TOWARDS HYDROGEN ECONOMY IN ICELAND

1
TOWARDS HYDROGEN ECONOMY IN ICELAND

• Hannes Jonsson, Bragi Árnason and Thorsteinn I.
  Sigfússon
• University of Iceland
• Chemistry and Physics Dpts.

2
Iceland
A big basalt rock
No raw materials
No fossil fuel
70 of the export is fish, 20 is aluminum and
ferrosilicium
Most other consumer goods need to be imported
3
Geothermal power
High T sources are located near the fault, can be
used to generate electricity Low T sources are
almost everywhere and can be used for space
heating
4
Use of Geothermal Power in Iceland

• Over 90 of houses are heated with geothermal
  water, low T
• A total of 20 TWh/year of electrical energy is
  economically harnessable from high T geothermal
  sources
• Up to now, only 1 TWh/year has been harnessed

5
Hydroelectric Power

• Iceland is mountainous and has several large
  glaciers (including the largest one in Europe)
  and hydroelectric power is mainly generated using
  waterfalls in glacial rivers up in the
  highlands
• Total estimated potential of 35 TWh/year,
  currently only 7 TWh/year used

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Overview of energy need and potential production
in Iceland

• A total of 55 TWh/year of electrical energy is
  economically harnessable from hydro and
  geothermal sources
• Up to now, only 8 TWh/year have been harnessed
• To replace all imported fossil fuel would
  require 5 TWh/year (the population of Iceland is
  290 thousand people)

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The Use of Fossil Fuel in Iceland

• 35 of the energy used in Iceland comes from
  imported fossil fuel, of that 1/3 is consumed by
  the fishing fleet, 1/3 by transport sector and
  1/3 by industry (mainly graphite electrodes in
  smelters)
• Icelanders generate 11 tons of CO2 per capita per
  year

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Hydrogen economy in Iceland

• Use electrical energy generated from
  hydroelectric and geothermal sources to produce
  hydrogen
• Replace fossil fuels with hydrogen in buses/cars
  and fishing boats
• Benefits Improved trade balance, use of local
  resources, technological spinoffs and lower CO2
  emission

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HYDROGEN PRODUCTION COST

• The cost of hydrogen produced in Iceland as a
  function of plant size, electricity price and
  assuming Norsk Hydro technology is well known, a
  fertilizer plant has produced hydrogen
  electrolytically for 50 years
• Assuming for example 100 MW plant and electricity
  price 0.02 US/kWh, hydrogen produced in this way
  would be up to 2-3 times more expensive than
  presently imported gasoline when calculated on
  the basis of energy content (cost of 20 per
  barrel)

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Hydrogen production cost vs. electricity price

• The figure shows the hydrogen production cost
  based on the Norsk Hydro technology. The three
  lowest lines show the production cost as a
  function of electricity price for plant sizes 40
  MW, 100 MW and 200 MW respectively. The
  uppermost line shows the production cost for a
  200 MW plant, which would be in operation at half
  capacity, for instance 12 hr per day, and thus
  could eventually be operated on off-peak
  electricity.

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PEM fuel cell

• In case where hydrogen is used to power PEM fuel
  cells, currently in rapid development, the energy
  efficiency is 2-3 times higher than in
  conventional
• IC-engines
• Considering both production cost and energy
  efficiency, fuel cell based transport and fishing
  utilising hydrogen produced from electricity in
  Iceland is approaching competitiveness compared
  to fossil fuels

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Endorsed by the government

• The Prime Minister, Minister of Industry and
  Minister of Environment signed a letter of intent
  on 27.10.1998

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ICELANDIC NEW ENERGY LTD.
Joint-venture company owned by Vistorka
hf. DaimlerChrysler AG Norsk Hydro ASA Shell
Hydrogen The majority partner Vistorka
(EcoEnergy Ltd.) is a holding company owned by
public and private enterprises and institutions
which play a vital role in research, development
and financing of new industrial projects in
Iceland
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Icelandic New Energy Ltd. (cont.)
The purpose of the company
To set up a joint venture to investigate the
potential for eventually replacing the use of
fossil fuels in Iceland with hydrogen and create
the worlds first hydrogen economy
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Roadmap to hydrogen economy
1. Fuel cell bus demonstration
Demonstration program
Gradual introduction into bus fleet
Time
2000
2002
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Projection of hydrogen use in Iceland
5
90
4
,
3
81
4

60
3
h
Hydrogen (000 tonn)
W

T
2
30
1
0
0
2000
2010
2020
2030
2040
2050
Rough forecast for the usage of hydrogen as fuel
in cars and ships. Technical developments during
the next few years could considerably influence
the graph.
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Why a pilot project in Iceland?

• Iceland has enough energy from sustainable,
  nearly CO2 free sources
• Iceland has similar standards and transportation
  system as most other developed countries and
  therefore the results can easily be adapted
  elsewhere
• Iceland has experience in converting from one
  energy source to another (space heating with
  geothermal water)
• Reasonably large scale project in a fairly
  isolated location
• New hydrogen technology needs to be evaluated
  under severe weather conditions!

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The ECTOS-project (2001-2005)

• The ECTOS-project is a 4 year
• project, 2001-2005.
• The project can be split into
• two key phases
• The first two years
• Preparation, establishing infrastructure,
  maintenance facility,
• economic/social research, etc.
• The second two years
• The actual demonstration of three H2 buses and
  commercial infrastructure

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ECTOS-project, Infrastructure

• Creating and integrating hydrogen infrastructure
  into the existing urban setting in Reykjavik
  (2002-2003)
• Production On site electrolyser (using renewable
  electricity to split water into hydrogen and
  oxygen). Only supply WATER and ELECTRICITY
• Storing 1 compressor units delivering hydrogen
  at 440 bar
• Distribution on site of gaseous hydrogen directly
  on to vehicles.

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ECTOS project Partners
EC supports the project Around 40 of the budget
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The ECTOS EU Project (cont.)

• The total project is around 7.0 million
  EUR
• The European Commission support for the project
  is 2.85 million EUR
• The remaining 4.15 million EUR will be financed
  50 by foreign partners and 50 by
  domestic companies

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CUTE and ECTOS
Reykjavik
Stockholm
Hamburg
London
Amsterdam
Luxemburg
Stuttgart
Madrid
Barcelona
Porto
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HYDROGEN POWERED CITY BUS
Three buses will arrive in Reykjavik in September

• PEM fuel cells fueled by hydrogen stored on
  board as pressurised gas in sufficient amount to
  operate the bus
• 250 km on each tank filling

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Hydrogen Powered City Bus (cont.)

• This is the same distance as the Reykjavik city
  buses are run each day on the average
• A city bus fleet also can be operated from one
  filling station wich makes no need for
  complicated infrastructure for distribution of
  the fuel
• No further purification of electrolytically
  produced hydrogen is required for use in the PEM
  fuel cells

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Hydrogen fuelling station opened in April
Can produce 150 kg of hydrogen per day, delivers
hydrogen gas at 440 bars
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HYDROGEN POWERED PRIVATE CARS
Next step

• Onboard storage of pressurised hydrogen gas
  in hydrogen powered PEM fuel cell private cars
  seems feasible but has some limitations and
  safety concerns

Main problem is storage
Liquid hydrogen too expensive and the losses are
too large
New hydrogen storage solutions are needed
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HYDROGEN POWERED FISHING VESSELS

• For fishing vessels, fuel cells in the megawatt
  range need to become commercially available.
• Space limitations for long journeys at sea seem
  to make it difficult to store the fuel on board
  in the form of pure hydrogen. Solid state storage
  (metal hydrides) is being considered or even
  hydrogen bound in methanol as a short term
  solution

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HYDROGEN RELATED RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
ICELAND

• Thermoelectricity (spin-off Varmaraf)
• Thermal management of metal hydride storage
• New solid state storage materials (theoretical
  and experimental research)
• Production of methanol from emission gases of the
  aluminum and ferrosilicon smelters

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Summary

• Transformation to hydrogen economy could be
  realised in Iceland during the next decades and
  finished around mid century
• The hydrogen will be produced from ample
  electrical power obtained from sustainable
  geothermal and hydroelectric sources
• Icelandic New Energy and The University of
  Iceland and their international partners are
  working to reach this goal

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Possible methanol production in Iceland (cont.)

• Replacing 95 of the imported fossil fuels
  presently consumed by the transport and fishing
  sectors by methanol would result in a total of up
  to more than 50 reduction of CO2
  emissionfrom the present situation

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TRANSFORMATION OF ICELAND INTO THE HYDROGEN
ECONOMY

• Phase 1PEM fuel cell bus demonstration project.
  Up to three city buses in public transportation
  in Reykjavik
• Phase 2Gradual replacement of the Reykjavik
  city bus fleet and possibly other bus fleets by
  PEM fuel cell buses

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Transformation of Iceland into the hydrogen
economy (cont.)

• Phase 5Gradual replacement of the present
  fishing fleet by fuel cell powered vessels
• In this way, transformation of Iceland into a
  hydrogen economy could possibly be completed in
  2030 - 2040

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THE ECTOS EUROPEAN UNION PROJECT

• The key objective in the ECTOS project is to do
  combined demonstration and research on hydrogen
  infrastructure and operation of fuel cell buses
  powered by hydrogen
• The project consists of building a hydrogen
  refilling station in Iceland, with on-site
  production of hydrogen by electrolysis using
  renewable energy and operating 3 PEM fuel cell
  buses in normal service by the Reykjavik
  Municipal Bus Corporation

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Thermoelectricity - Novelty in the Icelandic
hydrogen research and development

• Thermoelectric generator, based on solid state
  methods, is using low temperature geothermal
  water to generate electricity for hydrogen
  production and to assist metal hydride storage
  management

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POSSIBLE METHANOL PRODUCTION IN ICELAND

• Assuming that the furnaces at the ferrosilicon
  plant and the electrolytic cells of the aluminium
  smelters could be enclosed, which technically
  seems not impossible, the carbon oxides in the
  gas emitted could be used together with
  additional hydrogen to produce methanol
• In this way sufficient amount of methanol could
  be produced to replace 95 of the fossil fuels
  presently consumed by the transport and fishing
  sectors in Iceland

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METHANOL OBTAINED BY COMBINING HYDROGEN AND
EMISSION GASES FROM METALS INDUSTRY IN ICELAND

• When looking for carbon containing resources for
  methanol production the attention is drawn
  towards carbon oxides emitted from the metals
  industry
• In fact both aluminium smelting and ferrosilicon
  production emit vast amounts of carbon oxide
  containing gases
• Basically these gases stem from the use of carbon
  in both cases