Would it be possible to use Hydrogen Cell Technology to generate power for the national grid?

Question

If so why are the powers to be, seem not to be considering this re-newable power source

Answer 1

Hydrogen is a means to store energy. Hydrogen is not a source of energy.

With respect to hydrogen cell technology, it is extraordinarily expensive to produce a hydrogen cell, and you must have extraordinarily clean hydrogen.

Hydrogen cells are poisoned by small amounts of contaminants. Your hydrogen cell will quickly become the world's most expensive paperweight if you do not have very clean hydrogen gas.

One of the reasons hydrogen cells are not used in more automobiles is the cost. A hydrogen cell for even a small economy car costs over $100,000. A hydrogen cell for a full size car will cost you between $200,000 and $300,000.

For a power grid the cost of hydrogen cells is prohibitive. There are much better more cost effective ways of converting hydrogen to electricity than using a fuel cell.

The most cost effective renewable power source for generating hydrogen is windpower. Windpower is not always available when you want it, so storage of the energy produced by windpower is one of the challenges of using windpower as a power source.

Using hydrogen as a means of storing energy peoduced by wind power until you need it is one of the possibilities that has been considered.

Hydrogen can be generated electrolytically from water with an efficiency of approximately 70%. When you convert it back to electricity the efficiency generally is between 25% and 50%

You do have some very significant energy losses when you use hydrogen as a means of storing energy. You only get back approximately 17% to 35% at best the amount of energy that you started with.

These are some of the challenges that you face when you try to use hydrogen as a means to store electrical energy.

Answer 2

if I can try & summarise what many have said

Hydrogen fuel cell technology cannot generate power for the national grid because it is not itself a re-newable power source - it requires energy to produce which mostly comes from electrolysis or fossil fuel.

A fuel-cell is basically strorage device, like a battery, that can be "recharged" by filling with hydrogen. hydrogen is bulky to store & escapes easily.

However you are asking an interesting question about how we put renewables, requiring storage, into the national grid. This will let us move from large base load fossil fuel & nuclear generators, to variable renewable energy sources like wind & wave.
Imagine if all vehicles are electric, this gives a huge storage capacity that is hardly used - charging off-peak gives a range >200 miles, but most journeys are <20, so there is a lot of spare power you could sell back to the grid when there is high demand.
http://www.acpropulsion.com/technology/v2g.htm

Current Li-ion batteries are already sufficient to meet our motoring needs, we don't need to wait for hydrogen http://www.phoenixmotors.com

Answer 3

hi, (ANS) No.a million i'm finished confident that the completed way forward for motoring & highway transport would be based on the hydrogen gas cellular in the appearance a protracted time. Hydrogen gas cellular autos or hybrid autos will take over from petrol engine technologies. No.2 although, the hydrogen gas cellular motor vehicle demands liquid hydrogen to be pumped into its gas tanks. Liquid hydrogen can purely be produced with the aid of particular production technique's (distillation) & it demands cooling the gas down earlier it turns right into a liquid. All this takes incredibly a lot of power in the 1st place to create the liquid hydrogen subsequently it nonetheless has a carbon foot print its nonetheless not completely CO2 loose. No.3 particular! the hydrogen gas cellular motor vehicle purely produces H2O as a substitute of exhaust gases in assessment to known petrol engine autos. No.4 Hydrogen gas cellular autos themselves does not generate any power themselves nor for the national grid. in certainty incredibly the alternative, starting to be the liquid hydrogen might take incredibly a lot of electricity even though it would help cut back CO2 emissions so it remains an incredibly eye-catching technologies for our destiny to interchange petrol autos. No.5 Its very similar to the contemporary equipment we now have, as quickly as we've the hydrogen production vegetation making the liquid hydrogen and as quickly as we've liquid hydrogen gas on the pumps in (what was once petrol stations now hydrogen gas stations) stations have been we are able to fill up. Hydrogen autos will replace petrol autos yet its going to take yet another 10 years is my wager earlier this turns right into a certainty for many folk. Ivan

Answer 4

Hydrogen is not a new fuel source. I am angry at many who support it, because they are misleading the public to think it is. Hydrogen is a new storage and delivery system for energy. SO it is not renewable. It maybe useful in the future in storing energy from renewable sourde. The problem with wind and other renewable energy source is that it does not make energy consistently. WInd does not always blow. If we use the energy from wind to produce Hydrogen, the power of the wind can be made more reliable. The problem is if we transfer one enregy source into another, we would lose some of the energy. It's probably best that the hydrogen made from wind is used in automobiles rather than used to generate back into electricity.

Answer 5

You would not need to use hydrogen cell technology to generate power for the national grid. Intead each individual home would have ther own fuel cell the would either generate hydrogen from natural gas lines or the best solution would be to have them hooked to either solar cells or wind cells that would feed a reserve hydrogen tank. This would not only power your house but you could also then fill your car right from your home as well.

Answer 6

I understand that in it's current state Hydrogen Cell Technology is not efficient but who knows what the future holds? There are hydrogen cars in operation here in the Socialist Republic of Kalefornia under the direction of Konrad Arnold. New solar energy capturing technologies are supposed to be on the horizon. Come up the cold fusion technology and you can buy and sell Bill Gates before lunch.

Answer 7

Hydrogen must be produced or "harvested." I believe that the two methods most commonly employed are getting it from natural gas or from crude oil. So hydrogen isn't really an alternative fuel in my opinion.

Secondly, the Matrix was not reality. The human body is NOT an energy source. We consume energy--see food--and produce heat, motion, and some very minor electrical currents. The energy source is food, which if you trace it back is the sun. And solar panels would be more efficient.

Answer 8

No, hydrogen is an energy carrier, like electricity. You don't pump hydrogen out of the ground, you have to make it from water and electricity. It basically acts like a battery that you can charge really quickly in cars because it disposes of the waste (water) out of the tailpipe, and it fills up with the energy source (hydrogen) at a pump.

Answer 9

Hydrogen Cell Technology is still in development stage.I do not know whether it has been made avilable commerically.I have not found any major seller for this technology and machinery.Comparing the heavy requirement of national grid,it is not clear as to the viability of HCT.

Answer 10

Where would you get the hydrogen from? That takes energy.

Hydrogen has a place in the solution to global warming as a way of moving energy around. Possibly as a way to get energy from nuclear power plants into cars (although batteries may be better for that).

But it's not a source of energy, just a way to move it around.