Publications

Hydrogen is the energy vector that will lead us toward a more sustainable future. It could be the fuel of both fuel cells and internal combustion engines. Internal combustion engines are today the only motors characterized by high reliability duration and specific power and low cost per power unit. The most immediate solution for the near future could be the application of hydrogen as a fuel in modern internal combustion engines. This solution has advantages and disadvantages: specific physical chemical and operational properties of hydrogen require attention. Hydrogen is the only fuel that could potentially produce no carbon carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions. It also allows high engine efficiency and low nitrogen oxide emissions. Hydrogen has wide flammability limits and a high flame propagation rate which provide a stable combustion process for lean and very lean mixtures. Near the stoichiometric air–fuel ratio hydrogen-fueled engines exhibit abnormal combustions (backfire pre-ignition detonation) the suppression of which has proven to be quite challenging. Pre-ignition due to hot spots in or around the spark plug can be avoided by adopting a cooled or unconventional ignition system (such as corona discharge): the latter also ensures the ignition of highly diluted hydrogen–air mixtures. It is worth noting that to correctly reproduce the hydrogen ignition and combustion processes in an ICE with the risks related to abnormal combustion 3D CFD simulations can be of great help. It is necessary to model the injection process correctly and then the formation of the mixture and therefore the combustion process. It is very complex to model hydrogen gas injection due to the high velocity of the gas in such jets. Experimental tests on hydrogen gas injection are many but never conclusive. It is necessary to have a deep knowledge of the gas injection phenomenon to correctly design the right injector for a specific engine. Furthermore correlations are needed in the CFD code to predict the laminar flame velocity of hydrogen–air mixtures and the autoignition time. In the literature experimental data are scarce on air–hydrogen mixtures particularly for engine-type conditions because they are complicated by flame instability at pressures similar to those of an engine. The flame velocity exhibits a non-monotonous behavior with respect to the equivalence ratio increases with a higher unburnt gas temperature and decreases at high pressures. This makes it difficult to develop the correlation required for robust and predictive CFD models. In this work the authors briefly describe the research path and the main challenges listed above.

An equilibrium-based steady-state simulator model that predicts and optimizes hydrogen production from steam gasification ofbiomass is developed using ASPEN Plus software and artificial intelligence techniques. Corn cob’s chemical composition wascharacterized to ensure the biomass used as a gasifier and with potential for production of hydrogen. Artificial intelligence is usedto examine the effects of the significant input variables on response variables such as hydrogen mole fraction and hydrogen energycontent. Optimizing the steam-gasification process using response surface methodology (RSM) considering a variety of biomass-steam ratios was carried out to achieve the best results. Hydrogen yield and the impact of main operating parameters wereconsidered. A maximum hydrogen concentration is found in the gasifier and water-gas shift (WGS) reactor at the highest steam-to-biomass (S/B) ratio and the lowest WGS reaction temperature while the gasification temperature has an optimum value. ANFISwas used to predict hydrogen of mole fraction 0.5045 with the input parameters of S/B ratio of 2.449 and reactor pressure andtemperature of 1 bar and 848°C respectively. With the steam-gasification model operating at temperature (850°C) pressure (1 bar)and S/B ratio of 2.0 an ASPEN simulator achieved a maximum of 0.5862 mole fraction of hydrogen while RSM gave an increaseof 19.0% optimum hydrogen produced over the ANFIS prediction with the input parameters of S/B ratio of 1.053 and reactorpressure and temperature of 1 bar and 850°C respectively. Varying the gasifier temperature and S/B ratio have on the other handa crucial effect on the gasification process with artificial intelligence as a unique tool for process evaluation prediction andoptimization to increase a significant impact on the products especially hydrogen.

Efforts to direct the economies of many countries towards low-carbon economies are being made in order to reduce their impact on global climate change. Within this process replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen will play an important role in the sectors where electrification is difficult or technically and economically ineffective. Hydrogen may also play a critical role in renewable energy storage processes. Thus the global hydrogen demand is expected to rise more than five times by 2050 while in the European Union a seven-fold rise in this field is expected. Apart from many technical and legislative barriers the environmental impact of hydrogen production is a key issue especially in the case of new and developing technologies. Focusing on the various pathways of hydrogen production the essential problem is to evaluate the related emissions through GHG accounting considering the life cycle of a plant in order to compare the technologies effectively. Anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysis is one of the newest technologies in this field with no LCA studies covering its full operation. Thus this study is focused on a calculation of the carbon footprint and economic indicators of a green hydrogen plant on the basis of a life cycle assessment including the concept of a solar-to-hydrogen plant with AEM electrolyzers operating under Polish climate conditions. The authors set the range of the GWP indicators as 2.73–4.34 kgCO2eq for a plant using AEM electrolysis which confirmed the relatively low emissivity of hydrogen from solar energy also in relation to this innovative technology. The economic profitability of the investment depends on external subsidies because as developing technology the AEM electrolysis of green hydrogen from photovoltaics is still uncompetitive in terms of its cost without this type of support.

To reach climate neutrality by 2050 a goal that the European Union set itself it is necessary to change and modify the whole EU’s energy system through deep decarbonization and reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. The study presents a current insight into the global energy-transition pathway based on the hydrogen energy industry chain. The paper provides a critical analysis of the role of clean hydrogen based on renewable energy sources (green hydrogen) and fossil-fuels-based hydrogen (blue hydrogen) in the development of a new hydrogen-based economy and the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. The actual status costs future directions and recommendations for low-carbon hydrogen development and commercial deployment are addressed. Additionally the integration of hydrogen production with CCUS technologies is presented.

In this study we developed a new hybrid mathematical model that combines wind-speed range with the log law to derive the wind energy potential for wind-generated hydrogen production in Pakistan. In addition we electrolyzed wind-generated power in order to assess the generation capacity of wind-generated renewable hydrogen. The advantage of the Weibull model is that it more accurately reflects power generation potential (i.e. the capacity factor). When applied to selected sites we have found commercially viable hydrogen production capacity in all locations. All sites considered had the potential to produce an excess amount of wind-generated renewable hydrogen. If the total national capacity of wind-generated was used Pakistan could conceivably produce 51917000.39 kg per day of renewable hydrogen. Based on our results we suggest that cars and other forms of transport could be fueled with hydrogen to conserve oil and gas resources which can reduce the energy shortfall and contribute to the fight against climate change and global warming. Also hydrogen could be used to supplement urban energy needs (e.g. for Sindh province Pakistan) again reducing energy shortage effects and supporting green city programs.

Purpose: The technology and market module of the FCHO presents a range of statistical data as an indicator of the health of the sector and the progress in market development over time. https://www.fchobservatory.eu/observatory/technology-and-market Scope: Fuel cell shipment data is presented on a global basis. Other sections of the technology and market chapter (HRS data and FCEV data) are presented on a European basis. The report spans January 2020 – December 2020. Key Findings: COVID-19 has without doubt impacted the deployment of fuel cells and hydrogen in 2020 compared to industry expectations: Global Fuel Cell shipments > 1.3 GW Europe Fuel Cell shipments up to 148.6 MW Europe HRS in operation or under construction 162 FCEVs up 41% to 2774

This paper investigates a multi-objective optimal energy planning strategy for a hub incorporating renewable and non-renewable resources like PV tidal turbine fuel-cell CHP boiler micro-turbine reactor reformer electrolyzer and energy storage by utilizing the time of use program (TOU). In this strategy tidal turbine fuel-cell and reformer technologies are considered novel technologies that simultaneously reduce the proposed hub’s cost and pollution. The hub’s total cost and pollution are considered objective functions. To make the results more realistic characteristics of the tidal turbine are investigated by utilizing the manufactory’s company information. The problem is then modeled as real mixed integer programming (RMIP) and is solved in GAMS software using a CPLEX solver. Epsilon constraints method and fuzzy satisfying approach are used to select the optimal solution based on the proposed model. Finally a sensitivity analysis is performed to assess the effective parameters that affect the planning’s results. The results show that the overall pollution is reduced by about 9% by assuming the proposed planning and the total profit is increased by about 30%.

Public transport plays a prominent role with respect to mitigating transport-related environmental effects by improving passenger transport efficiency and the quality of life in cities. Batteries and fuel cells are at the forefront of the technological shift to zero-emission powertrains. Within the scope of the German-funded project BIC H2 corresponding systems analysis research focuses on the market introduction of fuel cell–electric buses in the Rhine–Ruhr Metropolitan Region through 2035. This study presents the related methods and major outcomes of this techno-economic research which spans spatially-resolved hydrogen demand modeling of all relevant sectors to hydrogen refueling stations and upstream infrastructure modeling to scenario-based analyses. The latter builds upon an empirical study supporting the development of the Hydrogen Roadmap of the State of North Rhine–Westphalia (NRW). Our results show that the demand in NRW alone is expected to account for one third of total German hydrogen use. Hydrogen bus refueling could substantially support market introduction during its early phases. In the long term however hydrogen demand in industry is significantly higher compared to that in the transport sector. Furthermore spatial analysis identifies regions with pronounced hydrogen demands that could therefore be candidates for initial infrastructure investments. With the Cologne area showing the highest hydrogen demand levels such regions can offer particularly high infrastructure utilization e.g. for bus refueling. On the infrastructure side trailers for transporting gaseous hydrogen to refueling stations are the most favorable option through 2035. Pipelines would be the preferred solution soon after 2035 due to increased hydrogen demand. If effectively deployed converted natural gas pipelines would be the most cost-effective option even earlier.

In light of offshore wind expansions in the North and Baltic Seas in Europe further ideas on using offshore space for renewable-based energy generation have evolved. One of the concepts is that of energy islands which entails the placement of energy conversion and storage equipment near offshore wind farms. Offshore placement of electrolysers will cause interdependence between the availability of electricity for hydrogen production and for power transmission to shore. This paper investigates the trade-offs between integrating energy islands via electricity versus hydrogen infrastructure. We set up a combined capacity expansion and electricity dispatch model to assess the role of electrolysers and electricity cables given the availability of renewable energy from the islands. We find that the electricity system benefits more from connecting close-to-shore wind farms via power cables. In turn electrolysis is more valuable for far-away energy islands as it avoids expensive long-distance cable infrastructure. We also find that capacity investment in electrolysers is sensitive to hydrogen prices but less to carbon prices. The onshore network and congestion caused by increased activity close to shore influence the sizing and siting of electrolysers.

On today’s episode of Everything About Hydrogen we speak with Raffi Garabedian CEO and Co-Founder of Electric Hydrogen (EH2) a deep decarbonization company pioneering new technology for low cost high efficiency fossil free hydrogen systems. By using electrolyzers many times larger than the industry standard EH2 aims to help eliminate more than 30% of global GHG emissions from difficult to electrify sectors like steel ammonia and freight.

We are excited to learn more from Raffi about the EH2 technology lessons learned by scaling First Solar and what we might expect to see next.

The podcast can be found on their website.