Today there are growing numbers of fuel cell products progress towards commercialisation. In many instances, by addressing the questions around hydrogen supply, electrolysers are smoothing the way for fuel cell deployment.
Today there are growing numbers of fuel cell products progress towards commercialisation. In many instances, by addressing the questions around hydrogen supply, electrolysers are smoothing the way for fuel cell deployment.
A future powered by hydrogen fuel, whose only byproduct is water, has long been an eco-friendly dream too difficult to realize. Storing and transporting hydrogen can be difficult and dangerous, and hydrogen production methods can also produce unwanted carbon dioxide. A new catalyst promises to solve these problems, using CO2 and hydrogen to store energy in liquid form. The only thing you need to worry about is pH. It’s the first catalyst to combine hydrogen and CO2 at room temperature and pressure, using water as the liquefying solution. As such, it could use existing fuel infrastructure built for the liquid hydrocarbons we have been using since the dawn of the combustion engine. In basic (as in alkaline) conditions, the catalyst converts hydrogen and CO2 into formic acid, a promising hydrogen-storage fluid that is safer to handle and transport than cryogenically stored dihydrogen. If you flip the pH switch to acidic, the resulting redox reaction frees the hydrogen from its carbon bonds, allowing you to grab and use the hydrogen for use in a fuel cell. Scientists from Brookhaven National Laboratoryand the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan worked with iridium-based catalysts with specific types of ligands, which are clusters of atoms [...]
FUKAI Environmental Research Institute, Inc., based in Ueda, Japan, has developed an innovative technology capable of generating hydrogen energy at the world’s lowest cost. This newly developed technology generates hydrogen by adding aluminum or magnesium to what is known as “functional water” in the boiling state. The amount of hydrogen generated is 2.0L per 1g of aluminum or 3.3L per 1g of magnesium. Thanks to this technology, it is possible to generate the amount of hydrogen required to generate 1kWh of electricity for a cost of merely 18 cents or so, the world’s lowest cost. Source: Coal Geology
Fabbrica del Sole presents its hydrogen house, a completely self-sufficient off-grid building, producing energy from renewable sources such as photovoltaic, wind, hydro, geothermal, and using hydrogen as a storage system which allows energy consumption during peak periods, for example winter. Hydrogen is produced through an electrolyzer powered by surplus electricity and demineralized water. Hydrogen can then be stored in metal hydrides or low pressure tanks to be used for: for fuel cell cogenerators; direct combustion to produce electricity and heat; combustion gas in boilers or furnaces, gas cookers in the kitchen, or hybrid vehicles. The building is also able to independently manage water, wastewater, and telephone connectivity. In the following links, please find: A video describing the project The brochure of the project
Researchers at Padua and Trieste were able to reproduce in the laboratory a phase of photosynthesis. This increases the possibility of building a high-efficiency hydrogen generator employing water and solar energy. A very efficient and stable nanostructured, oxygen-evolving anodes were obtained by the assembly of an oxygen-evolving polyoxometalate cluster (a totally inorganic ruthenium catalyst) with a conducting bed of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Source: Nature Chemistry and Università di Padova
A fleet of sailing ships could harvest energy from the wind blowing over the vast tracts of ocean too far from the shore for wind turbines, a scheme unveiled last month claims. The ships would turn wind power into hydrogen, which would be stored on board, to be unloaded later and used to generate electricity. The idea comes from Max Platzer and Nesrin Sarigul-Klijn at the University of California, Davis, who presented their paper at an American Society of Mechanical Engineers energy sustainability conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on 19 May. The ships would tow hydropower generators consisting of two wing-like underwater blades that would be made to oscillate by the force of the water as they plough through it. This motion would turn a crankshaft connected to a generator. The electricity this produces could then be used to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. Sailing ships can reach speeds of up to 46 kilometres per hour. A ship with 400 square metres of sail, operating in a strong, force 7 wind of 15 metres per second, could generate up to 100 kilowatts of electrical power. They also say it should be possible to build larger ships capable of generating up to [...]
“Steam Reforming”, for hydrogen production, and “Klaus”, for the abatement of sulfur residuals from fuels, will be the first two facilities to be built in the “petrochemical” of Gela after the release of the authorizations from the Ministry of Environment. Simultaneously, a new large reservoir of 120 thousand tons for the storage of crude oil will be built, which will allow the arrival of supertankers, with considerable reduction of costs, more availability of raw materials and increased manufacturing flexibility. The authorizations also included the remediation of the “Parco Coke” and the construction of a new control room. Total investment amounts to 500 million Euros. Source: la Sicilia