Monday, 19 March 2007

Off-Board Refueling System with Distributed Generation and its impact on Hydrogen economy development strategy

Aladar Stolmar, General Hydrogen Corporation

The intent of these novel solutions is to remove the handling of the Hydrogen from the hands of the general public and develop a distributed system of specialized refueling facilities (operated by the specialists in handling hazardous materials) and exchange stations (secure and safe like car washes) with the specialized means of transport between them. It requires from the car manufacturers (truck, bus and SUV manufacturers as well) a uniform standard for the power-plant package, removable in one simple step by automated machines which will replace it with a new or recharged one – in a safer operation then the current gasoline or diesel refueling. We, as a Hydrogen manufacturer will develop the specialized recharging and refurbishing facility first utilizing by-product hydrogen and we are inviting the conventional fuel companies to enter into a cooperation with us to develop the refueling (in fact drop-off and pick-up replacing) stations and the logistics of transporting the power-plant packages to and from the facilities. Starting from the pilot refurbishing facility we will utilize the “Distributed Generation” patented (Vladimir Prerad) solution as well. Local Hydrogen production is possible on any scale. The only two ingredients needed for electrolysis is water and electricity. Water is abundant and electricity can be supplied by two existing means. Firstly, renewable energy such as solar or wind can be used. Second source of energy will be the existing power plants currently only partially utilized night time production. The Hydrogen storage and fuel cell manufacturers have to develop a standard reversible fuel cell with solid state Hydrogen storage to allow a 400 miles regular driving between refueling – exchange. And it has to be packaged as safely as the spent nuclear fuel, for example. (We will be using multiple packages for SUVs, trucks and buses.) It involves cooperation with the car manufacturers as well as the gas companies and all the other contributors. We can make the liquid Hydrogen refueling safer. We can make the high pressure gas refueling safer. We can reduce the possibility of Hydrogen leaks from the combustion systems – but with all of these noble efforts we never will achieve an ultimately safe Hydrogen usage in the conventional way with combustion or open cycle fuel cells. On the other hand, when we decide that the hermetically sealed and extremely strong packages will be (and can be) opened-up only at the specialized facilities – all the public safety issues gone. In light of the off-board refueling solution the strategic decision is this: do we want to risk another Hindenburg and forget about the Hydrogen economy all together or we all get together and decide to go with the off-board refueling solution? If we do we assure the future for Hydrogen economy, but we need everyone on board. The United States government can play a major roll steering everyone into the right direction.

Manuscript (.ppt format, 217.0 kb)

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