http://www1.udel.edu/V2G/KempTom-V2G-Fundamentals05.PDF

Vehicle-to-grid power fundamentals: Calculating capacity and net revenue

Fuel processing for low-temperature and high-temperature fuel cells: Challenges, and opportunities for sustainable development in the 21st century

Fueled by concerns about urban air pollution, energy security, and climate change, the notion of a “hydrogen economy” is moving beyond the realm of scientists and engineers and into the lexicon of political and business leaders. Interest in hydrogen, the simplest and most abundant element in the universe, is also rising due to technical advances in fuel cells — the potential successors to batteries in portable electronics, power plants, and the internal combustion engine. But where will the hydrogen come from? Government and industry, keeping one foot in the hydrocarbon economy, are pursuing an incremental route, using gasoline or methanol as the source of the hydrogen, with the fuel reformed on board vehicles. A cleaner path, deriving hydrogen from natural gas and renewable energy and using the fuel directly on board vehicles, has received significantly less support, in part because the cost of building a hydrogen infrastructure is widely viewed as prohibitively high. Yet a number of recent studies suggest that moving to the direct use of hydrogen may be much cleaner and far less expensive. Just as government played a catalytic role in the creation of the Internet, government will have an essential part in building a hydrogen economy. Research and development, incentives and regulations, and partnerships with industry have sparked isolated initiatives. But stronger public policies and educational efforts are needed to accelerate the process. Choices made today will likely determine which countries and companies seize the enormous political power and economic prizes associated with the hydrogen age now dawning.

/pdf/hydrogen-futures-toward-a-sustainable-energy-system-3d06c1ixi6.pdf

Hydrogen Futures: Toward a Sustainable Energy System

This paper reviews the technical feasibility and economics of biomass integrated gasification–Fischer Tropsch (BIG-FT) processes in general, identifies most promising system configurations and identifies key R&D issues essential for the commercialisation of BIG-FT technology. The FT synthesis produces hydrocarbons of different length from a gas mixture of H2 and CO. The large hydrocarbons can be hydrocracked to form mainly diesel of excellent quality. The fraction of short hydrocarbons is used in a combined cycle with the remainder of the syngas. Overall LHV energy efficiencies, 1 calculated with the flowsheet modelling tool Aspenplus, are 33–40% for atmospheric gasification systems and 42–50% for pressurised gasification systems. Investment costs of such systems ( 367 MW th ) are MUS$ 280–450, 2 depending on the system configuration. In the short term, production costs of FT-liquids will be about US$ 16/GJ. In the longer term, with large-scale production, higher CO conversion and higher C5+ selectivity in the FT process, production costs of FT-liquids could drop to US$ 9/GJ. These perspectives for this route and use of biomass-derived FT-fuels in the transport sector are promising. Research and development should be aimed at the development of large-scale (pressurised) biomass gasification-based systems and special attention must be given to the gas cleaning section.

Exploration of the possibilities for production of Fischer Tropsch liquids and power via biomass gasification

http://www.me.uvic.ca/~ndjilali/MECH549/Srinivasan_Review.pdf

Margaret M. Steinbugler

Papers

A comparison of hydrogen, methanol and gasoline as fuels for fuel cell vehicles: implications for vehicle design and infrastructure development

Fuels for fuel cell vehicles

Fuels for Fuel Cell Vehicles: Vehicle Design and Infrastructure Issues