Green house uses hydrogen fuel cell
Stop throwing stones
TODAY A HOUSE WILL be opened in Lye - not much news there - but this house is different, as it will be opened as the first hydrogen-powered home connected to the national grid.
The house itself looks pretty normal, the only difference lies in a shed around the back, home to the all-important hydrogen fuel cell.
The cell itself is around the same size as a normal fridge but is able to produce 1.5kW of electricity and 3kW of heat - any excess power produced will be fed straight into the national grid.
How it works is relatively simple - natural gas produced from the existing mains supply is passed through a steam reformer which generates hydrogen, this is then combined with oxygen in a fuel cell unit producing electricity and heat but without producing carbon dioxide.
Using this fuel cell, made by the German company Baxi Innotech, cuts household emissions overall by 40 percent in comparison to running on gas alone.
Researchers are working towards piping the hydrogen directly into the house, but at the moment converting the original gas supply is a step in the right direction.
Waldemar Bujalski from the University of Birmingham's fuel cells group said, "You shouldn't notice any difference in the house". Bujalski and his team will be keeping a close eye on this fuel cell to see how it works and to detect and repair any problems before this idea goes to market.
Bajalski estimates that initially these cells would cost about £2,000 each, however this is a rather reasonable price for cutting emissions by 40 percent.
Germany apparently plans to install 800 hydrogen fuel cell units by 2010 as part of a fully-fledged demonstration of the technology.
Hydrogen is a no brainer when thinking of alternative fuels, as not only is it a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, it is also one of Earth's most abundant elements.
As the Birmingham team works towards the best domestic application of hydrogen in homes, more and more alternatives are cropping up - such as the proton exchange membrane at the Stocking Street house in Lye and the use of algae to produce hydrogen.
Although this all seems like a vision of the future, let's hope ideas like this take off so that all the carbon footprint malarkey can become a thing of the past. µ
L'Inq
Guardian
Comments
And where are you getting the hydrogen from?
Hydrogen burns very greenly but making hydrogen is worse then Petrol. And it is also more dangerous transporting it around. It would be better to use Methanol fuelcells. Oh and what happens when your hydrogen tank goes bang? where did my house go?Seriously be realistic.
Not that easy...
"Hydrogen is a no brainer when thinking of alternative fuels, as not only is it a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, it is also one of Earth's most abundant elements."It is even the universe's most abundant element, and by far; but it doesn't exist on Earth in its useful form: H2.
Also, reforming natural gas to get H2 costs energy, which hurts efficiency. And as for heating, if you want to use hydrogen with a fuel cell that means converting hydrogen to electricity, and then electricity to heat.
Therefore I'm not surprised to see that they talk about carbon emissions, but not efficiency.
Pure-Bull
Steam reformer? That's like: GAS->CO2+Hydrogen. At approx. 80% efficiency. After this you get fuel cell that's again not somehow magically efficient. So where exactly are we saving on emissions here?gas to heat+electricity
How feasible is a combined heat and electricity generator running off the gas supply? Because that's what they're really doing here. Is it possible to get more energy out of each cubic metre of gas than in an electricity generator or boiler alone?Wait!
If they pipe the hydrogen directly into the house, won't the house explode!?flying house ?? O_o
nice thought, anyone for a ride on the R101 airship, errrrrrrrrrr, no wait, belay that request captain !!! :O)
Re:Wait!
@hoohooTwo facts will answer your question:
1. The air we breathe only contains 20% oxygen. Therefore, you need 5 times more air than hydrogen to get it to burn properly.
2. Hydrogen only explodes when in contact with both Oxygen and a catalyst like Aluminum Oxide/Iron Oxide based one used in Space shuttle SRB's (The Hindenburg was coated in the stuff - hence its explosion.
On another note H2 will only become a valid fuel source when we start maining the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus).
Smoke and mirrors
Definitely greenhouse.The process releases 2.51 times as much CO2 (by mass) as hydrogen.
Read it here:
http://www.getenergysmart.org/Files/HydrogenEducation/6HydrogenProductionSteamMethaneReforming.pdf
Without effective CO2 sequestration, it is just smoke and mirrors.
Most people...
Most people don't realize that it takes more energy to make Hydrogen then it gives off to burn it.As soon as the world is able to wrap their brain around that factoid (also known as the second law of thermodynamics) they will realize why hydrogen can never be the next energy source. It's nothing more than a battery in it's fuction. Clean in application, but you have to charge it somewhere... generally with energy generated from fossil fuels. In that case you are essentially using MORE harmful fossil fuels to accomplish the same amount of work. Are you beginning to understand why the oil companies and the auto manufacturers favor hydrogen as the next step for civilization?
White heat, red hot
If you could go the other way, to consume 3 parts heat to one part electricity and come up with natural gas, that would be kick ass. We could fill the old oil wells with natural gas as a carbon sink.
I converted my lawn mower to propane a couple summers ago. You can't go wrong. I saw a guy online who pulled his carb and just layed the propane line on the intake manifold and mowed his grass. I used the regulator from a oil fryer that has a small inline flow control value and just poked a hole in the intake system pre-carb. No more gasoline. I mow all summer on 5LBS of propane. I have to use starting fluid to get it going because there's no pressure mixing-just the way I have it set up, but it starts with an easy pull, the first pull, every time. There's a company, uscarb.com, that does stock Yamaha generator conversions and their moto is, “You can depend on gasoline, to let you down.” How true.
Thanks INQ.
Be real, be sober.
Remember Chemistry?
Natural gas is a hydrocarbon. You say that the fuel cell releases no CO2, but where do you think the carbon from that hydrocarbon is going?To say that the fuel cell releases no CO2 is since the reformer you mentioned splits the carbon from the hydrogen. The carbon has to go somewhere, and the safest substance to make out of it is CO2. Perhaps you were hoping it would make carbon monoxide instead, since killing off the neighborhood would reduce carbon emissions?
I'm only sorry that I didn't mention this first!
Hydrogen+air+flame explodes nicely, thank you
Niki Mistry wrote:"2. Hydrogen only explodes when in contact with both Oxygen and a catalyst like Aluminum Oxide/Iron Oxide based one used in Space shuttle SRB's (The Hindenburg was coated in the stuff - hence its explosion."
Back when I was a kid (and later), I never used a catalyst to ignite my hydrogen/air mixes. A simple match flame worked fine.
In fact, hydrogen burns explosively at a much wider range of fuel::air ratios than with hydrocarbon ratios. That will be a major problem if the hydrogen economy takes off.
The Hindenburg didn't explode - its fabric shell and the hydrogen in the bladders burned very quickly. If you watch the movie (and turn down that radio announcer) you can see a lot of what happened.
Co2.
There is aswell the theory that Carbon Dioxide has no effect on global climate at all, Infact the correlation between global temprature and Co2 in the air is the wrong way around.Co2 % in the air goes up when the temp goes up. Not the other way around. this whole thing is just so stupid its acctually made me angry. How is this sustainable.....
"40% less emissions that households running on gas alone", so no electricity in these houses?
"Although creating the hydrogen from gas does produce some carbon dioxide, using the fuel cell cuts overall household emissions by 40% compared with running on gas alone."Sorry, where is this house where the dwellers only use gas? How can they run a house on "gas alone"?
Do they have a gas powered TV, a gas powered fridge, a gas powered washing machine, a gas powered pc, a gas powered microwave, gas powered light bulbs?
Seriously, has anyone ever been in a "gas only" house with no electricity in the past 20 years? The Inq, I love you guys but seriously don't just regurgitate what you read. And you wouldn't love us if we didn't write in and let you know we're paying attention to what you write! ;-)
The Inq, please let us know the base line numbers, 40% of "anything" is bullshit. If you don't have a base line then a percentage of "anything" is meaningless.
hmmm...
well, what is it actually gonna do for the community? i mean come on.... what would happen if the house blew up??? you'd be in tons of trouble. not to mention a good waste of money!!talking about money how much would this cost??