|
Hydrogen Energy for the Future of New Zealand
|
FRST Contract Number:
|
C08X0204
|
|
Programme Leaders:
|
Dr Anthony Clemens and Dr Alister Gardiner
|
| Project Team |
|
|
CRL Energy
Dr Anthony Clemens
Dr Trevor Matheson
Dr Tana Levi
Ruben Smit
Karl van Niekerk
Rodney Brown
|
Industrial Research Ltd
Dr Alister Gardiner
Steve Broome
Unitec Auckland
Dr Jonathan Leaver
University of Canterbury
|
Programme Outline
The New Zealand Government’s investment in a six-year research project 'Hydrogen Energy for the Future of New Zealand', commissioned in 2002, is being jointly undertaken by CRL Energy and IRL (who are developing the fuel cell component of the technology package), with collaboration from Unitec in Auckland (who provide future energy demand modelling input) and the University of Canterbury. A programme governance panel includes senior industry representatives from Solid Energy, Meridian Energy and BP NZ. The project, now in its fifth year, aims to create the technological platform required to allow New Zealand to eventually move to a hydrogen-based energy economy.
Three applications
The project considers three applications - meeting the needs of small remote communities using a technology package similar to that being developed by CRL Energy, meeting the demands of a large industrial complex, and production of the bulk hydrogen required to meet the needs of the transport fleet.
In the small scale off-grid distributed generation application electricity is likely to be produced by a combination of fuel cell and gas engine/turbine technologies.
The energy demands of a large industrial site could be met by tri- generation (electricity, heat and hydrogen) operation in which electricity is produced by solid oxide fuel cells with the heat recovered from the exhaust of the fuel cell being used to meet the thermal requirements of the plant.
The third application will be used to produce the bulk of the hydrogen required by the transport fleet using large-scale coal-powered centralized multiplexes. These plants will simultaneously co-produce electricity.
For plants of this size it is important to consider issues around bulk hydrogen distribution and several different production/distribution configurations are possible.
In order for a hydrogen economy to develop, the delivered hydrogen cost must be competitive with other fuels. It is likely that a coal-based hydrogen economy will use some combination of the above production/distribution pathways.
All three application types will produce carbon dioxide as a co-product, highlighting the importance of identifying and quantifying the available geosequestration capacity.
The role of coal
The project also considered the likely role of coal-based hydrogen production technologies in the development of a hydrogen energy economy in New Zealand. Given that the country has significant coal reserves, but dwindling gas supplies and insufficient economically viable renewable resources to meet likely future demand, there will be several decades during which hydrogen production from coal will play a major role.
Progress to date
Trial technology for converting our low rank coals to high purity hydrogen suitable for use in fuel cells has been built (in the form of a 200kW coal gasifier which was officially launched on 23 February 2004) and the work is well advanced. To date, significant quantities of hydrogen rich gas have been manufactured, and a 1.2 kW prototype fuel cell system has been demonstrated. Work is now proceeding on the hydrogen clean-up technologies necessary to be able to feed the hydrogen gas directly into the fuel cell generator.
In the paper the scientists described some of the features of the gasifier and syngas clean-up components of the technology package, some of the difficulties faced and means of overcoming them.
The past year has seen extended duration operation of the gasifier, and baseline gasifier performance and syngas composition has been documented for a range of operating conditions. Work continues on the development of a gas cleanup line with the first tests of the sulphur removal system recently completed and the construction and initial testing of a water gas shift reactor. The work scope has been modified to include testing of hydrogen separation membranes in association with the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). An ECN engineer has been seconded to assist in this area.
ECN has already successfully demonstrated tubular membrane systems with a membrane of microporous silica combined with a very thin dense Pd-alloy membrane layer. ECN believes that such membranes will “play a key role in future power and hydrogen production systems”.
International collaboration
Although the impact and benefits of a hydrogen economy may be 15 years or more in the future, international activity is marked by a sense of urgency. There is wide recognition that a great deal of research needs to be carried out now in order to make the transition as seamless as possible.
The International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) was launched in Washington DC in late 2003 to encourage hydrogen research collaboration among member nations. The IEA Hydrogen Implementation Agreement is a UK/European based organisation with similar aims. New Zealand belongs to both.
Hydrogen production from wind energy
CRL Energy's partner organisation, IRL, is also investigating hydrogen production from wind energy as part of this FRST-funded programme. The programme is developing this method at small scale, for remote area applications and is also evaluating larger scale opportunities. Several small electrolyser systems have been constructed and experimentally characterised.
A pilot project at Totara Valley, a small farming community around 10km from Woodville in the lower North Island, is currently underway.
The project involves installing a small hydrogen production, distribution and utilisation system, this includes a hilltop wind turbine generator and electrolyser to produce hydrogen gas, connected to a fuel-cell and hydrogen burner for water heating at the farmhouse in the valley below.
Because the wind does not always blow reliably, and because rural areas are subjected to power disruptions, converting the available wind energy to hydrogen, which can be held in low-pressure storage in a Hy-Link pipeline, is an ideal solution to providing a more continuous energy supply. The pilot project uses approximately 2kms of pipeline which provides approximately 5kWh of hydrogen energy storage. To store more gas, the pipeline diameter can be increased.
|
