The Role of Hydrogen in the Renewable Energy Mix

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The Role of Hydrogen in the Renewable Energy Mix

• Dr. Michael Mann
• Chemical Engineering
• University of North Dakota

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Presentation Outline

• The Hydrogen Economy
• The 2005 Energy Policy Act
• Sources of Hydrogen
• A Case Study Basin Electric
• Summary

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Reasons to Change from Fossil Fuel

• Political obligation - reduce CO2 emissions
• Worldwide energy dependence
• Oil is a scarce commodity
• Needs of developing economies

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What is the Hydrogen Economy
A future economy in which energy, for mobile
applications (vehicles, aircraft) and electrical
grid load balancing (daily peak demand reserve),
is stored as hydrogen (H2).
Hydrogen is not a energy source, its an energy
carrier like electricity

• Goals in developing world wide hydrogen
  infrastructure and technologies
• Security in energy supply
• Environmental protection
• Promote economic growth of societies

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Why Hydrogen?

• High mass energy density
• 2.4x methane 2.8x gasoline, 4x coal
• Absence of emissions CO2, NOx, SO2, PM
• But clean as source of production
• Eliminate emission from disperse sources -
  transportation
• Allow integration of
• renewable, intermittent
• energy sources
• Uninterrupted electricity
• Low system efficiency
• Volumetrically challenged

http//www.hydrogen.gov/why.html
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• Is hydrogen poised to have a major impact on the
  energy industry?

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Presentation Outline

• The Hydrogen Economy
• The 2005 Energy Policy Act
• Sources of Hydrogen
• A Case Study Basin Electric
• Summary

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Energy Policy Act and Hydrogen

• No preamble to identify goals
• Does not coordinate any national energy policy
  or strategy
• Budget represents lobby interests not amount
  necessary to overcome barriers
• Approach ensures no interest group was left out,
  but prevents headway in any fledging industry
• H2 Funding does not match goals

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Goals of Title VIII

• Recognized that
• H2 source of heat and electricity
• Storage - transportation or electricity
• H2 can replace petroleum decreasing the US
  dependency of imported oil
• Acts as storage medium for electricity created by
  intermittent resources creating a sustainable
  energy economy
• Wind, biomass, solar replace coal and oil

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Title VIII Development, Demonstration and
Commercialization

• 2,500,000 vehicles by 2020 1 of US
• Will require major infrastructure changes
• Not large enough to cause conversion to fuel cell
  vehicles
• Makes sense for fleet centers
• Will not meet goal of acceptance by consumers
• Target prevents economy of scale

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Fuel Diversity vs Fuel Replacement

• to build a mature hydrogen economy that creates
  fuel diversity in the massive transportation
  sector
• mature suggests formidable technical hurdles
  will be overcome
• diversity leaves room for H2, ethanol, etc
• Can US meets both goals
• Distribution and delivery infrastructure
• Engine design

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Is Money in Title VIII Adequate

• Goal of putting money into public investments in
  industry, higher education, national labs, and
  research institutions to expand innovation
• Focus on primary developmental needs
• Isolating, storage distribution, transporting H2
• Fuel cell technologies
• Demonstration projects
• Development of safety codes and standards
• Authorized 4.046 billion through 2010
• 2x other renewables, 1.775 b less than ethanol

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How should we evaluate new energy technologies?

• Must give net energy (energy ratio gt1) throughout
  life cycle
• Sustainable in all environmental concerns
• All climate changes considered
• Must be politically feasible
• Dont under estimate concerns with developing
  technologies

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Sources of H2
Marban and Valdes-Solis, 2007
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Sources of H2

• CH4 reforming
• 3/MMBtu CH4 -gt 6/MMBtu H2
• 12/MMBtu CH4 -gt 20/MMBtu H2
• Releases CO2
• Does not address energy security
• Electrolysis
• 3kW electricity per 1 kW H2 produced
• 20/MMBtu H2
• Thermochemical cracking
• Solar or nuclear energy sources
• Experimental

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Wind as Source of Hydrogen

• Energy ratio of wind is around 30
• After electrolysis and delivery 15
• End use conversion drops ratio to 8 to 12
• US oil to gasoline ratio of 6 to 10
• Corn to ethanol ratio of 1.3 to 1.8
• Other concerns
• Delivered energy reduced in half by end use
• Substantial money investments
• Hydrogen storage

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What technologies can produce H2 to replace
transportation needs?
Marban and Valdes-Solis, 2007
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Storage and Distribution

• Distribution methods
• Pipeline
• Liquid hydrogen
• Solid metal hydride
• Carrier fuels
• Carbon nanotubes
• Fueling station infrastructure
• 450,000 per H2 pump
• 10,000 stations minimum to service US
• Mature H2 economy - 200 billion

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Marban and Valdes-Solis, 2007
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Presentation Outline

• The Hydrogen Economy
• The 2005 Energy Policy Act
• Sources of Hydrogen
• A Case Study Basin Electric
• Summary

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An Electric Utility Perspective

• A common obstacle to the development of wind
  energy in many parts of the United States is the
  difficulty in adding wind-generated electricity
  onto transmission lines that are already
  constrained
• Transmission constraint limitations on new wind
  generation can be overcome by dynamically
  scheduling grid-connected wind energy to power a
  load (electrolyzer or multiple electrolyzers)
  within a regional area
• Plus deals with intermittency of renewable
  resources

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Case Study Basin Electric
Minot - Feb 03 - (2) 1.3 MW Edgeley - Oct 03 -
(27) 1.5 MW Wilton - Dec 05 - (33) 1.5
MW Electrolyzer at NDSUs N. Central Research
Center near Minot.
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Project Background

• Electrolyzer Hydrogenics HySTAT A-30, Output 30
  Nm3/hr (2.7 kg/hr) at full capacity
• Compression/storage 80 kg of storage in three
  pairs of cascading cylinders, (six total) at 6000
  psi
• Dispenser 5000 psi of dispensing pressure
• Hydrogen use Three Chevy ½-ton internal
  combustion pickups capable of running on H2,E-85,
  and gasoline
• Hydrogen use A genset converted to run on H2

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Project Background
HyStat Electrolyzer
Dispenser
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H2 End Use Demonstration

• Tri-fuel (gasolineE-85hydrogen) engine
  conversion provided by AFVTech on three Chevrolet
  trucks.
• Internal combustion generator converted to
  operate on H2 (still negotiating this item).

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Dynamic Scheduling

• There are four control modes, each representing a
  different approach for dynamic scheduling
• All modes are constrained by the technological
  limitation of the electrolyzerthe need to
  maintain a minimum of 7.5 Nm3 H2 production for
  fast response time
• The minimum operating level requirement and
  parasitic power (heating, lights, etc.) will be
  met by grid energy for this research project

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Dynamic Scheduling Mode 1

• Most directly addresses the transmission problem
• x amount of added wind energy is cancelled by
  x amount of electrolyzer capacity
• Least efficient because of underutilization of
  electrolyzer capacity
• Simulated by scaling 100 wind farm output
  corresponds to 100 electrolyzer power capacity
  directly proportioned down to minimum operating
  level of electrolyzer

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Dynamic Scheduling Mode 2

• Similar to Mode 1, but with addition of low-cost,
  off-peak, non-wind electricity to supplement wind
  energy for full electrolyzer production from 11
  p.m. to 7 a.m. daily and all day on weekends
• Non-wind electricity is only utilized when wind
  energy is not sufficient to run electrolyzer at
  full load
• Still an inefficient use of electrolyzer due to
  underutilization

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Dynamic Scheduling Mode 3

• Assumes that the added MWs of wind energy are
  greater than the added MWs of electrolyzer-based
  load
• The wind-generated electricity above the full
  power needed to run electrolyzer is fed to the
  grid
• Improved utilization of the electrolyzer over
  Modes 1 and 2 makes it more efficient
• Requires the grid to utilize energy excess

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Dynamic Scheduling Mode 4

• Similar to Mode 3, but with the addition of
  low-cost off-peak non-wind electricity to
  supplement wind energy for full electrolyzer
  production from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily and all
  day on weekends
• Non-wind electricity is only utilized when wind
  energy is not sufficient to run electrolyzer at
  full load during
• Most efficient of the modesapproximately 90
  utilization of electrolyzer
• Requires the grid to utilize energy excess

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Presentation Outline

• The Hydrogen Economy
• The 2005 Energy Policy Act
• Sources of Hydrogen
• A Case Study Basin Electric
• Summary

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Future Expectations

• Conditions for societal based H2 economy
• Strong international CO2 agreements
• Reduced cost of H2 production, distribution,
  storage, and utilization
• IEA most favorable prediction for H2 / 2050
• 30 of cars powered by H2 feed
• 200 300 GW installed FC to cogenerate heat and
  electricity

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What about Hydrogen

• Hydrogen will be a part of the solution, but not
  the single silver bullet
• Hydrogen is just an energy carrier, we still need
  a primary energy source(s)
• Hydrogen can be used to firm renewable energy
  resources. Current conditions need to change to
  improve economic viability

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References Acknowledgements

• Dr. Rhonda Peters Clipper Energy
• Dr. Kevin Harrison NREL
• E. Lockey, A critical review of the Energy
  Policy Act of 2005s treatment of hydrogen,
  International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 32
  (2007) 1673-1679.
• P. Moriatry and D. Honnery, Intermittent
  renewable energy the only future source of
  hydrogen? International Journal of Hydrogen
  Energy, 32 (2007) 1616-1624.
• G. Marban and T. Valdes-Solis, Towards a
  hydrogen economy? International Journal of
  Hydrogen Energy, 32 (2007) 1625-1637.