United Kingdom

The consumption of hydrogen could increase by sixfold in 2050 compared to 2020 levels reaching about 530 Mt. Against this backdrop the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been a major research area in the field of energy engineering. Several reviews have been provided in the existing corpus of literature on PEMFC but questions related to their evolutionary nuances and research hotspots remain largely unanswered. To fill this gap the current review uses bibliometric analysis to analyze PEMFC articles indexed in the Scopus database that were published between 2000–2021. It has been revealed that the research field is growing at an annual average growth rate of 19.35% with publications from 2016 to 2012 alone making up 46% of the total articles available since 2000. As the two most energy-consuming economies in the world the contributions made towards the progress of PEMFC research have largely been from China and the US. From the research trend found in this investigation it is clear that the focus of the researchers in the field has largely been to improve the performance and efficiency of PEMFC and its components which is evident from dominating keywords or phrases such as ‘oxygen reduction reaction’ ‘electrocatalysis’ ‘proton exchange membrane’ ‘gas diffusion layer’ ‘water management’ ‘polybenzimidazole’ ‘durability’ and ‘bipolar plate’. We anticipate that the provision of the research themes that have emerged in the PEMFC field in the last two decades from the scientific mapping technique will guide existing and prospective researchers in the field going forward.

The UK Hydrogen Champion engaged with stakeholders across the hydrogen value chain between July and December 2022.<br/>This report summarises their findings and makes recommendations for government and industry to accelerate the growth of the hydrogen sector.

Decarbonising ammonia production is an environmental imperative given that it independently accounts for 1.8% of global carbon dioxide emissions and supports the feeding of over 48% of the global population. The recent decline of production costs and its potential as an energy vector warrant investigation of whether green ammonia production is commercially competitive. Considering 534 locations in 70 countries and designing and operating the islanded production process to minimise the levelised cost of ammonia (LCOA) at each we show the range of achievable LCOA the cost of process flexibility the components of LCOA and therein the scope of LCOA reduction achievable at present and in 2030. These results are benchmarked against ammonia spot prices cost per GJ of refined fuels and the LCOE of alternative energy storage methods. Currently a LCOA of $473 t1 is achievable at the best locations the required process flexibility increases the achievable LCOA by 56%; the electrolyser CAPEX and operation are the most significant costs. By 2030 $310 t1 is predicted to be achievable with multiple locations below $350 t1 . At $25.4 GJ11 ) that do not have the benefit of being carbon-free.

This policy briefing considers how the use of nuclear energy could be expanded to make the most of the energy produced and also to have the flexibility to complement an energy system with a growing input of intermittent renewable energy.<br/>What is nuclear cogeneration?<br/>Nuclear cogeneration is where the heat generated by a nuclear power station is used not only to generate electricity but to address some of the ‘difficult to decarbonise’ energy demands such as domestic heating and hydrogen production. It also enables a nuclear plant to be used more flexibly by switching between electricity generation and cogeneration applications.<br/>Applications for nuclear cogeneration<br/>Heat generated by civil nuclear reactors can be extracted at two different points for applications requiring either low-temperature or high-temperature heat. Each application differs in many aspects of operation and have different challenges.<br/>Low-temperature cogeneration<br/>Applications for the lower temperature ‘waste’ heat include:<br/>District heating<br/>Seawater desalination<br/>Low-temperature industrial process heating<br/>High-temperature cogeneration<br/>Higher temperature heat can be accessed earlier and used for:<br/>High-temperature industrial process heating<br/>Hydrogen production<br/>Sustainable synthetic fuel production<br/>Direct air capture<br/>Thermal energy storage<br/>Challenges of cogeneration systems<br/>Whilst some nuclear cogeneration applications have been employed in many countries the economic benefit of widescale nuclear cogeneration needs to be determined. However if the construction cost reductions for small modular reactors (SMRs) can be realised and the regulation and licencing processes streamlined then the additional revenue benefits of cogeneration could be material for SMRs and for the future of nuclear generation in the UK.<br/>Other outstanding issues include the ownership of reactors the future demand for hydrogen and other cogeneration products at a regional national and international level and the cost of carbon and dependable power.

Ammonia an important basic chemical is produced at a scale of 150 million tons per year. Half of hydrogen produced in chemical industry is used for ammonia production. Ammonia containing 17.5 wt% hydrogen is an ideal carbon-free fuel for fuel cells. Compared to hydrogen ammonia has many advantages. In this mini-review the suitability of ammonia as fuel for fuel cells the development of different types of fuel cells using ammonia as the fuel and the potential applications of ammonia fuel cells are briefly reviewed.

Replacing fossil fuels with energy sources and carriers that are sustainable environmentally benign and affordable is amongst the most pressing challenges for future socio-economic development. To that goal hydrogen is presumed to be the most promising energy carrier. Electrocatalytic water splitting if driven by green electricity would provide hydrogen with minimal CO2 footprint. The viability of water electrolysis still hinges on the availability of durable earth-abundant electrocatalyst materials and the overall process efficiency. This review spans from the fundamentals of electrocatalytically initiated water splitting to the very latest scientific findings from university and institutional research also covering specifications and special features of the current industrial processes and those processes currently being tested in large-scale applications. Recently developed strategies are described for the optimisation and discovery of active and durable materials for electrodes that ever-increasingly harness first principles calculations and machine learning. In addition a technoeconomic analysis of water electrolysis is included that allows an assessment of the extent to which a large-scale implementation of water splitting can help to combat climate change. This review article is intended to cross-pollinate and strengthen efforts from fundamental understanding to technical implementation and to improve the ‘junctions’ between the field’s physical chemists materials scientists and engineers as well as stimulate much-needed exchange among these groups on challenges encountered in the different domains.

In this podcast David Ledesma talks with Rahmat Poudineh Senior Research Fellow and Aliaksei Patonia Research Fellow on issues and options with respect to long distance transportation of the hydrogen.

Hydrogen currently is mainly a local or regional commodity. If hydrogen is to become a truly global-traded commodity it needs to be transported over long transoceanic distances in an economical way. However unlike natural gas shipping compressed or liquefied hydrogen over long distances is very inefficient and expensive. At the same time hydrogen can be converted into multiple carriers with a higher energy density and higher transport capacity such as liquid ammonia toluene/methylcyclohexane (MCH) or methanol. These chemicals have their own advantages and drawbacks and their techno-economic characteristics in terms of boil-off gas and thermodynamic and conversion losses play a key role in the efficiency of transoceanic transportation of the hydrogen.

On the other hand apart from techno-economic features there are other factors to consider for long distance transportation of the hydrogen via its careers. Here such issues as safety public acceptance as well as legal and regulatory constraints may come into play. Another factor is the availability of the industries and infrastructures already developed around any of possible hydrogen carriers as well as their potential industrial applicability beyond hydrogen. Finally technological progress in other decarbonization applications and most importantly full commercialization of CCUS solutions is likely to dramatically change the approach towards long distance hydrogen transportation.

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Renewable energies such as the wind energy and solar energy generate low-carbon electricity which can directly charge battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Meanwhile the surplus electricity can be used to produce the “green hydrogen” which provides zero-emission hydrogen fuels to those fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). In order to charge/refuel multi-energy vehicles we propose a novel scheme of hybrid hydrogen/electricity supply using cryogenic and superconducting technologies. In this scheme the green hydrogen is further liquefied into the high-density and low-pressure liquid hydrogen (LH2) for bulk energy storage and transmission. Taking the advantage of the cryogenic environment of LH2 (20 K) it can also be used as the cryogen to cool down super conducting cables to realize the virtually zero-loss power transmission from 100 % renewable sources to vehicle charging stations. This hybrid LH2/electricity energy pipeline can realize long-distance large-capacity and high efficiency clean energy transmission to fulfil the hybrid energy supply demand for BEVs and FCEVs. For the case of a 100 MW-class hybrid hydrogen/electricity supply station the system principle and energy management strategy are analyzed through 9 different operating sub-modes. The corresponding static and dynamic economic modeling are performed and the economic feasibility of the hybrid hydrogen/electricity supply is verified using life-cycle analysis. Taking an example of wind power capacity 1898 MWh and solar power capacity 1619 MWh per day the dynamic payback period is 15.06 years the profitability index is 1.17 the internal rate of return is 7.956 % and the accumulative NPV is 187.92 M$. The system design and techno-economic analysis can potentially offer a technically/economically superior solution for future multi-energy vehicle charging/refueling systems.

The use of hydrogen storage tanks at 100% of nominal working pressure NWP is expected only after refuelling. Driving between refuellings is characterised by the state of charge SoC<100%. There is experimental evidence that Type IV tanks tested in a fire at initial pressures below one-third of its NWP depending on a fire source were leaking without rupture. This paper aims at understanding this phenomenon and the development of a predictive model. The numerical research has demonstrated that the heat transfer from fire through the composite overwrap is sufficient to melt the polymer liner. This initiates hydrogen microleaks through the composite wall before it loses the load-bearing ability when the resin degrades deep enough to cause the tank to rupture. The dependence of tank fire-resistance rating (FRR) on the SoC is presented for tanks of volume in the range 36-244 L. The tank wall thickness non-uniformity i.e. thinner composite at the dome area is identified as a serious issue for tank’s fire resistance that must be addressed by tank manufacturers and OEMs. The effect of the burst pressure ratio on FRR is investigated. It is concluded that thermal parameters of the composite wall i.e. decomposition heat and temperatures play a vital role in simulations of tank failure and thus FRR.

In this fifth episode  Steffan Eldred and Neelam Mughal from Innovate UK KTN discuss how the glass industry is driving new hydrogen developments and research and explore the hydrogen transition opportunities and challenges in this sector alongside their special guest Rob Ireson Innovation and Partnerships Manager at Glass Futures Ltd.

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