications, but that they are now addressing the potential for commercial markets. They are reducing the size of the SOFC and improving the efficiency of manufacture. They are aiming for the market sector for generators smaller than engines, but bigger than batteries. A small 3 watt hour (Wh) battery costs $1 and a larger 170Wh battery costs $90, which compares with 1,000Wh of propane fuel costing only $2. Their fuel cell is ideal for unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) which require high power and is capable of powering a plane from dawn to dusk. For leisure uses they generate 6 kilowatt hours of electricity per day. They are starting with propane but SOFC can address dirty fuels like paraffin. For military use the infrared signature of high temperature SOFC is visible, but this is unavoidable, as even the footprints of people walking by can be seen.
Jeremy Harrison, Technical Consultant to E.ON Engineering UK, outlined the role of natural gas powered fuel cell micro CHP (mCHP) in a decarbonising energy system. Firstly, it contributes to energy security, as mCHP reduces the need for the back-up capacity required for intermittent supplies of wind and solar energy. Secondly, the electrification of heat with heat pumps will increase the problem of balancing the load on the grid and could add up to 40GW to the peak electricity demand in mid winter. If mCHP were used, it would mitigate this demand, as it would contribute to peak electricity as well as meeting part of the heat requirement. In the UK it is planned to install wind turbines which would generate up to 150GWe peak. This would require extensive back-up from mCHP when wind availability was low and the use of electric powered heat pumps and storage with electric vehicles to ensure that the wind energy is utilised efficiently when demand is low. The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has a high electricity to heat ratio, producing 50% electricity and 40% heat. At present, each unit of electricity from the grid costs more than a unit of heat and also emits more C02. Therefore each kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generated by natural gas powered mCHP costs 3.3p but is worth the 10p cost of a unit from the grid. The generation of each unit of electricity by mCHP emits 0.22kg of C02 but saves 0.57 kg C02, compared with electricity from the grid.
Prof Nigel Brandon of Imperial College, Director of the Energy Futures Laboratory, explained that at present 94% of UK primary energy is fossil based. Heat contributes 39% of our C02 emissions, electricity 33% and transport 28%. In order to reduce C02 emissions, we must cut demand, increase efficiency, use biofuels, and/or use electric vehicles powered by hydrogen, batteries or hybrid systems. The cost of hybrid battery/ fuel cell systems is reducing, but there will still be C02 emissions until we get renewable hydrogen.
Demand for electricity and heat in a UK dwelling are misaligned, as illustrated in the graph for a typical winter day. However, it is economically rational to invest in micro-CHP, which is 90% efficient for heat and power compared with 35- 40% for grid electricity. The main value driver for micro-CHP is the ability to displace onsite electricity demand. This depends upon thermal demand and the heat to power ratio of the micro-CHP unit.
Fuel cell micro-CHP can cost an additional £1,000 and remain a rational investment due to fuel savings. For example, Ceres Power‟s SOFC natural gas micro-CHP system reduces the energy bill of a customer by around 25% and saves up to 1.5 tonnes of C02 per annum. Under the UK‟s Feed in Tariff (FIT) scheme, a fuel cell up to 2kW can receive payments for ten years of 10p/kWh for electricity produced and consumed in the home and an additional 3p/kWh for electricity exported to the grid. The carbon benefit value of CHP will reduce as the grid decarbonises. There should equally be efforts to decarbonise the gas supply, by using biomass and waste and perhaps hythane. Fuel cells offer the highest known energy conversion efficiency for electricity production of any equivalent device. They offer higher efficiency with fossil fuels today, with the prospect of operating on renewable fuels in the future. This has the potential to make a significant impact on carbon emissions in both the transport and stationary power sectors. The UK has strengths in the fuel cell supply chain to allow these benefits to be realized, as well as a strong research base to support development and deployment.
LARGER FUEL CELLS
The state of technology of large-scale fuel cell systems for grid power up to 50 MW, for distributed power, auxiliary power, industrial and commercial applications was reviewed by Brendan Bilton, consultant to E.ON. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are available up to 100kW and systems up to 1MW are under development. The main manufacturers are Bloom Energy and Rolls Royce. Rolls Royce‟s pressurized 1 megawatt (MW) SOFC system is due for field testing in 2013. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells are being scaled up and between 100kW to 1MW systems from Ballard and Nedstack are already operational. Molten Carbonate fuel cells (MCFC) between 125kW and 3 MW are available from MTU, POSCO, FuelCell Energy and Ansaldo. AFC Energy is developing larger alkaline fuel cells (AFC).
The phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) from UTC Power, ranging from 250-400kW, has the longest life. They have 95% availability and are operating for over 75,000 hours. A comparison with other low carbon technologies shows that the return on investment can be better than that for solar PV or wind turbines, due to the high availability of the fuel cell. The high availability can also enable much greater reductions in annual carbon dioxide emissions compared with wind and solar energy. UTC‟s high temperature PAFC can be fuelled either by hydrogen or fossil fuels – it is on the cusp of large scale production. The first markets for larger fuel cells include California, where there is a ban on diesel generators in down-town areas. In South Korea there is Government support for 100s of megawatts of large scale generators. There is also a growing need for distributed power to recharge electric vehicles. Chlor-alkali plants have hydrogen as a by-product, which can be used to meet on site requirements for electricity and process heat. Water treatment facilities are also being powered by on site fuel cells. There is great demand for clean combined heat and power in hospitals, hotels, offices and shops. The market is growing and it is a cash generating business for the end user.
Chris Rogers, energy consultant and formerly with Honda Europe, envisaged that in the future energy will be stored as hydrogen just as digital is now the universal data storage. He referred to Jeremy Rifkin‟s concept of the Third Industrial Revolution in which the same design principles and smart technologies that created the internet and the vast distributed global communications networks are beginning to be used to reconfigure the world‟s power grids. This will mean that people can produce renewable energy and share it, just as they now produce and share information, creating a new, decentralised form of energy use. There will be expanded generation of renewable energy stored as hydrogen and buildings, with new insulation materials and a smart bi-directional inter-grid, will become positive power plants. Electric vehicles could also contribute to meeting peak power demands: if just 25% of European drivers used their electric vehicles as power plants to sell energy back to the inter-grid, all the major power plants in Europe could be eliminated!
FUEL CELLS FOR TRANSPORT
Ben Madden of Element Energy outlined progress with fuel cell powered vehicles in Europe. We are now in a pre-commercial phase with projects underway in several countries. In Germany the Clean Energy Partnership was established in 2004 and hundreds of fuel cell vehicles are now with customers. National organisations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark are working together to build the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway. Hyundai has already made a commitment to deploy their hydrogen fuel cell vehicles there. Other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are interested and Scandinavia‟s high up-front car taxes are an added incentive. A network of hydrogen filling stations across Europe is emerging and the German company, LBST, shows on their website the hydrogen stations which are already operating or planned.
The European Clean Hydrogen In Cities project (CHIC) is assisting with the deployment of 26 hydrogen fuel cell buses. The biggest demonstration in the UK is that for eight London buses, which will be expected to have the same performance as diesel buses, operating for 20 hours per day, 365 days per year. Five of the buses are already on the road. London also has demonstrations of fuel cell cabs and scooters and provides the secretariat for the Hydrogen Bus Alliance. There are projects with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Scotland and the Midlands, where there is a strong manufacturing base.
There is growing political interest in hydrogen and fuel cell powered vehicles and nascent companies are supplying the niche markets for taxis and buses. Asian OEMs are particularly interested in the UK demonstrations. Mercedes is investing in a factory in Canada for series production of their fuel cells. A study sponsored by a coalition of the European motor industry and analysed by McKinsey, found that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles would be the only viable pathway to zero carbon transport for longer range, larger vehicles. In Germany, H2 Mobility is providing information and preparing the public and private sectors for the introduction of hydrogen powered vehicles from 2015. In answer to a question, Ben Madden believed that vehicles would be powered by gaseous hydrogen compressed to 350 or 700 bar, although there is ongoing research into liquid hydrogen.
Peter Podesser, CEO of SFC Energy envisaged a role for small fuel cells in hybrid electric vehicles. His company is combining fuel cells with batteries in a German electric vehicle development project. In winter up to 60% of the battery‟s power is required to heat the vehicle and the lithium ion batteries. They are working on the development of a hybrid fuel cell system which will contribute two thirds of its energy in the form of heat and the remaining third as electricity to extend the range of the battery electric vehicle.
Masahiro Watanabe from the Fuel Cell Nano-materials Centre in Japan gave an interesting review of technical developments with PEM fuel cells. Nano materials are improving performance and reducing costs. The Nano-materials Centre is working to reduce the platinum loading of PEMs to about one tenth of the present loading and they aim to reduce the cost of the fuel cells to about one-twentieth. Advances with materials are enabling them to reduce degradation and improve reliability. They are also developing new processes for the production of clean hydrogen and ensuring that they meet all regulations.
Peter Gray, Sales & Marketing Manager of Johnson Matthey, said that there is particular interest in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells for cars in Japan, Korea and Germany. PEMs are also used in buildings, where the cost is coming down. It takes time to ensure the highest quality development. Over the past three years they have reduced to a third the cost of the Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEAs) which are the core components of PEM fuel cells. For small order production of up to10,000 MEAs per annum, capital cost is low but labour costs are high. In larger volumes, that is in millions for OEMs, the MEA design is frozen and there are high capital but low labour costs. Intermediate volumes, in the100,000s, are more flexible and have low labour and moderate capital costs. The advantage of PEM fuel cells is that they can operate 24/7 and contribute to peak demands. Johnson Matthey does not envisage any problems with platinum supply, as Pt in MEAs will be recycled and platinum reserves significantly exceed forecast future MEA demands.
For the future, Chris Rogers, energy consultant, envisaged that by 2050 there would be a smart, totally integrated and balanced transport infrastructure with high speed rail. For personal mobility, cars will be electric, they will have advanced smart communications technology and will not have accidents. They will be powered by zero emission hydrogen fuel cells and rechargeable batteries, which will help to balance the electricity loads from intermittent renewable sources. In answer to a question about the oil companies losing their investment he replied that they will have to diversify anyway as the car industry is changing fast.
HYDROGEN STORAGE
Hydrogen has an important role in storing energy, particularly from intermittent renewable sources, explained Stephen Jones of ITM Power. It is also a clean fuel. There is already an existing hydrogen infrastructure, with large industries using up to 1,000 kgs per day and vehicle fleets and depots using up to 50kgs per day. The use of hydrogen in the home will be between 1 to 5 kgs, but this is further in the future. Japan, the USA and Germany are committed to hydrogen and the UK is beginning to get its act together! However, we need Government backing for a mobility plan, like the German H2 Mobility which aims to provide hundreds of hydrogen fuelling stations by 2015. ITM‟s HOST project produces hydrogen on site by electrolysis for fleets of vehicles. 15 kgs per day is sufficient for three transit vans, each with 100 miles range. Twenty one commercial trial partners are involved and operational data will be collected over a year. Hydrogen fuel is available for use now – we do not have to wait for ten years! The Chairman of the session, John Turner, commented that it is good to involve companies which have no connection with the hydrogen and fuel cell industry.
Ian Williamson of Air Products said that they produce over 5 million kgs of hydrogen per day, with 120 hydrogen stations providing 300,000 fuellings per year. There is a step change in the USA, where they are moving from research and development to the retail sale of hydrogen. There is also rapid growth in hydrogen power for materials handling in the USA. Air Products makes use of the hydrogen produced by the existing industrial infrastructure whenever possible. The maintenance and efficiency of compressors is a big issue. In his view there is negative energy input over 500 bar, but the automotive companies want 700 bar because they have not taken the necessary steps to reduce vehicle weight.
In Torrance, California there is a hydrogen pipeline down the middle of the road. Europe is doing more with the bus industry. Transport for London has a dual phase liquid hydrogen tanker still in the introductory phase.
Significant volumes of hydrogen and power can be generated from waste. A molten carbonate fuel cell in Europe produces a ton of hydrogen per day, in addition to electricity and heat. This green hydrogen is obtained from the gasification of 30 tons of municipal waste per day. Air Products is planning a plant which would provide 50MW of power from 900 million tons of waste per day. The gas turbine would be replaced by a large fuel cell, which will need to have longevity. The timescale to build a commercial plant and bring it on stream is three years. In answer to a comment that waste contains halogens, etc, which damage fuel cells, he replied that Air Products is expert in cleaning up gases – their entire process has 15 stages to produce pure hydrogen.
Most users want green hydrogen but it is expensive, so H2 Mobility in Germany is introducing green hydrogen gradually, over a period of time. For the future hydrogen will come from multiple feed sources, from biomass, geothermal, wind, solar, nuclear, coal and methane reforming.
Steve Perham of the Airmax Group said that their on-board hydrogen additive system enables i.c. engines to burn more cleanly, adding power, improving fuel economy and lowering C02 emissions. Airmax is supplying some of the largest fleets in the UK and overseas with electronics which monitor all aspects of vehicle performance and costs. Their aim is to reduce customers‟ costs as well as their C02 emissions. Their engine control unit (ECU) achieves 15% gains in efficiency and they are working on a micro fuel source, using solar energy to create sustainable hydrogen.
Andrew Haslett of the Energy Technology Institute (ETI) considered the role of hydrogen in the future supply of energy. Hydrogen storage will contribute to sustainability and to meeting climate change targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 80%. Hydrogen will be obtained from a variety of sources, from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage (CCS), nuclear and renewable energy, mainly offshore wind. If hydrogen is obtained from coal with CCS, there will be a significant requirement for hydrogen storage and there is sufficient capacity for this in salt cavities in the UK. Obtaining hydrogen from biomass and then capturing and storing the C02 would be the cheapest way of mitigating global warming gases.
MEETING GOVERNMENT TARGETS
At the working group meeting of the UK Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association (UK HFCA), Celia Greaves proposed that there should be a co-ordinated response to the Government. The HFCA has responded to the consultation on Electricity Market Reform as well as to the consultation on renewable energy and fuel quality directives. They have provided information for the Whitehall Hydrogen Action Team, the Technology Strategy Board and for the Bow Group, which has published an excellent report on hydrogen storage. Their aim is to accelerate the commercialisation of fuel cells and hydrogen through advocacy and other means. A report by a German consortium entitled Portfolio of Vehicle Drive Trains, which was analysed by McKinsey, found that fuel cell vehicles are the best low-carbon substitute for family size cars. There is also interest in fuel cells for high speed rail. During the discussion, a delegate proposed that Government policy should cover all the technologies which reduce carbon dioxide, rather than just renewables. Distributed energy generation could make a substantial contribution to meeting their targets and the Government should avoid making technical choices. It was pointed out that by 2020, 85% of the UK‟s energy would still be fossil fuel. There is a paucity of understanding amongst policy makers, who need to be educated. Lobby groups influence the media so some technologies will be favoured more than others, but we can counter this with factual information about fuel cells. Government measures to facilitate the commercialisation of fuel cells could include forward procurement and other financial incentives. Hydrogen could be used in many applications. 60 million tons per year are already being used and renewable energy targets cannot be met without hydrogen storage. For the automotive industry, the well to wheel efficiency of hydrogen from wind can be further improved with local generation.
Norberto Fueyo of the Numerical Fluid Dynamics Group at the University of Zaragoza, Spain gave his own version of the European Union proposal for 20% renewable energy and a 20% cut in energy intensity by 2020. Is 20-20-20 possible? He estimated that for Spain there could be 20% extra cost, 20% more visual impact and this with a tariff shortfall that is already reaching €20 billion. He assessed the technical potential and the full costs of different types of renewable energy, on and offshore wind, solar, hydro, marine energy, waste and biofuels. People want their governments to take action to deal with the possible deleterious effects of fossil fuel emissions, but has anyone carried out large scale rigorous quantifications?
Claire Castel represented the EU Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). The first markets for fuel cells envisage portable systems and fork lift trucks and the EU is now backing stationary and transport applications. Regarding transport demonstration projects, the Scandinavian project “H2 Moves Scandinavia” based in Oslo, including Daimler as a partner, has received 8 M€ support from the EU for a total budget of 20 M€. The Clean Hydrogen In Cities (CHIC) project for 26 fuel cell buses in five cities has started in London. Other projects with fuel cell cars and buses are underway with the support of the European Regions and Municipalities Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells (HyRAMP). Regarding stationary demonstration projects, the FCH JU is supporting the deployment of 40 PowerCubes in Europe (laboratory validation units) and Africa. The FCH JU is a public private partnership between industry, research and the European Commission and is providing €470 million funding over several years, matched by in kind contributions by industry. |
