FuelCellsWorks

The University of Glamorgan is helping to boost the economy and improve the environment, through the creation of 20 new posts that will drive forward the hydrogen economy in Wales.

The posts encompass chemists, physicists, engineers, biotechnologists, modellers and economists, and will be funded by the £6.3 million CymruH2Wales project that the University launched earlier this year.

CymruH2Wales aims to develop capacity for the industrial development of hydrogen technologies. Hydrogen could have huge environmental and economic benefits in several areas including:

•More efficient management of existing and future renewable electricity generating technologies such as wind, PV and marine through the generation of hydrogen as an energy store during times of peak generation (i.e. where generation exceeds demand). This energy can then be released back to the grid on demand.

•Use of hydrogen (or hydrogen / methane blends) as a transport fuel to replace fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel.

•The generation of biologically derived hydrogen (and methane) gas by using sustainable organic resources such as crops, crop residues, industrial co-products and wastes, recovery and clean-up of gases and utilisation of intermediates for use in manufacturing other low carbon products.

•More efficient generation of electricity and heat within a distributed grid system through the development and deployment of hydrogen fuel cell technologies (which are more efficient at generating electricity than traditional generators).

•The capture and utilisation of hydrogen rich industrial waste gases.

•The integration of hydrogen (and renewable methane) gas into the existing national gas grid.

It is intended that the new posts will conduct research and develop products and processes to support all of these.

Professor Alan Guwy commented, “These posts are a really positive sign that hydrogen research and development can deliver huge economic benefits. We are hoping to attract the best researchers in order to ensure a significant concentration of academic and industrial hydrogen expertise for the project.”

The posts will be spread across eight work packages that include:
H2 Energy Storage – research into the way that hydrogen technologies can integrate with renewables such as wind and solar power to store energy during times of excess generation.

H2 / CH4 Vehicles & Refuelling Infrastructure – development of engine test facilities and utilisation of these to bring hydrogen as a vehicle fuel closer to market. This work package also seeks to further the development of a fledgling hydrogen refuelling network in South Wales.

Bio H2 / CH4 Process Development – evaluation of the potential to generate hydrogen from organic resources available in Wales, and an analysis of the technologies and supply chains required to realise this. This work package will also develop a bio hydrogen production platform which is technically, economically and environmentally optimised for industrial application.

Recovery and Clean Up of Product Gases and Intermediates – investigation of the technologies available / required to clean up biological / industrial waste gases so that they can be used in fuel cells, engines and the gas grid. This work package also includes the development of processes for the separation, conversion and recovery of residues and intermediates from the bio hydrogen production process that will allow generation of valuable low carbon products.

Development of Product Gas, Intermediate and By Product End Uses – an assessment of how bio hydrogen can integrate with end use technologies and demonstrating how intermediates and by products from the biological process can be used to manufacture high value, low carbon products.
Economic and Life Cycle Assessment – quantification of the economic viability and environmental sustainability of the processes and products developed.

Project Management– this includes the administrative elements needed to ensure that the project is delivered on time, within budget and meets the objectives outlined below.

Communication, Reporting, Dissemination – dissemination of the knowledge gathered to industry or other relevant stakeholders to encourage the uptake of promising technologies and products.

Recruitment for the posts will start shortly with a view to successful applicants being in post over the summer. For further information on any of the positions please contact Professor Alan Guwy or Jon Maddy: jmaddy@glam.ac.uk

ITM Power, the energy storage and clean fuel company, is pleased to announce that DHL Supply Chain and London Stansted Airport have both signed agreements to participate in Hydrogen On Site Trials (HOST) of ITM Power’s transportable high pressure refuelling unit (HFuel). The unit under construction is supported by a Technology Strategy Board (TSB) grant (announced February 2010) and partners Gateway to London and Revolve Technologies.

HOST will begin in 2011, and will see the operation and refueling of two Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (HICE) Revolve Technologies Ford Transit vehicles with hydrogen produced on site at the point of use, at sites operated by participating companies and in the Gateway to London development area.

Membership of HOST provides each partner with a one week free trial of HFuel and the two Revolve HICE transit vehicles, and an option to lease both HFuel and vehicles for additional weeks. The demonstrations will be 100% managed and operated by ITM Power personnel, in liaison with site owners’ operations and management.

Commenting for ITM Power, CEO Graham Cooley said “We are delighted that such high profile transport logistics companies have agreed to join the HOST programme. They will appraise the potential of our technology to decarbonise return to base transport logisitics vehicles and address the important sustainability issue of eliminating the carbon footprint of their fuel supply. The trials are an important part of demonstrating the potential of ITM Power’s HFuel technology to the marketplace and we expect other transport logistics companies to be joining the HOST scheme in the near future.”

Keith Tress, Head of Engineering, Customer Management, DHL Supply Chain added “DHL is pleased to support ITM Power in the development of its Transportable High Pressure Hydrogen Refuelling Station and Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engines, which could make a significant contribution to our goal of reducing CO2 by 30 per cent by 2020.”

David Johnston, Managing Director of London Stansted Airport Ltd, said “Despite air quality at Stansted Airport being well within UK and EU standards, at Stansted we are continually looking for new and innovative ways in which we can further reduce our emissions.  This is reflected in the development of our new Air Quality Strategy and in this exciting new opportunity we are very proud to be part of with ITM Power.  We look forward to discovering and testing how hydrogen could be developed as a viable alternative fuel for airport vehicles.”

John Williams, Chief Executive of Gateway to London said “I am delighted to see major logistics companies have signed up to trial ITM Power’s green hydrogen refuelling system along with improved performance HICE transit vans.  Sustainable transport logistics will be vital for London to realise its recent launch of the Green Enterprise District.  I congratulate the participant companies in grasping ITM Power’s HOST opportunity and look forward to demonstration in the Thames Gateway development area of London”

PARIS–

Significant enhancements in the simulation of automotive fuel cell performance were presented to the Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Program and Vehicle Technologies Program Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting today. This program seeks to improve the ability to use simulation to conduct a detailed study of how various fuel cell component structures and properties affect the gas and water transport in Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Engineers from ESI North America have been an integral part of this project during the last three years.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells can be utilized as a zero-emission power source for many transportation applications. The most critical technical challenges facing the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles are cost reduction, durability, water management, freeze tolerance and power density.

“Virtual prototyping using advanced multi-physics simulation to understand the complex interactions of physical phenomenon is a required supporting technology to bring commercially viable fuel cell vehicles to the mass market” said Joseph Strelow, Director and Chief Engineer of Government Programs at ESI North America. “The electrochemical reactions, the concentrations of performance degrading pollutants, and their impact on the durability of cell structures cannot be measured directly in a functioning fuel cell. Available simulation options have lacked the ability to represent the precise physics necessary for further advancements in performance. We are proud to be working with our industry and academic partners, with the support of the Department of Energy, to resolve these fundamental issues.”

The activities presented included the results of additional experimental validation of the ESI water transport models in the gas diffusion layers, channels, and across interfaces. This improved understanding of water transport allowed new concepts to remove water and control its distribution to be evaluated. Further integration of the water management simulations with existing electrochemistry and heat transfer models was undertaken as well, creating a solution to study increasing power densities and transient performance.

This four year project was started in 2007 with a total budget of $6.4M. The work is a collaboration of seven technologies, industrial and academic partners. Today was the final mid-program review. The project is expected to be completed in May 2011.

For more information on ESI’s applications for the Energy and Power Generation industry, visit: http://www.esi-group.com/industries/energy-power.