Canada
Hydrogen Microgrids to Facilitate the Clean Energy Transition in Remote, Northern Communities
Oct 2025
Publication
Most remote and northern communities rely on diesel for their electrical and thermal energy needs. Communities and governments are working toward diesel exit strategies but the role of hydrogen technologies has not been explored. These could serve both electrical and thermal demand reduce emissions and enhance energy security and community ownership. Here we determine the installed capacities costs hydrogen storage needs and water resource requirements of hydrogen microgrids across a large diverse sample of communities. We also compare the cost of hydrogen microgrids to that of diesel microgrids. Our results optimize resource deployment demonstrate how sub-components must operate to serve both demand types and yield insights on storage and resource needs. We find that hydrogen microgrids are cheaper in levelized cost terms than diesel systems in 28 of 37 communities investigated; if wind power capital costs escalate to CAD 20000/kW as recently seen in one project only 3 of the 37 communities net hydrogen microgrids that are cheaper than diesel variants. Hydrogen storage plays a large role in maintaining reliability and reducing cost—both it and water needs are modest. The former can be met with current technologies.
Emerging Application of Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells in Hydrogen Production: A Comprehensive Analytic Review and Life Cycle Assessment
Aug 2025
Publication
This paper provides a comprehensive analytical review and life cycle assessment (LCA) of solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) for hydrogen production. As the global energy landscape shifts toward cleaner and more sustainable solutions SOECs offer a promising pathway for hydrogen generation by utilizing water as a feedstock. Despite their potential challenges in efficiency economic viability and technological barriers remain. This review explores the evolution of SOECs highlighting key advancements and innovations over time and examines their operational principles efficiency factors and classification by operational temperature range. It further addresses critical technological challenges and potential breakthroughs alongside an indepth assessment of economic feasibility covering production cost comparisons hydrogen storage capacity and plant viability and an LCA evaluating environmental impacts and sustainability. The findings underscore SOECs’ progress and their crucial role in advancing hydrogen production while pointing to the need for further research to overcome existing limitations and enhance commercial viability.
Integrated Optimization of Energy Storage and Green Hydrogen Systems for Resilient and Sustainable Future Power Grids
Jul 2025
Publication
This study presents a novel multi-objective optimization framework supporting nations sustainability 2030–2040 visions by enhancing renewable energy integration green hydrogen production and emission reduction. The framework evaluates a range of energy storage technologies including battery pumped hydro compressed air energy storage and hybrid configurations under realistic system constraints using the IEEE 9-bus test system. Results show that without storage renewable penetration is limited to 28.65% with 1538 tCO2/day emissions whereas integrating pumped hydro with battery (PHB) enables 40% penetration cuts emissions by 40.5% and reduces total system cost to 570 k$/day (84% of the baseline cost). The framework’s scalability is confirmed via simulations on IEEE 30- 39- 57- and 118-bus systems with execution times ranging from 118.8 to 561.5 s using the HiGHS solver on a constrained Google Colab environment. These findings highlight PHB as the most cost-effective and sustainable storage solution for large-scale renewable integration.
Experimental Thermal and Environmental Impact Performance Evaluations of Hydrogen-enriched Fuels for Power Generation
Oct 2025
Publication
The transition to a low-carbon energy future requires a multi-faceted approach including the enhancement of existing power generation technologies. This study provides a comprehensive experimental evaluation of hydrogen enrichment as a strategy to improve the performance and reduce the emissions of a power generator. A 3.65 kW power generator that is equipped with spark-ignition engine is systematically tested with five distinct base fuels: gasoline propane methane ethanol and methanol. Each fuel is volumetrically blended with pure hydrogen in ratios of 5 % 10 % 15 % and 20 % using a custom-developed dual-fuel carburetor. The key parameters including exhaust emissions (CO2 CO HC NOx) cylinder exit temperature electrical power output and thermodynamic efficiencies (energy and exergy) are meticulously measured and analyzed. The results reveal that hydrogen enrichment is a powerful tool for decarbonization consistently reducing carbon-based emissions across all fuels. At a 20 % hydrogen blend CO2 emissions are reduced by 22–31 % CO emissions by 39–60 % and HC emissions by 21–60 %. This environmental benefit however is accompanied by a critical trade-off: a severe increase in NOx emissions which rose by 200–420 % due to significantly elevated combustion temperatures. The power outputs are increased by 2–16 % with hydrogen addition enabling lower-energy–density fuels like methane and propane to achieve performance parity with gasoline. Thermodynamic analysis confirms these gains with energy efficiency showing marked improvement particularly for methane which has increased from 42.0 % to 49.9 %. While hydrogen enrichment presents a viable pathway for enhancing engine performance and reducing the carbon emissions of power generators the profound increase in NOx necessitates the integration of advanced control and after-treatment systems for its practical and environmentally responsible deployment.
Effect of Real Gas Equations on Calculation Accuracy of Thermodynamic State in Hydrogen Storage Tank
Oct 2025
Publication
The gas equation of state (EOS) serves as a critical tool for analyzing the thermal effects within the hydrogen storage tank during refueling processes. It quantifies the dynamic relationships among pressure temperature and volume playing a vital role in numerical simulations of hydrogen refueling the development of refueling protocols and ensuring refueling safety. This study first establishes a lumped-parameter thermodynamic model for the hydrogen refueling process which combines a zero-dimensional gas model with a one-dimensional tank wall model (0D1D). The model’s accuracy was validated against experimental data and will be used in combination with different EOSs to simulate hydrogen temperature and pressure. Subsequently parameter values are derived for the van der Waals EOS and its modified forms—Redlich–Kwong Soave and Peng–Robinson. The accuracy of the modified forms is evaluated using the Joule–Thomson inversion curve. A polynomial EOS is formulated and its parameters are numerically determined. Finally the hydrogen temperatures and pressures calculated using the van der Waals EOS Redlich– Kwong EOS polynomial EOS and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) database are compared. Within the initial and boundary conditions set in this study the results indicate that among the modified forms for van der Waals EOS the Redlich– Kwong EOS exhibits higher accuracy than the Soave and Peng–Robinson EOSs. Using the NIST-calculated hydrogen pressure as a benchmark the relative error is 0.30% for the polynomial EOS 1.83% for the Redlich–Kwong EOS and 17.90% for the van der Waals EOS. Thus the polynomial EOS exhibits higher accuracy followed by the Redlich–Kwong EOS while the van der Waals EOS demonstrates lower accuracy. This research provides a theoretical basis for selecting an appropriate EOS in numerical simulations of hydrogen refueling processes.
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