Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen
ITM Power is back with more home-hydrogen promises
Remember the home electrolyser "breakthrough" that ITM Power was all extcited about a few months ago? Well, it's back, and ITM is now describing how the rest of the home will operate with the system. The basic idea is that the electrolyser will make hydrogen using "increasingly available from wind, wave, solar or hydro-electric power" (or, of course, normally-produced electricity) and water. The hydrogen could then be used in heating boilers, cooking stoves/ovens as well as a bi-fuel vehicle, or converted to electricity through fuel cells. The obvious question at this point is why convert electricity to hydrogen just to go back to electricity. Fuel cells can store electricity, but so can batteries. ITM claims its scientists at the Sustainable Energy Tehnologies Centre have "developed and patented new low cost materials which significantly outperform and undercut those currently being used by other firms involved in the production of electrolysers." Power everything in your home using renewable energy and water? Cool. It's a dream house, if everything works as described. And that's a big if.
Read more, direct from ITM, after the jump.
Related:
- ITM Power, a British hydrogen company, says it's reached a bi-fuel "breakthrough"
- New research center will study hydrogen in IC engines
Hydrogen at home in new green fuel revolution
A major breakthrough in hydrogen technology is set to offer the housing market a chance to move towards supplying sustainable and non-polluting power.
A UK company, ITM Power plc, has developed a device which can generate hydrogen in the home to fuel central heating boilers and cookers while drastically cutting CO2 emissions. The development is a major advance towards the Government's goal of achieving a zero carbon new housing market by 2016. Currently domestic consumers account for over 20 per cent of the UK's CO2 emissions.
ITM Power's electrolyser, which is set to go into production next year, can create its own hydrogen fuel from a totally 'green' supply now becoming increasingly available from wind, wave, solar or hydro-electric power. Users could alternatively use low cost off-peak electricity or choose a green tariff from their existing supplier to produce hydrogen.
The hydrogen produced can be stored and then used as a conventional gas to burn in new or converted central heating boilers and as a fuel for cooking. But, unlike gas and oil, when hydrogen burns it releases no CO2 emissions, merely water vapour, offering the opportunity to significantly cut Britain's domestic carbon footprint. Stored hydrogen can also be reconverted to electricity using domestic fuel cells or generators to power lighting or other electrical appliances, removing the inconvenience of power cuts for homes and serious supply interruptions for hospitals, schools and businesses.
Scientists at ITM Power's Sheffield research centre made the hydrogen breakthrough when they developed and patented new low cost materials which significantly outperform and undercut those currently being used by other firms involved in the production of electrolysers.
In addition to its use in the home, hydrogen produced by the ITM electrolyser system can be used to power a family car, and later this year ITM Power plans to unveil a hydrogen home refuelling station for the automotive market and a converted bi-fuel petrol/hydrogen car based on Europe's best-selling model, the Ford Focus. The company aims to demonstrate that the car can be refuelled using hydrogen generated by a home electrolyser and can complete an average daily commuting journey without the need to utilise petrol.
"ITM Power is developing products which will not only revolutionise energy sources for the home but make a significant contribution to cutting CO2 emissions," explained the company's CEO Jim Heathcote.
"Hydrogen has an important role to play in bringing 'green' technology to the housing market and our development work, which will reach the production stage next year, has ensured it will arrive much sooner than many dreamed possible. With stored hydrogen's ability to provide not only fuel for heating and cooking but power, either through a conventional generator or a fuel cell, the prospect of energy self-sufficiency without the dependence on fossil fuels has moved dramatically closer," he added.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris M 8:32PM (9/07/2007)
Talk about a host of bad ideas! Even if they somehow brought the cost of electrolyzers down to where they could give them away as prizes in crackerjack boxes, the costs of hydrogen storage and fuel cells would make it far more expensive than standard storage batteries. H2 is a very bulky fuel, more space is required for storage. H2 power storage is much less efficient as well, at under 30% (depending on storage method) compared to 85% for charger and batteries. With the high cost of renewable energy, it doesn't make sense to throw most of the energy away, which requires even more expensive solar panels or wind turbines.
As for heating, regular electric heat would be just as efficient and much cheaper, and electric heat pumps considerably more efficient and may be cheaper, too.
As for cars, an EV or PHEV would be much more efficient and less expensive than a fuel cell. As for their H2 ICE proposal, the cost would be high and the H2 range extremely limited - a PHEV would run rings around it on efficiency and cost.
Oh, well. "Hydrogen" is a great buzzword for getting a fat government research grant, which is really what ITM is looking for.
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A.Brien 8:54PM (9/07/2007)
This is the future. I prefer a windmill or solar panels over wave or hydro-electricity. Windmill works almost all the time but solar especially in england work half the day at best but is more silent and discreet. Maybe it's a matter of taste and cost. Refueling the car at home with hydrogen from water is a dream come true. A men on the east-coast have a system like that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEdQRVQtffw
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Bill 10:00PM (9/07/2007)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0315/p12s01-sten.html?page=1
Most of us don't want "Ten 1000-gallon propane tanks" taking up all of our backyard.
The tiny shed attachment in the above diagram would store very little compressed hydrogen, not nearly enough to provide heating/cooking for an entire house and power a vehicle!
Michael Strizki's system cost $500,000, at least half paid by the government.
Nice if you can get it, not affordable or sustainable for the masses - better to put that excess solar power into the grid or a bank of flooded lead-acid batteries.
Love how they made the electrolyzer look like a gas pump. :)
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L Connolly 6:43AM (9/11/2007)
Still at it I see Chris M ;-) come on spill the beans what is your vested interest behind destroying any notion that this is a very good idea. Are you invested in or working for an electric car company by any chance? I’ll come clean and state I have a large personal investment in ITM, so naturally I wish them every success. A case of putting my money where my mouth is and investing because of the potential behind the technology, rather than simply talking them up for indiscriminate self gain. I do see you have softened somewhat from previous comments, in that you now at least concede they may have “somehow” reduced electrolyser costs, even to the point of giving them away in a cracker jack box ;-)
Yet still you seem to desire to see the technology discredited? Why be so cynical of a direction that is showing such great promise? I’ll draw other readers to the previous discussion listed under the above link “all excited about” to make my point. You also once again make assumptions, which are inaccurate, particularly your reference to ITM’s only motivation being the desire for government research grants. This is simply not true and implies the company has zero ethical commitment in wanting to make a difference in reducing greenhouse CO2. Presently they have sufficient cash in hand at current burn rates to last at least 6 or 7 years, hardly a situation that requires desperate measures to secure “a fat government research grant”. Also I’ll reiterate yet again that ITM’s technology is not about throwing energy away as you put it, it’s about buffering the intermittent nature of renewables. So there is a very strong argument for it’s implementation and is truly environmentally clean compared to your apparent favoured battery approach.
In conclusion we will need every tool available to fight global warming, and if the ideas you hold close to your heart prevail and ultimately prove the better solution, then good for you. In the mean time lets give credit to all approaches, rather than as the crisis deepens argue which is better method to fight the CO2 intruder, a knuckle-duster or baseball bat, only to discover he’s already nicked your telly while trying to decide.
Hey, if ITM’s technology is as inefficient as you claim then the market will no doubt sort them out and in due course they will go to the wall. On the other hand they could be about to revolutionise home energy thinking. Either way you can count on me to provide a counter perspective to your posts until one of us is proven correct.
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VisViva 11:04AM (12/15/2007)
To avoid wasting people's time and funds, it seems obvious that ITM will prove more by rapidly releasing real products on the market than by just showing a few photos and publishing virtual technical documents ad infinitum.
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Syd 10:43AM (8/26/2008)
Remember "The proof is in the pudding" and "A bird in the hand........" Real products for real prpole
Brian OH 7:16PM (1/29/2008)
This is the technology I envisioned when I first
looked at HFC some years ago. The additional thing
that I had was the ability to feed the grid. I
imagine that is possible. I think that most who
look closely at the energy issue in particular
for motor vehicles come to the conclusion that
oil is as good as dead. There are numerous reasons
why. The political issue alone is enough. The
question therefore is Hydrogen or storage battery
based on lithium or lead or whatever. I personally
think that Hydrogen will be the future, however
in the medium-term there may be a place for
other storage-battery technology. There are issues
with both Hydrogen and storage batteries that need
to be resolved. Both require "charging".
Personally, I think HFC will be the winner. One
reason for that is the shortage of lithium
reserves. Both rely on relatively cheap power.
Although some of that power may come from
"domestic" sources such as wind and solar, the
likely outcome is nuclear. Nuclear is cheap and
renewable. The newer technologies are very safe.
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Diana 2:05PM (4/28/2008)
Chris M. Not to be blunt, but what centuries' textbooks are you reading?! Wake up and smell the ozone, the CO2,the wars, and the unrest. Hydrogen is a fuel carrier with unlimited potential. ITM Power's technology cuts the cost of production dramatically, and puts sustainable power generation into peoples hands. These technologies are advancing on an hourly basis.If you wish to comment here, get educated on current events. We need people who are helping, not hurting - get informed. Look at the case studies, EERE,H2&You see what is happening around you. Nice comments L Connolly, I fully agree - we are all in this together let's work together.
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Simon 7:28AM (5/17/2008)
This company has the potentail to solve some real problems. Like what do you do with a gas guzzling petrol car you bought before you swallowed the green pill and fell through into the matrix and opened your eyes to what global warming might do! Selling the car doesn't solve the problem, it passes it on to someone else and may actually increase overall CO2 emissions if they drive it more/faster than you did. It also means that instead of scrapping a perfectly good car you can keep it on the road for another 20 years.
So what you need is a hydrogen coversion of an internal combustion engine that gets a range big enough to get to work and back. For me - I think the ITM solution may just do it, I only get 28.5 mpg :-( so it will be close... my commute is a 14 mile round trip. Given that my engine is 1/2 of a BMW H7 - which gets 200 BHP from 6 litres when running on hydrogen, I should get around 100 BHP which is plenty for the drive I do.
Batteries don't do it for me. I'd have to rip my engine out and find a way of recharging it when I go further than 100 miles from home?? An ICE H2 dual fuel car means I have petrol as a backup.
Now I just want to see real £ prices and capacity.
Has anyone also considered the fact that per kWh electric is like something 1/50 the cost of petrol!? However I'm sure the government might start taxing home electricity if you have one of these :-(. Unless you have a PV panel ;-) Think about it this way... after your initial investment you have unlimited free fuel and are isolated from oil prices.
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Nick 4:20AM (7/19/2008)
HYDROGEN is the future, never mind about global warming, mankind cannot produce globule warming let alone the planet, still hydrocarbons have had there
day, everyone is held to ransome by producers & states.
Hydrogen is the most abundent element in the universe,
no more dangerous than petroleum products, the Graf Zeppelen didnt explode it just burned [rapidly] .
Bring it on ITMPOWER
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RAJINDER KUMAR GARG 7:54AM (8/02/2008)
PLEASE SEND MORE DETAILS REGARDING SMART HOMES DEVELOPING THEIR OWN POWER FOR DAILY HOUSE USE AND AUTO USE.
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Rick Baker 9:48PM (8/04/2008)
I'm just learning about hydrogen. I don't think any one energy source is a panacea, but hydrogen and HHO seem to answer many questions, though much research into it's technology and applications is still needed. I also think ALL of our energy needs can be met by our own resources here at home, mostly through innovation and perseverence of inventive and dedicated people like these on this blog.
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ecd4me 3:28PM (8/26/2008)
these anti hydrogen posts make several assumptions that are incorrect. First of all, they assume the advanced batteries exist and are practical. They're not, yet. How much will the battery set for the VOLT actualyl cost? The price of a late model car? We can store a supply of hydrogen much more easily than of electricity. Thats the reason to electolyze H2 from water- STORAGE.
Also, hydrogen storage in metal hydrides is much more efficient than in a pressure vessel. ECD has hydride storage that can store three times the hydrogen in the same space as an empty pressure tank. And its also in a form that wont burn or explode.
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Applewhite 6:59PM (9/12/2008)
As an engineer, with an off grid home, I find this an interesting thread, especially as the flaming has died down.
My beef with ITM and these promises is the absence of performance data The web site has nice animations but no hard numbers on what performance they have been able to achieve to date or project in the future. This would be both engineering and financial performance figures.
Does this low cost electrolyzer somehow produce hydrogen for less watts than "conventional" technology? The web site states that stored hydrogen can generate domestic electricity on demand with a fuel cell but fails to mention the round trip efficiency. For each watt put into the electolyzer, what percentage of a watt do you get out of the fuel cell? How does that number change if you store the hydrogen as compressed gas? My math always yields dismal numbers but perhaps my assumptions are too conservative?
I'm concerned that a breakthrough at a component level does not in fact translate to a meaningful or enabling benefit at the end user level.
ITM, show us some data!
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