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| Hydrogen Fuelling Stations In The Home! |
| Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 12:06 by Simon Spicer |
The UK's first hydrogen home refuelling station has been revealed by Sheffield based ITM Power. The Group believe that the emergence of a new and expansive network of hydrogen fuel depots could eventually lead to hydrogen taking over from many fossil fuels as the fuel of the future.
The Company recently set up the UK's first hydrogen based home, where the gas is used for cooking and heating, as well as powering a number of everyday appliances. The hydrogen station works via an electrolyser which produces hydrogen gas from water and electricity. The gas is then converted back into electricity via an internal combustion generator providing power for the home of the future.
However, while this system may well be the greenest of options available at the moment there are many who argue it is uneconomical, using other energy to create the hydrogen gas in the first place. Currently the home hydrogen gas station can power a modified car for a 25 mile journey, but high pressure stations would be required, at a cost of £20,000 each, to extend the journey length to some 100 miles. It seems as though there is still work to do on this particular system, but progress is being made.
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| Hydrogen produced using electricity from conventional fossil fuel power stations is anything but green. The amount of carbon dioxde produced at the power station to make the hydrogen for a 25 mile journey, would be far greater than that produced by the average car burning petrol for the same journey. |
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| The previous posting is rather short sighted. The bi-fuel car is designed to be filled overnight, using off-peak electricity. Our power stations (esp nuclear) are designed to run at a fixed output 24/7, therefore the greenhouse gasses are going to be produced anyway - so we might as well use them. Plus, consider the future: All UK houses will soon have to be carbon neutral. This will necessitate all houses having some form of renewable energy source, most likely a small wind turbine. If the wind blows at night most of the energy is wasted. The ITM electrolyser will allow this energy to be stored and put to good use.
What are the alternatives out there? Fuel cell cars are currently ~£0.5m each and you still have to produce the hydrogen, currently 95% of which is produced by reforming gas (which produces CO2). Battery cars need charging and still necessitate using the power supply. The difference being that you can apparently convert any car to be bi-fuel H2 / petrol for minimal cost. Try converting your car to run on batteries. Current hybreds (such as the Prius) simply make cars more efficient, but the gains are comparatively small - changing your driving style will have more effect. And, of course you are still producing CO2.
This technology is not the ultimate answer to a hydrogen economy, but it would appear to be the stepping stone that we have been waiting for. |
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