Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - 10:50 PM

Home electrolysers and micro-generation systems for refuelling bi-fuel cars

Marcus Newborough, ITM Power plc and Andrew d. Peacock, Heriot Watt University.

This paper presents an analysis of the use of home electrolysers in conjunction with micro-generation systems for refuelling bi-fuel (hydrogen/gasoline) cars, which operate on hydrogen for short journeys and then switch to gasoline. The considered home requires an on-site gaseous hydrogen store, a photovoltaic roof array connected dc-dc to a low-cost electrolyser. The car requires a gasoline engine, on-board gaseous hydrogen store, modified engine management, hydrogen injectors and sensors. Three options for powering the electrolyser were considered: (A) off-grid PV producing zero-carbon hydrogen; (B) as A, but supplemented with power sourced from the electricity network such that the carbon footprint of the generated hydrogen was half that of gasoline; and (C) as A, but supplemented with exported power sourced from a 2kW Stirling Engine micro-cogeneration system. System sizing requirements were considered, based on a mid-size car with a standard gasoline engine and in a UK context (where the average person travels 8824km by car per annum and 25% and 95% of the trips made annually by car drivers are <3.5km and <40km respectively). For Mode A approximately 815km is feasible per kWp of installed PV capacity. However this can be increased to 1120km per kWp of installed PV capacity, if a hydrogen carbon footprint equivalent to 50% of that of gasoline is permitted. For example for an installed PV capacity of 4.675kW and a daily maximum travel range on hydrogen of 24km, Mode B yields an annual travel range of 5221km versus 3793km for Mode A. The use of an electrolyser to absorb excess generation from a 2kW Stirling Engine provides a large increase in annual travel distance on hydrogen of 1100km, and a carbon emissions level that is intermediate that of Modes A and B. The considered approach provides a degree of transport fuel security for the household and is compatible with existing gasoline engines provided that the household operates the car in bi-fuel mode. The overall cost of achieving home refuelling of such cars in a low-carbon manner is at present very high, but the ongoing development of low-cost PV and electrolyser systems suggests that this approach could provide a route for decarbonising short journeys.