|
Written by jonathan pitzer
|
|
Thursday, 20 March 2008 |
|
Page 1 of 2 The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in partnership with the Xcel Energy, launched a wind-to-hydrogen (Wind2H2) demonstration project at the National Wind Technology Center in Golden, Colorado. The Wind2H2 project links wind turbines to electrolyzers, which pass the wind-generated electricity through water to split the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be stored and used later to generate electricity from an internal combustion engine or a fuel cell. The goal of the project is to improve the system efficiency of producing hydrogen from renewable resources in quantities large enough, and at costs low enough, to compete with traditional energy sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas.
This page describes the Wind2H2 system components, research focus, and project benefits, and provides links to related publications. The Wind2H2 project uses two wind turbine technologies: a Northern Power Systems 100-kW wind turbine and a Bergey 10-kW wind turbine. Both wind turbines are variable speed; the blades speed varies with wind speed. Such wind turbines produce alternating current (AC) that varies in magnitude and frequency (known as wild AC) as the wind speed changes. The energy from the 10-kW wind turbine will be converted from its wild AC form to direct current (DC), and then used by the electrolyzer stack to produce hydrogen from water. The energy from the 100-kW wind turbine will be "picked off" from its existing controller, which produces a DC bus between 750 and 800 V. Since this voltage is too high for the electrolyzer stacks, NREL will design power electronics to make the DC-DC conversion. Two HOGEN 40RE proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers from Proton Energy Systems and one Teledyne HMXT-100 alkaline electrolyzer will produce hydrogen and oxygen from water. NREL will examine the issues related to the integration of these technologies as well as the operation of electrolyzers with different gas output pressures. After compressing the hydrogen, it will be stored for later use in a hydrogen internal combustion engine where it will be converted to electricity. The electricity will be fed into the utility grid during peak demand hours.
|
