(638d) Development of a Hydrogen Home Fueling System

The use of clean-burning hydrogen for transportation can provide a critical transition in the world's economy, protects public health and environment, while reduces the impact of petroleum price fluctuations and the dependence on non-domestic energy sourcing. In addition, hydrogen production can be decentralized, sidestepping complications in distribution and storage.

Presently, hydrogen is produced via coal gasification, natural gas steam reforming, or water electrolysis for central or forecourt production. Meanwhile, due to the lack of large-scale hydrogen storage, distribution networks, delivery and dispensing infrastructures, remarkable costs from the production plant-gate to the end-consumers (fuel cell vehicle drivers) will be added to the overall cost of hydrogen. Alternatively, the development and adoption of hydrogen home fueling systems can reduce or eliminate the need for the hydrogen storage and distribution. The success of this alternative, however, will depend largely upon the development of economical hydrogen home production technologies, to meet the immediate and long term needs for the quick market adoption of hydrogen-based vehicles.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy under the Small Business Innovative Research / Small Business Technology Transfer program, Materials and Systems Research Inc. (MSRI) is investigating the development of a hydrogen home fueling system that incorporates the concept of combined hydrogen, heat, and power (CH2P) tri-generation directly using distributed natural gas. Unlike the conventional hydrogen production approaches, this CH2P system is built upon advanced solid oxide fuel-assisted electrolysis cell (SOFECs) and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) hybrid technology.

In this talk, MSRI's SOFEC-SOFC technology development will be presented, along with corresponding performance characteristics. A system analysis of a hydrogen home fueling system equipped with this advanced hybrid technology will also be presented, followed by discussions of process economics and merits of the technology adoption.