Hydrogen Infrastructure

Fuel from the Wind - Project Summary - 2004

Presently most vehicle fuel derives from crude oil imported from the mid-east and other areas of marginal political stability. The drain on the US economy exceeds $100 billion/yr, and our economic well-being as well as our foreign policy is related to daily satisfying our need for oil.

"Home-grown" fuel has been of interest for decades, with sporadic results in the form of ethanol, methanol, some bio derived products that can serve diesel engines, and hydrogen. Hydrogen is doubly of interest due to its unique carbon-free nature, it easily lends to ZEV(Zero Emission Vehicle) products. Fuel cell vehicles require hydrogen. Alternatively, the internal combustion engine runs well with hydrogen and offers a more familiar route to a zero carbon vehicle.

Hydrogen can be manufactured from natural gas or other hydrocarbons, but it is more attractive to use one or more sustainable fuel routes to fuel production. This could be done with electrolytic dissociation of water, with the electricity, in the most attractive solution, from solar or wind electricity.

Palm Springs is uniquely suited to introducing wind-hydrogen as a commercial fuel. The wind turbines in the Palm Springs area produce enough electricity to power the entire Coachella Valley when the wind is blowing. The widespread use of wind power results in megawatts of electricity which powers much of the Coachella Valley and the Los Angeles area. SunLine Transit, which serves the Valley, has the capability to fuel hydrogen vehicles, and has used the Thor/ISE hydrogen fuel cell bus in revenue service.

Filling up with hydrogen was almost unheard of a decade ago, now there are over eight hydrogen filling stations in California. It is planned that this will double in the next two years. Europe is moving much faster, and Japan is also installing.

In a program funded by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) and the US Department of Energy, with additional funding from partners Wintec Energy, Stuart Energy Systems, SunLine Transit, Quantum Technology, and ISE Research, the wind generated hydrogen option will be demonstrated on a utility scale. As much as two kg/hr hydrogen will be generated, compressed and stored for use in either a fuel cell bus or other hydrogen fueled vehicles. The photo beside shows the facility in development, including the three turbines which generate the electricity, a trailer used for storage of the hydrogen, and the electrolyser (shielded by a wind-screen) at right.

Each Nordtank turbine operated by Wintec Energy produce 200,000 kw hr electricity per year. That amount of power could be used to produces over 3000 kg hydrogen, enough to power the bus shown above about 30,000 miles.

One purpose of the AQMD funded program is to investigate the economic feasibility of the wind hydrogen option. In very large installations, it is expected that the fuel cost per mile will be similar to what we now pay for hydrocarbon fuel, but we will not have to pay for health and environmental damage - or for defending the oil fields of the mid-east.

There are vast amounts of wind power available. Recently (2004-3-10) the World Wind Energy Association reported the projected installed wind capacity to be 100,000 megawatts by 2008. A reasonable extrapolation of the recent rate of growth suggests that in less than ten years there will be more wind generated electricity than nuclear. (Illustrated beside.)

One can envision a future in which any society can provide for their energy needs with indigenous renewable resources. New businesses will develop around the developing capabilities - the knowledge and capability will source new jobs and offer alternatives to conflicts over scarce resources. It is expected that wind generated hydrogen will play a major part in this new future.

Several demonstrations have shown the viability of solar generation of hydrogen. The Clean Air Now/Xerox demonstration of 1994-1997 used photovoltaic electricity to generate fuel for a fleet of three pickup trucks converted for operation on hydrogen.