Publications

The use of hydrogen exists in various sectors in Poland and Germany. Hydrogen can be used in industry transport decarbonisation of the Polish steel industry and as one of the low-emission alternatives to the existing coal applications in this sector. Limiting climate change requires efforts on a global scale from all countries of the world. Significant economic benefits will be realized by stimulating the development of new technologies to deal with climate change. The scenarios show an increasing demand for industrial hydrogen in the future. The key is to replace gray hydrogen with green and to convert industrial processes which will create additional hydrogen demand. The condition for the development of a green hydrogen economy is access to adequate installed capacity in renewable energy. Germany will become the leading market in the era of energy transformation in the coming years. The implementation of the hydrogen assumptions in Poland is possible to a greater extent by the efforts of entrepreneurs

To reduce greenhouse gases and air pollutants new technologies are emerging to reduce fossil fuel usage and to adopt more renewable energy sources. As the major aspects of fuel consumption power generation transportation and industrial applications have been given significant attention. The past few decades witnessed astonishing technological advancement in these energy sectors. In contrast the residential sector has had relatively little attention despite its significant utilization of fuels for a much longer period. However almost every energy transition in human history was initiated by the residential sector. For example the transition from fuelwood to cheap coal in the 1700s first took place in residential houses due to urbanization and industrialization. The present review demonstrates the energy transitions in the residential sector during the past two centuries while portending an upcoming energy transition and future energy structure for the residential sector. The feasibility of the 100% electrification of residential buildings is discussed based on current residential appliance adoption and the analysis indicates a hybrid residential energy structure is preferred over depending on a single energy source. Technical considerations and suggestions are given to help incorporate more renewable energy into the residential fuel supply system. Finally it is observed that compared to the numerous regulations on large energy-consumption aspects standards for residential appliances are scarce. Therefore it is concluded that establishing appropriate testing methods is a critical enabling step to facilitate the adoption of renewable fuels in future appliances.

Due to its high efficiency and reduced emissions new zero-emission hybrid electric vehicles have been selected as an attractive challenge for future transport applications. New zero -emission hybrid electric on the other hand has some major drawbacks from the complicated charging process. The hybrid electrical fuel cell system is introduced as the main source to intelligently control multi-source activities. An ultra-capacitor system is selected as the energy recovery assistance to monitor the fuel cell’s fast transient and peak power during critical periods. To regulate energy demand and supply an intelligent energy management system is proposed and tested through several constraints. The proposed approach system aims to act quickly against sudden circumstances related to hydrogen depletion in the prediction of the required fuel consumption basis. The proposed strategy tends to define the proper operating system according to energy demand and supply. The obtained results show that the designed system meets the targets set for the energy management unit by referring to an experimental velocity database.

In this work the performance of anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysis is evaluated. A parametric study is conducted focusing on the effects of various operating parameters on the AEM efficiency. The following parameters—potassium hydroxide (KOH electrolyte concentration (0.5–2.0 M) electrolyte flow rate (1–9 mL/min) and operating temperature (30–60 ◦C)—were varied to understand their relationship to AEM performance. The performance of the electrolysis unit is measured by its hydrogen production and energy efficiency using the AEM electrolysis unit. Based on the findings the operating parameters greatly influence the performance of AEM electrolysis. The highest hydrogen production was achieved with the operational parameters of 2.0 M electrolyte concentration 60 ◦C operating temperature and 9 mL/min electrolyte flow at 2.38 V applied voltage. Hydrogen production of 61.13 mL/min was achieved with an energy consumption of 48.25 kW·h/kg and an energy efficiency of 69.64%.

Hydrogen (H2) is expected to play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However hydrogen losses to the atmosphere impact atmospheric chemistry including positive feedback on methane (CH4) the second most important greenhouse gas. Here we investigate through a minimalist model the response of atmospheric methane to fossil fuel displacement by hydrogen. We find that CH4 concentration may increase or decrease depending on the amount of hydrogen lost to the atmosphere and the methane emissions associated with hydrogen production. Green H2 can mitigate atmospheric methane if hydrogen losses throughout the value chain are below 9 ± 3%. Blue H2 can reduce methane emissions only if methane losses are below 1%. We address and discuss the main uncertainties in our results and the implications for the decarbonization of the energy sector.

The establishment of near-autonomous micro-grids in commercial or public building complexes is gaining increasing popularity. Short-term storage capacity is provided by means of large battery installations or more often by the employees’ increasing use of electric vehicle batteries which are allowed to operate in bi-directional charging mode. In addition to the above short-term storage means a long-term storage medium is considered essential to the optimal operation of the building’s micro-grid. The most promising long-term energy storage carrier is hydrogen which is produced by standard electrolyzer units by exploiting the surplus electricity produced by photovoltaic installation due to the seasonal or weekly variation in a building’s electricity consumption. To this end a novel concept is studied in this paper. The details of the proposed concept are described in the context of a nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB) and the associated micro-grid. The hydrogen produced is stored in a high-pressure tank to be used occasionally as fuel in an advanced technology hydrogen spark ignition engine which moves a synchronous generator. A size optimization study is carried out to determine the genset’s rating the electrolyzer units’ capacity and the tilt angle of the rooftop’s photovoltaic panels which minimize the building’s interaction with the external grid. The hydrogen-fueled genset engine is optimally sized to 40 kW (0.18 kW/kWp PV). The optimal tilt angle of the rooftop PV panels is 39◦ . The maximum capacity of the electrolyzer units is optimized to 72 kW (0.33 kWmax/kWp PV). The resulting system is tacitly assumed to integrate to an external hydrogen network to make up for the expected mismatches between hydrogen production and consumption. The significance of technology in addressing the current challenges in the field of energy storage and micro-grid optimization is discussed with an emphasis on its potential benefits. Moreover areas for further research are highlighted aiming to further advance sustainable energy solutions.

The water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) is an intermediate reaction in hydrocarbon reforming processes considered one of the most important reactions for hydrogen production. Here water and carbon monoxide molecules react to generate hydrogen and carbon dioxide. From the thermodynamics aspect pressure does not have an impact whereas low-temperature conditions are suitable for high hydrogen selectivity because of the exothermic nature of the WGSR reaction. The performance of this reaction can be greatly enhanced in the presence of suitable catalysts. The WGSR has been widely studied due do the industrial significance resulting in a good volume of open literature on reactor design and catalyst development. A number of review articles are also available on the fundamental aspects of the reaction including thermodynamic analysis reaction condition optimization catalyst design and deactivation studies. Over the past few decades there has been an exceptional development of the catalyst characterization techniques such as near-ambient x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NA-XPS) and in situ transmission electron microscopy (in situ TEM) providing atomic level information in presence of gases at elevated temperatures. These tools have been crucial in providing nanoscale structural details and the dynamic changes during reaction conditions which were not available before. The present review is an attempt to gather the recent progress particularly in the past decade on the catalysts for low-temperature WGSR and their structural properties leading to new insights that can be used in the future for effective catalyst design. For the ease of reading the article is divided into subsections based on metals (noble and transition metal) oxide supports and carbon-based supports. It also aims at providing a brief overview of the reaction conditions by including a table of catalysts with synthesis methods reaction conditions and key observations for a quick reference. Based on our study of literature on noble metal catalysts atomic Pt substituted Mn3O4 shows almost full CO conversion at 260 °C itself with zero methane formation. In the case of transition metals group the inclusion of Cu in catalytic system seems to influence the CO conversion significantly and in some cases with CO conversion improvement by 65% at 280 °C. Moreover mesoporous ceria as a catalyst support shows great potential with reports of full CO conversion at a low temperature of 175 °C.

The steel industry is among the highest carbon-emitting industrial sectors. Since the steel production process is already exhaustively optimized alternative routes are sought in order to increase carbon efficiency and reduce these emissions. During steel production three main carbon-containing off-gases are generated: blast furnace gas coke oven gas and basic oxygen furnace gas. In the present work the addition of renewable hydrogen by electrolysis to those steelworks off-gases is studied for the production of methane and methanol. Different case scenarios are investigated using AspenPlusTM flowsheet simulations which differ on the end-product the feedstock flowrates and on the production of power. Each case study is evaluated in terms of hydrogen and electrolysis requirements carbon conversion hydrogen consumption and product yields. The findings of this study showed that the electrolysis requirements surpass the energy content of the steelwork’s feedstock. However for the methanol synthesis cases substantial improvements can be achieved if recycling a significant amount of the residual hydrogen.

Among the many potential future energy sources hydrogen stands out as particularly promising. Because it is a green and renewable chemical process water electrolysis has earned much interest among the different hydrogen production techniques. Seawater is the most abundant source of water and the ideal and cheapest electrolyte. The first part of this review includes the description of the general theoretical concepts: chemical physical and electrochemical that stands on the basis of water electrolysis. Due to the rapid development of new electrode materials and cell technology research has focused on specific seawater electrolysis parameters: the cathodic evolution of hydrogen; the concurrent anodic evolution of oxygen and chlorine; specific seawater catalyst electrodes; and analytical methods to describe their catalytic activity and seawater electrolyzer efficiency. Once the specific objectives of seawater electrolysis have been established through the design and energy performance of the electrolyzer the study further describes the newest challenges that an accessible facility for the electrochemical production of hydrogen as fuel from seawater must respond to for sustainable development: capitalizing on known and emerging technologies; protecting the environment; utilizing green renewable energies as sources of electricity; and above all economic efficiency as a whole.