Hydrogen is touted as the energy carrier
of the future; billions of dollars / Euros / yen have been allocated for
R,D&D into hydrogen and fuel cells.
Most of the world's current supply of hydrogen
is derived from fossil fuels and, therefore, most hydrogen does not eliminate
the emission of GHG pollutants that are connected with climate change.
The canadian association
for renewable energies argues
that, only when an eligible renewable energy technology is used for electrolysis
or non-hydrocarbon derivation process, can the resulting hydrogen be considered
as renewable or the fuel cell considered as clean.
Some recent examples of the growing understanding
lack) of this issue:
(links are inserted according
to date; please check the entire list periodically)
Fuel cells release 50% of CO2 emissions but
up to 99% less NOx / SOx than fossil fuel power plants, according to Canada's
first high-voltage operational fuel cell to be purchased for the Northern
Alberta Institute of Technology (June 24; see backgrounder).
The clean air and CO2 benefits will only be confirmed when fuel cells are
commercially adopted, it says.
Natural gas and cost-effective renewables
are the main near-term sources for the hydrogen transition while, in the
longer run, more mature renewables will play “an important and ultimately
a dominant role,” says Amory Lovins in ‘Twenty
Hydrogen Myths’ (June). Carbon emissions from
hydrogen produced by fossil fuels will approach zero, but insisting that
it be made now only from renewables “is making the perfect enemy of the
good.” If implemented correctly, the hydrogen transition “will actually
make renewable energy more competitive and speed its adoption,” says the
The short-term aim in Europe should be to
increase supply from renewable energy sources on the continent but, “in
longer term, renewable energy sources will become the most important source
for the production of hydrogen,” says the EU's High
Level Group for Hydrogen & Fuel Cells (June 16).
Hydrogen and fuel cells allow integrated ‘open energy systems’ that address
major energy and environmental challenges, and will have the flexibility
to adapt to the intermittent renewable energy sources that will be available
in Europe by 2030.
A residential hydrogen refuelling unit that
uses a small-scale electrolyser for domestic water will be developed by
Hydrogen and Vandenborre Technologies (June
16), a subsidiary of Stuart Energy. A prototype would use grid power
to produce hydrogen overnight and the companies do not state if the unit
could use residential green power technologies.
Recent reports that leakage of hydrogen gas
13, last para) may be environmental harmful have noted that production
of hydrogen "often entails generation of large amounts of carbon dioxide,”
whether it uses electrolysis from fossil fuels or direct extraction from
Cells Canada says hydrogen from fossil fuels will reduce total
carbon emissions by 40%, and more if electrolysis is done with renewables.
Nanotechnologies and Hydrogen Solar Production have formed
(June 12) to develop solar hydrogen in Nevada,
using the Tandem Cell technology for "more economic solar energy utilization
of hydrogen production than the approach using separate solar cells and
electrolyzers.” Solar generation of hydrogen “would eliminate the environmental,
sociological and economic problems associated with conventional hydrocarbon
fuels," says Altair president Rudi Moerck. The new company will partner
with the University of Nevada, Reno, which has requested US$2 million in
funding to accelerate research in hydrogen energy using the Tandem Cell
Hydrogen Energy (June 10) has unveiled a solar
concentrator that intensifies sunlight 5,000 times and can reduce costs
by two-thirds. Applications include hydrogen production, and units will
reach commercialization in 2004 with a new SHEC Labs facility.
A fuel cell researcher from the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (June 10) says
40 million tons of hydrogen are produced each year from natural gas, but
that other processes are gathering momentum, according to CBC News.
"As wind energy comes down, if you couple that with some low-cost electrolysers,
that cost of hydrogen can be very commensurate with the cost of hydrogen
from natural gas," says John Turner.
The low cost of high altitude wind power could
be the cheapest way to electrolyze hydrogen, says Sky
WindPower of San Diego. The consistency of wind at high altitudes
results in little storage and reduces the cost below that required with
ground-based wind turbines.
The director of market development for fuel
cells at General
Motors (June 10; sentence #10) says fuel cells
may be promoted as green power, but they will not win the hearts of consumers
unless they can be purchased and used economically. Timothy Vail says GM
will sign agreements for testing stationary fuel cells, similar to its
recent deal with Dow Chemical for a system that could generate up to 35
MW of electricity per year.
Institute of Technology in Atlanta (June 9)
is researching oxide materials that could facilitate small-scale hydrogen
production systems and potentially allow the process to be powered by solar
Resources Canada (June 8) has provided $14
million to four hydrogen projects that “will be vital to our efforts to
cut down the world's GHG emissions," says energy minister Herb Dhaliwal,
although there is no reference to renewable energy sources in the awards.
At its annual conference in Berlin, the German
Hydrogen Association (June 6, sentence #1)
said the installation of an infrastructure for hydrogen as a vehicle fuel
is the central goal for a “traffic system based on renewable energies and
producing less emissions.”
A briefing to the U.S.
Congress (June 3) by the House & Senate
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucuses, Sustainable Energy Coalition,
and Environmental & Energy Study Institute explained that hydrogen
is “only as clean as the feedstock from which it is produced” and the use
of hydrogen extracted from fossil fuels “does little to eliminate the emission
of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.” Deriving hydrogen from renewable
energies is a “viable and appealing alternative” and a variety of feedstocks
can produce hydrogen (including fossil fuels, nuclear and renewables) “yet
each comes with its own related environmental costs and/or benefits.” Any
method that relies on fossil fuels to produce hydrogen emits pollutants
as a byproduct of the production process, while clean hydrogen can be produced
from any renewable energy technology and “does not require the development
of controversial and expensive sequestration technologies.”
The U.S. National
Hydrogen Association (June 3) told the U.S.
Senate that hydrogen is non-polluting at point of use but there are environmental
issues at point of production. A policy priority of NHA (approved
March 5) is to advocate renewable hydrogen to “the greatest extent
practical,” and it sees a growing portion of hydrogen production to come
from renewables, with the end point being a diverse portfolio of feedstocks
with “as much hydrogen production from renewables as practical.” The ‘big
opportunities’ in hydrogen include turning renewables into transportation
fuel and “converting intermittent wind and solar into firm power.”
In a solicitation
for green power on Oahu (May 22; pg #1), the
Hawaiian utility will consider facilities that use “hydrogen fuels derived
from renewable energy, fuel cells where the fuel is derived entirely from
renewable sources,” as well as wind, solar, hydro, landfill gas, EFW, geothermal,
OTEC, wave and biomass generating facilities.
Researchers at Stanford
University (May 21; para #22) conclude that
wind turbines “may help power an emerging hydrogen economy" by facilitating
electrolysis. "If you use wind to generate hydrogen, then wind... could
theoretically replace all oil, coal and natural gas combustion," it says.
"Because hydrogen stores the energy generated by wind, wind intermittency
is no longer a barrier to its widespread implementation."
Resources Canada (May 20; sentence #2) says
fuel cell cars can reduce GHG emissions to zero only “when hydrogen is
produced from renewable sources.”
Technology Collaborative, in a US$30 million solicitation for green
power (May 19, pg #4), limits applications to facilities
that use conventional renewable energy technology and “fuel cells using
an ‘eligible renewable fuel.’
The U.S consumer group, Public
Citizen (May 2), says proposed Senate funding
for nuclear-generated hydrogen is a “clean energy travesty.” Founder Ralph
Nader says the bill provides US$1.1 billion to develop a nuclear reactor
that generates hydrogen and authorizes research of reactor production of
hydrogen. “Hydrogen fuel offers the potential for abundant, affordable,
clean and safe energy, but its promise is thwarted if tied to hazardous
nuclear power,” while the bill introduced by senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
“promotes renewable generation of hydrogen and stipulates benchmarks for
the implementation of this energy transition.”
energy secretary Spencer Abraham (April 28 proposal
Int'l Partnerships for the Hydrogen Economy; bullet #2),
says the EU has committed €2 billion to conduct research into "renewable
hydrogen energy technologies" while the U.S. has committed US$1.7 billion
... but with no reference to renewables.
Hydrogen (April 24) has opened a hydrogen
station at Reykjavik, Iceland, that will refuel three DaimlerChrysler fuel
cell buses. Norsk Hydro supplied machinery to produce hydrogen from water
by electrolysis; all of Iceland’s electricity is generated from geothermal
or hydro sources. The Icelandic Government is promoting increased use of
renewables, including the production of hydrogen fuels.
Wind Energy Association (April 24 submission to the
EU ‘High Level Group on Hydrogen & Fuel Cells)’ warns
that the environmental case for developing hydrogen and fuel cell technologies
is flawed without large-scale renewable energy production. “The perception
that hydrogen and fuel cells are inherently clean is not true. Hydrogen
is only as clean as the technologies producing the hydrogen. Today 98%
of hydrogen is generated from fossil fuel sources. Without constructing
large amounts of additional renewable energy production that share is unlikely
to change,” it says.
Sciences & Engineering Research Council (April
22) will provide $1 million over five years to study hydrogen storage
at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières'
Institut de recherche sur l'hydrogène. Partners include Hydrogenics
and Stuart Energy, who will jointly contribute $450,000 over the period.
“Fuel cells will support the transition to a sustainable and ecological
energy system,” says chair Richard Chahine. “To achieve this transition,
however, it will be important to develop innovative technologies for storing
hydrogen, which is the best fuel to power these cells.”
Resources Canada (April 21; para #4)
says the “majority of hydrogen produced today is by steam reforming fossil
fuels. The process being developed by SHEC labs uses concentrated sunlight
as its energy source. Hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources has
the potential to dramatically reduce emissions and could ultimately have
the ability to produce zero emission hydrogen.” NRCan has provided $200,000
for SHEC Labs to produce hydrogen from solar energy by lowering the temperature
at which hydrogen can be extracted from water.
of Toronto (April 15; para #9) will install
a 50 kW stationary power fuel cell on Exhibition Grounds that will use
renewable energy to supply electricity to power the electrolyser unit to
make hydrogen. “By using wind or solar power to power the electrolyser,
this will demonstrate how hydrogen and fuel cells enable a totally clean
and renewable solution for power,” says Hydrogenics president Pierre Rivard.
Fuel Cell Commercialization Roadmap (March; pg #16)
says “the use of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen does not promise zero
emissions” but that “no GHG emissions exist with electrolysis using renewable
sources of electricity, such as hydro, wind power, photovoltaics, geothermal
or nuclear power.”
Resources Canada (Mar 20; para #6) provides
support for fuel cell refuelling and funds a mobile fuelling station by
Hydrogenics that may use a wind or solar power source in electrolysis.
"Using wind or solar as an external energy source would make this solution
fully sustainable," it says.
A study from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (Mar 5) says “the
much-touted hydrogen fuel cell was not a clear winner” because the conversion
of hydrocarbon fuels into hydrogen uses substantial energy and also emits
GHG. If vehicles with lower GHG emissions are required in future, hydrogen
is the only major option identified to date but "hydrogen must, of course,
be produced without making GHG emissions, hence from a non-carbon source
such as solar energy.”
Using renewables to generate electricity for
electrolysis of hydrogen "is simply not feasible,” says a review by TSAugust
(March). It would require 300,000 turbines of 2 MW
capacity, occupying an area of 40,000 square miles, to produce enough hydrogen
to power one-third of the automobiles currently in the United States.
National Vision of America’s Transition to a Hydrogen Economy (Feb
2002; pg #3) says “renewable and nuclear systems can produce hydrogen
from water using thermal or electrolytic processes. The thermal production
process, which uses steam to produce hydrogen from natural gas or other
light hydrocarbons, is most common.” It says hydrogen extracted from water
by renewables is "currently not as efficient or cost effective as using
Onshore and offshore windfarms could be one
of the major sources of renewable energy hydrogen in Europe, according
to a September 2002 analysis by L-B-Systemtechnik.
The technical potentials of renewables are used to calculate hydrogen amounts.
Honda uses solar panels to extract hydrogen from water (July
2001) in its plant near Los Angeles, producing hydrogen to drive
a single fuel cell vehicle for one year. "Fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen
fuel have tremendous potential to contribute to the goals of sustainable
transportation systems and the use of renewable energy," says vice president
Ben Knight. It is the first hydrogen station established by an auto maker
to use solar energy to extract hydrogen from water.
Renewable energy electrolysis of hydrogen
“has the potential to result in the lowest emissions of GHG” but the immediate
supply of green power is limited and assumed to replace fossil fuel power
before being used to produce hydrogen, according to the Pembina
Institute and David Suzuki Foundation (March
2000). “Energy is used and greenhouse gases are produced upstream
from the vehicle fuel cell itself,” and actual GHG reductions from hydrogen
depend heavily on the emissions released in manufacture and delivery of
the fuel, it explains in ‘Climate-Friendly Hydrogen Fuel: A Comparison
of the Life-cycle GHG Emissions...’
“Further environmental benefits can be realized
#4) when the hydrogen is generated using renewable resources, such
as solar and wind,” says William Clapper of the
Transit Agency in California, in a paper on ‘Hydrogen Commercialization
for the 21st Century.’ “The result is a clean, renewably produced fuel
that can be used to supply public and private transportation vehicles that
emit only water.”
Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy says 48% of
global hydrogen is derived from natural gas, 30% from oil, 18% from coal
and 4% via electrolysis of water. Until the 1950s, electrolysis was used
widely to produce hydrogen or oxygen, and “research continues in the integration
of intermittent renewable resources (PV and wind) with electrolyzers.”
Multijunction cells from the PV industry are used for photoelectrochemical
systems, where the theoretical efficiency for tandem junction systems is
42% while low-cost multi-junction a-Si could achieve a solar-to-hydrogen
efficiency of 7%-12%.
The HOGEN hydrogen generator of Proton
Energy Systems can be powered from wind, solar or hydro to store
electrical energy as hydrogen. “For uses such as vehicle refueling, renewable
energy storage, or a grid energy storage device, Proton's HOGEN generator
provides the key advantage of storing electrical energy as hydrogen.”
National Hydrogen Association (1999)
"currently, the reforming of natural gas is the most economical process
for producing hydrogen. Within decades, hydrogen produced from biomass,
wind and solar sources will be the ultimate, abundant, renewable based
This domain, www.re-hydrogen.com,
will be devoted to an examination of issues surrounding renewable energy
hydrogen, both in Canada and abroad. The goal is to ensure that the increased
use of renewables in a hydrogen future is a strategic, appropriate, timely
and rapid evolution, and not an 'after-thought' to hydrocarbon supplies.
This domain is a 'work in progress'
at this time. It specifically avoids use of the term 'green hydrogen'
to avoid the growing confusion that non-renewable low-GHG technologies
should be considered as a source of hydrogen.
If you have references or citations on
the use of renewable energy in the production of hydrogren or the role
of renewable energy in fuel cells, please forward for possible inclusion
on this site.
For information on renewable energy
Bill Eggertson at c.a.r.e.
association for renewable energies