Proton OnSite to supply hydrogen generator in Hamburg
12 March 2014
US-based Proton OnSite has been chosen to install an on-site hydrogen generator at one of the first hydrogen fuel cell stations in Germany’s new nationwide H2Mobility refueling network.
Proton OnSite won a competitive application process to install a C-Series proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer in the new station in Hamburg, Germany as part of the overall solution being provided by H2 Logic. The PEM electrolyzer will be partially powered by renewable energy sources and is expected to be in operation in late summer or early Fall.
The station is owned and operated by a major European infrastructure provider and is part of a planned 50 station network in the country by 2015, as part of the previously announced €350-million (US$485-million) H2Mobility Germany initiative. The fueling station will be fueling a variety of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCV).
This is the second U.S.-made Proton OnSite hydrogen generator to be delivered for vehicle fueling in Germany. In 2012, a Proton electrolyzer was installed at Fraunhofer ISE’s solar-powered refueling station in Freiburg as part of Baden-Württemberg's Environment Ministry’s hydrogen refueling project.
The refueler is a collaboration between the qualified teams at Proton OnSite and Denmark-based H2 Logic, manufacturer of H2Station CAR-100 hydrogen refueling stations.
The electrolyzer in Hamburg will use the same C-Series electrolyzer platform as the SunHydro commercial fueling station in Wallingford, Connecticut, which opened in October 2010. Proton OnSite estimates that the station has dispensed more than 8,000 kg of hydrogen, and completed more than 2,000 fills, resulting in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles being driven more than 50,000 miles (31,000 miles) since its launch in October 2010 through January 2014. More than 95% of the fills were 700 bar/10000 psi H70 “fast fills” of three minutes or less using SAE TIR J2601 and OEM fill protocols.
Proton OnSite has also installed C-Series electrolyzers in refueling stations in Flint, Michigan, Emeryville, California and multiple locations in Hawaii and internationally.
Slowly hydrogen and fuel cells are coming together to make a contribution to transport.
High temperature electrolysis may hit up to 75& efficiency including compression to 80 bar:
http://fuelcellsworks.com/news/2014/03/10/siements-researchers-prove-electrolytic-cells-used-to-produce-hydrogen-are-stable-at-850-degrees/
Germany hopes to use this as an enabling technology for a high proportion of renewables in the grid.
Posted by: Davemart | 12 March 2014 at 02:42 AM
I am making this another post, as more than one link seems to result in the spam filter deleting the comment!
Costs for high temperature electrolysis including distribution etc seem to be settling at around $5/kg/gge (fig 15):
http://www.inl.gov/technicalpublications/Documents/5436986.pdf
Note that this is for electrolysis, which is as clean as the grid is, not for natural gas reforming, so knocking on the head the canard that the use of hydrogen is simply fossil fuel burn by other means.
The economics are pretty good considering a small SUV FCEV gets over 60miles/kg/gge.
If that is still felt to be too expensive, then there is no reason that PHEV FCEVs can't be built.
The advantages of that configuration over the Volt are many.
The complexity of having a combustion engine are eliminated, together with the high temperature exhaust and so on.
More importantly, if it is worth moving from petrol, we might as well do it properly, and a fuel cell PHEV remains zero pollution at point of use no matter how far it travels in a day.
FCEVs perform just fine in the cold, so the problems of already limited range being grossly reduced are almost eliminated.
The losses in converting hydrogen to electricity in the winter can be put to good use warming the car, whilst the losses in a BEV to generate the electricity occur at the power plant and in the garage in charging losses, where they are not so useful.
So I think batteries and fuel cells are great enablers of each other, with complementary strengths and weaknesses.
Posted by: Davemart | 12 March 2014 at 02:53 AM
Yes, replacing the ICE and liquid fuel tank in a PHEV with an FC and H2 tank would be a smart idea, specially for areas with clean e-energy and cold weather.
Secondly, the on-board batteries would not have to be that large. A 10 kWh pack could do it.
Posted by: HarveyD | 12 March 2014 at 07:54 AM