Applications & Pathways

In the new scenario where the transportation sector must be decarbonized to limit global warming fuel cellpowered aerial vehicles have been selected as a strategic target application to compose part of the urban fleet to minimize road transport congestion and make goods and personal transportation fast and efficient. To address the necessity of clean and efficient urban air transport this work consists of the conceptual development of a lightweight rotary-winged transport vehicle using a hydrogen-based fuel cell propulsion system and the optimization of its energy balance. For that purpose the methods for integrating the coupled aerodynamic and propulsion system sizing and optimization was developed with the aim of designing concepts capable of carrying 0 (unmanned aerial vehicle — Design 1) and 1 (Aerotaxi — Design 2) passengers for a distance of 300 km at a cruise altitude of 500 m with a minimum climbing rate capability of 6 m s−1 at 1000 m. The results show how these designs with the desired performance specifications can be obtained with a vehicle mass ranging from 416 to 648 kg depending on the application and with specific range and endurance respectively within 46.2–47.8 km/kg and 20.4–21.3 min/kg for design 1 and 33.3–33.8 km/kg and 12.5–13.9 min/kg for design 2.

Sustainable aviation is a key part of achieving Net Zero by 2050 and is arguably one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonise. Hydrogen has gained unprecedented attention as a future fuel for aviation for use within fuel cell or hydrogen gas turbine propulsion systems. This paper presents a survey of the literature and industrial projects on hydrogen aircraft and associated enabling technologies. The current and predicted technology capabilities are analysed to identify important trends and to assess the feasibility of hydrogen propulsion. Several key enabling technologies are discussed in detail and gaps in knowledge are identified. It is evident that hydrogen propelled aircraft are technologically viable by 2050. However convergence of a number of critical factors is required namely: the extent of industrial collaboration the understanding of environmental science and contrails green hydrogen production and its availability at the point of use and the safety and certification of the aircraft and supporting infrastructure.

Wind and solar energy are the important renewable energy sources while their inherent natures of random and intermittent also exert negative effect on the electrical grid connection. As one of multiple energy complementary route by adopting the electrolysis technology the wind-solar-hydrogen hybrid system contributes to improving green power utilization and reducing its fluctuation. Therefore the moving average method and the hybrid energy storage module are proposed which can smooth the wind-solar power generation and enhance the system energy management. Moreover the optimization of system capacity configuration and the sensitive analysis are implemented by the MATLAB program platform. The results indicate that the 10-min grid-connected volatility is reduced by 38.7% based on the smoothing strategy and the internal investment return rate can reach 13.67% when the electricity price is 0.04 $/kWh. In addition the annual coordinated power and cycle proportion of the hybrid energy storage module are 80.5% and 90% respectively. The developed hybrid energy storage module can well meet the annual coordination requirements and has lower levelized cost of electricity. This method provides reasonable reference for designing and optimizing the wind-solar-hydrogen complementary system.

In this episode Angela Needle Director of Strategy at Cadent and John Williams Head of Hydrogen Expertise Cluster at AFRY Management Consulting join us to discuss a range of topics concerning hydrogen and the energy transition. This includes Cadent’s involvement in hydrogen through HyNet the role of hydrogen in heat safety and plans for the first hydrogen village. They also explore Angela’s role as co-founder of the Women’s Utilities Network a group focussed on helping women develop their skills within the energy space.

The podcast can be found on their website.

Hydrogen fuel cells are electrochemical power generators of high conversion efficiency and incredibly clean operation. Throughout the world the growth of fuel cell research and application has been very rapid in the last ten years where successful pilot projects on many areas have been implemented. In Malaysia approximately RM40 million has been granted to academic research institutions for fuel cell study and development. Recently Malaysia saw the emergence of its first hydrogen fuel cell developer signaling the readiness of the industrial sector to be involved in marketing the potential of fuel cells. Focusing mainly on Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell technology this paper demonstrates the efforts by Malaysian institutions both industrial and academic to promote hydrogen fuel cell education training application R&D as well as technology transfer. Emphasis is given to the existing collaboration between G-Energy Technologies and UniversitiTeknologi MARA that culminates with the successful application of a locally developed fuel cell system for a single-seated vehicle. Briefs on the potential of realizing a large-scale utilization of this clean technology into Malaysia’s mainstream power industry domestic consumers and energy consuming industries is also discussed. Key challenges are also identified where pilot projects government policy and infrastructural development is central to strengthen the prospect of hydrogen fuel cell implementation in Malaysia.

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the adoption of autonomous vehicles for marine and submarine missions. The advancement of emerging imaging navigation and communication technologies has greatly expanded the range of operational capabilities and opportunities available. The ENDURUNS project is a European research endeavor focused on identifying strategies for achieving minimal environmental impact. To measure these facts this article evaluates the product impacts employing the Life Cycle Assessment methodology for the first time following the ISO 14040 standard. In this analysis the quantitative values of Damage and Environmental Impact using the Eco-Indicator 99 methodology in SimaPro software are presented. The results report that the main contributors in environmental impact terms have been placed during the manufacturing phase. Thus one of the challenges is accomplished avoiding the use phase emissions that are the focus to reduce nowadays in the marine industry.

This paper studies fast fueling of gaseous hydrogen into large hydrogen (H2) tanks suitable for maritime applications. Three modeling methods have been developed and evaluated: (1) Two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling (2) One-dimensional wall discretized modeling and (3) Zero-dimensional modeling. A detailed 2D CFD simulation of a small H2-tank was performed and validated with data from literature and then used to simulate a large H2-tank. Results from the 2D-model show non-uniform temperature distribution inside the large tank but not in the small H2-tank. The 1D-model can predict the mean temperature in small H2-tanks but not the inhomogeneous temperature field in large H2-tanks. The 0D-model is suitable as a screening tool to obtain rough estimates. Results from the modeling of the large H2-tank show that the heat transfer to the wall during fast filling is inhibited by heat conduction in the wall which leads to an unacceptably high mean hydrogen temperature.

The maritime transport and the port-logistic industry are key drivers of economic growth although they represent major contributors to climate change. In particular maritime port facilities are typically located near cities or residential areas thus having a significant direct environmental impact in terms of air and water quality as well as noise. The majority of the pollutant emissions in ports comes from cargo ships and from all the related ports activities carried out by road vehicles. Therefore a progressive reduction of the use of fossil fuels as a primary energy source for these vehicles and the promotion of cleaner powertrain alternatives is in order. The present study deals with the design of a new propulsion system for a heavy-duty vehicle for port applications. Specifically this work aims at laying the foundations for the development of a benchmark industrial cargo–handling hydrogen-fueled vehicle to be used in real port operations. To this purpose an on-field measurement campaign has been conducted to analyze the duty cycle of a commercial Diesel-engine yard truck currently used for terminal ports operations. The vehicle dynamics has been numerically modeled and validated against the acquired data and the energy and power requirements for a plug-in fuel cell/battery hybrid powertrain replacing the Diesel powertrain on the same vehicle have been evaluated. Finally a preliminary design of the new powertrain and a rule-based energy management strategy have been proposed and the electric energy and hydrogen consumptions required to achieve the target driving range for roll-on and roll-off operations have been estimated. The results are promising showing that the hybrid electric vehicle is capable of achieving excellent energy performances by means of an efficient use of the fuel cell. An overall amount of roughly 12 kg of hydrogen is estimated to be required to accomplish the most demanding port operation and meet the target of 6 h of continuous operation. Also the vehicle powertrain ensures an adequate all-electric range which is between approximately 1 and 2 h depending on the specific port operation. Potentially the hydrogen-fueled yard truck is expected to lead to several benefits such as local zero emissions powertrain noise elimination reduction of the vehicle maintenance costs improving of the energy management and increasing of operational efficiency.

This paper investigates a multi-objective optimal energy planning strategy for a hub incorporating renewable and non-renewable resources like PV tidal turbine fuel-cell CHP boiler micro-turbine reactor reformer electrolyzer and energy storage by utilizing the time of use program (TOU). In this strategy tidal turbine fuel-cell and reformer technologies are considered novel technologies that simultaneously reduce the proposed hub’s cost and pollution. The hub’s total cost and pollution are considered objective functions. To make the results more realistic characteristics of the tidal turbine are investigated by utilizing the manufactory’s company information. The problem is then modeled as real mixed integer programming (RMIP) and is solved in GAMS software using a CPLEX solver. Epsilon constraints method and fuzzy satisfying approach are used to select the optimal solution based on the proposed model. Finally a sensitivity analysis is performed to assess the effective parameters that affect the planning’s results. The results show that the overall pollution is reduced by about 9% by assuming the proposed planning and the total profit is increased by about 30%.

Integrating carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology into an integrated energy system (IES) can reduce its carbon emissions and enhance its low-carbon performance. However the full CCS of flue gas displays a strong coupling between lean and rich liquor as carbon dioxide liquid absorbents. Its integration into IESs with a high penetration level of renewables results in insufficient flexibility and renewable curtailment. In addition integrating split-flow CCS of flue gas facilitates a short capture time giving priority to renewable energy. To address these limitations this paper develops a carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) method into which storage tanks for lean and rich liquor and a two-stage power-to-gas (P2G) system with multiple utilizations of hydrogen including a fuel cell and a hydrogen-blended CHP unit are introduced. The CCUS is integrated into an IES to build an electricity–heat–hydrogen–gas IES. Accordingly a deep low-carbon economic optimization strategy for this IES which considers stepwise carbon trading coal consumption renewable curtailment penalties and gas purchasing costs is proposed. The effects of CCUS the twostage P2G system and stepwise carbon trading on the performance of this IES are analyzed through a case-comparative analysis. The results show that the proposed method allows for a significant reduction in both carbon emissions and total operational costs. It outperforms the IES without CCUS with an 8.8% cost reduction and a 70.11% reduction in carbon emissions. Compared to the IES integrating full CCS the proposed method yields reductions of 6.5% in costs and 24.7% in emissions. Furthermore the addition of a two-stage P2G system with multiple utilizations of hydrogen further amplifies these benefits cutting costs by 13.97% and emissions by 12.32%. In addition integrating CCUS into IESs enables the full consumption of renewables and expands hydrogen utilization and the renewable consumption proportion in IESs can reach 69.23%.