Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Gavin D. J. Harpera*
Ross Gazeyb
*- Corresponding Author
Abstract
There is significant interest in fuel cells for use in the built environment, as a
technology that has the potential to produce localised heat and power, with
increased efficiency and reduced carbon emissions which give it an advantage
over alternative technologies. Whilst fuel cell technology is easy to understand
on paper, there is a paucity of information on practical implementation of fuel
cell technology in the built environment for architects. This paper discusses some
of the practical aspects of implementing renewable hydrogen installations in the
United Kingdom, that is to say installations that produce their own hydrogen on-
site from renewable energy sources.
Introduction
Whilst the biggest challenge is making “better use of the technologies and
techniques for energy-efficient building design that are already available” (Pitts,
2008) there is clearly room for innovation, particularly in the field of energy
generation and transformation. Increasing penetration of renewables into the
grid will doubtless require extra storage capacity in order to help manage
fluctuation of supply and balance supply and demand.
According to Pitts (2008) the current UK building stock is characterised by a
reliance on grid-based electricity supply used by 99% of consumers and mains
gas in areas where it is available. Many energy commentators believe that there
will be a move towards more decentralised and embedded electricity generation
in the UK network, this will eventually necessitate a change in pricing structure
of electricity – ‘dynamic pricing’ of electricity is one option which looks likely
under a future “smart grid” scenario. This could make it economically
advantageous for ‘flexible’ users of electricity who are able to tailor their
demand to the prevailing supply conditions.
The Built-Environment has been identified as a fertile early-market for fuel cell
technologies as the fuel cell technology types that are well-suited to stationary
applications are reaching a level of maturity where for some applications they
are economically viable. This is a trend that is likely to increase. In some
projections, Hydrogen will be a major final end-use carrier in the Built
Environment by the end of the century, with some (Van Ruijven, 2007),
predicting it will provide 45% of residential energy by 2100.
There are fuel cell installations which take natural gas and reform it on-site to
produce hydrogen which in turn is used by a fuel cell to generate heat and
power. Whilst many of the points in this paper will also apply to this type of
installation, it is not expressly the subject of this paper.
• Electrolyser; the electrolyser takes electricity and water, and uses the
former to disassociate the latter into Hydrogen and Oxygen. It produces
hydrogen “on site”.
• Fuel Cell; the fuel cell itself takes Hydrogen from the storage and converts
this into electrical and thermal energy.
Figure 1:
Block Diagram of the Hydrogen System at the Energy & Environment Technology
Centre, Yorkshire
At the moment, the fuel cell in this installation has been optimised for electrical
generation and the waste heat has not been used at the present time, this exists
as an upgrade path in the future.
Electrolyser Technology
Experience from a range of installations has tended to lean toward Solid Oxide
Fuel Cell technology being selected as the technology of choice for stand-alone
installations. Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells have been used with varying
degrees of success, however, the membrane assemblies are particularly fragile
and have been prone to cracking.
Experience with Solid Oxide Technology has also encountered issues of durability
and robustness with the ceramics used in the cell stack. Whilst SOFC technology
works well if run up to a steady state it performs less favourably with cyclical
operation as ceramic materials deteriorate when heated and cooled in cycle. This
is due to the cell technology and issues with thermal cycling deteriorating the
cell stack. The lifetime of a continuously run SOFC should in theory run (in
excess of 10,000 hours). This is to say for a year and a half. The life of the cell
will be far exceeded by the balance of plant and support equipment, therefore it
is necessarily to periodically rebuild the system and stack. For this reason,
building design should anticipate easy access for service and repair to the fuel
cell stack. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells are a high temperature fuel cell technology and
rely on a high temperature for their electrochemical conversion process.
However, from cold-starting the temperature is not there to start the chemical
reaction, as a result, the cell must be slowly heated at a rate that is compatible
with the ceramic materials co-efficient of expansion. Heating beyond this rate
will cause degradation of the ceramic material – and ultimately if it is too fast,
the stack will fail.
Systems Integration
Whilst the individual components of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell installations are
reaching the point where they are shown to have acceptable reliability and
service life, this is usually measured under optimum conditions. The challenge
remains to integrate the components of renewable fuel cell installations to
ensure that all components within the installation work at their optimum in order
to ensure long service life and the longevity of the installation.
As an example, Gammon (2006) discusses the limitations of an electrolyser unit,
whose performance would degrade appreciably after 2500 on/off cycles, this was
mitigated by including a battery back-up to reduce the degree to which on/off
switching was necessary. As more modern electrolysis techniques are developed,
electrolyser technology will become more resilient and the balance of plant can
be reduced. Through developing specialist electrode coatings and optimising the
electrode technology – a combination of advanced control and materials science
techniques, this phenomenon can be reduced to a negligible level. By way of
contrast, the electrolyser at the Pure Energy® Centre site in Baltasound, has
recorded in excess of 19000 on/off cycles without noticeable degradation of
stack performance.
To some extent, this can be solved with “packaged” hydrogen systems. Off-site
prefabrication is now extensively used within the construction industry in order
to concentrate skilled labour and maintain high levels of quality. The Pure
Energy® Centre produces a “HyPod®”, in the first generation HyPod® the fuel
cell is external to the container (pictured in Figures 2 & 3) however, depending
on the type and certification constraints there is potential for integrating a fuel
cell installation within a trans-modal shipping container, to allow simple shipping
of the solution to site.
Experience within other domains in the construction industry has shown that off-
site fabrication reduces the need for a skilled workforce on site – allows for
increased quality control as components are assembled in a central factory
location by a skilled workforce. Modular renewable hydrogen systems fabricated
off-site and moved to the site of installation as a complete unit could present one
blueprint for the development of renewable hydrogen in the built environment.
Figure 2 (Left): PURE Energy Centre’s HyPod™ System Showing red Hydrogen
Storage Cylinders and Stationary P.E.M. Fuel Cell.
A consideration for the architect is that hydrogen, as a gas that is lighter than air
rises, to provide passive-safety designers should ensure that in service areas the
highest point of the building envelope is ventilated, and that the envelope of the
service area is designed in such a way that any hydrogen that is accidentally
vented can rise upwards to this point. Good passive ventilation of the area will
ensure that any hydrogen leaks can be safely dispersed.
At the moment as this technology is still expensive and used in a limited number
of installations, it is common practice to use fuel cell technology in concert with
other more conventional technologies, with the fuel cell providing a portion of
demand. This has the advantage that there is a back-up system in place to
provide heat and power during fuel cell service intervals e.t.c.
In the installation at the “Hydrogen Office” in Methil, for which the Pure Energy®
Centre provided the hydrogen installation, the Fuel cell is used in concert with a
ground source heat pump to meet the buildings heating needs. The heat pump
takes thermal energy from the surrounding ground area and concentrates it into
the building envelope. For every unit of electrical energy used to drive the
heating system it is anticipated that up to 3 units of equivalent thermal energy
are recovered from the ground. This is known as the Coefficient of Performance
(CoP)
“ …we don’t know much about it at all, other than we used to make bombs out
of this stuff.”
-Local Hornchurch resident, Mike Dyer Romford Recorder May 2003.
In particular HAZOP Analysis – Hazard and operability studies; are a useful tool in
refining process and procedure to ensure safe-working practise.
Relevant Legislation
One of the frustrations in developing this innovative building technology is that
there is lack of clarity as far as legislation and safety codes. As there are only a
limited number of hydrogen installations in settings other than industrial
installation, there are limited examples of best-practice to learn from.
There is not yet a standard for hydrogen installations in the same way that there
is the GasSafe (Formerly CORGI) quality mark for domestic and commercial gas
installations. The United Kingdom Hydrogen Association is working to address
this. As there is a lack of guidance for domestic / commercial small scale
hydrogen standards, at present guidance is taken from the statutory industrial
regulations listed below, and projects are assessed on a case-by-case basis, this
adds significant expense to hydrogen installations due to the extra work of
performing due-diligence and is an area where the cost of a hydrogen installation
can be reduced as proper standards are developed. Ideally, the hydrogen
community will work towards a standard that can be signed off by a competent
person.
The pressure equipment directive covers vessels, piping, valves and associated
accessories for safety and managing pressure, where the installation contains
pressure running at greater than 0.5bar, this is the case for renewable hydrogen
installations, with the Pure Energy® Centre’s HyPod® running at 38-42bar as an
example, whilst next-generation hydrogen vehicles will require refuelling at
between 300-750bar.
ATEX directive
The ATEX directive in fact consists of two directives, from the European Union,
one which applies to the manufacture of equipment and their associated
protective systems for use in explosive environments, and the other which
applies to the operation and use of equipment in explosive environment. They
are:
Manufacturers Standards
The BCGA provide guidance on the use of industrial compressed gases, which
provide
Whilst the U.S. Compressed Gas Association provide the following guidance
notes;
• G-5 Hydrogen
Furthermore, the U.S. National Fire Protection Association provide the following
guidance:
Planning Process
We can assume that if you are looking at producing a hydrogen installation, you
already have a client who is receptive to innovative building technologies. Due to
the level of the technology development, this is really a pre-requisite for a
renewable hydrogen installation. There are challenges with educating those
involved with the planning process about the risks and benefits associated with
hydrogen and experience from real-world installations shows that there is a clear
need for knowledge transfer between members of the planning community to
transfer information about successful installations in one locality to those
responsible for decision making in others.
• Fuel cells in the sub-100kw range typically occupy the same space as a
19” rack, commonly used for housing I.T. equipment; this is for their
application and deployment in data centre applications. By way of
illustration, 10kW “HyPM” modules fit in a standard 19” rack, with a 10kW
module occupying a 5U space in the rack. Power conditioning equipment
may also occupy a rack-mount installation, sharing common space.
• Many of the requirements of existing plant rooms are still applicable for
the larger systems, but consideration should be given to the properties of
the fuel gas used – e.g. H2 is very buoyant compared to air.
• As a minimum many fuel cells require clearance at the front and the rear
for easy maintenance, this is manufacturer dependent.
o A waste water drain for the exhaust water from the fuel cell.
• Consideration should be given to how to treat the water from the fuel cell.
The water is of exceptionally high, pure quality. Some local authorities are
happy for this water to go to soakaway rather than enter the drainage
system. A green building project may repurpose this water, by using it as
part of a greywater recycling system. Waste water from the exhaust of a
fuel cell system is pure demineralised, and de-ionised H20. in its self it is
not considered healthy to drink too much such pure water as it is thought
to remove nutrients from the body. If mixed with other drinking water this
effect would in theory be removed. A common trick I have seen is for the
manufacturers of fuel cells to mix the exhaust water with Whisky to add
the necessary minerals and charged particles!
• The output flow of water is dependent on the size of the fuel cell stack, in
the example of a 5kW plug power unit as used in the PURE project, the
output water flow was 2L/h at 5kW (full power) although the stack power
will be a little higher than this to accommodate BOP loading.
• Careful consideration should be given to siting the exhaust vent for fuel
cell installations. It should be ensured that this vent does not create an
“ATEX zone”. All potential sources of ignition should be isolated from the
area where the exhaust emerges. Whilst highly manufacturer specific,
some fuel cells vent directly, others vent indirectly.
• Dry hydrogen flowing through metal pipes has the potential to build up
static charge. All metal pipework needs to be equipotentially bonded to
prevent the build up of charge. This should be done in accordance with the
17th Edition Wiring Regulation.
• It should be noted that the output power from a fuel cell is direct current
and may be regulated or unregulated. This D.C. can either be used directly
with appliances and devices designed for D.C. operation, or an inverter
can be used to convert the D.C. to 230v 50Hz mains supply.
• Many fuel cells are of a “box within a box” design, which means any
hydrogen leaks can be contained. Equipment that is not of this design may
lead to a hydrogen leak turning the room into an ATEX zone. Additional
ventilation at high level should be provided to allow hydrogen to ventilate
freely to the atmosphere, and the architectural detailing should be such as
to permit hydrogen to rise to the highest point of the room for ventilation.
Figure 4
Current installations are by ‘early adopters’ and ‘innovators’ who are willing to
tolerate the steep learning curve associated with hydrogen technology at its
present state of development. This learning curve is partly offset by available
grant funding for developing innovative projects.
Buildings that are considered very good candidates for FC technology are data
centres, this is due to the existence or planned installation of some form of UPS
system to ensure data throughput is not lost in the event of any power outage.
On the larger scale manufacturers of high temperature fuel cells such as MTU
install them into large public or municipal buildings such as hospitals, concert
venues office blocks etc, to provide heat and power from a natural gas source.
The emissions are much lower in Co2 and Nox etc than a combustion engine or
gas turbine using the same fuel stock, and the electrical efficiency is much
higher.
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