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Fuel of the Future

Solar Hydrogen
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Solar Hydrogen
Fuel of the Future
Mario Pagliaro
CNR, Institute of Nanostructured Materials and Institute for Scientific
Methodology, Palermo, Italy
Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos
CPERI/CERTH and Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece
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ISBN: 978-1-84973-195-9
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
r Mario Pagliaro and Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos 2012
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to Rosaria and Eta for being there all this time
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Preface
Stay away from books that appear in fashion-chasing clusters:

excellent recent examples are books on nano-everything, on
hydrogen economy and on global warming.1
-V. Smil
This warning advice from Vaclav Smil, a leading authority in energy

science, has been a constant guiding admonition on writing this book.
Using plain language, numerous illustrations and updated practical
examples, in the following chapters we aim to show that hydrogen
produced using solar energy to split water is the energy currency of the
future because it solves two key requirements of our global society –
namely the incessant flow of energy and clean energy – and does so at an
affordable cost.
In other words, when produced from renewable energy and renewable
raw materials – namely sunlight and water – hydrogen is an entirely
clean and powerful fuel capable of replacing climate-altering fossil fuels
to power homes, trucks, boats and turbines, including thermoelectric
power units. Indeed, in reacting with air’s oxygen, hydrogen releases a
huge amount of energy and does so without any harmful emissions into
the environment, because pure water is the only by-product of the
reaction.
What is now required to make this fuel widely and readily available is
to find ways to make it locally available to users, without having to wait
for the building of hydrogen pipelines and hydrogen fuel station
infrastructures.
Solar Hydrogen: Fuel of the Future

Mario Pagliaro and Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos
Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, www.rsc.org
vii
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viii Preface
The first good news in this book is that these technologies will even-
tually be available on the market at an affordable cost.
The second is that accelerated innovation in both major domains of
solar energy technology (photovoltaics and concentrated solar power)
has resulted in the rapid fall of the solar electricity price, opening the
route to a number of practical applications using solar hydrogen energy.

In detail, direct thermochemical water splitting using concentrated
solar power (CSP, Chapter 3) has the potential to store solar energy and
convert it into clean hydrogen, using a tiny fraction of the world’s area
to meet our present and future global energy needs.
Photovoltaic (PV, Chapter 2) energy, in its turn, has the versatility
required to support the creation of a distributed energy generation
infrastructure based on hydrogen energy, in both economically devel-
oped and developing countries, especially now that the price of PV solar
electricity has fallen to historically low levels.
The sun delivers 5000 times our present global power needs. Fur-
thermore, in contrast to what some people might tend to think, solar

energy is evenly distributed. Thus, in contrast to the reservoirs of crude
oil or natural gas, solar hydrogen is not amenable to exploitation by
oligopolies. However, although it is inexhaustible and evenly dis-
tributed, sunlight, like wind, is intermittent. Hence, for widespread use
of solar power we need to store it efficiently.
We therefore need to use solar hydrogen, because most storage media
employed thus far – batteries, ultracapacitors and pumped-storage
hydroelectric – all have significant disadvantages, such as self-discharge,
high cost, and the use of toxic and rare materials in their construction.
In a recent paper,2 focusing on economic convenience only, Derek
Abbott has suggested that sunlight is the scalable source of power on
which our future energy needs must rely. Notably, low-tech CSP (con-
centrated solar thermal power) is preferred to photovoltaic solar cells.
Using mirrors (heliostats) to focus sunlight on a solar thermal collector,
an area as little as a 500 by 500 km2 (a tiny fraction of the world’s desert
area) will suffice to supply the world’s energy needs.
For Abbott, simple combustion of hydrogen should be preferred to
both electric batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, because the latter two
would be not scalable owing to the use of expensive membrane tech-
nology, as well as expensive metal catalysts (platinum) or conducting
metal ions (lithium), respectively.
However, we argue, new generation fuel cells are nanochemistry-
based (Chapter 4), and they either require far lower amounts of noble
metals, or will simply use low cost metal catalysts such as nickel, to
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Preface ix
generate power at levels of efficiency that are simply out of scope for
Carnot-limited systems such as the internal combustion engine.
In brief, hydrogen energy finally makes sense, even if there are effi-
ciency losses in compressing and delivering gaseous H2, because the
available solar power is virtually unlimited and the costs of all the
technologies required – CSP, PV and water electrolysis (Chapter 2) – are

becoming low.
For example, the intrinsic versatility and the current low cost of PV
electricity supports the option of using solar PV stations to produce
electricity locally, as well as relatively small amounts of H2, to refuel and
power cars or boats powered by fuel cells.
If a 250 m2 PV-electrolysis solar station, for example the one shown in
Chapter 2 in Austria, can produce 823 kg of pure H2 per year, in regions
like Sicily where PV electricity has already reached grid-parity,3 this
figure should be doubled at a fraction of the cost.
By the same logic, as millions of people in countries of Africa and
Asia start using electricity, they will soon use solar hydrogen in place of
lead batteries to build a truly widespread power distribution infra-
structure, in which each home can produce and store enough electricity
from the sun to be self-sufficient.
Not much appears to have changed since 2007 when the International
Association for Hydrogen Energy submitted a memorandum to the
heads of State at the G8 summit of 2007 (and, again, in 2009 in Italy),
asking them to give hydrogen energy top priority. The memorandum
read:
Hydrogen energy: the abundant clean energy for humankind as a

means of mitigating anthropogenic climate change, avoiding
environmental challenges, and decelerating the world’s ongoing
oligopolization of conventional energy raw materials is the per-
manent solution to the upcoming energy and climate change
catastrophe.4
Attentive readers, however, should not be misled by this apparent lack

of significant achievements in the last five years. As the same readers will
notice, a number of new hydrogen-powered devices have quietly entered
the market, along with solar hydrogen generators. The former products
indeed run on water and electricity only, to generate and safely store
solar hydrogen that is later used as fuel.
Users can now opt for a solar hydrogen cartridge (Chapter 4), for
instance, to power their portable electronic devices. Just add water to the
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x Preface
energy filling station and no more rechargeable batteries will be needed.

Plagued by inefficient battery technology, several manufacturers of
portable electronic devices are considering eventually switching to
hydrogen fuel cells to power their phones.5
Similarly, as readers will realize on reading Chapter 4, there already
are homes whose owners simply use an electrolyzer and PV modules to

self-generate all the fuel required to power their household appliances.
In Italy, the first urban hydrogen pipeline is operating safely and has
been supplying customers with clean energy for three years, while a
12 MW power plant burns hydrogen to generate electricity and heat.
These changes are apparently minor, in view of the several terawatt
scale that is needed to make a substantial impact on the global fuel
market. However, people will soon become accustomed to hydrogen
energy and this will convince them that hydrogen can be safely handled
with huge technical, economic and environmental benefits.
After this, widespread change will be initiated. People will start to
look for cars, boats and mobile vehicles in general that will run on solar
hydrogen. Those companies wise enough to have invested in this new
power technology will be the first to harvest the benefits of the massive
demand for non-fossil fuels that is already present in the market, even in
affluent countries.
Indeed, despite the global economic recession that started in 2008, the
price of oil consistently remains 490 US$/barrel. This can only accel-
erate the transition to solar energy fuel because many countries need to
reduce imports of foreign oil and natural gas, which even in a relatively
small country like Italy cost some 60 billion Euros per year.
Hydrogen energy, clearly, is a hot research and industrial topic. In just
the last two years there have been substantial breakthroughs in H2
generation, as well as in water oxidation catalysts, from the laboratories
of Long,6 Chorkendorff,7 Hill8 and Nocera.9
Websites such as hydrogenfuelnews.com report daily on hydrogen
powered cars and the use of commercial hydrogen fuel cells to power
homes, industries and transportation. Similarly, excellent volumes have
been published recently that survey solar hydrogen energy production
via traditional,10 photoelectrolytic11 or nanotechnology based12
methods.
Hydrogen storage13 can occur in different classes of materials,
including metal hydrides, inorganic porous solids, organic materials,
nanotubes and, most recently, graphene. Yet, as Frauscher’s Riviera 600
hydrogen boat or the Honda FCX Clarity automobile clearly show,
hydrogen can now be stored at sufficiently high density for use in
commercial mobile vehicles.
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Preface xi
Ongoing research in solar thermochemistry has also provided

promising results to support the use of a combined hydrogen and
carbon storage solution, namely that of carbon neutral solar hydro-
carbons, as an energy carrier compatible with present day technology
and that will provide an evolutionary bridge to a future hydrogen energy
economy.
This book is unique in that it provides a critical and hopefully
balanced insight into solar hydrogen energy that focuses on two main
technologies, direct water splitting and PV-based electrolysis, which
were selected on the basis of their practical relevance. Rather than
surveying existing and emerging methodology, the goal of this book is to
describe the near term implementation of H2 technology, based on
existing materials components and conceptual system designs.
Such a discussion of critical issues, which decision makers and policy
makers (both in industry and in government) need to consider, is, in our
opinion, timely and important. Solar hydrogen is the crucial technology
for our common future. It is often claimed, for instance, that compo-
nents of existing electrolyzers, such as catalysts for H2 generation (noble
metals like Pt), are not sufficiently abundant on Earth to provide the
amounts needed to build the massive number of electrolyzers required
for the large scale generation of solar H2, which is on the order of several
terawatts.
If this were the case, the technology to generate solar hydrogen at the
terawatt level would not yet exist. However, as detailed in Chapter 2,
emerging commercial electrolyzers make use of cheap and readily
available nickel catalysts, entirely obviating the use of any platinum or
palladium catalysts. Thus, it may be concluded that there does already
exist a technology suitable for terawatt level generation of solar
hydrogen.
We hope that the readership of this book will not be limited to
practitioners in the field (faculty members and students in chemistry,
engineering and materials science) but will include decision makers,
entrepreneurs, managers and professionals who need to increase their
knowledge of solar hydrogen energy technology, and especially how it
will open new opportunities for growth in all countries and how it will
influence various industries.
It is of course our hope that the book will also be of interest to
engineers and researchers who are not experienced in solar hydrogen but
would like to learn more about its prospects for the future.
Mario Pagliaro, Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos

Palermo and Thessaloniki
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xii Preface
References
1. G. Ross, Scientists’ Nightstand: Vaclav Smil, American Scientist,
www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/vaclav-smil
2. D. Abbott, Proc. IEEE, 2010, 98, 1931.
3. W. Hoffmann, President of the European Photovoltaic Industry
Association, commenting on the study SET for 2020 (2009). See

also: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/industry-group-
says-solar-to-become-cost-competitive-in-italy-next-year/
4. International Association for Hydrogen Energy, On Hydrogen Energy –
The Forever Fuel. A Centennial Memorandum, 2006. www.hydrogen.ru/
modules/ContentExpress/img_repository/iaheCentennialMemo.pdf
5. Apple plots smartphones powered by hydrogen, The Telegraph, 25
December 2011.
6. H. I. Karunadasa, C. J. Chang and J. R. Long, Nature, 2010, 464,
1329.
7. Y. Hou, B. L. Abrams, P. C. K. Vesborg, M. E. Björketun, K. Herbst,

L. Bech, A. M. Setti, C. D. Damsgaard, T. Pedersen, O. Hansen,
J. Rossmeisl, S. Dahl, J. K. Nørskov and I. Chorkendorff, Nature
Mater., 2011, 10, 434.
8. Q. Yin, J. Miles Tan, C. Besson, Y. V. Geletii, D. G. Musaev, A. E.
Kuznetsov, Z. Luo, K. I. Hardcastle and C. L. Hill, Science, 2010,
328, 342.
9. M. W. Kanan and D. G. Nocera, Science, 2008, 321, 1072.
10. K. Rajeshwar, R. McConnell and S. Licht (ed.), Solar Hydrogen
Generation, Springer, Berlin, 2008.
11. C. A. Grimes, O. K. Varghese and S. Ranjan, Light, Water,
Hydrogen: The Solar Generation of Hydrogen by Water Photoelec-
trolysis, Springer, Berlin, 2008.
12. L. Vayssieres (ed.), On Solar Hydrogen and Nanotechnology, John
Wiley & Sons, New York, 2010.
13. A. Züttel, A. Borgschulte and L. Schlapbach (ed.), Hydrogen as a
Future Energy Carrier, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2008.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our collaborators, especially Giovanni Palmisano,

Rosaria Ciriminna, Vittorio Loddo, Leonardo Palmisano and Vincenzo
Augugliaro, for their generous collaboration in the activities of Sicily’s
PV Research Pole.
In addition, thanks are due to the European Commission for its

support of the HYDROSOL research projects during the last decade,
and to all past and present members of the HYDROSOL research
consortiums, for their continued effort towards a clean energy future. In
particular Chrysa Pagkoura and Souzana Lorentzou (both from the
APT Lab at CPERI/CERTH) are gratefully acknowledged for their
assistance with the present book.
Thanks are also due to Merlin Fox, Sue Humphreys, Juliet Binns and
Saphsa Codling of RSC Publishing for their assistance in producing this
book.
Mario Pagliaro, Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos
xiii
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Contents
About the Authors xvii
Chapter 1 Hydrogen and Solar Hydrogen 1
1.1 Hydrogen: Structure and Properties 1

1.2 Hydrogen Production and Utilization 8
1.3 Solar Hydrogen 13

1.4 Hydrogen Safety and Sustainability 19
1.5 Hydrogen as Energy Carrier: Exergizing the Energy
System 25
1.6 The Hydrogen Science & Technology Network 28
References 35
Chapter 2 Water Electrolysis with Solar Electricity 40
2.1 Water Electrolysis 40

2.2 Current Electrolytic Technologies 45
2.3 Photovoltaic-Assisted Water Electrolysis 50
2.4 Economics of Water Electrolysis 58
2.5 Reducing the Cost of Electrolytic Hydrogen 60
2.6 Emerging Electrolytic Technologies 62
2.7 A Flexible Technology with Large Applicative
Potential 68
References 78
Chapter 3 Thermochemical Water Splitting 82
3.1 Concentrating Solar Power for Heavy Energy

Demand 82
3.2 Hydrosol: Thermochemical Water Splitting 90

xv
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xvi Contents
3.3 Carbon Neutral Solar Fuels 98
3.4 Solar Hydrogen and the Electron Economy 108
References 114
Chapter 4 Solar Hydrogen Utilization 119

4.1 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Engines 119

4.2 Hydrogen Fueled Internal Combustion Engines 122
4.3 Hydrogen Motoring: A Dream Never Coming True? 126
4.4 Hydrogen Fueled Power Plants 130
4.5 Hydrogen Energy for Distributed Generation 134
4.6 Portable Devices Running on Hydrogen 138
4.7 An Insight into the Solar Hydrogen Economy 144
References 151
Subject Index 155

About the Authors
Mario Pagliaro is a chemistry and manage-

ment scholar based in Palermo at Italy’s
CNR where, since 2008, he has also led Sici-
ly’s Photovoltaics Research Pole. Mario’s
research focuses on the development of

functional materials for a variety of uses and
operates at the boundaries of chemistry and
materials science. Between 1998 and 2003
he led the management educational center
‘‘Quality College del CNR’’, using the
resulting income to establish a research group that currently collabo-
rates with researchers in 11 countries. He has co-authored more than
100 scientific and technical papers as well as 12 scientific and manage-
ment books, including two highly cited volumes, on silica-based
materials and glycerol chemistry. In 2005 he was appointed Maıˆtre de
confe´rences associe´ at the Montpellier Ecole Nationale Supérieure
de Chimie and is frequently an invited speaker at scientific and tech-
nical meetings. Mario regularly organizes conferences and gives
courses and tutorials on the topics of his research. In 2009 he chaired
the 10th FIGIPAS Meeting in Inorganic Chemistry, held in Palermo,
and in 2011 he was co-chairman of the first SuNEC international
conference on solar energy. Currently he chairs the organizing com-
mittees of the SuNEC 2012 conference and of the FineCat 2012
symposium on catalysis for fine chemicals. Since 2004 he has orga-
nized the prestigious Seminar ‘‘Marcello Carapezza’’. His website is
qualitas1998.net.
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xviii About the Authors
Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos is the Founder

and has been the Director of the Aerosol &
Particle Technology (APT) Laboratory at
CPERI/CERTH (Thermi, Greece) since 1996.
In 2006 he was elected as Director of CPERI
and member of the Board of Directors of

CERTH, and in 2011 he was elected Chairman
of the Board and Managing Director of
CERTH. He has also been a member of the
faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Aris-
totle University since 2006, currently serving as Professor of New,
Advanced & Clean Combustion Technologies. Dr Konstandopoulos has a
hybrid background in Mechanical (Dipl. ME, Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, 1985; MSc ME Michigan Tech, 1987) and Chemical Engi-
neering (MSc, MPhil, PhD, Yale University, 1991). He is a specialist in
nanoparticles and combustion aerosols, with extensive research and engi-
neering consulting experience in the design, modelling and testing of

monolithic reactors for many applications including solar fuels (hydrogen
and hydrocarbons) production, emission control for mobile and stationary
applications and biotechnological applications. Dr Konstandopoulos is
the leader of an international research team that has developed the
HYDROSOL process for renewable hydrogen production by solar ther-
mochemical water splitting. This achievement has received worldwide
recognition through the 2006 Descartes Prize for Research (the highest
scientific award in the European Union), the 2006 International Partner-
ship for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) Inaugural Technical Achievement
Award and the Global 100 Eco-tech Award at the 2005 Expo in Aichi,
Japan. His extension of that work to include thermochemical splitting of
carbon dioxide and its use for the synthesis of solar fuels, as an alternative to
carbon storage technology, has won the highly competitive 2010 European
Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant. He has coordinated and man-
aged more than 50 research projects, funded by the European Commission
(EC) as well as leading international industries. He is the author of more
than 160 scientific and technical papers, his research is widely cited and used
by many academic and industrial research groups, and he is frequently an
invited speaker at industry and scientific conferences. His research has been
frequently covered by international communication media, including
Euronews Channel, the Financial Times, Die Welt, New Scientist and
Chemistry World, as well as by the domestic press. In 2005 he was elected
one of the youngest ever Fellows of the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE). In addition he has received the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers First Place Award (1991) and the Yale University H. P. Becton
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About the Authors xix
Prize for excellence in research (1992). Dr Konstandopoulos is currently a

member of the Governing Board of the European Commission’s Joint
Research Centre (JRC), a member of several national and European
committees in the area of energy research, and he serves as an evaluator for
international research funding organizations. He has served as adjunct/
visiting professor at Universities in Europe and the USA, and he is, among
others, a member of SAE, the Combustion Institute and the Gessellschaft
fur Aerosolforchung, and a founding member of the Hellenic Association
for Aerosol Research (elected to be its first president for 2006–2012).
Updated information on his work can be found on http://apt.cperi.certh.gr.
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Published on 24 May 2012 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781849733175-00001
CHAPTER 1
Hydrogen and Solar Hydrogen
1.1 Hydrogen: Structure and Properties

First produced by Robert Boyle in 1671 by reacting mineral acids with
iron, hydrogen was recognized as a discrete substance by Henry
Cavendish in 1766.1 Cavendish named the gas ‘‘flammable air’’ and
further reported in 1781 that it produced water when burned. In 1783,

Lavoisier reproduced Cavendish’s findings, formulating the mass con-
servation law, and named the element ‘‘hydrogen’’ from the Greek for
‘‘water-creator’’.2
At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless
and non-toxic diatomic gas with the molecular formula H2. It is the lightest
(average atomic weight 1.007825 u for 1H) and most abundant chemical
element (75% of the Universe’s elemental mass). Being highly reactive, the
H2 molecule on Earth is available only in chemical compounds and its
extraction from said substances requires consumption of energy.
Hydrogen gas, furthermore, has an enormous volume (Table 1.1):
1 kg of H2 at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure has a
volume of 11 m3, therefore hydrogen storage for practical energy or
chemical applications basically implies a reduction in volume. This is
generally accomplished by increased pressure (in gas cylinders with a
maximum pressure up to 80 MPa) or by liquefaction (achieved by
lowering the temperature).4
We recall here that the boiling point of a pure substance increases with
the applied pressure, up to a certain point. Propane, with a boiling point
of –42 1C, for example, can be stored as a liquid at 21 1C under a
moderate pressure of 7.7 bar. The boiling point of hydrogen can only be

1
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2 Chapter 1
Table 1.1 Selected physical properties of hydrogen. (Reproduced from Ref. 3,

with kind permission.)
Density 0.08988 g/L (0 1C, 101.325 kPa)
Melting point 14.01 K, –259.14 1C
Boiling point 20.30 K, –252.77 1C
Thermal conductivity 0.1805 W m1 K1

Molar heat capacity 28.836 J mol1 K1
Molecular weight 2.016 g mol1
Explosion limits in air 4.0–77.0 vol.%
Solubility in water 0.019 vol.% (0 1C, 101.325 kPa)
Minimum ignition energy 0.019 mJ
Specific heat capacity 14.199 kJ/kg K
Flame temperature in air 2318 K
increased to a maximum of –240 1C, through the application of

approximately 13 bar, beyond which additional pressure has no bene-
ficial effect. At standard conditions, hydrogen has a density of about
0.09 g L1 while in liquid state its density increases to 70.8 g L1 and its
boiling point is only 20.3 K (–252.77 1C). Even as a liquid, therefore,
hydrogen is not very dense. For comparison, every liter of water con-
tains 111 kg of hydrogen, whereas a liter (cubic meter) of liquid
hydrogen contains only 70.8 kg of hydrogen. Thus, water packs more
mass of hydrogen per unit volume, because of its tight molecular
structure, than hydrogen itself.
The phase diagram in Figure 1.1 indicates that liquid hydrogen exists
only in a small region between the solid line and the line from the triple
point at 21.2 K and the critical point at 32 K. This implies that once
hydrogen is evaporated from liquid it is not possible to re-liquefy it by
applying higher pressure, a method that works for many other gases. As
shown in Table 1.1, hydrogen burns in air at a concentration in the range
4–77% by volume. The highest burning temperature of hydrogen, 2318 K,
is reached at 29% concentration by volume. As little as 0.02 mJ is the
minimum energy (thermal activation energy) required to ignite a stoichio-
metric hydrogen : oxygen mixture, which is one-tenth of the energy required
to ignite a methane : oxygen mixture, for which the value is 0.29 mJ.
On a mass basis, the amount of energy produced during hydrogen
combustion is higher than that released by any other fuel, with a low
heating value (LHV, also known as net calorific value)6 2.4, 2.8 and 4
times higher than that of methane, gasoline and coal, respectively.
Hydrogen indeed reacts easily with oxygen in a highly exothermic
reaction (Equation 1.1) whose huge enthalpy is –286 kJ mol1.

2H2 ðgÞ þ O2 ðgÞ ! 2H2 OðlÞ þ 572 kJ 286 kJ mol 1 ð1:1Þ
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Hydrogen and Solar Hydrogen 3

Figure 1.1 Primitive phase diagram for hydrogen. In hydrogen, the interaction
between molecules is weak when compared with other gases, therefore the
critical temperature is low (Tc ¼ 33.0 K).
(Reproduced from Ref. 5, with kind permission.)
Table 1.2 Heating values for hydrogen and common hydrocarbon fuels.
Higher heating value Lower heating value
Fuel (at 25 1C and 1 atm) (at 25 1C and 1 atm)
Hydrogen 141.86 kJ g1 119.93 kJ g1

Methane 55.53 kJ g1 50.02 kJ g1
Propane 50.36 kJ g1 45.6 kJ g1
Gasoline 47.5 kJ g1 44.5 kJ g1
Diesel 44.8 kJ g1 42.5 kJ g1
Methanol 19.96 kJ g1 18.05 kJ g1
Table 1.2 shows that hydrogen has the highest energy-to-weight ratio
of any fuel because hydrogen is the lightest element and has no heavy
carbon atoms.
Therefore, for a given load duty, the mass of hydrogen required is
only about one-third of the mass of hydrocarbon fuel needed. It is for
this reason that hydrogen has been used extensively in the space pro-
gram, where weight is crucial. For decades, for example, NASA has used
liquid hydrogen to power space vehicles such as the Space Shuttle
(Figure 1.2), chilling H2 to near absolute zero (–252.87 1C), when
hydrogen gas turns into a high-energy liquid. Compared with
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4 Chapter 1
Figure 1.2 The Space Shuttle main engine burns hydrogen with oxygen, producing a
nearly invisible flame at full thrust.
(Reproduced from Wikipedia.org, with kind permission.)
Table 1.3 Properties of hydrogen compared with those of other fuels.

Fuel Boiling point [K] Liquid density [kg m3] Gas density [kg m3]
Hydrogen 20.3 71 0.08

Gasoline 350–400 702 4.68
Methanol 337 797 –
Methane 112 425 0.66
Propane 231 507 507
Ammonia 240 771 0.69
hydrocarbons, hydrogen gas has a good energy density by weight

(33.3 kWh kg1) but a poor energy density by volume (2.5 kWh L1),
which is about 3.5 times lower than the energy density by volume of
gasoline (Table 1.3).8 Higher gas pressure values improve the energy
density by volume, allowing the tank to be smaller, but not lighter (at
least currently).
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Alternatively, to increase its volumetric energy density, liquid hydro-

gen may be used. However liquefaction imposes large energy expendi-
ture and the storage tanks must be well insulated to prevent boil-off.
The temperature of spontaneous ignition of hydrogen in air is high,
ca. 500 1C. However, molecular hydrogen is highly flammable and will
burn in air at a very wide range of concentrations, between 4% and 74%

by volume, when the gas forms explosive mixtures with air. The mixtures
spontaneously explode when triggered by spark, heat or sunlight. Pure
hydrogen–oxygen flames emit ultraviolet light and are nearly invisible to
the naked eye, as illustrated by the faint plume of the Space Shuttle main
engine (see Figure 1.2) compared with the highly visible plume of the
rocket boosters of the same shuttle.
The liquefaction process, involving pressurizing and cooling steps, is
energy intensive. However, Equation 1.1 shows that pure, liquid water is
the unique exhaust by-product of the reaction, and this fact alone – the
absence of CO2 emissions – immediately shows the enormous, benign
environmental potential of the combustion of hydrogen when compared

with combustion reactions employing hydrocarbons or coal.
Hydrogen indeed is an excellent fuel that can replace hydrocarbons
with numerous advantages. For example, in 2009 the Italian power
company Enel started operating a 12 MW H2-powered electricity plant,
in the industrial zone of Porto Marghera in Venice, which is fueled
uniquely by hydrogen by-products from local petrochemical industries
(Figure 1.3). The turbines were specially designed to resist embrittlement
caused by hydrogen, but in any case the main emission of hydrogen
combustion in air is water (the formation of trace amounts of nitrogen
oxides is minimized by choosing the best combustion conditions).
Moreover, hydrogen burns much more efficiently and rapidly than
gasoline, and replacement of gasoline with hydrogen fuel in automobiles
is simple and fast, requiring substantial changes to the electronic and
ignition systems only (Figure 1.4). Hydrogen tanks for storage can be
installed in virtually any available space within the vehicle, and gaseous
H2 is precisely metered into the air intake of the engine.
Protium (1H) is the most common hydrogen isotope, with an abun-
dance of more than 99.98%. First prepared in 1932 by Urey,9 deuterium
(2H or D, with an atomic weight of 2.0140, containing one proton and
one neutron in its nucleus) is the other stable hydrogen isotope.
Given its relatively simple atomic structure, consisting only of a
proton and an electron (Figure 1.5), the hydrogen atom, together with
the spectrum of light produced from it or absorbed by it, has played a
central role in the development of the theory of atomic structure
culminating, in 1926, in the Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen
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6 Chapter 1
Figure 1.3 The first in the world to operate on such a scale, the 12 MW combined
cycle plant in Venice’s industrial area of Porto Marghera is fueled by
hydrogen by-products from local petrochemical industries.
(Reproduced from http://criticae.wordpress.com, with kind permission.)
Figure 1.4 An existing vehicle engine can burn hydrogen or gasoline provided that
the new hydrogen fuel system is activated using the same automobile
gasoline fuel injection system.
(Photo courtesy of United Nuclear Scientific Supplies, reproduced from
www.switch2hydrogen.com/h2.htm, with kind permission.)
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Figure 1.5 Protium, the most common isotope of hydrogen, has one proton and one
electron. Unique among stable isotopes, it has no neutrons.
atom.10 Similarly, the corresponding simplicity of the hydrogen mole-

cule was instrumental in allowing a fuller understanding of the nature of
the chemical bond, which followed shortly after the quantum mechan-
ical treatment of the hydrogen atom had been developed in the mid-
1920s.
Differing by the relative spin of their nuclei, there are two different
spin isomers of hydrogen diatomic molecules: ortho- and parahydro-

gen.11 In the orthohydrogen form, the spins of the two protons are
parallel and form a triplet state with a molecular spin quantum number
of 1 (12 þ 12); in the parahydrogen form the spins are antiparallel and form
a singlet with a molecular spin quantum number of 0 (12 – 12).
The ortho form is an excited state and has a higher energy than the
para form. At standard temperature and pressure, the normal form of
hydrogen gas contains about 25% of the para form and 75% of the ortho
form. The ortho : para ratio in condensed H2 is an important con-
sideration in the preparation and storage of liquid hydrogen; the con-
version from ortho to para is exothermic and produces enough heat to
evaporate some of the hydrogen liquid, leading to loss of liquefied
material. In general, rapidly condensed H2 contains large quantities of
the high-energy ortho form that converts to the para form very slowly.12
Hence, during hydrogen cooling, chemical catalysts (such as ferric
oxide, activated carbon, platinized asbestos, rare earth metals, uranium
compounds, chromic oxide, or some nickel compounds) are employed
for the ortho–para interconversion.13
Molecular hydrogen is commonly used in power stations, as a coolant
in generators, because its specific heat capacity is considerably higher
than that of any other gas. Half a century before quantum mechanical
theory was developed, Maxwell observed that the specific heat capacity
of H2 unaccountably departs from that of a diatomic gas below room
temperature and begins increasingly to resemble that of a monatomic
gas at cryogenic temperatures. This finding is ascribed by quantum
theory to the wide spacing of the (quantized) rotational energy levels
that results from the low mass of the molecule.14 These widely spaced
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8 Chapter 1
Figure 1.6 William Grove’s drawing of an experimental ‘‘gas battery’’, from a letter
dated 1843.
(Reproduced from Proceedings of the Royal Society, with kind
permission.)
levels inhibit equal partition of heat energy into rotational motion in

hydrogen at low temperatures. Diatomic gases composed of heavier
atoms, such as N2, do not have such widely spaced levels and do not
exhibit the same effect.15
Hydrogen can also react with oxygen to generate electricity in a ‘‘fuel
cell’’, a concept that was first proposed in 1838 by Schönbein. Soon
afterwards, in 1842, Grove introduced the first ‘‘gas voltaic battery’’,
using a design (Figure 1.6) that is remarkably similar to today’s fuel cell
designs.16 In contrast to batteries, which store and release chemical
energy as electricity until complete discharge, an H2 fuel cell produces
energy by combining hydrogen with oxygen, continuing to function and
produce power as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied.
Liquid water is the only reaction product so that, for instance,
the toxic and polluting emissions produced by a boat’s traditional
internal combustion engine, are replaced in a boat powered by a
hydrogen fuel cell by the emission of a benign flow of highly pure
water (Figure 1.7).
1.2 Hydrogen Production and Utilization

Hydrogen is widely employed in the chemical and petrochemical
industries. The total world production of hydrogen as a chemical
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Figure 1.7 The only emission produced by Frauscher’s Riviera 600 hydrogen-
powered boat is clean water; H2 is obtained cleanly by photovoltaic
electrolysis of water.
(Photo courtesy of Fronius.)
constituent and as an energy source was valued at US$120 billion in

2010 (Figure 1.8).17 The two main applications are the production of
ammonia (NH3), via the Haber process, which is used directly or
indirectly as fertilizer, and hydrocracking, namely converting heavy
petroleum sources into lighter fractions suitable for use as fuels (and in
the de-sulfurization of middle distillate diesel fuel). Furthermore, H2 is
used in the manufacture of methanol and hydrochloric acid, and as a
hydrogenating agent, used particularly to increase the level of saturation
of unsaturated fats and oils in the oleochemicals industry.
Finally, other important hydrogen users are the space flight business,
the electronics industry, and metallurgical companies that require the
reduction of metallic ores. In the latter cases, smaller quantities of
‘‘merchant’’ hydrogen are also manufactured and delivered to end users.
The economies of scale inherent to large-scale oil refining and fertilizer
manufacture make possible the on-site production and ‘‘captive’’ use of
hydrogen.
Given that both the world’s human population and the intensive
agriculture used to support it are growing, the demand for ammonia is
growing. The use of hydrocracking grows at an even faster rate, because
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10 Chapter 1
Figure 1.8 Hydrogen market and production in the world and in the USA, 2010 and
2015 (US$ billions).
Figure 1.9 Hydrogen is co-produced with carbon monoxide in natural gas ‘‘steam
reforming’’ plants such as this one.
(Photo courtesy of Linde.)
rising oil prices encourage oil companies to extract poorer source mate-
rial, such as tar sands and oil shale. Accordingly, the hydrogen market
is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
6.3%, to reach a value of US$163 billion in 2015 (see Figure 1.8).
Overall, around 96% of hydrogen is derived from fossil fuels and a
minor fraction is produced in large electrolyzers during the electrolysis
of brine. Most (49%) of the world’s hydrogen is currently produced
from the steam reforming of natural gas (Figure 1.9), followed by
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Figure 1.10 Worldwide hydrogen production in 2000 and 2006.

Table 1.4 Hydrogen production in the chemical industry. (Adapted from

Ref. 18, with kind permission.)
At high temperatures (700–1100 1C), steam (water vapor) reacts with methane to yield
carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This reaction is favored at low pressures but is
nonetheless conducted at 20 atm, because high-pressure hydrogen is the most
marketable product. The ‘‘synthesis gas’’ product mixture is often used directly
for the production of methanol and related compounds.
CH4 þ H2 O ! CO þ 3H2
Other important methods for H2 production include partial oxidation of hydrocarbons:
2CH4 þ O2 ! 2CO þ 4H2
and the coal reaction:
C þ H2 O ! CO þ H2
Hydrogen is also manufactured via high or low pressure electrolysis of water, by

decomposition of water (H2O) into oxygen (O2) and hydrogen gas (H2) by means of an
electric current passed through the water.
partial oxidation of oil (29%) and coal (18%). The graphs in Figure
1.10 show that the industrial manufacturing technology (Table 1.4) is
rapidly changing, because in 2000 crude oil was the dominant source
(55%).18
Given the huge and increasing volumes of H2 produced in the world,
it is perhaps no surprise that hydrogen plants are major energy-
demanding processes and important releasers of, CO2 emitting some 100
million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.19
The current best electrolytic processes, on the other hand, have an
efficiency of 50% to 80%, so that 1 kg of hydrogen (which has a specific
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12 Chapter 1
Figure 1.11 In the Hydrogen Challenger ship, based in Germany, hydrogen generated
by water electrolysis, induced by wind electricity generated on the open
sea, is stored and brought to shore where it can be injected into the
hydrogen infrastructure.
(Reproduced from seriouslygoodnews.com, with kind permission.)
energy of about 40 kWh kg1) requires 50 to 79 kWh of electricity. At

8 cents per kWh, this translates into $4.00 per kg, which is, 3 to 10 times
the price of hydrogen from steam reformation of natural gas produced
using traditional methods.20
On the other hand, low cost renewable electricity is increasingly used
to manufacture H2 electrolytically, for example in the German Hydrogen
Challenger ship (Figure 1.11). This vessel is equipped with vertical axis
wind turbines, which harness the strong winds of the outer seas and use
them to create the electricity used to electrolyze the water beneath the
ship.
Unlike electricity, hydrogen can be stored in large quantities and for
long periods of time. Storing energy in the form of hydrogen allows the
generator to sell power only when and where the price is highest. This
means that every kWh of hydrogen energy is much more valuable than a
kWh of electricity.
The use of hydrogen as a fuel is still a niche market. To date the
largest demand for hydrogen as a fuel has come from the United States
space program. Now, however, fuel cells that use hydrogen as a unique
fuel are opening up new markets for hydrogen suppliers, with potentially
high demand if some key applications take off (Figure 1.12).
Fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), for instance, involve technology under
development with five car makers (Daimler AG, Honda, General
Motors, Hyundai and Toyota) that are currently operating the largest
fleets of FCVs. According to a recent market report,21 commercial sales
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Figure 1.12 The fuel cell car market is now in the ramp-up phase to commercializa-
tion, anticipated by automakers to occur around 2015. Following a pre-
commercialization period from 2010 to 2014, Pike Research forecasts
that 57 000 fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) will be sold in 2015, with sales
volumes increasing to 390 000 vehicles annually by 2020.
of FCVs will reach the key milestone of 1 million vehicles by 2020, with a
cumulative 1.2 million vehicles sold by the end of that year.
For the same US market analysts, the entire growth of the FCV
market is balancing on two key items: the growth of H2 refueling
stations and the improved durability and efficiency of the fuel cells.
The growth of H2 refueling stations will be boosted, we argue, by dis-
tributed solar hydrogen generation using photovoltaic electricity.
1.3 Solar Hydrogen

Hydrogen generated by water splitting induced by solar energy is the
fuel of the future, which can replace fossil fuels and ultimately cease our
dependence (or ‘‘addiction’’,22 to quote a former US president) on fossil
hydrocarbons and coal, thus ending the emission of CO2 into the
atmosphere that causes global warming and climate change.
In other words, clean solar-based H2 technologies not only produce
hydrogen but also employ entirely renewable and abundant energy
sources and raw materials: solar energy and water, respectively, which
produce no CO2 emissions (Figure 1.13).
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14 Chapter 1
Figure 1.13 When made from solar energy and water, hydrogen closes the anthro-
pogenic energy cycle, and turns into an entirely clean energy carrier.
In the words of Winter, a long-time advocate of hydrogen energy:23
The solar water-to-hydrogen-to-water cycle is the only closed

material cycle of any human energy scheme. All the others are open
systems: they take something irrecoverable from the earth’s crust,
convert it chemically or nuclearly, and return it to the biosphere,
sometimes toxic, sometimes radioactive, and sometimes of negative
environmental or climatic influence.
In the last decade, much hype has been associated with the topic of
hydrogen. For example, in a widely read book,24 Romm has questioned
the idea that hydrogen is an economically viable fuel for transportation
because of its cost and the greenhouse gases generated during produc-
tion, the low energy content per volume and weight of the container, the
cost of the fuel cells, and the cost of the infrastructure.
In contrast to fossil fuel deposits, which are a concentrated source of
high-quality energy, commonly extracted with power densities (the rate
of energy production per unit of Earth’s area) of 102 or 103 W m2 for
coal or hydrocarbon fields, biomass energy production has densities well
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Figure 1.14 Power densities for renewable fuels and energy consumers. Power density
is the rate of energy production per unit of the Earth’s area, expressed in
watts per square meter (W m2).
below 1 W m2, while the density of electricity produced by photovoltaic

generation is around 20 W m2 of peak power.25
Figure 1.14 indeed shows that the energy supply chain of today’s
fossil-fueled civilization works by producing fuels and thermal electricity
with power densities that are one to three orders of magnitude higher
than the common power densities consumed by our buildings and cities.
In other words, solar energy is the only renewable energy source with the
versatility to meet both intensive production needs (through con-
centrated solar power, or CSP) and distributed energy demand through
on-site installed photovoltaic (PV) modules, whose price in the last three
years has fallen by 490% (from 6 to less than 0.7 h W1).
Distributed generation (Figure 1.15) refers to power generation at the
point of consumption. Generating power on-site, rather than centrally,
eliminates the cost, complexity, interdependencies, and inefficiencies
associated with transmission and distribution. In the past three decades,
computers and telephones have become decentralized and wireless. In a
similar way, as emphasized by Bradford,26 to distributed computing (i.e.
the personal computer) and distributed telephony (i.e. the mobile
phone), distributed generation using solar energy shifts control to the
consumer.
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16 Chapter 1
Figure 1.15 Distributed energy generation is based on local generation of energy

using microturbines, fuel cells, photovoltaic systems and wind power,
where energy is needed and consumed.
In other words, PV distributed on a small scale instead of on today’s

industrial-size electricity grids will begin to compete with the economies
of scale that Edison’s electricity transmission created over the last cen-
tury. In the last five years the price of solar electricity has fallen to such
an extent that it has now reached the cost of fossil electric power in many
countries and regions, including southern Italy, Greece and Israel. This
means that distributed energy generation has become an economically
viable alternative to central energy generation in large fossil fuel power
stations.
Certainly, the shift from concentrated and easily transportable fuel
sources (oil converted to gasoline/diesel) to diffuse solar energy con-
verted to less concentrated and less transportable hydrogen (Figure
1.16) fuel will require a substantial fall in the cost of H2 fuel cells and H2
fuel combustion engines.27 Yet, as highlighted in this book, a number of
new technologies have already been marketed that make it possible to
generate and use solar hydrogen to power not only portable devices but
also cars, boats and homes.
In brief, solar H2 is an excellent storage option for the excess solar
electricity generated during the day for use during night-time and cloudy
days. Two complementary methods exist, which rely on two major solar
energy technologies, namely photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar
power (CSP).
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Figure 1.16 As the cost of solar electricity has reached grid-parity in many countries
worldwide, the electrolysis of water to make solar hydrogen turns into an
economically viable option for storing the free solar fuel radiation
energy.
(Reproduced from www.theoildrum.com, with kind permission.)
Figure 1.17 Honda’s solar-powered hydrogen production, storage and refuelling

station in Torrance, California has been operating at the company’s
California laboratory since 2001.
The first technology involves water electrolysis using a photovoltaic

current (Equation 1.2 and Figure 1.17).
H2 O þ 2F ! H2 þ 12 O2 ð1:2Þ
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18 Chapter 1
where F is the Faraday constant measuring 1 mole of electricity

(96 485 C). Once locally available, hydrogen is used to generate elec-
tricity by the reverse of the reaction in Equation 1.2:
H2 þ 12O2 ! H2 O þ 2F ð1:3Þ
which is the process that occurs in an H2–O2 fuel cell. Indeed, the same
cell can work as a fuel cell or as an electrolyzer, depending on the
operating conditions (which is not the case with other competing reac-
tions for the production of H2).
Equations 1.2 and 1.3, furthermore, show that hydrogen and elec-
tricity – being electrochemically interchangeable via electrolysis and the
fuel cell – compete for the same primary solar energy.
In general, electrolytic hydrogen production is perfectly suited to
distributed energy production, namely to create locally the amount of
hydrogen required to power a house, a car or a boat’s engine. This as
occurs with most of the hydrogen refuelling stations in the USA,28 such
as the first one, which was opened in 2001 by Honda at its research and
development center in Torrance, in the Los Angeles area (see Figure
1.17).29
The solar method used to generate the large amounts of H2 necessary
to address the energy-intensive needs of modern society, on the other
hand, relies on CSP and is a catalytic thermochemical process that
makes use of concentrated solar radiation to create, from water and
sunlight (Figure 1.18), a large surplus of hydrogen suitable for massive
energy generation.
Figure 1.18 Thermochemical water splitting is a catalytic process that makes use of
concentrated solar radiation to create a large surplus of hydrogen sui-
table for energy-intensive applications.
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1.4 Hydrogen Safety and Sustainability

Given that it is so light, in the early 1900s hydrogen was used for about
two decades to lift huge dirigibles until, on 6 May 1937, the Hindenburg,
a rigid airship lifted by hydrogen, caught fire in midair over New Jersey
and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring tower at
the Lakehurst Naval Air Station (Figure 1.19). Out of 97 people aboard,
62 survived the crash at Lakehurst, although many suffered serious
injuries, but 35 passengers perished, along with one member of the
civilian landing party.
Ignition of leaking hydrogen is widely assumed to have been the cause
of this disaster, even if the visible flames were from combustion of the
aluminized fabric coating.30 Whatever the cause, the accident was
broadcast live on radio and filmed so that permanent damage was done
to the public reputation of the use of hydrogen in the transport industry.
Almost a century later, however, in the same country, and according to a
2010 Pew Research Center poll (Figure 1.20) by 78% vs. 17%, the public
wants to see increased federal funding for research on wind, solar, and
hydrogen technology.31
For decades, in any case, the space launch industry has been the only
branch of industry to utilize hydrogen fuel in large quantities. Alas, a ser-
ious incident was also experienced in this case, namely the Space Shuttle
Challenger disaster of 1986, when a leak in the liquid hydrogen tank, located
in the aft portion of the external tank, caused the explosion of the shuttle.32
Figure 1.19 The Zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg catching fire on 6 May 1937 at
Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey.
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20 Chapter 1
Figure 1.20 A 2010 poll in the USA clearly shows that the public supports climate
and energy legislation.
(Image courtesy of Pew Research Center, reproduced from Ref. 31, with
kind permission.)
Hydrogen has one of the widest ranges for the explosive/ignition

mixture with air of all the gases. This means that, whatever the mix
proportion between air and hydrogen, a hydrogen leak will most likely
lead to an explosion, not a mere flame, when a flame or spark ignites the
mixture. This makes the use of hydrogen particularly dangerous in
enclosed areas such as tunnels or underground parking.33
Hydrogen is odorless and leaks cannot be detected by smell. More-
over, pure hydrogen–oxygen flames burn in the ultraviolet color range
and are nearly invisible to the naked eye, so one of the main measures
required to implement higher safety standards is early leak detection
with hydrogen sensors as well as a flame detector to detect whether a
hydrogen leak is burning.
On the other hand, hydrogen is buoyant in air (14.4 times lighter than
air, rising at a rate of 20 m s1), thus the gas quickly dilutes and dis-
perses. If released accidentally, hydrogen will rapidly escape upwards
(H2 has a diffusivity in air 3.8 times faster and rises 6 times faster than
natural gas). Like gasoline, hydrogen is highly flammable. Yet, as Figure
1.21 shows, owing to the buoyancy of hydrogen the flame shoots up
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Figure 1.21 On the left is a vehicle with a hydrogen tank, and on the right a vehicle with
a standard gasoline tank. Both tanks have been deliberately punctured and
ignited. The top panel shows the two vehicles three seconds after ignition.
The bottom panel shows the two vehicles 60 seconds after ignition.
(Photo courtesy of the University of Miami, reproduced from Physorg.com.)
vertically, whereas gasoline is heavy and spreads beneath the vehicle.

Hence, 60 seconds from ignition, while the hydrogen supply has burned
off and the flame is diminished, the gasoline fire has accelerated and has
totally engulfed the vehicle on the right.
Another relevant fact is that, during the combustion of hydrogen, the risk
of secondary fires is greatly reduced. For example, a flame of 9% hydrogen
in air does not ignite a paper sheet even after 60 seconds of exposure.34
Indeed, the combustion reaction produces water vapor, and this means that
only one-tenth of the radiant heat of a hydrocarbon fire is produced.
Hydrogen tanks have even been tested (at the Lawrence Livermore
Laboratories in the USA) under extreme conditions, including firearm
shots and major mechanical damage and being subjected to flames at
1000 1C for over an hour, without incident (Figure 1.22).35
Indeed, the 100-passenger hydrogen-powered fuel cell boat Alsterwasser
(Figure 1.23), which operates on Alster Lake and the River Elbe in
Hamburg, Germany, caught fire in spring 2010, destroying much of the
ship. No one was injured and the two 50 kW fuel cells powering a
100 kW hybrid electric propulsion system survived the fire intact and did
not even need replacing.36 All emergency systems operated well, with no
leakage or heating of the hydrogen tanks and an immediate automatic
shutdown of the fuel cell.
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22 Chapter 1
(a) (b)
Figure 1.22 Destructive tests on full hydrogen tanks. Under extreme conditions (a)
piercing the tank with .30-caliber armor-piercing bullets, and (b) bathing
the tank in flames for over 60 minutes at 1000 1C, no explosion occurred.
(Photo courtesy of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, reproduced
from Ref. 35, with kind permission.)
Figure 1.23 The Alsterwasser fuel cell ship operating near Hamburg, Germany, caught
fire in spring 2010, destroying much of the ship. No one was injured and
the two 50 kW fuel cells survived the fire intact.
(Photo courtesy of Alster-Touristik GmbH, reproduced from Ref. 28, with
kind permission.)
The fire on board was caused by a fault in the connection of the lead
acid batteries, which overheated. Remarkably, the Alsterwasser is no
longer considered a test application and has been operating daily as a
ferry in normal service in the Alster-Touristik (ATG) fleet since mid
2011, without any technical problems. As such it no longer requires
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special maintenance and support and ATG has signed a regular service
contract for the fuel cell system with Proton Motor Fuel Cell.
According to both the Canadian37 and German governments,
hydrogen fueling and handling is as safe as, or safer than, compressed
natural gas (CNG) fueling. In Germany, for example, there are no
additional safety guidelines beyond those for all other combustible

gases. According to Germany’s 1993 Federal Model Garage Ordinance,
there are no usage restrictions for gas-operated vehicles, and hydrogen-
powered cars are allowed to drive into parking lots and private gar-
ages.38 In general, it is expected that the general public will be able to use
hydrogen technologies in everyday life with at least the same level of
safety and comfort as with today’s natural gas.
Since 2005, the International Association for Hydrogen Safety (IA-
HySafe)39 has organized an international conference on hydrogen safety
to improve public awareness and trust in hydrogen technologies by
communicating a better understanding of both the hazards and the risks
associated with hydrogen and their management. A useful tool to

encourage and promote the safe use of hydrogen is the Hydrogen Safety
Best Practices Manual,40 developed in the USA by the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory.
Organized into three major sections (Table 1.5), the online manual
captures a vast knowledge base of hydrogen experience from many
references and resources into an easy-to-use web-based manual and
makes it publicly available, providing suggestions and recommendations
on the safe handling and use of hydrogen in various settings.41 The
digital and interactive nature of the tool makes it easy to add new
content with assistance from industry experts, such as the recent new
Table 1.5 The major sections in the Hydrogen Safety Best Practices Manual.
Section Contents
Hydrogen Properties Focused mainly on hydrogen combustion

and liquid hydrogen expansion
Compares key properties of hydrogen and
commonly used fuels
Safety Practices Safety Culture
(management-oriented) Safety Planning
Incident Procedures
Communications
Design and Operations Facility Design Considerations
(engineering-oriented) Storage and Piping
Operating Procedures
Equipment Maintenance
Laboratory Safety
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24 Chapter 1
section on indoor refueling of hydrogen-powered industrial trucks, as

well as noting feedback from users. The European Commission, in its
turn, has funded the higher education HySAFER program in hydrogen
safety engineering at the University of Ulster,42 building on the Eur-
opean consortium HySafe: Safety of Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier.43
From a standpoint of ‘‘triple bottom line’’ sustainability (Figure

1.24), solar hydrogen is environmentally as well as economically and
societally sustainable.
It is environmentally sustainable because solar hydrogen comes from
water and is recombined with air to yield water again, closing the cycle of
energy and raw materials with practically no impact on the Earth’s
atmosphere, and thus on climate change. As molecular hydrogen leaks
slowly from most containment vessels, there have been some concerns over
the possible environmental impact of a hydrogen economy on the strato-
sphere problems related to hydrogen gas leakage.44 However, at most such
leakage is likely to be no more than 1–2%, even with widespread hydrogen
use and with 2003 technology.45 The leakage rate today, for example in
Germany, is only 0.1% (less than the natural gas leakage rate of 0.7%).
Economically, solar hydrogen is sustainable because both water and
primary solar energy are ubiquitous, affording a renewable fuel at low
marginal cost that can be used to power the energy needs of both
families and enterprises, and allowing the costly world energy trade
system based on hydrocarbons and coal to cease. Hydrogen will be
produced instead of fossil fuels and mainly distributed through hydro-
gen pipelines, far shorter and more economical than those connecting
the oil-rich countries in Africa and Asia to the developed countries in
Europe and in Asia itself.
Figure 1.24 Social, economic, and environmental factors are generally involved in
sustainability problem solving and decision making.
(Image reproduced from parse.howdesign.com, with kind permission.)
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From a social viewpoint, finally, the switch to a solar hydrogen

economy will be beneficial because on the one hand it will create the
millions of new jobs needed to develop the new energy infrastructure
and also because it will free up the immense resources in rich countries
that are currently used to purchase oil, gas and coal. Taxation will
reduce and financial resources will instead be employed to clean up the

damage created by 2.5 centuries of the massive utilization of fossil fuels.
1.5 Hydrogen as Energy Carrier: Exergizing the

Energy System
Recently, Joshi and co-workers evaluated the performance of the two
routes of hydrogen production that are relevant to this textbook, namely
PV and solar thermal systems, based on exergy analysis and a ‘‘sustain-
ability index’’.46 As expected, the solar thermal hydrogen production
system has a higher sustainability index because of higher exergy effi-

ciency, when compared with the PV hydrogen production system whose
exergy efficiency ranges between 3.68 and 4.84%. The exergy efficiencies
of concentrating the collector increase with increasing solar radiation.
In brief, whenever energy is converted (produced, handled, stored,
transported, disseminated, utilized, etc.) it is split into two parts
(Equation 1.4):
Energy ¼ exergy þ anergy ð1:4Þ
Exergy is the maximum amount of available technical work extracted

from energy (Figure 1.25). It can be converted into any other form of
energy, whereas anergy cannot. Hydrogen-supplied fuel cells are highly
efficient exergetically, generating electricity (¼ pure exergy), whereas the
exergy content of the remaining heat at the fuel cell’s specific tempera-
ture can be used to meet the requirements of industrial or residential
heating.
Hydrogen exergizes the energy system because novel solar-electric
systems, such as hydrogen-supplied fuel cells or solar photovoltaics, are
not Carnotian heat engines. In other words, hydrogen minimizes anergy,
making more technical work available (exergy) out of energy.
First conceived over 200 years ago, classical Carnotian energy
systems – combustion-based engines and boilers – are obsolete and poorly
efficient but still widely employed in power plants, in residential or
industrial heating systems, and in the engines of automobiles, trucks
and airplanes. They produce too much heat in the wrong place where no
potential user asks for it. For example, central heating system boilers
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26 Chapter 1
Figure 1.25 A visual analogy explaining the concept of exergy in terms of the
toothpaste (energy) made available by squeezing the tube. Entropy, in
this analogy, is the depression in the tube.
(Image courtesy of Dr F. Günther, reproduced from www.holon.se/
folke, with kind permission.)
(Figure 1.26) are, to paraphrase Winter again, ‘‘exergetically

miserable’’.47
They energetically convert almost 100% of the chemical energy of the
fuel into heat. Absurd as it may seem, we generate 1000 1C combustion
temperatures simply in order to provide a room radiator temperature of
some 60 to 70 1C.
Hydrogen-fueled fuel cells, however, generate electricity (¼ pure
exergy) efficiently firsthand, and the leftover heat still suffices to heat a
house for most of the year. In the words of Balzani:48
Electricity is the most flexible and convenient form of energy. It can

be converted without any losses to useful heat, even to generate
temperatures higher than combustion of any fossil fuel; it can be
turned with high efficiency into mechanical energy; it is used to
create light; it can be easily adjusted with very high precision and is
clean and silent at the point of consumption.
Today electricity is used to generate any kind of artificial lighting,
to heat and cool buildings, to run our information communication
technology, to propel trains and buses, to supply factory machinery
with reliable and inexpensive energy, to create entirely new
industries, and to perform a variety of other useful achievements
View Online

Figure 1.26 A central heating system boiler typically burns natural gas (1000 1C) to
produce hot water at 60–70 1C.
(Photo courtesy of the University of Miami, reproduced from parse.
howdesign.com.)
that make our life cleaner, easier, more secure and enjoyable. In the
future, electricity is also expected to power millions of personal
vehicles. There are indeed good reasons to believe that we are going
towards an electricity-based economy.
Today, hydrogen-fueled fuel cells, originally developed in the 1960s

by the US space agency (NASA) for space programs to provide power
and water for space flights, are compact energy devices whose module
energy output ranges over 6 orders of magnitude from watts to a
few megawatts.49
Fuel cells are thus widely used for a variety of different applications
including stationary power sources, materials handling vehicles (fork-
lifts), and recharging small portable electronics (Figure 1.27).
Hydrogen fuel cells are highly efficient, with low noise, without
moving parts and, thus, with no major dynamic forces or moments.
They are being developed for portable electronics, for mobile on-board
delivery of electricity to the electrical on-board grids and the drive trains
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28 Chapter 1
Figure 1.27 Fuel cells are today a commercial reality.

(Image courtesy of Cleantech Investor.)
of automobiles, buses, trucks, locomotives, and most recently also for

airplanes. Apple, for example, the maker of the iPhone, is currently
considering powering its successful portable electronic devices with a
hydrogen fuel cell.50
Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, the fuel cell industry is growing
even in the face of the global economic recession that started in 2008,
with 2010 revenues exceeding US$750 million.51 Markets such as
uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), residential combined heat and
power (CHP), power for remote monitoring equipment, auxiliary power
units (APUs), and portable power for military applications are all
experiencing a rapid increase. In this context of progress and growth,
hydrogen is clearly emerging as an energy storage medium.
1.6 The Hydrogen Science & Technology Network

In 1974, a few scholars in the United States started the International
Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE).52 In 1981 they established
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the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, published monthly by

Elsevier since 1982. The journal is nowadays one of the primary lit-
erature sources for the exchange and dissemination of basic ideas in the
field of hydrogen energy, whereas the World Hydrogen Energy Con-
ference, organized by the IAHE every two years on a different continent,
attracts about 1500 attendees. The monthly Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter
(www.hfcletter.com), which covers the science, business and politics of
hydrogen and fuel cells, has been published continuously since 1986 and
is widely regarded as an important voice in the international hydrogen
community.
From Germany to Japan, from the USA to Korea and Australia,
there is a growing number of national and international organizations
devoted to hydrogen energy and its applications. In the USA, the Fuel
Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA)53 is a primary
advocacy organization dedicated to the commercialization of fuel cells
and hydrogen energy technologies. Its membership represents the full
spectrum of the supply chain from universities, government laboratories

and agencies, to trade associations, fuel cell manufacturers and hydro-
gen producers.
The US Government Department of Energy (DOE) operates a
‘‘Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program’’ whose website54 offers a portal to
information about the Department’s research and development in
hydrogen production, delivery, storage, and utilization, as well as
activities in technology validation, safety standards and education. In
the USA, so advanced is hydrogen technology that in September 2011
Air Products in California opened a fuelling station that draws hydro-
gen from the methane gas created while wastewater sits in holding tanks
(Figure 1.28).55
In Europe, the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (Table
1.6)56 is a public–private partnership whose three members are the
European Commission, fuel cell and hydrogen industries (represented
by the NEW Industry Grouping) and the research community (repre-
sented by the Research Grouping N.ERGHY). The organization sup-
ports research, technological development and demonstration activities
in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies, aiming to accelerate the
market introduction of these technologies through a concentrated effort
from all sectors.
On the same continent, the European Hydrogen Association (EHA)57
currently represents 20 national hydrogen and fuel cell organizations.
Since 2004, the European Commission has extensively funded the
HyFLEET:CUTE project to promote hydrogen-fueled buses in eight
European cities, but also in Beijing and Perth.58 The project has clearly
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30 Chapter 1
Figure 1.28 At this refuelling station in the USA, hydrogen is generated from a
municipal wastewater water treatment facility in Orange County Sani-

tation District.
(Photo courtesy of Air Products; reproduced from Ref. 55, with kind
permission.)
shown that today’s hydrogen technology allows buses to run efficiently

and cleanly on hydrogen, provided that the cost of the fuel cells (and
thus of the buses) is significantly reduced.59
Between 2004 and 2009, the project has successfully operated more
than 40 hydrogen-powered buses over four years in 10 cities on three
continents, with over 8.5 million people transported in regular public
transport operations; more than 2.5 million km has been travelled, and
in excess of 550 000 kg of H2 safely refueled. The project has shown that
the infrastructure to produce, supply and distribute hydrogen for
transport can be implemented efficiently and safely by generating H2
on-site using renewable energy (Figure 1.29).
In Japan, between 2002 and 2010, the Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry (METI) funded the ‘‘Japan Hydrogen & Fuel Cell
Demonstration Project’’,60 which aimed to advance both fuel cell
vehicles (FCVs) and the hydrogen energy infrastructure for full-scale
mass production and dissemination of hydrogen-powered cars
and vans. Japanese partners collected basic data on hydrogen genera-
tion, FCV performance, environmental features, energy efficiency and
safety.
In Russia, the world’s largest country and the world’s largest pro-
ducer of oil (production is around 10 120 000 barrels per day),61
renewable energy technologies are underdeveloped. Yet, Russia had an
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Table 1.6 A selection of industry and research institute partners in the

European FCH-JU. (Adapted from Ref. 56, with kind permission.)
Industrial companies Research institutions
United Kingdom United Kingdom

Adelan UK Energy Research Centre
AFC Energy
Alstom
Air Products
Johnson Matthey
Intelligent Energy
Rolls Royce Fuel cell system
Germany Germany
Adam Opel GmbH DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft – und
Daimler Raumfahrt
EWE AG FZJ – Forschungszentrum Jülich
Linde FZK – Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe
NuCellSys ZSW – Zentrum für Sonnenenergie – und
Umicore AG Wasserstoffforschung
Vattenfall
Volkswagen
France Greece
Air Liquide CPERI – Chemical Process Engineering
Saint Gobain Centre de Research Institute
Recherches et d’Etudes CRES – Centre for Renewable Energy Sources
Européen
SNECMA
Total France
Italy Spain
Ansaldo Fuel Cells CIDETEC – Centro de Tecnologı́as
Electro Power Systems Electroquı́micas
Enel Produzione CIEMAT – Centro de Investigaciones
Environment Park Energéticas
HySyTech S.r.l. CNH2 – The National Centre for Hydrogen
SOFCpower and Fuel Cell Technology
INTA – Instituto nacional de Técnica
Aeroespacials
University of Alicante
enormous advantage in the early 2000s in hydrogen technology.62

In the 1980s Russian scientists created the first hydrogen-driven plane,
a Tu-155 aircraft (Figure 1.30);63 the Russian space shuttle ‘‘Buran’’
and some Russian submarines also had liquid hydrogen as a power
source.
However, development then stopped because, while Japan, America,
and Europe invested billions of dollars, oil- and gas-rich Russia
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32 Chapter 1
Figure 1.29 Quality, safety and environmental impact of the HyFLEET:CUTE

project as of September 2009.

Figure 1.30 On 15 April 1988, in Russia, this Tupolev Tu-155 aircraft performed its
maiden flight using liquid hydrogen. Cryogenic fuel was kept in a fuel
tank of 17.5 m3 capacity installed in a special compartment in the rear
portion of the passenger cabin.
(Photo courtesy of Tupolev, reproduced from Ref. 63, with kind permission.)
allocated just a few million rubles. In the words of the president of

Russia’s National Association of Hydrogen Energy:
Once I went to Anatoly Chubais [NE: former head of the dis-

mantled Russian electricity monopoly and present head of
View Online
RUSNANO Corporation], my friend and colleague from

St-Petersburg, asking him for support for the hydrogen energy
project.
He told me that a kilowatt of installed hydrogen capacity cost
US$3,000, when actually it was US$5,000, and then said: ‘‘Come

again when the price is US$100’’. During the following 5 years, the
price of the hydrogen technologies got reduced to $3,000, while
during the same period, the price of 1 kW of installed electric
capacity rose to US$2,500 in Moscow and St-Petersburg, I would
never imagine it would raise so much on his side! 500US$ is a con-
siderable difference but not insurmountable with a bit more time. . .
Today, almost silently, hydrogen motorization is rapidly approach-

ing.64 The third annual assessment by H2stations.org65 found that 22
new hydrogen refueling stations opened worldwide in 2010, increasing
the total number to 212 (Figure 1.31). About 80 fueling stations are in
the USA, 27 in Germany, 6 in China, 4 in Italy and none in Russia.
Throughout Europe, 11 new hydrogen refueling stations began
operation in 2010, while 5 new stations opened in the USA and another
9 will be completed shortly. However, some refueling stations closed,
so the database shows the number of hydrogen refueling stations in
operation to be 80 each in Europe and the USA and 48 in Asia.
Another 127 refueling stations are in the planning stage around the
world.
Updated on an ongoing basis (and free for non-commercial users) the
H2stations.org online database includes detailed information about 418
refueling stations that are either already in existence or for which
planning is underway. For example, in Germany the automotive man-
ufacturer Daimler AG and the Linde technology group plan to open 20
new filling stations to enable every location in Germany to be reached by
a fuel-cell vehicle by the year 2015. In 2009, eight automakers (Ford
Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai
Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation, Renault/Nissan, and
Toyota) signed an agreement to bring FCVs to the market by 2015.
In general, the current major players in hydrogen fueling are the
industrial gas companies, and the energy and gas companies (Table 1.7).
Smaller ‘‘independent’’ hydrogen suppliers that are developing and
marketing smaller onsite hydrogen generator technologies could offer a
more modular path to hydrogen infrastructure buildout.
A market report66 recently forecasted that more than 5200 hydrogen
fueling stations for cars, buses and forklifts will be operational world-
wide by 2020, up from just 200 stations in 2010. The same report
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34 Chapter 1
Figure 1.31 Map of the existing hydrogen filling stations worldwide as of April
2011, according to H2stations.org.
(Images courtesy of TÜV SÜD and Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik,
reproduced from H2stations.org, with kind permission.)
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Table 1.7 Key industry players with hydrogen fueling stations for cars, buses
and forklifts. (Adapted from Ref. 66, with kind permission.)
Industrial gas companies Independent infrastructure developers
Air Liquide H2 Logic

Air Products Hydrogenics
Linde ITM Power

Praxair Nuvera
Proton Onsite and SunHydro
anticipates that the increased utilization of hydrogen as a fuel will drive

annual demand from approximately 775 tonnes in 2010 to 418 000
tonnes by 2020.
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accessed on 02/01/2012). Apple, based in Cupertino, California,
acknowledged in the application that ‘‘it is extremely challenging to
design hydrogen fuel cell systems which are sufficiently portable and
cost-effective to be used with portable electronic devices.’’

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CHAPTER 2
Water Electrolysis with Solar

Electricity
2.1 Water Electrolysis

Electrolytic production of hydrogen by water electrolysis is a well
known electrochemical process first described by William Nicholson and
Anthony Carlisle in 1800, a few weeks after Volta described his new
‘‘voltaic’’ pile.1 In detail, the splitting of one mole of water into gaseous
- Merced on 04 June 2012
H2 and O2 by the action of electricity (Equation 2.1, where F is the

Faraday constant measuring 1 mole of electricity, 96 485 C) produces a
mole of hydrogen gas and a half-mole of oxygen gas in their normal
diatomic forms:
H2 OðlÞ þ 2F ! H2 ðgÞ þ 12O2 ðgÞ ð2:1Þ
An electrolyzer uses electricity to split water into the component

elements. When sufficient (critical) voltage is applied across the elec-
trodes, current will flow and oxygen gas (O2) will form at the anode and
hydrogen gas (H2) at the cathode (Figure 2.1).
Figure 2.1 describes the process in terms of the Gibbs free energy as
well as the other thermodynamic potentials. Using the relevant values of
thermodynamic properties at 298 K and 1 atmosphere pressure (Table
2.1), the process must provide the energy for the dissociation plus the
energy to expand the gases produced, affording a change in enthalpy as
shown in Table 2.1.

40
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Water Electrolysis with Solar Electricity 41

Figure 2.1 A simplified diagram showing the basics of water electrolysis. The wires
protruding into the solution are the cathode and anode, where reactions of
hydrogen and oxygen evolution take place.

Table 2.1 Thermodynamic properties of selected substances for one mole

at 298 K and 1 atmosphere pressure. (Reproduced from D. V.
Schroeder, An Introduction to Thermal Physics, Addison Wesley,
2000, with kind permission.)
Thermodynamic
potential H2O H2 0.5 O2 Change
Enthalpy –285.83 kJ 0 0 DH ¼ 285.83 kJ

Entropy 69.91 J K1 130.68 J K1 0.5 205.14 J K1 TDS ¼ 48.7 kJ
At temperature 298 K and 1 atmosphere pressure, the system work is

(Equation 2.2):2

W ¼ PDV ¼ 101:3 103 Pa ð1:5 molesÞ 22:4 10 3 m3 =mol 1
ð2:2Þ
ð298 K=273 KÞ ¼ 3715 J
Given that the enthalpy H ¼ U þ PV, the change in internal energy U

is then (Equation 2.3):
DU ¼ DH PDV ¼ 285:83 kJ 3:72 kJ ¼ 282:1 kJ ð2:3Þ
This change in internal energy must be accompanied by the expansion

of the gases produced, so the change in enthalpy represents the necessary
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42 Chapter 2
energy to accomplish the electrolysis. However, because the entropy

increases during the process of dissociation, the amount TDS can be
provided from the environment at temperature T. The amount that must
therefore be supplied by the external electricity source to get the process
to proceed is actually the change in the Gibbs free energy (Equation 2.4):
DG ¼ DH TDS ¼ 285:83 kJ 48:7 kJ ¼ 237:1 kJ ð2:4Þ
Unlike other competing reactions for the production of H2, hydrogen

obtained from water electrolysis can be used to generate electricity by
the reverse of reaction 2.1, which is the process occurring in an H2–O2
fuel cell (Equation 2.5):
H2 ðgÞ þ 12O2 ðgÞ ! H2 OðlÞ þ 2F ð2:5Þ
Alkaline electrolysis cells, for example, operated in the reverse direc-

tion as fuel cells; they were developed and have been used for space
exploration since the 1960s.3
Like a battery, the hydrogen fuel cell uses a chemical reaction to
provide an external voltage, but differs from a battery in that the fuel is
continually supplied in the form of hydrogen and oxygen gas, affording
only water and heat as reaction products (Figure 2.2).
Now, the entropy of the gases decreases by 48.7 kJ in the process of
combination because the number of water molecules is less than the
number of hydrogen and oxygen molecules combining. Given that the
total entropy will not decrease in the reaction, the excess entropy in
the amount TDS must be expelled to the environment as heat at tem-
perature T. The amount of energy per mole of hydrogen which can be
provided as electrical energy is the change in the Gibbs free energy
(Equation 2.6):
DG ¼ DH TDS ¼ 285:83 kJ þ 48:7 kJ ¼ 237:1 kJ ð2:6Þ
The figures, in this ideal case, show that the fuel energy is converted to
electrical energy at an efficiency of 237.1/285.8 100% ¼ 83%, which is
far greater than the ideal, Carnot’s efficiency obtainable by burning the
hydrogen and using the heat to power an electricity generator. Overall,
in the electrolysis/fuel cell pair where the enthalpy change is 285.8 kJ, a
total of 237 kJ of energy is required to drive electrolysis while heat from
the environment contributes TDS ¼ 48.7 kJ to assist in the process. In
the opposite reaction, occurring in the fuel cell, a total of 237 kJ of
energy is obtained as electric energy, while TDS ¼ 48.7 kJ is released to
the environment.
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Figure 2.2 A simplified diagram showing the basics of the fuel cell. The porous
cathode and anode are typically made of conducting, catalytic materials
while an electrolyte ensures ion migration and overall neutrality.
Let us consider again the water dissociation reaction in Equation 2.1

from a thermodynamic viewpoint. The minimum potential difference
that can be applied between the electrodes of a water electrolyzer
without producing electrolysis is (Equation 2.7):4
DG
DE ¼ ð n ¼ 2Þ ð2:7Þ
nF
Wherein DE is the electrode potential under equilibrium conditions.
The required voltage, (the standard potential) for the overall reaction
(2.1) is equal to 1.23 volts at 25 1C at 1 atmosphere. In reality, more
voltage than the standard potential must be applied to get appreciable
water splitting and gas production.
In order to drive water electrolysis at a practical rate, a DV 4DE must
be applied, which implies that part of the electrical energy is used to
overcome the reaction resistances (Equation 2.8):
DG
DV ¼ þ dissipation ð2:8Þ
nF
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44 Chapter 2
In other words, the applied potential DV to drive the electrochemical

cell at I includes a thermodynamic and a kinetic (dissipation) con-
tribution determined by the factors that govern the reaction resistances.
Such dissipation can, to a first approximation, be ascribed to three main
factors (Equation 2.9):
X
DV ¼ DE þ Z þ IR þ DVt ð2:9Þ
where DE is the thermodynamic value, which depends on the nature of

the electrode reactions;PIR is the energy dissipation due to ohmic drops
in the electrolytic cell; Z is the sum of the overpotentials (the activa-
tion overpotential at the two electrodes, and the concentration over-
potential due to the mass transport of the gaseous products away from
the anode and cathode surfaces); DVt is the stability term, namely a
factor that expresses the phenomenon in which the potential difference
applied to an electrolyzer tends to increase with time as a consequence of
performance degradation.5
The balance energy scheme during the electrolysis of water shown
in Figure 2.3 demonstrates that all the energies involved in this equation
of balance, except for DA (DE þ DVt), will leave the reaction as heat:
TDS (Joule heating).
The overpotential Z should be kept low in order to maximize the
efficiency and to minimize the production of heat. On the other hand,
the lower the overpotential the more slowly the reaction will occur, so a
compromise is needed. In practice, the activation overpotential increases
by increasing the current density and can be lowered by using electrodes
that have a catalytic action, such as platinum or palladium. One of the
Figure 2.3 Schematic representation of the energies involved in the water electrolysis
reaction. To start the reaction, it is necessary to overcome the activation
energy Eact, the extra energy barrier.
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best ways to increase the current without increasing the overpotential is

to increase the contact areas between the electrodes and the liquid.6
The consumption of electrical energy in the electrolytic cell where
electrolysis is carried out for a time t at a current I with a potential
difference DV is (Equation 2.10):
Energy ¼ DVIt ð2:10Þ
Given that the overall target of any electrochemical process is to

minimize the electrical consumption, Equation 2.6 implies that the
process should be carried out at the maximum I with the minimum DV;
given that the current fixes the desired production rate and is more easily
controlled, in industrial processes it is the current that is fixed rather
than the potential.
2.2 Current Electrolytic Technologies

The kinetics of the O2 and H2 evolution reactions at the electrodes limit
how fast hydrogen can be generated and are dependent on the electro-
de’s chemical activity. Precious metals such as platinum and palladium
generally make good electrodes, but they are prohibitively expensive.
The reaction can be ‘‘overdriven’’ by applying a larger voltage than the
minimum required, but this reduces the efficiency. For water splitting,
the oxygen-evolving anode is the larger contributor to the problem,
requiring a larger overpotential.
In general, first, to enhance the water conductivity and thus the
overall rate of the process of water electrolysis, an electrolyte is dissolved
in water. Three water electrolyser (WE) technologies are available today
that are classified according to the electrolyte employed: alkaline
(AWE), polymer electrolyte membrane (PEMWE), and solid oxide
electrolyzers (SOWE).7 It is interesting to note that by 1902 more than
400 industrial water electrolysis units were in operation, while the first
large water electrolysis plant with a capacity of 10 000 Nm3 H2 h1 had
started to operate by 1939. In 1966, General Electric built the first solid
polymer electrolyte system (SPE), and in 1972 the first solid oxide water
electrolysis unit was developed. The first advanced alkaline systems
started in 1978. The story ends in recent times with the development of
proton exchange membranes, usable for water electrolysis units and fuel
cells, by DuPont and other manufacturers. This was a result of the
developments in the field of high temperature solid oxide technology and
the optimization and reconstruction of alkaline water electrolyzers.8
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46 Chapter 2
Conventional water electrolysis utilizes an alkaline aqueous electro-

lyte with a separation membrane, avoiding the remixing of H2 and O2;
SPE electrolyzers utilize a proton exchange membrane (PEM), whereas
solid oxide electrolyzer cells9 are steam electrolyzers operating at tem-
peratures between 500 and 850 1C.
In general, for conventional and PEM electrolysis, the respective cell

voltages considerably exceed the theoretical decomposition voltage of
water electrolysis of 1.23 V at 25 1C and 1 atmosphere.
The plots in Figure 2.4 show indeed that conventional (alkaline)
electrolyzers have high overpotential and a relatively small production
rate, whereas membrane and advanced alkaline electrolyzers display
very similar performance, with lower overpotential and much higher
production rates.
Alkaline and PEM electrolysis technologies were the first to be
marketed commercially, with the best current electrolyzers requiring
an energy input between 4.3 and 4.9 kWh (Nm)3 H2 (Nm3 stands for
‘‘normal’’ m3 under standard pressure and temperature conditions)
which corresponds, for the best electrolyzers, to an efficiency of
80–85%.
Alkaline water electrolysis eliminates the need for the expensive

precious metal catalysts required for acidic electrolysis and is the tech-
nology used in current practice for large-scale electrolytic hydrogen
production. Potassium hydroxide enhances the electrical conductivity of
water, so that ions can be transported through the electrolyte during
electrolysis (Figure 2.5).
conventional electrolyzers
2
cell voltage, ΔV/V
membrane electrolyzers
advanced alkaline electrolyzers
1 water vapour electrolyzers
0
0 5 10 15
current, j/kA m–2
Figure 2.4 Range of performance of different water electrolyzers: Cell voltage divided
by current density.
(Image courtesy of Prof. S. Trasatti.)
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Figure 2.5
Conductivity of the KOH electrolyte as a function of weight percent KOH

in water, on right.
In an alkaline electrolyzer, the anodic and cathodic reactions are:
Anode: 2OH ðaqÞ ! 12O2 ðgÞ þ H2 OðlÞ þ 2e E25 C ¼ 1:299 V ð2:11Þ
Cathode: 2H2 OðlÞ þ 2e ! H2 ðgÞ þ 2OH ðaqÞ E25 C ¼ 0:00 V ð2:12Þ
Hence, the net reaction is:
H2 OðlÞ ! H2 ðgÞ þ 12O2 ðgÞ E25 C ¼ 1:299 V ð2:13Þ
The anodic reaction for O2 evolution of water electrolyzers is parti-

cularly demanding because its mechanism involves three or more steps,
and the intermediates are species of high energy, involving high acti-
vation energies.10
In alkaline solution, the discharging particles that produce H2 evo-
lution at the cathode are H2O molecules, and because hydrogen evolu-
tion produces hydroxyl ions, a strongly alkaline medium always
develops close to the cathode surface.
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48 Chapter 2
Table 2.2 Experimental parameters in alkaline

electrolysis. (Reproduced from Ref. 3,
with kind permission.)
H2 OðlÞ ! H2 ðgÞ þ 12O2 ðgÞ
Electrolyte: 25–30% KOH
DV ¼ 1.65–2.00 V, j ¼ 1–10 kA m2

Energy consumption: 4–4.9 kWh m3 H2
Current yield: 98–99.9%
H2 purity: 499.8%
Typically, a commercial alkaline electrolyzer employs porous Raney

nickel electrodes which are formed by electrodeposition of a Ni–Al or
Ni–Zn alloy onto a metallic (often mesh) substrate, followed by leaching
of the Al or Zn by a strong hydroxide solution, leaving behind a porous
Ni structure.11 The electrolyte is typically a 30 wt% KOH solution and the
operating temperature is 70–100 1C consuming 4–4.9 kWh m3 of H2,
with current yield and hydrogen purity both close to 100% (Table 2.2).12
The potassium hydroxide electrolyte solution is very corrosive to the
skin and can cause blindness if it comes in contact with the eyes, in
addition to other serious symptoms. For example, members of the

HARI13 project team in the UK who were exposed to KOH fumes for
long periods experienced throat irritation and, although they were not
listed as symptoms on safety sheets for this chemical, intense headaches
and tiredness. The use of specific alkali-resistant breathing masks was,
therefore, necessary (Figure 2.6).
The durability of alkaline electrolyzers is sufficiently high, giving a
typical operating life of 10–20 years.14 The lack of a membrane, how-
ever, means that hydrogen cannot be produced at high pressure and the
highly concentrated KOH electrolyte is sensitive to contamination.
Originally developed as part of the ‘‘Gemini’’ space program by
Brown, Boveri Ltd (today’s ABB) over the years from 1976 to 1989,15
the proton exchange membrane electrolyzer technology utilizes a cation
exchange electrolyte membrane (normally Nafion from DuPont)
between the cathode and anode compartments.
Under these conditions, hydrogen pressurized up to 75 bar can be
produced easily, with higher efficiency than alkaline electrolysis. The plots
in Figure 2.7, for example, show that at 200 mA cm2, an experimental
PEM electrolyzer has a voltage efficiency of 95%, compared with 87%
per cell for a commercial alkaline (Teledyne) electrolyzer, while at a
higher current density of 350 mA cm2, the difference in relative efficiency
is even greater (92% for the PEM and 81% for the Altus 20).16
However, the highly corrosive environment of PEM electrolyzers
necessitates the use of precious metal catalysts such as Pt and Ir for the
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Figure 2.6 Safety equipment being used by members of the HARI renewable
hydrogen project team while handling potassium hydroxide electrolyte at
West Beacon, UK.

Figure 2.7 Comparative cell voltage–current density graph of a PEM and commercial
alkaline electrolyzer at a hydrogen output pressure of 100 psig. This
translates into more hydrogen generated per unit cell area, and thus to
more compact and economical electrolyzer design.
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50 Chapter 2
cathode, which of course makes PEM electrolyzers considerably more

expensive than AWE technology.
2.3 Photovoltaic-Assisted Water Electrolysis

At first sight, given that the cost of water is negligible, the economics of
the process of hydrogen generation by water electrolysis is driven by the
cost of electricity and by the cost of the electrolyzer. However, because
the cost of photovoltaic (PV) electricity consumed has been more
valuable for decades than the hydrogen produced, this method has not
been used. Hydrogen generated by water electrolysis, however, is an
ideal way to store intermittent solar electricity generated during the day.
The advantages of hydrogen as a storage medium are self-evident:
i) high specific energy; ii) low or zero self-discharge rate (H2 can be
stored for years, unlike other energy storage media); iii) it is clean,
because no pollution is produced.
Solar hydrogen can therefore be used to fuel the power needs of
homes, vehicles or boats, thus enabling decentralized energy generation.
For example, 11.4 kg (3 gallons) of water, once split into O2 and H2,
contains enough energy, when recombined, to satisfy the daily energy
needs of a large home in the USA or in the EU.
The idea of using PV energy to crack water molecules into hydrogen
and oxygen and then use both gases in a fuel cell to make electricity
when the sun is not shining is generally manifested in the form of a
closed-loop and an entirely clean energy system, affording water which is
captured and used again (Figure 2.8).
Hydrogen production by electrolysis of water using the electricity
produced by PV modules started at the beginning of the 1970s. Solar PV
technology does not emit any polluting substance during operation, is
noise-free and not does involve any moving parts. Furthermore, PV
modules are supplied with a striking 25-year power output warranty
(reflecting the fact that, at the 25th year, each solar module will still
produce a minimum of 80% of their original power output).
In brief, the PV modules are directly connected to the electrolyzer to
generate hydrogen and oxygen (Figure 2.9).
Water electrolysis supplied from photovoltaics is limited to low
temperature electrolyzers (AWE and PEM technologies). Although
AWE is a mature and robust technology, its corrosive liquid electrolyte
and less compact designs mean that PEM technology is a more pro-
mising WE electrolysis format for direct coupling with renewable elec-
trical sources.17
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Figure 2.8 During the day, PV modules power the home. At the same time, excess
energy is used to split water into H2 and O2 for storage and subsequent
usage in fuel cells.
(Adapted from MIT, with kind permission.)
Figure 2.9 Schematic of a PV hydrogen (and oxygen) production system.

The purity of the O2 and H2 gases produced by an alkaline electro-

lyzer is affected by the current density and temperature of the cells.18 In
detail, the purities of the hydrogen and oxygen gases are poorer at low
current densities (such as when a cloud covers the sun): diffusion of the
gases through the liquid electrolyte is a more significant fraction of the
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52 Chapter 2
total production at low current densities. The lower flammable limit, 4%

for hydrogen impurity in bulk oxygen, is approached at low current
densities, and given that there is a greater danger of having hydrogen
impurity in the oxygen than the reverse, most advanced electrolyzers
used in PV-assisted electrolysis make use of a hydrogen gas purifier (a
catalytic converter that recombines any oxygen impurity in the hydro-

gen product, and makes water).
Furthermore, the use of intermittent PV electricity results in two
shortcomings: i) its activity decreases with time, and ii) shutdown of
electrolytic cells provokes Ni dissolution at the cathode because this
electrode is driven to more positive potentials by short-circuit with the
anode. These shortcomings can be alleviated if the Ni cathodes are
activated, i.e., if they are coated with a thin layer of more active and
more stable materials (Figure 2.10).
When the said protective materials are not present, even in recent
direct coupling experiments using an advanced PEM electrolysis system,
stack degradation is clearly observed (Figure 2.11), affording for
approximately 60 days over a four-month period an overall solar-to-
hydrogen energy conversion efficiency of around 4.7%.19
The connection between the solar generator and the electrolyzer can
either be direct, by feeding the electrolyzer with direct current (DC)
generated by the modules,20 or, more efficiently, can be mediated by an
electronic, instantaneous match between the maximum power point
(MPP) of the solar generator and that of the electrolyzer.
Continuous intermittent
0.7
Ni
0.6 NiOx
overpotential
Co3O4
0.5
Co
0.4
NiOx + Fe
0.3
0 2 4 6
electrolysis time, days
Figure 2.10 Variation of overpotential (inversely proportional to activity) for O2

evolution as a function of time for continuous and intermittent electro-
lysis. Under the latter conditions, Ni-based cathodes need to be protected
by a thin layer of more active and more stable materials.
(Image courtesy of Prof. S. Trasatti.)
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Figure 2.11 Voltage–current data and electrolyzer efficiency collected in real time over
a period of five days’ operation for a 13-cell PEM electrolyzer stack in the
very early stages of the direct coupling experiment with a 2.4 kW PV array.
In other words, to maximize hydrogen generation in a PV-electrolysis

system the operating point of the total system must equal the MPP of
the solar generator. This is usually realized by an MPP tracker that
guarantees the operation of the solar generator at its maximum power
point. In addition, a DC/DC converter shifts the power to the char-
acteristic of the load, adapting the output of the solar generator to the
input of the electrolyzer (P3 in Figure 2.12, where the labeled PV system
and electrolyzer curves represent the I, V characteristics of the PV and
electrolyzer systems, respectively).
Figure 2.13 shows the hydrogen flow rate measured for a sample day
in July in the case of coupling with the MPPT and, for comparison, the
hydrogen flow rate in the case of direct coupling and coupling with the
MPPT in relation to the variation of solar radiation intensity. Clearly,
the MPPT optimizes the system performance, increasing the system
current for the same radiation intensity, which leads to greater hydrogen
production.
However, Paul and Andrews have recently demonstrated the possi-
bility of achieving near maximum power transfer between a directly
coupled PV array and a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer
stack by finding an optimal configuration of the series–parallel con-
nection of both the PV modules and the PEM cells.21 This entirely
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54 Chapter 2
Figure 2.12 Characteristics of PV and electrolyzer systems. The line labeled ‘‘locus of
MPPT’’ shows the maximum power for a given radiation intensity.
avoids the costs of an electronic coupling system (around $ 500 per kW,
as of the end of 2011).

Table 2.3 shows that the application of this procedure to four (75 W) PV
modules directly coupled to five 50 W PEM electrolyzer stacks (250 W in
total) predicts an energy transfer of over 94% of the theoretical maximum,
while experiments indicate an actual energy transfer of around 95%.
The approach has been generalized recently to afford a new method
for relative sizing of both components, based on simple modeling of
both polarization (for the electrolyzer and the PV array) curves.22
Modeling and simulation is used to extract a cloud of maximum power
points under all the radiation and temperature conditions for a nor-
malized PV generator. Subsequently, the ideal ratio between the sizes of
the components is obtained by fitting a normalized polarization curve
for the electrolyzer to this cloud of maximum power points. Direct
coupling of an advanced electrolyzer to a matched solar PV source for
hydrogen generation and storage, involving minimum interfacing elec-
tronics, does lead to substantial cost reduction and enhances the eco-
nomic viability of solar-hydrogen systems.
In general, the overall efficiency of the system (Zs) is given by Equation
2.14:23
QE
Z¼ ð2:14Þ
HAm
Where Q is the hydrogen flow rate (mL s1), E is the calorific value for
hydrogen (as a net or gross calorific value, 10.8 J mL1, and 12.7 J mL1
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Figure 2.13 Hydrogen flow rate measured for the system with MPPT (top). Hydro-
gen flow rate versus solar radiation measured for the direct coupling
system and for MPPT (lower figure).
at 0 1C and 1 atm), H is the solar radiation intensity (W m2) and Am is

the photovoltaic module area (m2). In other words, the efficiency is
defined as the ratio of the higher heating value of hydrogen produced in
one year to the yearly total solar energy on the PV modules.
Published on 24 May 2012 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:1
56
Table 2.3 Comparison of experimental and theoretical energy transfer. (Reproduced from Ref. 21, with kind permission.)
Discrepancy
between theoretical
Total direct Theoretical total Experimental total and experimental
coupling Maximum total energy delivered to energy delivered to Experimental energy transfer (%
time PV energy the electrolyzer the electrolyzer Theoretical overall overall energy loss total energy
(h:min:s) available (Wh) (Wh) (Wh) energy loss DE% DE% delivered)
2:48:20 395.30 372.29 377.11 5.82 4.60 1.28
Chapter 2
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Figure 2.14 Overall system efficiency versus solar radiation measured for the direct
coupling system and for MPPT.
The overall typical system efficiencies in the case of direct coupling

and with the MPPT are shown in Figure 2.14. Although the electrolyzer
efficiency decreases slightly with the MPPT, due to the higher electrolyte
temperature and higher ohmic losses, the overall system efficiency
increases in comparison with the direct coupling case. The system
operates around the maximum power point of the PV module, and the
maximum power point tracker increases the system current and
accordingly increases the hydrogen flow rate.
In general, with the efficiency of modern photoconverters and elec-
trolyzers being about 20% and 80%, respectively, the total efficiency of
solar radiant energy transformed to chemical hydrogen energy is nearly
16%.24 Actually, the overall efficiency is of the order of 10%.25 Indeed,
Gibson and Kelly demonstrated a total PV-H2 system efficiency of
12.4% by optimizing the choice of the PV module directly coupled to a
PEM electrolyzer working at around 31.7 V and 4.7 A at nominal
conditions.26
Now, some argue that PV electricity, with its typical 200 W solar
modules measuring 1.2 m2, would require immense consumption of land
to cover even a fraction of the power demand of economically advanced
countries.
This is simply not the case. On average, for example, covering 0.6% of
the European territory by obsolete, 10% efficient PV modules would
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58 Chapter 2
Figure 2.15 Theoretical PV potential: surface of PV modules (10% conversion effi-

ciency) mounted at the optimum angle that would be needed to completely
satisfy the electricity consumption of some selected European countries,
expressed as % of the country’s area. The European average is 0.6%.
theoretically satisfy its entire electricity demand (Figure 2.15).28 This

2007 estimate was largely conservative because the latest PV module
technologies have about 18% conversion efficiency, greater than that
considered in the cited analysis (10%), so the area covered per kWp is
roughly half and will certainly continue to decrease in the future. Fur-
thermore, the PV area does not translate directly into land area covered
because a large share of PV panels (currently about 90%) are and will
normally be placed on rooftops, which would exist regardless of whether
solar panels are installed.
2.4 Economics of Water Electrolysis

A detailed cost analysis, performed in 2004,29 of the domestic produc-
tion of hydrogen using a photovoltaic-electrolyzer system showed that,
for a 1 kWp photovoltaic system with fixed modules, depending on the
View Online
annual solar radiation on a horizontal surface HT, the cost of hydrogen

varies from 3.5 to 38 $ kg1 with a corresponding energy cost from 26 to
268 $ GJ1. Specifically, the hydrogen energy costs CHM (in $ kg1 H2)
and CHE (in $ GJ1 H2) are correlated empirically with the price of the
PV plant and of the electrolyzer, expressed in $ per Wp, (PPV and PEL,
respectively) according to the following equations:
CHM ¼ 12:34½ðPPV þ PEL Þ=HT 0:85

ð2:15Þ
0:25 o ðPPV þ PEL Þ=HT o 4
CHE ¼ 87:79½ðPPV þ PEL Þ=HT 0:85

ð2:16Þ
0:25 o ðPPV þ PEL Þ=HT o 4
In 2004, the price of energy for gasoline engine powered vehicles was
about (0.5 $ L1)/(0.73 kg L1 0.046 GJ kg1)E15 $ GJ1. Hence, even
considering that a fuel cell powered vehicle is more efficient than a
gasoline engine powered vehicle, Bilgen concluded that, for solar
hydrogen:
The lower end price of about 25 $/GJ may just be competitive in

heavily subsidized situations. Otherwise it is clear that as expected,
with the present photovoltaic and electrolyzer price structure,
domestic produced hydrogen will not be competitive with the fossil
fuel derived gasoline or similar fuels.
Seven years later, however, the price of gasoline in Northern

America in 2010 was 0.76 $ L1,30 i.e. 22.63 $ GJ1, whereas the pho-
tovoltaic-electrolyzer system price is about 10 times lower than in
2004.
Using the Hydrogen Analysis (H2A)31 tool, a standard methodology
developed by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to estimate hydro-
gen production costs, in 2006, scientists at the US National Renewable
Energy Laboratory reached the conclusion that in order to meet the
DOE’s cost target for hydrogen at 2.00–3.00 $ kg1, electrolyzers with
2006 efficiencies would need to have access to electricity prices lower
than 0.045–0.055 $ kWh1 (Figure 2.16).32
According to the state of the art technology of 2006 electrolyzers,
ideal systems would need to have access to electricity prices lower than
$0.075 kWh1, representing the highest possible electricity price in 2006
that low-temperature electrolyzers would be able to use to produce
hydrogen at $3.00 kg1.
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60 Chapter 2
Figure 2.16 Cost of hydrogen versus electricity without equipment costs.

2.5 Reducing the Cost of Electrolytic Hydrogen

In a thoughtful and somehow prophetic analysis33 of photovoltaic-

assisted water electrolysis dating back to 1982, Carpetis concluded that:
There are three interconnected subsystems (solar array, electrolysis

unit and hydrogen storage unit) which should be optimized for
minimum hydrogen costs, according to the local conditions and to
the hydrogen utilization schedule. . .
The cost optimization and the break-even conditions will depend
not only on the solar array and electrolyzer performance
improvement, but also on the location of the production and the
hydrogen utilization schedule.
Observing that, at that time, the electrolysis unit costs contributed ‘‘a
relatively low part’’ of the total costs, he continued that, in the near
future, the cost reduction for hydrogen produced by solar electrolysis
had to be expected as a consequence of the PV array cost reduction
(Figure 2.17).
However, in the long term, further cost reduction could be expected
owing to the use of more efficient solar cells and electrolytic units. With
lower production costs, low cost storage methods for solar hydrogen will
become more important.
The forecast of Carpetis turned out to be correct. Following a true
collapse in the cost of solar electricity, a rapid and concomitant decrease
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Figure 2.17 Consecutive steps in the cost reduction trend of hydrogen produced by
solar water electrolysis.
(Created according to Ref. 28.)
Figure 2.18 How hydrogen cost varies with electricity price. The linear relation-
ship between electricity price in $ kWh1 and hydrogen cost in $ kg1.
in cost and technology improvement are currently affecting the elec-

trolyzer. Significant improvements have been made, making it possible
to reach improved cell efficiencies and higher current densities at far
lower cost compared with previous technologies.
The graph in Figure 2.18 displays three scenarios of how the calcu-
lated price of hydrogen varies according to electricity price,34 as well as
with the cost of electricity (including capital, operating and maintenance
costs) for electricity prices up to $0.15 kWh1. The solid line displays
how the cost of hydrogen changes with electricity prices using
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62 Chapter 2
technology and prices available in 2004. The longer-dashed line shows

the effect a 15% reduction in capital costs would have on hydrogen cost
(as a consequence of mass production, or a simplification of the aux-
iliaries); whereas the shorter-dashed line shows the effect of a 15%
capital cost reduction plus a 10% increased system efficiency (from
improvements in electrolysis). Decreasing the capital costs changes the

intercept of the line, while increasing the efficiency changes the slope of
the line.
The same plots, in Figure 2.18, clearly show that to be competitive
with gasoline prices, electrolyzers need not only to obtain inexpensive
electricity, but also to reduce capital costs and improve the efficiency of
the systems. Indeed, to produce $2.00 kg1 hydrogen, electricity prices
will need to be available for 0.007, 0.011 and 0.012 $ kWh1 with,
respectively, 2004 technologies, a 15% capital cost reduction, and a 15%
capital cost reduction plus a 10% improvement in efficiency.
2.6 Emerging Electrolytic Technologies

For electrolytic hydrogen production, the increase in production effi-

ciency reduces the amount (and thus the cost) of electricity consumed,
whereas an increase in production rate reduces the size and cost of the
electrolyzer stack. Nanochemistry research efforts carried out on a
global scale, aimed at manufacturing low-cost electrodes made of metal
nanoparticles, featuring an enhanced surface area available for the
catalytic reaction that generates hydrogen, thus increasing efficiency and
production rates, have lately been successful, at least on the laboratory
scale.
In the USA, for example, a number of small hi-tech companies have
developed new Ni-based catalysts. QuantumSphere manufactures a
Nano NiFe coating of nickel and iron nanoparticles capable of
increasing the efficiency of an alkaline electrolyzer using coated cathodes
by more than 10%.35 The company’s experimental electrolyzer stack
produces 2.8 Nm3 of hydrogen per day at 68% efficiency in normal
operation, close to the 2012 target of 69% efficiency for advanced
electrolyzers set by the Department of Energy.
Another small company, GridShift, Inc., uses a coating technique that
coats all surfaces of a three-dimensional shape (like reticulate nickel
foam) with a nano catalyst exposed to the electrolyte’s boundary layer,
to generate hydrogen in an electrolyzer running at 80% energy efficiency
with a current density of 1000 mA cm2 overall, delivering compressed
hydrogen at around $2.51 kg1 H2.36
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Figure 2.19 The cobalt oxygen-evolving catalyst deposited on the ITO-passivated p-

side of an np-silicon junction enables the majority of the voltage gener-
ated by the solar cell to be utilized for driving the water-splitting. In the
laboratory, the system worked continuously for three days.
Similarly, Sun Catalytix37 is currently trying to commercialize a nickel

borate catalyst38 for the oxygen evolution reaction. The cobalt oxygen-
evolving catalyst39 (Figure 2.19) originally reported gave a current
density of 1 mA cm2 with an overpotential of 410 mV, which is worse
than the typical performance (e.g. 1 mA cm2 at o200 mV over-
potential) for nickel anodes.40
These and other companies are seeking financial support to scale up their
processes. In any case, the trend towards reducing the cost by enhancing
the efficiency of electrolysis is clear, and a number of new companies are
emerging that have commercialized ever more efficient electrolyzers.
New technology recently developed in Italy combines the advantages
of the cheap, nickel-based electrode materials used in alkaline electrolysis
with the production of hydrogen at the high pressures typical of solid
polymer membrane PEM electrolyzer technology (Figure 2.20). With no
liquid electrolyte on the H2 side, hydrogen is produced at higher purity.
The resulting home generator produces hydrogen safely on demand
from water, directly compressed, dry and pure (Table 2.4), providing the
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64 Chapter 2
Figure 2.20 Scheme of alkaline (left), PEM (middle) and innovative PEM (right)
electrolysis.
(Reproduced from Actaenergy.it, with kind permission.)
Table 2.4 Requirements of the H2 produced by Acta’s

EL100 electrolyzer. (Reproduced from
Actaenerrgy.it, with kind permission.)
Production 100 L h1
Pressure, bar 15 (30)
Purity 99.95%
Power consumption 550 W
Water consumption 0.085 L h1
Width 25 cm
Height 46 cm
Depth 50 cm
ideal refill for fuel cell applications on the market that require com-
pressed hydrogen for reasons of energy density.
At the end of 2011, the company shipped its first hydrogen generator
stack that can produce 500 L of hydrogen per hour to an Italian engi-
neering firm that specializes in industrial heating systems.42
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Figure 2.21 ITM Power’s stack, featuring proprietary membrane materials, for the
HFuel generator.
(Reproduced from hfcletter.com, with kind permission.)
Similarly, in the UK, the company ITM Power has developed an

innovative alkaline solid polymer membrane platform for its electrolyzer

(Figure 2.21), which achieved 57% cost savings compared with their
PEM-based stack, due to the removal of Pt catalysts and the simplifi-
cation of the system.43
The company commercializes an on-site HFuel generator for refueling
hydrogen-powered vehicles that produces hydrogen by electrolysis,
compresses it, stores it and dispenses the gas on demand at high pressure
(350 bar). The new ITM electrolyzer membrane platform transports
OH rather than H1 ions, enabling smaller stack sizes as a result of the
higher ionic conductivity that makes high current densities achievable,
while the high water permeability allows considerable simplification of
the water management system.
Also in the UK, RE Hydrogen has developed a low cost, ambient
pressure alkaline electrolyzer (Figure 2.22) based on a 5 kW stack
module, using plastic materials and a proprietary regenerative carbon
aerogels-based catalyst, whose retail price is estimated to be 70% lower
than the current market price for conventional alkaline electrolyzers.44
In detail, the low cost cathode consists of resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF)
carbon aerogels of high surface area (4700 m2 g1) and nano-pore sizes
(4 nm) thermally deposited on molybdenum metal.45
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the Mo–RF
electrode (Figure 2.23), where the hydrogen evolution reaction takes
place at 298 K, indicate formation of a highly porous carbon
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66 Chapter 2
Figure 2.22 The new electrolyzer developed by RE Hydrogen in the UK.

(Reproduced from rehydrogen.com, with kind permission.)
Figure 2.23 SEM image of coated Mo–RF electrode indicating effectiveness of

synthesis method.
nanostructure whose effectiveness in alkaline water electrolysis is clearly

shown by the data in Table 2.5, wherein the charge-transfer resistance of
the Mo–RF electrode is reduced by about 70% when compared with
pure molybdenum metal.
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Table 2.5 Solution resistance, Rs, charge-transfer resistance, Rct, and double-
layer capacity, Cdl, derived from analysis of impedance spectra
recorded at E ¼ 1.5 V in 30% by vol. KOH solution at 298 K.
Electrode Voltage (V vs. SHE) Rs (O cm–2) Rct (O cm–2) Rdl (O cm–2)
Mo 1.5 0.36 59.96 0.51

Mo-RF 1.5 4.57 17.98 0.37
Table 2.6 Cost of hydrogen using RE Hydrogen electrolyzer subject to dif-

ferent electricity costs.
Electricity price RE Hydrogen cost of H2
1
Green grid electricity at d0.12 kWh d7.7 kg1 green hydrogen
Oxygen produced free
Commercial grid electricity at d0.077 kWh1 d5.5 kg1 hydrogen
Direct solar PV electricity at d0.04 kWh1 d3.6 kg1 hydrogen
High gas purity
Molybdenum is about 3 to 6 times more expensive than nickel but far

less expensive than platinum, offering a clear economic benefit in

reduced capital cost investment compared with other electrodes (such as
Pt–C) previously used in electrolyzers.
Unlike conventional electrolyzers, the RE Hydrogen electrode can
now operate under variable and intermittent mode for unlimited on–off
switching cycles, owing to its in-situ regenerative capability of the elec-
trode-catalyst, which bestows a long life. As a result, the company
claims that its electrolyzer can produce ‘‘green’’ hydrogen at a price in
the range of d3–7.7 kg–1 (subject to the electricity cost), far lower than
the current cost of commercial hydrogen, stored in cylinders, which is
sold at d12–110 kg–1 (Table 2.6).
Thanks to the innovations mentioned above, the company claims to
have reduced the capital cost by a remarkable 90%. Under these con-
ditions, then, the cost of hydrogen is mainly influenced by the price of
electricity.
The electricity contributes 60% of the cost of hydrogen for RE
Hydrogen’s system, while for conventional pressurized electrolyzers
only 22% of the cost of hydrogen can be ascribed to the cost of the
electricity (Figure 2.24). Therefore cheaper or free electricity will bring a
greater reduction in hydrogen price via these innovative electrolyzers.
The company’s current offering includes 5 kW, 25 kW and 100 kW
systems, while larger electrolyzers can be made available on request by
adding modular 5 kW electrolyzer stacks.
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68 Chapter 2
Figure 2.24 Hydrogen cost breakdown for RE Hydrogen (left) and conventional
electrolyzer technologies.
(Reproduced from Rehydrogen.com, with kind permission.)
There are very few manufacturers of hydrogen compressors in the

world, and the cost is often almost higher than that of an electrolyzer.
Hence, to increase the marketability of its atmospheric electrolyzers, RE
Hydrogen is currently working to develop a low cost hydrogen com-
pressor that will also be used as a hydrogen dispenser for refueling

vehicles with H2 compressed at 350 and 700 bar. Thus far, the company
has built a working prototype (Figure 2.25) suitable for a 30 kW elec-
trolyzer for 6 Nm3 h1 gas flow rate, which is claimed to cost up to 70%
less and to be 50% more efficient than a conventional compressor.46
Aiming to establish the UK’s first complete solar hydrogen energy
supply chain, RE Hydrogen partnered with fuel-cell manufacturer
Arcola Energy and with Linde’s BOC in a collaborative project known
as rabh2.47 Using RE Hydrogen’s 5 kW electrolyzer to reduce the capital
cost of the stack by 90%, while retaining its capability for unlimited on–
off switching cycles (vital for intermittent and variable operation of
renewable energy power), the team will be able to afford to power the
electrolyzer with solar and wind electricity. The high purity hydrogen
thereby obtained will be used to power a wide range of fuel cells built by
Arcola Energy at their factory in East London.
2.7 A Flexible Technology with Large Applicative

Potential
Demonstration units such as the Schatz Solar Hydrogen Project stand-
alone energy system, which has powered since 1991 the 600 W air
compressor that aerates the aquaria at Humboldt State University’s
Telonicher Marine Laboratory in Trinidad, California, clearly show that
View Online

Figure 2.25 The low cost hydrogen compressor developed by RE Hydrogen in the UK.
(Reproduced from Rehydrogen.com, with kind permission.)
hydrogen can be used efficiently to store solar energy and that the
electrolyzer is flexible enough to respond to the fluctuating solar energy
yield with respect to both time and capacity.48
The system – the first solar hydrogen energy plant in the USA –
consists of a 7.5 kW PV array, a 6 kW alkaline electrolyzer, a 1 kW 120 V
AC inverter, and a 1 kW PEM hydrogen fuel cell. During the day, the
system uses energy from the sun to power the compressor directly and to
produce hydrogen that powers the compressor at night, when the sun is
not available (Figure 2.26).
The electrolyzer incorporated into the system was a medium pressure
alkaline electrolyzer able to deliver 20 standard liters per minute of
hydrogen gas at a current of 240 A at 240 V. The hydrogen gas produced
(at a pressure of 7.9 bar) was stored in three conventional tanks with a
total capacity of 5.7 m3 and provided approximately 133 kWh, which
operated the load (600 W) for 110 hours, assuming a fuel cell efficiency
of 50%. Over eight years of operation each system component had the
following efficiencies:8
Faraday 96.4%
Electrolyzer 79.2%
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70 Chapter 2
Figure 2.26 Since 1991, a compressor at the Telonicher Marine Laboratory in Tri-
nidad, California has used energy electrolytic solar hydrogen to power
the compressor when the sun is not available.

Voltage 84.0%
Fuel cell 43.1%
Overall electrical storage 34.0%
Further, and much larger, demonstration units such as the German–

Saudi HYsolar installation, an experimental solar-powered water elec-
trolysis plant operated near Riyadh in the 1990s in a cooperative
relationship between Saudi Arabia and Germany, confirmed that the
electrolyzer coupled to a PV array is a suitable technology to produce
large amounts of clean hydrogen from water and sunlight only.49
In the 1990s, however, the retail price of PV modules exceeded
8–10 $ W1 and each module was losing 41% of the originally rated
power. Indeed, after 15 years of operation, in 2006 the Schatz Lab solar
hydrogen project was still running, but the PV array that once produced
7.5 kWp was degraded by 16%.50
Today modules with linear loss in output power are easily available
(Figure 2.27), and the cost of PV electricity has dropped to less than
0.7 $ W1.51 This means that solar electricity has already achieved grid
parity with conventional electricity in many regions of the world,
including southern Italy, Greece and Spain. It is perhaps not surprising,
View Online

Figure 2.27 According to this manufacturer’s guarantee, the actual power of a new
module cannot deviate from the specified rated power by more than 3%
during the first year; and afterward, the power will not decrease by more
than 0.7% of the rated power per year. So, at year 20, the module’s
capacity is guaranteed still to be at least 83% of the nameplate.
(Reproduced from Solarworld.de, with kind permission.)
Figure 2.28 Low cost generation of hydrogen and oxygen from wind and solar
electricity opens the route to multibillion world markets.
(Adapted from a figure by Dr A. Roy, with kind permission.)
then, that numerous new commercial solutions to generate hydrogen

from PV electricity are eventually reaching the market.
In other words, with low cost electrolyzers and compressors and given
the now low cost of PV electricity, described in detail above, small-scale
hydrogen production (Figure 2.28) becomes a convenient way to capture
and store energy from renewable sources and provide fuel for hydrogen-
powered vehicles in place of large-scale infrastructure, as well as for
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72 Chapter 2
Table 2.7 Market segments for efficient water electrolyzers and hydrogen
compression technology. (Adapted from Ref. 1, with permission.)
Market segment 1: onsite Market segment 2: Gas
hydrogen and oxygen compression and vehicle Market segment 3: smart
production refueling grid and energy storage
Currently the majority of Novel compressors can be A significant amount of

the hydrogen market is used in all of the markets surplus electricity exists
served by gas supply related to electrolyzers on the grid at times,
companies. New and fuel cells. There due to the mismatch
electrolyzers can be used are 45000 petrol stations between demand and
to produce hydrogen and and 5500 electrical sub- supply and due to the
refill hydrogen cylinders, stations in every major grid constraints. The
and create an end-to-end EU country, each of surplus of wind and PV
supply chain network for which could potentially that cannot be
hydrogen production, install hydrogen dispatched from solar
distribution and compressors for energy and wind farms due to
utilization. In the UK storage applications. The the grid’s inability to
alone the estimated size fast expanding fuel cell absorb power at a
of this market segment is market will need a green given time can be
d500 million per year. A hydrogen supply and made available to
relatively large and compressed gas storage. electrolyzers for
separate market also storage, and later on
exists for oxygen. used to supply 24/7
electricity.
industrial usage, opening the route to multibillion world markets. New,

efficient water electrolyzers and hydrogen compression technology are
suitable for several market segments, from energy storage, grid balan-
cing, solar fuel-based power generation, and transport applications
(Table 2.7).
There is little doubt that hydrogen produced by solar and wind farms
will help to balance the wholesale electricity price, providing also a
crucial service for grid stability.
For example, in Canada, a manufacturer of hydrogen generation and
fuel cell products, Hydrogenics, recently completed a successful trial
with an Ontario electricity utility, demonstrating the viability of elec-
trolyzer technology for utility-scale grid stabilization (Figure 2.29).52
During the trial period, the load from the company’s electrolyzer
provided frequency regulation in Ontario by responding to power reg-
ulation signals from the utility on a second-by-second basis, thus
demonstrating how hydrogen electricity ensures better balancing of
electrical supply and demand while alleviating local transmission con-
straints. The company announced that it will apply lessons learned from
the Ontario project in the development of megawatt-scale energy storage
applications.
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Figure 2.29 The HySTAT electrolyzer from Hydrogenics was used in Ontario to
demonstrate that hydrogen energy is an excellent new way to balance
supply and demand to and from the grid.
Another interesting commercial product that uses electrolytic solar

hydrogen as fuel is the Riviera 600 electric boat.53 With a range of 80 km

with a full hydrogen tank, the boat is 6 m long, 2.2 m wide and weighs
1400 kg. The 47% efficiency of the noise-free 4 kW fuel cell engine
should be compared to the 18–20% efficiency of a conventional internal
combustion engine.
Refueling with compressed hydrogen is relatively fast and simple
(Figure 2.30). The boat’s fuel system consists of a 20 kg cartridge that
can be charged with up to 0.7 kg of hydrogen kept at 350 bar. Refueling
is done using a standard filler, plus simple exchange of an empty car-
tridge for a full one. Compared with battery-powered electric boats, the
hydrogen-powered electric boat requires only five minutes to refuel,
whereas for conventional electric boats 6–8 hours are typically required
to recharge the spent batteries. Moreover, the Riviera 600 electric motor
has twice the range of conventional battery-powered boats.
To generate electricity, a hydrogen refueling station makes use of PV
modules integrated in a 250 m2 flat roof (Figure 2.31), further connected
to an electrolytic cell. Even at Austria’s cold latitudes this station is
capable of producing an annual yield of 823 kg hydrogen, equivalent to
1100 cartridges with a 27 200 kWh energy content, enough hydrogen to
run a boat for 80 000 km. The ‘‘Future Project Hydrogen’’ team has
created budget calculations for the generation of hydrogen on-site by
use of PV cells on the premises of 10 boats for commercial use (for
example within a boat rental company).
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74 Chapter 2
Figure 2.30 Refueling of the Riviera 600 Frauscher boat is done in five minutes using a
standard 350 bar filler coupling plus simple exchange of an empty cartridge
for a full one.
(Reproduced from Frauscherboats.com, with permission.)
Figure 2.31 The Clean Power refueling station comprises an electricity power char-
ger, hydrogen and payment units.
(Image courtesy of Fronius.)
For comparison, storing power in batteries over long periods of time

is linked to huge losses due to self-discharge (5–10% per month), while
the energy density is a fraction of that for hydrogen, which means that
storing energy in the summer in a battery of the same capacity would
mean that no energy was available in winter.
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Figure 2.32 Made of passivated steel and 1 km in length, the first underground
hydrogen pipeline in the world has been built in the Italian city of Arezzo
and delivers pure H2 at 3.5 bar to the fuel cells installed in four goldsmith
companies.
Another example which shows that PV renewable hydrogen is far

from being solely a research topic, is afforded by the world’s first
underground pipeline, which supplies H2 to five customers in the Italian
city of Arezzo, with a main channel of around 600 m (Figure 2.32).54
Solar hydrogen is generated by water electrolysis via PV modules over
the roof of an off-grid building (HydroLAb, Figure 2.33), using four
5 kW hydrogen fuel cells and two 1 kW fuel cells to produce both elec-
tricity and heat for the whole building.55
Today, when solar panels generate more electricity than a home can use,
the excess is simply fed back into the grid, essentially subtracting from the
homeowner’s utility bill. In an off-grid application, the excess is put into
batteries, but fuel cells are more versatile and their price is declining rapidly.
Finally, an interesting approach to electrolytically generate hydrogen
without the requirement for hydrogen storage has been introduced recently
by Honda in the USA, with its Solar Hydrogen Station (Figure 2.34).56
Users slowly refill their fuel cell vehicle overnight (an eight hour fill
produces enough hydrogen, 0.5 kg, for a typical day’s driving), by using
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76 Chapter 2
Figure 2.33 The HydroLAb is completely off-grid because PV solar panels provide
electricity, and solar thermal vacuum tube panels provide heat for room
heating and feed a solar cooling machine (5 kW, the smallest in Italy) in
order to achieve air conditioning at zero emission in summer.
Figure 2.34 The Solar Hydrogen Station used to refuel Honda FCVs, installed in
2010 at the Los Angeles Center of Honda R&D Americas, employs the
same 6.0 kW solar array thin film (CIGS) solar cells that power the
system, with a compressor installed in 2001.
less expensive off-peak electrical power purchased by the grid at

$0.05 kWh1 or even less. During daytime peak power periods, the Solar
Hydrogen Station exports high-valuepeak solar electricity to the grid,
providing a cost benefit to the customer.
View Online
Designed as a single, integrated unit to fit in the user’s garage, the new

Honda hydrogen station reduces the size of the system, while the intui-
tive system layout enables the user easily to lift and remove the fuel hose,
with no hose coiling when the hose is returned to the dispenser unit.
The previous solar hydrogen station system, studied by Honda in
California since 2001, required both an electrolyzer and a separate

compressor unit to create high pressure hydrogen. The compressor was
the largest and most expensive component and reduced system effi-
ciency. By creating a new high differential pressure electrolyzer, Honda
engineers were able to eliminate the compressor entirely. This innova-
tion also reduces the size of other key components to make the new
station the world’s most compact system, while improving system effi-
ciency by more than 25% compared with the solar hydrogen station
system it replaces.
One of the main messages of this book is that it has been the pro-
longed lack of hydrogen filling stations, both on large and small scales,
that has caused the failure of hydrogen energy development in the last 20
years. Companies and local governments seem now to have understood
this major gap and have started to deploy hydrogen refueling stations
that use electrolyzes and renewable energy, namely PV or eolic elec-

tricity depending on the site location.
Figure 2.35, for example, shows the recent case of Hempstead, a town
in New York state, where a 100 kW wind turbine provides the energy
Figure 2.35 The town of Hempstead, New York, located its Conservation and
Waterways Department in Point Lookout; a 100 kW Northern Power
100 wind turbine was completed at Hempstead’s hydrogen station.
(Reproduced from greenfleetmagazine.com, with kind permission.)
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78 Chapter 2
necessary to create the hydrogen gas needed to power the town’s fuel cell
cars.57
Powered by winds off the Atlantic coast, the wind turbine is capable of
generating up to 180 MWh of energy per year, providing an almost
continuous source of low cost energy to split water. The resulting
hydrogen fuel is dispensed from Long Island’s only hydrogen fueling

station, located adjacent to the turbine. The excess energy generated by
the turbine will be fed into the town’s grid, resulting in annual energy
cost savings for local customers of the electric utility estimated at
approximately $40 000. Overall, the wind turbine and hydrogen energy
will save money, conserve natural resources, create jobs and provide
smooth and pollution-free mobility to the town’s citizens.
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CHAPTER 3
Thermochemical Water Splitting
3.1 Concentrating Solar Power for Heavy Energy

Demand
Solar energy technologies have the flexibility to address global power
needs. Earth receives a vast amount of solar energy that is estimated to
be approximately 120 000 TW (1 TW ¼ 1012 W), which vastly exceeds
the current annual worldwide energy consumption rate of B15 TW.1
The latter figure includes all available forms of energy from electricity
to gasoline combustion and is proportional with the population
growth.
For example, energy consumption in 2010 increased by 5.6% com-
pared to 2009.2 Most of this power is currently produced by burning
fossil fuels, namely coal, oil and natural gas (Table 3.1), which affords a
clearly unsustainable situation given the limited reserves of these pri-
mary sources and the rapidly growing economies of large countries such
as China, India and Brazil that undergo rapid industrialization. More-
over, the figures in Table 3.1 show a worrying growth in the con-
sumption of coal, which is taking place not only in China and in India
but also in the USA, countries where large reserves of coal exist and
whose exploitation is increasingly pursued owing to the consistently high
price of oil at 4$90 per barrel.
Therefore, when planning the transition towards a sustainable energy
future we need a good understanding of the available, scalable and long-
term solutions that can be applied globally.1
In other words, we must focus on solutions that meet not only our
current energy demands but will have the potential to sufficiently cover

82
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Thermochemical Water Splitting 83
Table 3.1 Fossil fuels and renewable sources: share of global energy con-
sumption. (Adapted from Ref. 2, with kind permission.)
Oil’s share of global energy consumption; rose by 3.1% over the year before 34%
Coal’s share of global energy consumption; up by 7.6%, 29.6%
the highest since 1970
Gas’s share of global energy consumption; up by 7.4%, 24%

the biggest annual growth since 1984
Share of renewables in global energy consumption 1.8%
Figure 3.1 Trend of platinum load in PEM fuel cells, 2006–2015, according to the
United States Department of Energy.
the world future demand. For example, current hydrogen fuel cells and
lithium-based electric batteries for cars are not sustainable because the
world reserves of both lithium (for batteries) and platinum3 (for fuel
cells) would be rapidly exhausted.
Assuming, with the US Department of Energy (DOE; Figure 3.1),
that in 2015 the stack in fuel cells will use 0.2 g of platinum per kW, a
fleet of 50 000 fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) with 80 kW stacks will demand
800 kg of platinum. Assuming that the current yearly output of General
Motors, 2 980 000 cars, will be replaced with state-of-the-art FCVs, it
would require 48 tonnes of platinum per year just for an automaker
owning 4% of the world market in car production.
Given that the sun delivers 8000 times the present global power needs,
it is rather safe to conclude that solar power is the only truly sustainable
energy source. Sunlight of course is diluted: the yearly (average) solar
power that reaches Earth’s surface is about 170 W m2. Hence, when it
comes to generating enough power to cover the escalating energy
demands worldwide, we must necessarily focus on simple, low-tech
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84 Chapter 3
Figure 3.2 Comparison of the useful transport energy requirements for a vehicle
powered by hydrogen (left) vs. clean electricity (right).
solutions such as concentrating solar power (CSP) plants coupled to

energy storage in energy carriers, such as H2, that can be made available
anywhere and at any time thanks to effective long-term storage of solar
energy.
Now, arguing that a hydrogen economy does not make sense, Bossel
showed in 2006 that if we assume standard production techniques for
hydrogen, the inefficiencies simply render the costs of storage and
transportation too high (Figure 3.2).4 Emphasizing that hydrogen will
compete with its own source of energy, i.e. with electricity from the grid,
Bossel insists that we have to solve an energy problem, not an energy
carrier problem.5 Low-tech CSP technology does indeed solve the
energy problem, while solar hydrogen addresses the inevitable demand
for effective storage of clean electricity. The CSP plants usually involve
solar thermal collection via parabolic mirrors, where focused sunlight
heats steam to about 600 1C to drive a turbine and generate electricity
(Figure 3.3).6
When we generate energy, the arrangement of matter becomes dis-
ordered, for example when steam is unavoidably heated to a high state
of disorder. Ordered structures such as nanostructures or crystalline
materials are not able to survive the unavoidable by-product of disorder
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Figure 3.3 The PS-10 solar tower plant near Seville, Spain (courtesy of Abengoa
Solar). Solar energy is concentrated with heliostats to generate heat
for electricity generation. A similar concept can be applied to a plant for
solar hydrogen production.
when generating large quantities of energy. In other words, for heavy

energy demand a high-tech solution will never give both optimal relia-
bility and efficiency.1

The CSP technology is both low-cost and low-tech and is capable of
producing large amounts of energy at a tiny fraction of the surface area
needed for photovoltaics (PV). Collection systems to concentrate solar
energy traditionally use parabolic reflectors (with trough, tower, dish
and, more recently, Fresnel’s planar optical configurations) whose flux
concentration ratio C over a targeted area A at the focal plane, nor-
malized with respect to the incident normal beam insolation I, is given
by Equation (3.1):7
Qsolar
C¼ ð3:1Þ
IA
Higher concentration ratios imply lower heat losses from smaller
areas and, consequently, higher attainable temperatures at the receiver.
When normalized to I ¼ 1000 W m2 (the highest solar flux on a typical
sunny day), C is often expressed in units of ‘‘suns’’. The solar flux
concentration ratio typically obtained is at the level of 100, 1000, and
10 000 suns for trough, tower, and dish systems, respectively.
The first commercial CSP plants were erected in the 1980s in the
Californian Mojave Desert by the Israeli company Luz Industries
(Figure 3.4). These plants have a combined capacity of 354 MW and
today they generate enough electricity to meet the power needs of
approximately 500 000 people.8
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86 Chapter 3
Figure 3.4 Nine separate trough power plants, called Solar Energy Generating Sys-
tems (SEGS), were built in the 1980s in the Mojave Desert by the Israeli
company Luz Industries. Synthetic oil captures this heat as the oil circu-
lates through the pipe, reaching temperatures as high as 390 1C.
Since then the technology has evolved considerably. For example, in

modular CSP plants relatively small heliostats (movable mirrors) that
use cheap linear Fresnel technology (costing between 50 and 60% of the
costs of a parabolic collector per square meter)9 track the sun and focus
its energy onto tower-mounted receivers using non-toxic and readily
available water as the unique thermal fluid (Figure 3.5).
The focused heat converts the fed water into superheated steam that
drives a turbine generator to produce electricity. The steam passes
through a steam condenser, reverts back to water through cooling, and
the process repeats. Europe’s first commercial solar concentrating power
plant has operated smoothly since 2007, close to the Spanish city of
Seville (see Figure 3.3). Overall, this CSP plant produces 11 MW of
electricity, enough to power 6000 households. The plant currently
operates with 624 heliostats, which concentrate the solar radiation on a
thermal receiver located on a tower at a height of 115 m. The receiver
converts the thermal energy into steam, which drives turbines that
produce electricity.
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Figure 3.5 Starting operation in October 2008, Ausra’s Kimberlina 5 MW solar

thermal power plant in Bakersfield was the first CSP plant to be built in
the USA in nearly 20 years. Ausra was recently purchased by the French
nuclear company Areva.
Figure 3.6 The Sun Belt is located roughly between the 40th parallels north and
south, between southern Spain and South Africa, for example.
(Reproduced from www.solarmillennium.de, with kind permission.)
The best location for solar thermal power plants is the Earth’s Sun
Belt (Figure 3.6) because this is where the sun shines most frequently and
where radiation is most intense. The CSP plants located within regions
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88 Chapter 3
Figure 3.7 Interconnected to the Californian grid, the 5 MW Sierra Sun Tower plant,
built by eSolar in 2009, is the only commercial CSP tower facility in North
America.
(Reproduced from esolar.com, with kind permission.)
of the Sun Belt have higher potential to store solar energy more effi-
ciently, either as thermal power or by converting it into chemical fuels
(solar fuels).10
These systems may use a variety of different field designs (heliostat
allocation), depending on the location of the solar plant, the geo-
graphical characteristics of the land, the size of the heliostats, etc., to
control the concentration of solar radiation on a relatively small area,
the face of the absorber (Figure 3.7), which in the case of solar tower
facilities for power generation may develop temperatures ranging from
200 to 1000 1C.
Future projections for industrial CSP facilities generating electricity
estimate that they will have the same cost as coal-, gas-, and oil-fired
power plants in less than 15 years for ‘‘midload’’ electricity, i.e. in the
middle ranges of cost and demand.11 By the end of 2011, 850 MW of
solar-thermal capacity will be installed in Spain alone, and ground-
breaking for the construction of 2500 GW of CSP plants will have
occurred in the USA. In total, project pipelines could represent
7000 MW of generating capacity worldwide. An overview of state-of-
the art of technologies for solar thermal power production and fuel
production has been published recently.12
Using some conservative assumptions and simple calculations,
Abbott has shown that a total desert surface area of 500 km 500 km
can supply the whole world’s energy needs.1 If the world’s power
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requirement is P ¼ 15 TW, then the solar farm footprint area is

(Equation 3.2):
P
A¼ ð3:2Þ
IZa Zg Ze Zl Zb
Abbott assumed the employment of a solar Stirling dish of the type

shown in Figure 3.8 but, of course, similar conclusions could be reached
assuming the use of any other recent CSP technology.
The average insolation of a desert is conservatively set at I ¼
300 W m2; Za ¼ 0.54 is the area fill factor of 10 m diameter dishes each
occupying a plot of 12 m 12 m to allow room for maintenance vehicles
and cleaning equipment; Zg ¼ 0.3 is the efficiency of the electricity pro-
duction from a Stirling engine driven generator; Ze ¼ 0.5 is the efficiency
for electrolytically generating hydrogen; Zl ¼ 0.7 is the efficiency to
liquefy all the hydrogen; and Zb ¼ 0.5 the efficiency of storage and
transportation of hydrogen.
With all this taken into account, Equation (3.2) leads to an area of
1.76 1012 m2, which is equivalent to a plot of size of 1330 km 1330 km.
In reality, with less pessimistic assumptions, the total area required

equates to 500 km 500 km only.1
As shown by Figure 3.6, many parts of the world’s Sun Belt have hot
desert regions ideal for hosting efficient solar CSP plants. Australia,
Figure 3.8 A Stirling solar dish, manufactured until 2011 by Stirling Energy Systems
in Arizona.
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90 Chapter 3
China and the USA, for example, all have expansive stable dry deserts
and could potentially supply power exceeding the whole world’s energy
needs. However, it will be far more economical in terms of energy dis-
tribution to have these solar farms widely distributed throughout the
world. Solar dish farms around 4 4 km2 in size are ideal for both
economy of scale and wide distribution. This will also avoid the known
geopolitical stresses caused by uneven distribution of oil in the world
even if, given the higher sunlight requirements of CSP (compared with
PV), the vast potential for energy generation by CSP will remain
geographically unequally distributed relative to the main electricity
consumers (located in Europe and in the USA).
3.2 Hydrosol: Thermochemical Water Splitting

Very high temperatures are required to dissociate water into hydrogen
and oxygen. Given the thermodynamic restrictions, sufficient yields
from the direct thermal splitting of water can only be achieved at tem-
peratures above 2500 K. Temperatures this high impose extraordinary
demands on materials and reactor design. Over the past 30 years

numerous thermochemical cycles for hydrogen production through
water splitting have been proposed and studied to a varying extent.
Several cycles have been demonstrated at the laboratory scale, a couple
have reached the pilot scale, but none has yet matured to production.
An interesting concept is that of oxide-based thermochemical cycles,
during which a simple oxide (such as iron, zinc or cerium oxide) or a
mixed oxide (such as a ferrite) cycles between a lower and a higher
valence state, participating in an oxidation–reduction process that
produces H2 and O2 in separate steps.13 The concept has been proven
experimentally for pairs of oxides of multivalent metals or metal–metal
oxide systems (for example the ZnO–Zn system studied by Weimer,
Steinfeld and co-workers, Figure 3.9).14
However, even though water splitting is taking place at temperatures
lower than 700 1C, material regeneration (i.e. reduction) takes place at
much higher temperatures (41600 1C). In addition, despite basic
research into active redox pairs, the solar reactors reported in the lit-
erature are based on particles fed into rotating cavity reactors, which are
complicated and costly to operate. Hence, on the larger scale required to
make solar-based H2O splitting a practical technology in terms of
quantity and cost using only the energy of the sun, an efficient and
robust redox material is required to make the process operate at feasible
temperatures.
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Figure 3.9 The ZnO–Zn thermochemical cycle. Primary issues revolve around both i)
material development for operation day in and day out at 1800 1C in the
presence of air and for rapid heating/cooling (i.e. thermal shock resis-
tance) and ii) the development of methods to recover heat from the solar
reactor while at the same time preventing recombination.
Using a CSP plant it is easy to achieve temperatures in excess of

1200 1C through proper sizing and control of the heliostat field (a field of
sun-tracking mirrors), hence a solar tower facility is the natural choice to
host a solar thermochemical reactor.
Funded by the EU and coordinated by the Greek Aerosol and Particle
Technology Laboratory of CPERI/CERTH (with partners the German
Aerospace Center, DLR, the British company Johnson Matthey, the
Spanish research center CIEMAT, and the Danish company Stobbe
Tech), in 2008 the Hydrosol-II project established a 100 kW pilot plant
at the Plataforma Solar de Almerı́a in Spain (Figure 3.10).15
The thermochemical process – which involves an endothermic reac-
tion that requires a significant energy input – employs a multichannel
ceramic honeycomb reactor resembling that of the familiar catalytic
converter of automobiles.
The reactor displayed in Figure 3.11 is coated with active mixed iron
oxides (the redox material) with a high activity in the water splitting
reaction. The reactor is thus heated by concentrated solar radiation
using a set of heliostats that concentrate the solar energy into a certain
area and lead to an increase in the reactor temperature (Figure 3.12).
Inaugurated on 31 March 2008, this solar reactor for the continuous
production of solar hydrogen was the first ever closed solar-only,
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92 Chapter 3
Figure 3.10 In March 2008, a 100 kW reactor for hydrogen production through water
splitting using solar energy was put into commission at the Plataforma
Solar in Almerı́a as part of the Hydrosol project. The reactor is located
inside the tower on the right.
(Reproduced from hydrosol-project.org, with kind permission.)
thermochemical reactor for hydrogen production. Recently, the same

research team has presented the results from the operation of the plant
for 40 consecutive cycles of constant and continuous H2 production in a
two-day period.16
Significant concentrations of hydrogen were produced, with a con-
version of steam of up to 30%. Operation has demonstrated that the
combination of CSP facilities with high temperature processes will be a
viable way to produce hydrogen at a reasonable cost without any
greenhouse gas emissions, paving the way for a purely renewable solar
hydrogen economy. Further scale-up of the technology and its effective
coupling with CSP are in progress to demonstrate the large-scale
feasibility of a solar hydrogen production plant.17
The design of this 100 kW pilot plant is based on a modular concept,
and its scaling up to the megawatt range could follow both the tradi-
tional tower CSP approach (taller tower/larger heliostat field) or a
parallel deployment of multiple units.
The scheme in Figure 3.12 shows that in the first step of water-
splitting the activated redox reagent (usually the reduced state of a
metal oxide) is oxidized by taking oxygen from water and producing
hydrogen, according to the reaction in Equation (3.3).18
MOx1 þ H2 OðgÞ ! MOox þ H2 ð3:3; exothermicÞ

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(a)
(b)
Figure 3.11 (a) The 100 kW Hydrosol pilot-scale reactor and (b) an exploded view of
reactor design.
During the second step the oxidized state of the reagent is reduced, to
be used again (regeneration), delivering some of the oxygen of its lattice
according to Equation (3.4):
MOox ! MOx1 þ 12 O2 ð3:4; endothermicÞ
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94 Chapter 3
Image by Aerosol and Particle Technology Laboratory

MOreduced + H2O (g) MOoxidized + H2 (g)
© Hydrosol Project
MOoxidized MOreduced + O2 (g)
Figure 3.12 Schematic representation of the solar thermochemical Hydrosol water

splitting cycle.
The advantage is the production of pure hydrogen and the removal of

oxygen in separate steps, avoiding the need for high-temperature
separation and the chance of formation of explosive mixtures. The
active redox material is capable of water-splitting and regeneration, so
that the complete operation (water-splitting and redox material regen-
eration) is achieved in a closed solar reactor.
In brief, the uniqueness of the Hydrosol approach is based on the
combination of two novel concepts: nanoparticle materials with very
high water-splitting activity and regenerative ability (synthesized by
novel routes such as aerosol processes, combustion techniques and
reactions under controlled oxygen pressure) and their incorporation as
coatings on special refractory ceramic monolithic reactors whose geo-
metry first emerged from traditional chemical engineering, with its most
familiar application in automobile catalytic converters.19 Coated
monolithic reactors are therefore one of the two enabling technologies
for renewable solar hydrogen production.
The solar thermochemical reactor for the production of hydrogen
from water-splitting is constructed from special refractory ceramic thin-
walled, multi-channeled (honeycomb) monoliths (Figure 3.13) that
absorb solar radiation.
The reactor contains no moving parts, and converts the solar radia-
tion into hydrogen very efficiently.20 When steam passes through the
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Figure 3.13 The monolith channels are coated with active water-splitting materials
capable of splitting the steam passing through the reactor by ‘trapping’
its oxygen and leaving, in the effluent gas stream, pure hydrogen as the
product.
reactor, the coating material splits the water molecules by adsorbing and
incorporating oxygen to form a higher valence state oxide. The effluent
gas stream then consists of pure H2.
The temperature in the reactor is then increased, for example by
focusing more mirrors onto the aperture of this reactor. The feed gas
stream is cut off, the trapped oxygen is released and the active coating
is regenerated. Two reaction chambers (designated as Eastern and
Western modules) are operating in parallel, one for water splitting and
one for regeneration.
Accurate temperature control is necessary in particular for the high
temperature reaction, the regeneration, on the one hand to avoid
overheating and on the other hand to ensure sufficient reaction rates.
Figure 3.14 demonstrates the effect of varying the number of different
heliostats focused on the two apertures and the feasibility of the described
control concepts when using only the number of heliostats for tempera-
ture control. For both temperatures, 800 1C and 1200 1C, the sufficient
control can be applied using the heliostats to ensure steady states.
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96 Chapter 3
Figure 3.14 Effect of a varying number of heliostats on temperature in the Hydrosol

reactor.
One of the prototype redox materials for this kind of reaction is

Fe3O4. The redox pair in this case is FeO–Fe3O4. In practice, the pure
oxide cannot be cycled because the temperature needed to reduce Fe3O4
thermally is higher than its melting point. However, replacing some of
the iron in Fe3O4 with other metals, such as zinc, manganese, nickel or
cobalt, can lower the reduction temperature while maintaining the spinel
structure of these ferrite materials. Integrating the ferrites into a stabi-
lizing matrix, such as yttrium-stabilized zirconia or cerium oxide (ceria),
finally, slows down sintering and deactivation of the metal oxide.21
In the Hydrosol 2 pilot plant, the composition of the off-gas stream
was detected by a gas chromatograph (GC). A plot of hydrogen con-
centrations in the product stream of the plant is displayed in Figure 3.15.
The first broad peak at t ¼ 5000 s is attributed to the splitting of residual
water in the apparatus.
Apparently the highest output of hydrogen was produced during the
first cycle at about t ¼ 7000 s. The measured concentration corresponds
to a conversion of 30% of the steam fed in. After that, a reduction of
hydrogen concentration, and therefore of the yield, by a factor of about
two was observed.
This effect is similar to what has been observed earlier in smaller
reactors in the laboratory and in the solar furnace, and is attributed
mainly to deactivation of the particular redox system (and to a minor
extent to inhomogeneous temperature distribution of the absorber).
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Figure 3.15 Concentration of hydrogen in product stream in the Hydrosol 2 pilot

plant reactor.
There is evidence that some of the zinc in the particular ferrite for-
mulation volatilizes during cyclic operation, resulting in a reduction of
the activity of the redox material from its initial value. The strongly
diminished hydrogen production indicated by the last peak was caused

by the occurrence of a leakage and therefore by air infiltration into the
reactor. Experiments with new, more robust ferrite compositions are
expected to start in the spring of 2012.
Konstandopoulos and colleagues are now working to scale up their
technology and build a 1 MW hydrogen-producing plant, in a project
known as Hydrosol 3D, which involves the pre-design and design of the
whole plant, including the solar hydrogen reactor and all necessary
upstream and downstream units needed to feed in the reactants and
separate and bottle the products.
The Hydrosol-3D consortium consists of the Aerosol & Particle
Technology Laboratory of CPERI/CERTH, Germany’s DLR, Spain’s
CIEMAT, and finally the French company Total and the Belgian
company Hygear.22 Two alternative options are currently being ana-
lyzed: adapting the hydrogen production plant to an already available
solar facility or developing a new, completely optimized hydrogen
production/solar plant.
These and related developments and large scale demonstration are
now urgently needed because, as stated by Steinfeld,7 the weaknesses in
the economic evaluations of thermochemical solar hydrogen production
are related primarily to the uncertainties in the viable efficiencies and
investment costs of the various components due to their early stage of
development and their economy of scale.
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98 Chapter 3
3.3 Carbon Neutral Solar Fuels

The hydrogen economy is a typical ‘‘chicken and egg problem’’ (Figure
3.16). Until a hydrogen infrastructure is built, hydrogen production will
not reward investment. Hence, (solar) hydrogen production plants, as
well as vehicles, are not yet being manufactured on the large scale
required by the urgency of the anthropogenic climate change problem

caused by three centuries of burning fossil fuels to power the increasing
energy needs of humankind.
Hydrocarbon compounds, however, are very attractive energy car-
riers. Reducing our dependence on fossil hydrocarbon fuels as our
primary energy source should not therefore prevent us from using
(carbon neutral) hydrocarbons as energy carriers. Chemicals offer the
advantages of being transportable as well as being able to be stored
for extended periods of time. This point is important because energy
demand is rarely synchronous with or geographically matched to inci-
dent solar radiation.
In general, solar thermochemical processes for the production of
synthetic fuels using concentrated solar radiation are thermodynamically
favored because they inherently operate at high temperatures and utilize

the entire solar spectrum. Recently, therefore, Konstandopoulos and
his colleagues have modified the Hydrosol technology successfully and
have managed, with a similar reactor technology, to produce carbon
monoxide by splitting of carbon dioxide (CO2).23
Indeed, when CO2 is passed through the Hydrosol reactor, the coating
material splits the molecules by adsorbing and incorporating oxygen to
form a higher oxide. The effluent gas stream then consists of pure CO.
The temperature in the reactor is increased subsequently by focusing more
Which one
comes first?
H2 use
H2
infrastructure
Figure 3.16 Which will come first: Hydrogen infrastructure or hydrogen production?
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mirrors onto the aperture of the reactor and the feed gas stream is cut off,
which releases the trapped oxygen and regenerates the active coating.
If the operation of the CO2 splitting reactor is ‘‘combined’’ with the
operation of the Hydrosol reactor, the carbon monoxide and hydrogen
produced simultaneously will react to give synthetic fuel, produced
either by the well-known Sabatier or by the Fischer–Tropsch process to

convert H2 and CO into liquid hydrocarbons for the transportation
sector, or into polymers.
In the Sabatier process the two gases (CO and H2, known as
‘‘synthesis gas’’) are heated at high pressure in the presence of a nickel
catalyst to produce methane or methanol; in the Fischer–Tropsch pro-
cess an iron-based catalyst is used to generate liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
In addition to solar fuels, the solar ‘‘synthesis gas’’ can be effectively
employed to synthesize a wide variety of hydrocarbon polymers (‘‘solar
plastics’’), contributing further to a sustainable future (Figure 3.17).
These processes offer a very good alternative for dealing with the
problem of carbon storage. The CO2 captured from power plants could
constitute an ideal raw material for the production of synthetic fuels,
rather than being buried in underground storage sinks. Such a devel-
opment permits the continued use of the existing hydrocarbon fuel

infrastructure to distribute carbon neutral solar fuels (hydrogen and
hydrocarbons). In this way a viable and sustainable solution to pro-
blems of both hydrogen storage and carbon storage can be provided.
A vision of a biomimetic carbon neutral fuel grid for Europe is given
in Figure 3.18, where CO2 from the north is conveyed by pipelines
Figure 3.17 Coupling solar hydrogen generation with CO2 splitting could produce
green energy and polymers from sunlight, H2O and CO2, similar to what
Nature does to synthesize organic matter.
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100 Chapter 3
CO2 producing Plants @ North

VEINS:
CO2 pipelines
from Carbon Capture
ARTERIES:
Carbon Neutral
Solar Fuels
Pipelines
HYDROSOL Plants @ South

Figure 3.18 A biomimetic system for sustainable energy as conceived by Hydrosol

project researchers.
(‘‘veins’’) to the sunny south, where, through Hydrosol plants, it is

converted into solar hydrocarbons and these are distributed to the areas
of demand by solar fuel pipelines (‘‘arteries’’).24
A similar approach is being pursued by Aldo Steinfeld and his team
at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. A research
team consisting of ETH, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), and the
California Institute of Technology has recently developed a laboratory
reactor for the dissociation of CO2 and H2O.25 The reactor consists of
a thermally insulated cavity, in which a porous monolithic cylinder
containing the ceria (CeO2) catalytic redox material is enclosed. The
selected dimensions of the reactor ensure multiple internal reflections
and efficient capture of incoming solar energy so that the apparent
absorptivity, exceeding 0.94, approaches the ideal blackbody limit.
Concentrated solar radiation enters the reactor (Figure 3.19), is
intensified by a compound parabolic concentrator, and is focused on a
cerium oxide cylinder. The H2O and CO2 enter side inlets, and O2, H2,
and CO exit via an outlet at the bottom.
The reactor’s solar concentrator, which is basically a set of giant
curved mirrors that gather sunlight from a wide area, is the most difficult
part to build. The redox pair CeO2–Ce2O3 is the other main redox
system for thermochemical water splitting. Ceria has the advantage that
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Figure 3.19 The solar reactor for the two-step, solar-driven thermochemical pro-
duction of fuels developed by Steinfeld and co-workers consists of a
thermally insulated cavity receiver containing a porous monolithic ceria
cylinder.
the melting point is higher than the temperature required for the thermal
reduction step. Moreover, ceria is a highly attractive choice for two-
step thermochemical cycling because it displays rapid fuel production
kinetics and high selectivity, owing to the absence of distinct oxidized
and reduced phases.
The two-step H2O/CO2 splitting solar thermochemical cycle based on
oxygen-deficient ceria is represented by Equations (3.5 to 3.7):
DH
High-T reduction: CeO2 ! CeO2d þ d=2O2 ð3:5Þ
Low-T oxidation with H2 O: CeO2d þ dH2 O ! CeO2 þ dH2 ð3:6Þ
High-T oxidation with CO2 : CeO2d þ dCO2 ! CeO2 þ dCO ð3:7Þ

In the first high-temperature step, the ceria is thermally reduced
to a non-stoichiometric state (T41673 K) and oxygen is released
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102 Chapter 3
(Equation 3.5). In the lower temperature steps, ceria is re-oxidized

with H2O and/or CO2 to produce H2 and/or CO. In detail, non-
stoichiometric CeO2 takes up oxygen from carbon dioxide or from water
and produces either CO (Equation 3.6) or H2 (Equation 3.7), at tem-
perature ranges of 700 and 500 1C, respectively. With further increase of
the temperature (at approximately 1500 1C), ceria is thermally reduced

again and the captured oxygen is released, closing the cycle.
In the experiment of Steinfeld and co-workers, using a solar cavity-
receiver containing porous monolithic ceria, which aimed (in separate
experimental solar runs) to produce H2 from H2O and CO from CO2,
solar rays are concentrated to a strength of 1500 suns and directed into a
reactor. The result is solar-thermochemical fuel production from the
cycling process shown in Figure 3.20.
Although the behavior is generally reproducible between cycles, some
run-to-run variations are evident. A much faster rate of fuel production
than that of O2 release is clearly observed. Oxygen evolution reaches a
peak value between 17 and 34 mL min1, whereas the total amount
evolved ranges from 0.54 to 0.94 L for 325 g of ceria, which is correlated
with the peak reactor temperature obtained.
Beyond efficiency, material stability is an essential criterion for a

viable thermochemical process. With use of the differential reactor
system, which enables rapid access to multiple cycles, 500 cycles of water
dissociation were performed without interruption.
The results indicate that, after an initial stabilization period of about
100 cycles, both the oxygen and hydrogen evolution rates remained
essentially constant for a subsequent 400 cycles (Figure 3.21).
(A) (B)
Figure 3.20 Thermochemical cycling of ceria (325 g) using the solar reactor with
(A) CO2 and (B) H2O as oxidant, showing the oxygen and fuel evolution
rates as well as the total volume of gas evolved.
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Figure 3.21 The O2 (black) and H2 (red) evolution rates for 500 water-splitting cycles.
CeO2 was cycled between 1500 1C and 800 1C.
Scanning electron microscopy examination of samples of porous ceria

that underwent heat treatment under similar conditions revealed that
the decrease in reaction rate was accompanied by an increase in particle
size. The morphology stabilized after 24 hours of heat treatment at
1500 1C, much as the fuel production rate stabilized after an initial
period.
The originally reported solar-to-fuel efficiencies of 0.7 to 0.8% are
largely limited by the system scale and design (Figure 3.22) rather than
by chemistry. For comparison only, the solar-to-fuel energy conversion
efficiency obtained in this work for CO2 dissociation is about two orders
of magnitude greater than that observed with state-of-the-art (in 2010)
photocatalytic approaches.27
A thermodynamic analysis28 indicates that efficiencies of 16% or more
are achievable with the new reactor. Hence, the team optimized the solar
reactor prototypes (at the 10 kW power level) for maximum solar-to-fuel
energy conversion efficiency, and is currently scaling-up the system for
industrial applications (at the MW power level) using concentrating
solar tower technology.
Most recently, Steinfeld has demonstrated that the same geometrical
cavity-type configuration reactor, this time packed with porous ceria
felt, can co-produce H2 and CO (syngas) by simultaneously splitting a
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104 Chapter 3
Figure 3.22 The reaction chamber in which sunlight becomes chemical energy. This
picture shows the reaction chamber of the new solar collector illuminated
by light coming from a solar simulator. A quartz window at the top
allows both infrared and ultraviolet radiation to enter the chamber in
which the cerium oxide is deposited.
mixture of H2O and CO2.29 In detail, ten consecutive H2O/CO2 gas

splitting cycles have been performed over eight hours with a 3 kW solar
cavity receiver-reactor containing porous ceria felt exposed directly to
high-flux (42800 suns) thermal radiation.
A constant and stable syngas composition (Figure 3.23), showing
stable fuel production, was observed, which demonstrates the feasibility
of using ceria-based redox cycles to produce repetitive and controlled
amounts of syngas in a solar reactor that closely replicates the condi-
tions expected in practical solar fuel applications.
Indeed, the solar reactor design is simple and robust, affording clear
benefits – simplicity, robustness, stability, and use of earth-abundant
elements – that render this thermochemical approach feasible for large-
scale implementation. The material stability over 500 thermochemical
cycles observed with monolithic ceria in the separate generation of
hydrogen and carbon monoxide is already suitable for realistic appli-
cations. Furthermore, the abundance of cerium, which is comparable to
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Figure 3.23 Temperature of the ceria felt, gas production rates, total amount of
evolved gases, and H2 : CO molar ratios during ten consecutive splitting
cycles.
that of copper,30 is such that the approach is applicable at scales relevant

to global energy consumption.31

The decision was taken by ETH not to patent the new discovery to
enable further research.32 Research is now focused on finding proper
dopants for ceria-based materials. The already investigated dopants (e.g.
Gd and Sm) affect the thermodynamics of the reduction of ceria and as a
result are expected to increase its reduction degree at lower tempera-
tures. In that way the overall lifetime of the materials and the reactor
will be extended.
Carbon dioxide can of course be accumulated from the atmosphere.
Steinfeld and co-workers have developed another reactor made of a
transparent tube filled with pellets of CaO (calcium oxide). As the light
heats the tube and brings its contents to 400 1C, air mixed with a small
amount of steam is pumped in at the bottom and up through the pellets.
At this temperature, CaO reacts with CO2 to form calcium carbonate
(CaCO3) and in less than 15 minutes removes all carbon dioxide in the
air, decreasing it from 385 parts per million to practically zero.33 Sub-
sequently, the intake valve is closed and the temperature in the reactor is
raised to 800 1C by intensifying the light, which causes the CaCO3 to
release the CO2 as a stream of pure gas and converts the calcium car-
bonate back into calcium oxide. The reactor was taken through five
cycles of absorption and release with no decline in performance.
Steinfeld and his team have thus developed a system that uses
atmospheric CO2 to feed the solar fuel process (Figure 3.24). A parabolic
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106 Chapter 3
Figure 3.24 The O2 (black) and H2 (red) evolution rates for 500 water-splitting cycles.
CeO2 was cycled between 1500 1C (pO2 ¼ 105 atm, flow rate ¼
3.2 L min1 g1 of ceria, 10 min, ramp rate ¼ 100 1C min1) and
800 1C (pH2O ¼ 0.13–0.15 atm, flow rate ¼ 0.75–0.76 L min1 g1 of
ceria, 10 min).
(Reproduced from http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/01/co2-capture-from-
air-for-fuel-or.html, with kind permission.)
mirror concentrates solar light onto a chamber containing calcium

oxide (CaO). When calcium carbonate is heated to 800 1C it releases a
pure stream of CO2 that is fed into a second reactor, in which a solar
concentrator heats zinc oxide to 1700 1C, causing it to release oxygen
molecules, leaving metallic zinc. The temperature is then lowered and CO2
and steam are pumped in, which react with the pure Zn to form syngas.
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Finally, a team led by James Miller at the US Sandia National

Laboratories have also built a solar reactor based on a counter-rotating-
ring receiver/reactor/recuperator concept (termed the Counter Rotating
Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator, CR5), for the production of solar
fuels from hydrogen (obtained through water splitting) and carbon
monoxide (obtained by CO2 splitting), by making use of the two-step

ferrite or ceria cycles.34 The most recent CR5 consists of two chambers
separated by rotating rings of cerium oxide (Figure 3.25). As the rings
spin, a large parabolic mirror concentrates solar energy onto one side,
heating it to 1500 1C and causing the ceria there to release oxygen gas
into one of the chambers, from which it is pumped away.
As the ring rotates further it cools before it swings round to the other
chamber where CO2 is pumped, causing the cooled, non-stoichiometric
ceria to split carbon dioxide and produce carbon monoxide. The process
also works with water instead of CO2, with the reaction this time
producing hydrogen. Initial test results for the CR5 prototype, in the
16 kW National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) solar furnace
in Albuquerque, demonstrated that the process can produce carbon
monoxide, although the failure of certain parts meant that the device
did not operate continuously for more than a few seconds at a time.36
The team is now working to improve reliability while building a bigger
reactor with 28 rotating rings to process more CO2 and water. The
short-term goal for the CR5 prototype is to demonstrate a solar to
chemical conversion efficiency of at least 2%. To achieve the overall
Figure 3.25 The Sandia Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator, CR5.
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108 Chapter 3
long-term goal of 10% efficient conversion of sunlight to petroleum, the

thermochemical solar conversion of sunlight to CO needs to be at least
20% efficient.
In conclusion, the results obtained by these teams in the last decade
provide evidence for the viability of CSP-based thermochemical
approaches to solar hydrogen and solar fuel generation. We believe that

this technology will soon evolve into a central energy technology in our
common, sustainable future. Eventually, solar H2 is considered to be a
feasible (and ultimate) emissions-free solution. However, carbon neutral
solar fuels, obtained from the solar conversion of water and recycled
CO2, could cover the intermediate period during the passage from
conventional to renewable hydrogen energy. This will give the time
required to solve the issues related to hydrogen handling, storage,
transport and distribution infrastructure that are challenging for its
implementation in the near future.37
3.4 Solar Hydrogen and the Electron Economy

According to the US National Academy of Engineering, the electric grid
was the most significant engineering achievement of the 20th century.38

The interconnected series of transmission wires, metal towers, voltage
converting substations and their associated control structure that make
up the electric grid is of course existing infrastructure of immense value
(Figure 3.26). It will be used increasingly in the solar hydrogen economy,
in which a continuous source of power – solar hydrogen accumulated
during the day – will be burned (or oxidized in fuel cells) to meet cus-
tomers’ demands and provide power at night and on cloudy days, as
well as when demand peaks.
In other words, once generated in CSP hydrogen plants, electricity
and not compressed hydrogen will be sent directly to the appliances
using the grid (an existing infrastructure), exploiting the intrinsically
higher efficiency of what Bossel has called the ‘‘electron economy’’.
In Bossel’s words:5
An electron economy can offer the shortest, most efficient and most
economical way of transporting the sustainable ‘green’ energy to
the consumer. Electricity could provide power for cars, comfor-
table temperature in buildings, heat, light, communication, etc.
In a sustainable energy future, electricity will become the prime
energy carrier. We now have to focus our research on electricity
storage, electric cars and the modernization of the existing elec-
tricity infrastructure.
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Figure 3.26 A scheme of the US grid in 2009.

Solar hydrogen is, indeed, an excellent way to store electricity. Even

though the efficiency of the solar hydrogen economy will be affected by
wastage in the two conversions – from physical to chemical and from
chemical to physical energy – it will be sufficient to deploy more solar
collectors and low cost electrolyzers in order to obtain the required
amounts of hydrogen to power the world’s current (15 TW) and future
power needs.
In other words, a solar hydrogen economy is based on two such
conversions (electrolysis and fuel cells or hydrogen engines) along with
electricity generation from a free fuel (sunlight), whose immense abun-
dance will allow us simply to overcome the efficiency limitations of this
double conversion of energy (physical-chemical-physical).
Moreover, in the ‘‘distributed generation’’ scheme in which ever more
grid homes and industrial customers are contributing, by producing
some or all of their own power, solar hydrogen will help us to face the
changes required to adapt the grid to allow more flexible options for
future electricity production, transmission and distribution.39
Increased use of solar energy generation means more variable power
supplies that have to be backed up by storage or by other power gen-
eration systems. Demand response for both large and small consumers is
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110 Chapter 3
Figure 3.27 The smart grid will be formed of mission lines, equipment, controls and
new technologies working together to respond immediately to our new
demand for electricity.
becoming an increasingly viable way to deal with peak energy use.

Advances in distributed generation, such as home solar panels, both
assist and are assisted by the creation of the smart grid (Figure 3.27).
The load production is closer to where it is needed and can help to
balance peak load needs.
For example, in Canada, BC Hydro converts surplus hydroelectric
power generated at its Clayton Falls hydroelectric plant in Bella Coola,
British Columbia, into hydrogen, stores it and then uses it in a 100 kW
fuel cell to provide power as needed.
Hydro power is already a good storage system for electrical
energy, because utilities can postpone energy production by pumping
the water backwards in the dam, with good efficiency.40 In the case
shown below the hydro power is actually micro-hydro power, with no
storage for water, namely it is a ‘‘run of river’’ system (Figure 3.28)
which does not provide the typical output control a traditional dam
provides.
In the Clayton Falls Hydrogen Assisted Renewable Power System
(HARP) system, two methods are used to store the electricity. In the
first method hydrogen is produced through electrolysis, and is then
stored as a gas in high pressure tanks. The second method uses an
electrochemical regenerative fuel cell, known as the flow battery, to
store the energy. A microgrid controller manages the power system
(Figure 3.29) by monitoring supply and demand and determining when
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Figure 3.28 Clayton Falls Hydroelectric Generating Station was built in 1962 to
reduce demand for diesel fuel. This is a run-of-the-river facility that
requires no storage of water in the Clayton Falls headpond.
Figure 3.29 The Hydrogen Assisted Renewable Power (HARP) system. A schematic
of microgrid system from Bella Coola, British Columbia.
to convert power into hydrogen and when to generate power from

hydrogen to meet spikes in demand.
During peak periods the stored hydrogen (Figure 3.30) is fed into a
100 kW fuel cell to generate electricity. At the same time, the flow bat-
tery produces 100 kW of electricity directly to the community. Together
these two generators in the HARP system reduce annual diesel con-
sumption by 200 000 L.42
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112 Chapter 3
Figure 3.30 Clayton Falls BC Hydro’s HARP project is an energy storage system
that converts off-peak electricity from a renewable source into hydrogen
via an electrolyzer. The hydrogen is used for energy later on, during times
of peak demand.
According to the company,43 renewable hydrogen is a very cost-

effective and convenient way to store renewable energy; it is more eco-
nomical than importing electricity from Alberta or from the USA to
provide customers with power at peak times.

This insight immediately refers the reader to a sector in which solar
hydrogen will play a role, namely in the production of valued peak
power through the grid, resulting in consistent ‘‘peak shaving’’ of the
price of electricity for the customers of the grid. This phenomenon is
already taking place in Germany and in Italy, where an impressive
13 GW overall of PV power has been installed between 2008 and 2011.
Indeed, thanks to generous feed-in-tariffs and to the concomitant dra-
matic fall in the price of PV modules, between 2008 and 2011 Italy has
become the world’s second country for installed PV power, with over
13 GW of grid-connected PV plants present in the early days of 2012.44
The impact of all this power on the electricity market started to
become clear in the early months of 2011 (Figure 3.31).45 The valued PV
power produced in the sunny hours during the day ‘‘pushes’’ out of the
market the most expensive power plants, namely the expensive open
cycle ‘‘turbogas’’ plants running on natural gas only. By doing so, it
effectively cuts the market price of electricity, resulting in a clear benefit
for the grid customers.
Similar findings have been reported from the Hydrogen and Renew-
ables Integration (HARI) project, run from 2003 through late 2011 at
West Beacon Farm in Leicestershire, UK. The project involved the
integration of an electrolyzer, hydrogen storage and fuel cells with an
existing renewable energy system. In full agreement with Bossel’s insight
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Figure 3.31 Peak shaving in Italy. Hourly load on the transmission grid (green and
red curves) and the difference between the same solar days in 2010 and
2011, along with estimated PV generation.
Figure 3.32 The pressurized hydrogen storage cylinders at West Beacon Farm in
Leicestershire, UK, where the HARI project was run from 2003.
mentioned above, the researchers found that the efficiency of passing

through the cycle from electricity to hydrogen and back to electricity is
(at typically around 20% or lower) poor (Figure 3.32).46
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114 Chapter 3
In Gammon’s words,
Clearly, converting energy from electricity to hydrogen and back

to electricity again is a very wasteful cycle, which must be con-
sidered only as a last resort, but which may be unavoidable in
certain situations.
Wherever possible, the electricity that is hard-won from renewable

(or any other) sources should remain as electricity until it is con-
sumed by the end-user appliance. Once converted to hydrogen, the
energy should only be used in applications, such as transport and
remote or portable power generation, where only a fuel is able to
do the job.
However, because hydrogen is a means of energy storage it can be

harnessed for powering the grid with electricity or, directly, for vehicle
propulsion and heat generation. Overall, the combined use of fuel cells,
electrolyzers and hydrogen makes it possible to use the grid as the major
means of energy distribution and supply – for electricity, heat and
transportation – thus removing the distinctions between these three

energy forms and, at the same time, increasing the overall energy
efficiency.
Eventually, as stated by Gammon,46 complementary solar hydrogen
and electricity will be used in a symbiotic partnership to derive max-
imum benefit in terms of flexibility and efficiency, but electricity that is
easy to dispatch will certainly continue to play a large and increasing
role in our energy system, even when carbon-neutral solar hydrogen is
readily available.
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CHAPTER 4
Solar Hydrogen Utilization
4.1 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Engines

Invented in 1839, the hydrogen fuel cell has been employed widely since
the early 1960s in space probes to generate onboard electricity, water
and heat.
Indeed, in the fuel cell the controlled reaction of hydrogen with
oxygen yields electricity, heat, and water, directly converting into elec-
trical energy the chemical energy of the bound H2 molecule.
In most fuel cells developed thus far the H2 dissociation reaction is

usually catalyzed by platinum at the anode’s surface and takes place at a
temperature of approximately 80 1C (Figure 4.1).
The presence of easily poisoned platinum requires the use of high
purity ‘‘technical-grade’’ (purity as high as 99.999%) H2 because the
carbon- and sulfur-containing impurities of ‘‘commercial-grade’’
hydrogen would quickly degrade, reducing the life of the fuel cell stack
(Figure 4.2).
Indeed, similar to what happens with solar cells, an individual fuel cell
(about 2 mm thick) generates a comparatively low potential of less than
1 V. Hence, for practical application several hundred cells are connected
in series to form a so-called ‘‘stack’’. A 200 V system potential, for
example, is used to power a fuel cell vehicle (FCV) such as the Mercedes
B-Class F-CELL, the first fuel cell passenger car to be produced under
series conditions, which attains an operating range of around 400 km
with its 700 bar hydrogen tank in the sandwich floor unit.1
From a technical viewpoint only, the clean, efficient and compact H2-
fueled fuel cell fits excellently into the ongoing electrification trend;2 it

119
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120 Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 A PEM fuel cell normally uses a Pt catalyst at the anode’s surface and a
proton exchange membrane, usually made of Nafion, an expensive
fluorinated polymer functionalized with sulfonic functional groups.
Figure 4.2 The fuel cell stack used in the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL. Manu-
facture of a small series of this car commenced in late 2009.
serves as a battery recharging device for long-life power packages in

portable electronics, as stationary combined heat and power (CHP)
facilities, and as an electrical generator to replace the current poorly
efficient mobile electrical generators (lead batteries and diesel gensets).3
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Solar Hydrogen Utilization 121
Moreover, the H2-fueled fuel cell is without moving parts and, thus, is
vibration-free and noiseless; it is no heavier than the internal combus-
tion engine (ICE), and fits into a conventional engine compartment
without major modifications. Overall, the combination of the fuel cell
and an electric motor is 2–3 times more efficient than an ICE.4
The installed cost of a hydrogen fuel cell system depends on the

technology, configuration and size. In general, installation costs of a fuel
cell system range from $5000 kW1 to $10 000 kW1,5 meaning that the
fuel cell is technically, but not economically, more efficient than an
internal combustion engine.
Currently, H2 fuel cells are mostly present in German, Greek and
Italian submersibles of the respective navies. The main reason for this
market failure is due to their inherently high costs. Legacy fuel cell
technologies such as proton exchange membranes (PEMs), phosphoric
acid fuel cells (PAFCs), and molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) have
all required expensive precious metals, corrosive acids, or hard to con-
tain molten materials. From an environmental viewpoint, hydrogen-
powered fuel cell vehicles achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emission
below 1990 levels by 80% or more (hydrogen ICE hydrogen powered
vehicles by 60%) with near elimination of urban air pollution.6 The car
maker Honda, for example, in 2007 unveiled the world’s first fuel cell
vehicle (Figure 4.3), an electric car powered by H2 but only offering a
driving range of 240 miles, which is currently available to lease in the USA.
After all, on average a vehicle exhaust catalyst (Figure 4.4) contains
around 1–3 g of platinum group metals (PGM; about 1.5 g platinum,
0.5 g palladium and 0.1 g rhodium).7 Perhaps it would be more logical to
Figure 4.3 In 2007 Honda’s FCX Clarity was the world’s first fuel cell vehicle to be
commercialized.
(Reproduced from www.manufacturingdigital.com, with kind permission.)
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122 Chapter 4
Figure 4.4 A catalytic converter and the honeycomb filter containing platinum.
(Image of Joshua Lott.
Reproduced from Ref. 37, with kind permission )
use this platinum in fuel cells for energy generation and pollution pre-
vention, rather than in cars for pollution reduction.8
4.2 Hydrogen Fueled Internal Combustion Engines

In addition to its indirect use in fuel cells, hydrogen can be burnt directly
in air within an internal combustion engine, with remarkable advantages
over gasoline engines, such as in the case of the BMW Hydrogen 5th
generation vehicles equipped with a hydrogen tank (Figure 4.5).9
Curious as it may seem, the reciprocating ICE operated in the Otto- or
Diesel mode that came to market in the late 19th century is still the
dominating power-train technology in 2012. However, an Otto cycle
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Figure 4.5 The Hydrogen BMW 5 was unveiled at the Expo 2000 Exhibition.
internal combustion engine running on hydrogen has a maximum effi-

ciency of about 38%, 8% higher than the gasoline ICE. In addition,
hydrogen engine conversion technology is more economical than fuel
cells,10 and the ICE is familiar to engineers and craftsmen in the car
industry as well as in repair shops. In general, the reciprocating hydrogen

internal combustion DI engine has high power density with regard to
volume and weight, is highly efficient and nearly emission free.
The idea is that, in order to be successful on the market, the char-
acteristics of daily operation and performance of a hydrogen vehicle
should be comparable to those of a conventional gasoline or diesel
vehicle. After 25 years of research in the field, which started during the
1970s oil crisis, BMW is aware that this requirement can only be met by
the installation of a hydrogen ICE (Figure 4.6) which uses energy dense
liquid hydrogen (Figure 4.7).
The properties of gaseous hydrogen are significantly different from
those of gasoline (Table 4.1). Liquefied hydrogen has lower energy
density by volume than gasoline, by approximately a factor of 4, because
of the low density of liquid hydrogen. Obviously, gaseous hydrogen has
a very low density, which entails a lower density of the air–fuel mixture,
rG, and thus an 18% lower mixture calorific value, HG, in the external
mixture hydrogen mode.
However, in the internal mixture mode (Figure 4.8) the low density of
hydrogen is not relevant because the pressurized hydrogen is fed to the
cylinder by a direct injection system that affords a 17% higher mixture
calorific value for hydrogen when compared with gasoline.
Table 4.1 also shows a typical property of hydrogen, namely its
capability for ignition within a wide range of air : hydrogen ratios, which
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124 Chapter 4
Figure 4.6 Power/mass characteristics of vehicles with conventional and alternative

drive train systems.

Figure 4.7 Power/mass characteristics of vehicles with conventional and alternative

drive train systems. At room temperature and pressure, the density of
hydrogen is so low that it contains less than 1 : 300 the energy in an equivalent
volume of gasoline.
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Table 4.1 Physical properties of hydrogen and gasoline. (Adapted from Ref.
9, with kind permission.)
Property Hydrogen Gasoline
3
Density (r) 0.09 kg m 730 780 kg m3
Ignition limits in air 4–76 (vol%) 1–7.6 (vol%)
Flame velocity (at l ¼ 1) 2.0 m s1 0.4–0.8 m s1

Density of stoichiometric mixture (rG) 0.94 kg m3 1.42 kg m3
Mixture calorific value,w HG 3.2 MJ m3 3.9 MJ m3
Mixture calorific value,z HG 4.5 MJ m3 3.8 MJ m3
w
Port injection.
z
Direct injection.
Figure 4.8 Full-load combustion behavior of direct injection hydrogen and port
injection gasoline engines.
allows a remarkable increase in efficiency because of leaner combustion.

The high flame propagation velocity of air–hydrogen mixtures entails
outstanding combustion properties with significantly shorter combus-
tion periods in the full-load range compared with gasoline engines.
Overall, owing to the ability to realize ideal combustion control with
high compression ratios, scientists at BMW aim to increase the effective
efficiency of a hydrogen DI internal combustion engine to 50%, com-
pared with the current 37% (Figure 4.8).
Finally, prolonged experimentation has shown that NOx tailpipe
emissions can be minimized to a few ppm by concomitant employment
of a simple reduction catalyst for converting the NOx and unburned H2
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126 Chapter 4
Figure 4.9 Hydrogen direct injection engine out and tailpipe emissions.
to N2 and H2O in the tailpipe at full loads on a hydrogen engine (with

l ¼ 1, stoichiometric mixture), while at part load conditions, a lean
engine operation mode (l 42.2) is chosen electronically that prevents
NOx formation in the cylinders, allowing almost emission-free operation
throughout the entire engine load and speed range (Figure 4.9).
For comparison, the first generation hydrogen vehicle, a 4-cylinder
BMW Sedan, went into operation in 1979. It had 60 kW maximum
power and a top speed of 160 km h1 with a range of operation around
400 km. The 5th generation vehicles, launched in 2000, had 150 kW
maximum power and could be operated in a dual mode (hydrogen and
gasoline), allowing them to extend their range of operation from about
300 km in the hydrogen mode to a total of about 900 km. For further
development, future hydrogen ICEs will have higher exergy efficiencies
as a result of reducing inherent irreversibilities, through utilizing the
huge amounts of waste heat in the cooling system and the exhaust.
4.3 Hydrogen Motoring: A Dream Never Coming

True?
With about 600 million passenger vehicles around the globe today – and
currently with a worldwide production of approximately 55 million units
per year – the automobile powered by fossil oil-based fuels is a major
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source of environmental pollution. Efforts to market hydrogen-powered

cars, which started in the early 2000s, have generally failed. In 2010, The
Economist concluded that:
Having soared on the promise of carbon-free motoring, the idea of the

‘hydrogen economy’ crashed and burned when it collided with reality.

Hundreds of experimental hydrogen-powered cars – once hailed as
the best solution for reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil
for over half its consumption – are now gathering dust in manu-
facturers’ parking lots.11
In 2009, the US Government cancelled funding for research into

hydrogen-powered vehicles. In the same country, General Motors dit-
ched its fleet of 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell cars after a two-year
trial. Likewise, in mid 2009 BMW withdrew its own test fleet of 100
7-Series limousines equipped with hydrogen internal combustion
engines, tested since 2000.12
However, believing that the combination of a fuel cell electric vehicle
and the solar hydrogen station could help lead to the establishment of a
hydrogen society based on renewable energy, the Japanese car maker
Honda is continuing to build a network of refueling stations to
accommodate a growing customer base both in Europe (Figure 4.10)
Figure 4.10 The first hydrogen station in the UK, at the Honda factory at South
Marston, located near the car maker’s plant in Swindon, Wiltshire, has
been operated by industrial gas company BOC since September 2011.
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128 Chapter 4
and in the USA (see discussion of the new generation of solar hydrogen
stations for home use, based on the high differential pressure electro-
lyzer, Chapter 2).13
Similarly, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz also recently unveiled that they
would launch a mass-produced fuel cell car in 2014, based on the next-
generation B-Class model. In 2010, Toyota expanded its hydrogen car

program, aiming to come to market in 2015 or earlier with a vehicle that
will be reliable and durable, with excellent fuel economy and zero
emissions at an affordable price The carmaker has cut the cost to make
hydrogen models for less than $100 000 and aims to halve that price by
the time sales begin.14
A simple look at the comprehensive and continuously updated
overview of all types of hydrogen vehicles (since, astonishingly enough,
1807) offered by the H2mobility.org15 website clearly shows that
hydrogen motoring is far from being a doomed reality, as the author of
the cited article in The Economist seems to believe.
In North America, Japan and Europe, demonstration fleets of hydro-
gen-fueled fuel cell or ICE buses are on the road, operated by municipal
transport professionals and run under conventional conditions with
passenger loads, and these maintain the usual time schedules.

The experience is positive. For example, 36 Mercedes-Benz Citaros,
fitted with hybrid fuel cell and battery technology and deployed on the
streets on three continents from 2003 to 2009 have logged more than 2.2
million kilometers by late August 2011. No hazard has been reported,
and no major repairs were necessary (Figure 4.11).
Figure 4.11 The Citaro Fuel Cell bus made by Daimler runs on hydrogen only. The bus
carries seven cylinders on the roof, containing 35 kg of hydrogen in all.
(Reproduced from http://green.autoblog.com, with kind permission.)
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Given that most city transit buses run on the same routes, only a small
number (possibly as low as one) of hydrogen fueling stations are needed
to supply the fuel. As the hydrogen fueling infrastructure continues to
expand so will bus routes, including for buses that travel to cities farther
away and need to refuel at a second station.
Clearly, the development of a public hydrogen supply infrastructure is

essential for the successful marketing of both hydrogen fuel cell and ICE
vehicles. What remains to be done, therefore, is to build a nationwide
infrastructure of hydrogen refueling stations, such as in Germany, where
the first filling stations have already become established in metropolitan
areas such as Berlin und Hamburg. The more a station is used the lower
the cost of the hydrogen supplied, with an almost hyperbolic cost trend
(Figure 4.12).
Currently, 7 of the 30 hydrogen filling stations in Germany are
integrated into a public filling station operation, whereas Daimler and
the Linde agreed in 2009 to build 20 additional hydrogen filling
stations.
Eventually, the whole structure of the automobile and trucking
industry, with the ICE at its core, will be replaced by an industrial
structure built around an electrochemical motor requiring the produc-

tion of membranes and stacks, heat exchangers, hydrogen tanks and
delivery systems, electrical and electronic equipment.
Electric cars that use either H2 fuel or electricity from batteries
will certainly be competitive because battery electric vehicles (BEVs)
are typically 3 to 4 times as efficient as hydrogen powered vehicles
(Figure 4.13), and BEVs can be recharged easily at home every two or
Figure 4.12 Hydrogen fuel supply cost as function of filling station utilization.
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130 Chapter 4
Figure 4.13 The infrastructure for the electric car exists already everywhere: the
electric grid. Therefore the high investment costs of a hydrogen station
need not be incurred.
three days (with no need for an extensive infrastructure) using the

existing grid and plugs.
The well-to-wheels efficiency of hydrogen FCVs tends to be about

one-third that of electric vehicles (EVs) when electrolysis is used.16 In
contrast, BEVs, which are already commercially available from several
manufacturers, do not require expansion of the existing infrastructure
for electricity transmission and distribution, and ideally can be
recharged at night with idle off-peak power plant capacity that currently
goes unused.17
However, compared with BEVs, automobiles equipped with hydrogen
fuel cells generate electricity onboard and have a far longer autonomy.
Compressed hydrogen powering a fuel cell can provide electricity to a
vehicle traction motor with 5 times more energy per unit mass than the
current NiMH batteries used in most gasoline hydrogen electric vehicles,
and 2 times more than advanced lithium-ion batteries.18
The fuel cell EV has many superior attributes over EVs with only
320 km ranges, but the advantages of the fuel cell EV are dominant if the
BEV must have 480 km range to serve as a fully functional all-purpose
passenger vehicle. This is plotted in Figure 4.14 as the ratio of the
battery EV value to the fuel cell EV value for each attribute.
4.4 Hydrogen Fueled Power Plants

Hydrogen can be used efficiently as fuel for thermoelectric power
plants. In 2010, Italy’s largest electricity utility (Enel) opened the world’s
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Figure 4.14 The useful specific energy (energy per unit mass) of hydrogen and fuel
cell systems (including a peak power battery), compared with the useful
specific energy of various battery systems.
first hydrogen power combined cycle plant near Venice (Figure

4.15). Hydrogen is supplied using specially built pipelines from the
nearby Polimeri Europa petrochemical plant, where ethylene-cracking is
carried out.
The 12 MW power plant comprises a hydrogen-fueled combined cycle
plant and burns hydrogen gas in a turbine capable of resisting hydrogen
embrittlement, which was developed in partnership with General Elec-
tric and generates both electricity and heat. The plant uses 1.3 tonnes of
hydrogen per hour, has an overall efficiency of about 42%, and is
essentially free of emissions. The efficiency of the process is increased by
using the heat from the emissions to generate high-temperature steam,
which is sent to the nearby coal-fired plant to generate an additional
4 MW of power capacity. Overall, the electricity generated, equal to
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132 Chapter 4
Figure 4.15 The first industrial-size power plant fueled by hydrogen in the world
opened in 2010 in Fusina, near Venice, Italy.
(Reproduced from www.demotix.com/photo/388950/enel-first-power-
plant-fuelled-hydrogen-world, with kind permission.)
about 60 million kWh per year, will be sufficient to meet the needs of
20 000 households, avoiding more than 17 000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a
year.
Hydrogen from the petrochemical plant is transported through a
pipeline made of specially coated steel, which resists hydrogen embrit-
tlement (Figure 4.16).
Hydrogen gas piping is routine in large oil refineries, because
hydrogen is used to hydrocrack fuels from crude oil. As a result, millions
of tonnes of elemental hydrogen are distributed around the world
through these pipelines each year. For example, the first long (240 km)
hydrogen pipeline was built by Linde Germany, in the Ruhr area, in
1938. The pipeline is still in operation nowadays, connecting some 14
production sites with an estimated capacity of 250 million Nm3 of
hydrogen per year.19 The longest hydrogen pipeline in the world is a
250 mile line between Belgium and France. Similarly, about 700 miles of
hydrogen pipelines now operate in the USA, generally near oil refineries.
Once built, hydrogen pipelines are the cheapest and most effective way
to distribute large volumes of hydrogen. Contrary to common opinion
surrounding the so-called ‘‘hydrogen infrastructure’’, hydrogen dis-
tribution through pipelines is not problematic, just more expensive than,
for example, the distribution of natural gas.
Building the infrastructure in a systematic way is largely affordable.
For example, a study20 by researchers from General Motors and Shell
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Figure 4.16 The hydrogen pipeline carrying the fuel from the petrochemical station
to the power plant in Fusina (Venice), Italy.
Hydrogen clearly showed that an investment of US$10–15 billion,

comparable to one-half the cost of the Alaskan pipeline, would be suf-
ficient to establish 12 000 hydrogen stations in the USA, putting
hydrogen within 2 miles of 70% of the US population.
Similar to the Italian Enel, the Germany company Enertrag, together
with Total, Vattenfall and Deutsche Bahn, built in 2010, in a lightly
populated area east of Berlin, a hydrogen-hybrid power plant that
combines wind energy sources to deliver electricity to 2000 homes and
heat to 300 households with no carbon emissions (Figure 4.17).21
The Uckermark operation is a hybrid plant that relies on three wind
turbines and water electrolysis for energy storage in hydrogen fuel.
Hydrogen tanks store the extra power generated by the wind turbines so
that the plant’s stored fuel can be used to run hydrogen-powered vehi-
cles or can be combined with biogas to produce electricity during low-
wind conditions. In addition, the renewable hydrogen is used in
hydrogen refueling stations located in Berlin and Hamburg.
The storage of large quantities of hydrogen functions therefore as grid
energy storage, an essential requirement for the forthcoming hydrogen
energy infrastructure. As in the case of natural gas, which is currently
stored in large amounts in underground caverns, salt domes and
depleted oil and gas fields, hydrogen will be stored in underground
caverns, as done for many years by ICI with no difficulties; similarly,
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134 Chapter 4
Figure 4.17 Hydrogen-Hybrid Power Station in Prenzlau. This hydrogen power plant
meets the needs of local citizens at a cost of 21 million Euros, or h10 500
per customer.
ConocoPhillips at its Clemens Terminal in Texas has stored hydrogen

since the 1980s in a solution-mined salt cavern.22
4.5 Hydrogen Energy for Distributed Generation

Hydrogen will soon be extensively applied in distributed systems of
energy production that use new, reliable and sustainable hydrogen fuel
cells to produce clean energy 24 hours per day, 365 days per year to meet
the demanding needs of apartment blocks, office buildings, stores and
neighborhoods. Recently, the US company Bloom Energy has installed
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Figure 4.18 A Bloom Energy ‘‘Energy Server’’ uses SOFCs to produce enough power
to account for the entire energy demand of a typical office building.
several newly developed solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) at a dozen large
US firms that now self-generate electrical power from natural gas
(Figure 4.18).23
Bloom’s fuel cells can flexibly use any fuel, including bio- or natural
gas, ethanol and, of course, hydrogen. Thanks to a 30% federal tax
credit, they produce silent, low-emission power for less than c$10 per
kWh (ten cents per kilowatt-hour), much the same as a combined-cycle
gas-turbine plant, but without the noise and fumes.24
The so called ‘‘Energy server’’, the self-contained generating unit,
costs around $750 000 per 100 kW block, and, like other SOFCs, makes
use of a common sand-like powder instead of precious metals like pla-
tinum or corrosive materials like acids. It operates at a high temperature
(typically above 800 1C) which gives it extremely high electrical efficiency
and fuel flexibility, both of which contribute to better economics.
However, it also creates engineering challenges that were solved by the
company with prolonged financial back-up ($400 million) of venture
capital, which started in 2002. The result of this R&D effort was a 25 W
fuel cell (Figure 4.19) that makes distributed generation so reliable that
the company offers customers the opportunity to purchase the service
(clean electricity) for 10 years in place of the product (the Bloom Box),
thus avoiding the initial investment and giving immediate cost savings.
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136 Chapter 4
Figure 4.19 The fuel cell developed by Bloom Energy is made of thin white ceramic
plates (100 100 mm). Originally introduced in the late 1990s by K. R.
Sridhar and his team at the University of Arizona as part of the NASA
Mars space program, these SOFC were later developed by Bloom Energy.
Each ceramic plate is coated with a green nickel oxide-based ink on

one side (anode) and another black ink (probably Lanthanum strontium
manganite) on the other side (cathode). The electrolyte materials may
include a scandia-stabilized zirconia (with higher conductivity than
yttria-stabilized zirconia at lower temperatures), which provides greater
efficiency and higher reliability when used as an electrolyte in SOFC
applications.25
Adding another revealing clue to the silent and yet powerful shift
occurring in industry, from polluting technology to cleantech, in 2011
Bloom Energy purchased from the automaker Chrysler a former car
manufacturing factory in Newark, Delaware, which was closed down
during the 2008 recession. The factory is currently being repurposed and
will eventually manufacture 30 MW modules using its SOFCs.
Innovation in fuel cell technology and solar hydrogen is rapidly
occurring in several countries. In Italy, Electro Power Systems has
developed a self-recharging back-up power system (ElectroSelf, Figure
4.20) that overcomes one of the biggest obstacles to mass deployment of
fuel cells, namely the sourcing of hydrogen.26
The system uses an electrolyzer and a PEM (proton exchange mem-
brane) fuel cell to minimize the mismatch in energy production and
consumption by efficiently storing energy from the grid or when
renewables are plentiful, and instantaneously releasing energy whenever
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Figure 4.20 By simply adding water to the ElectroSelf, the system self-generates
hydrogen fuel using electric power from the grid or from PV solar or
wind energy. It releases energy instantaneously when there is a power dip
or outage.
renewables are weak or absent. As such, the system is able to ensure a

steady power supply for virtually any application, ensuring always-on
power and connectivity. By late 2011, over 600 ElectroSelf fuel cell
power systems had been installed in Europe, Asia, Africa and the
Americas.
To get an idea of the environmental and economic relevance of this
fuel-cell technology, it is sufficient to remind the reader that currently
there are about 5 million telephone communication towers in remote,
off-grid locations that, continuously needing power, rely on either diesel
generators or solar PV panels coupled to lead batteries. The Electro-
Self – which was redesigned in 2011 to be smaller and more efficient,
with higher performance and enhanced flexibility – is logistics-free
and drastically reduces the economic and environmental economics of
back-up power provision. Customers can get rid of batteries and diesel
generators, and thus eliminate the costs of fuel logistics and heavy
maintenance, as well as the fossil fuel price uncertainty.
Similary, BOC has recently introduced to the portable power market
its Hymera hydrogen fuel cell generator,27 which can provide up to
200 W of off-grid DC power (Figure 4.21). When coupled to a portable
hydrogen cylinder, the Hymera DC can provide 2–3 kWh of energy.
Cylinders can be manifolded together for much longer run-times. Again,
water vapor is the only by-product and operation is near-silent, making
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138 Chapter 4
Figure 4.21 The Hymera generator runs on hydrogen and is supported by a light-
weight hydrogen cylinder. This package has an integrated regulator,
making it simple and easy to use. When full, the cylinder package
weighs approximately 10 kg.
these generators ideally suited for applications where the emissions from
diesel or petrol generators could become a problem, or where noise is an

issue. Applications include portable power applications and those that
need to operate continuously for long periods of time, such as security
cameras, environmental monitoring, wireless communication systems
and back-up power for communications systems.
4.6 Portable Devices Running on Hydrogen

Two billion chargers are sold each year through the mobile phone
charger market. The travel charger sub-segment is the fastest grow-
ing charger segment, with an estimated market value of more
than h11 billion. A number of new fuel cell companies using
hydrogen fueled fuel cells are now actively trying to establish sales in
this market.
Singapore-based Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies28 is a fuel cell
manufacturer that offers a wide range (10 W to 5 kW) of standard PEM
fuel cell systems, as well as customized fuel cell system configurations up
to 30 kW.
The company recently commercialized the table-top hydrogen
refueling station Hydrofill (Figure 4.22) and the portable emergency fuel
cell back-up generator HydroPak. The Hydrofill system allows con-
sumers to refill solid state cartridges in a simple way, using water and
electricity as the only inputs.
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Figure 4.22 The Hydrofill system is designed to refill Horizon’s Hydrostik solid
hydrogen cartridges using a high performance water electrolyzer.
Figure 4.23 At 50–120 W, the HYDROPAK is the world’s lowest cost fuel cell ‘‘off-
grid’’ power device that combines PEM fuel cell technology with energy
storage cartridges using sodium borohydride.
The HydroPak (Figure 4.23) is the result of a collaborative effort with

Millennium Cell,29 a pioneering US fuel cell company that went out of
business in 2008, to bring forth a low cost ($400) portable generator that
uses $20 disposable cartridges, making it affordable and effective.
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140 Chapter 4
Millennium Cell developed a proprietary catalyst to generate hydro-

gen from a sodium borohydride dispersion in water in a controllable,
heat-releasing reaction (Equation 4.1).
NaBH þ 2H2 O ! 4H2 þ NaBO2 ðaqÞ þ |fflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflffl B300 kJ ð4:1Þ

|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl4{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl
ffl} |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} ffl}
An energy-dense Borate can be Exothermic
water-based fuel recycled into reaction
ði:e:; 30 wt% NaBH4 NaBH4 requires no heat
holds 6:7 wt% H2 Þ input
Hydrogen is stored in a solid form at low pressure using metal hydride

alloys that absorb H2 molecules into their crystalline structure, and
release them safely at low pressures. The fuel originating from Equation
(4.1) is, at room-temperature, a non-flammable liquid under no pressure.
No side reactions or volatile by-products are formed, whereas the H2 gas
generated has high purity (no CO or S) and is humidified (the heat
generates some water vapor).
In general, storing hydrogen in metal hydrides creates the highest
volumetric energy density of any form of hydrogen storage, even higher
than liquid hydrogen (Figure 4.24).30 Solid state storage of H2 as sodium

borohydride is thus a practical means of storing hydrogen for portable
devices because the hydrogen storage material can be handled and
transported easily. The current low production cost of sodium bor-
ohydride (5 h kg1) is declining further, making this an economically and
technically valid storage option for this and related applications of the
H2 fuel cell.
Figure 4.24 Hydrogen storage - Comparison of chemical hydrides in terms of weight

percent.
(Reproduced from Y. Wu. Hydrogen Storage via Sodium Borohydride.
Current Status, Barriers, and R&D Roadmap, GCEP – Stanford Uni-
versity, April 14–15, 2003, with kind permission.)
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As a result, by adding water only, and plugging the Hydrofill into an

electrical wall-socket (or a solar panel), consumers can automatically
generate hydrogen and store it in a safe, solid form in Hydrostik car-
tridges. For example, 25 W DC power is enough to produce 10 L of
hydrogen per hour, and to fill one Hydrostik cartridge with hydrogen
stored in solid form.

With the Hydrofill desktop refueler (Figure 4.25), users no longer
need to wait for the infrastructure for hydrogen to be developed,
because water is ubiquitous and the device can use power either from
the grid or from solar PV modules. Once full, the battery-like refillable
Hydrostik can be unplugged from the Hydrofill and placed into a new
portable power device named Minipak (or other fuel cell devices) to
deliver 1.5 W via the USB port to power smartphones, lights and other
devices.
Each Hydrostik can store 11 Wh of energy, which is enough for one or
two charges of a 3G smartphone or two to three charges for the average
cellphone. In comparison with current primary and rechargeable bat-
teries, with 1 W power consumption, most AA batteries can only last
1 hour, while a Hydrostik has enough energy to last 10 hours. In other
words:
1 Hydrostik ¼ 10 disposable AA batteries at 1 W continuous power

consumption.
Figure 4.25 The Hydrostik is competitive on cost/performance with existing battery

devices, providing a low-cost (the whole system costs about $200) por-
table energy option for users.
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142 Chapter 4
Figure 4.26 The MINIPAK includes a passive air-breathing PEM fuel cell, able to
draw hydrogen stored as solid hydride inside the specially designed
HYDROSTIK cartridge.
Given that one cartridge can be refilled 100 times, the same Hydrostik
over its lifetime replaces 1000 (10 100) disposable AA batteries.
The cartridges are inserted into the portable power charger and power
extender Minipak (Figure 4.26), which is compatible with a variety of
portable electronic devices and thus positioned to address the needs of
users of power-hungry devices.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2012 in Las Vegas, the Swedish
company myFC introduced its PowerTrekk (Figure 4.27) fuel cell
charger (and PowerPukk fuelling cartridges), also aimed at the portable
electronics market.31
Again, users simply insert a fuel ‘‘puck’’ and add water to allow rapid
recharging of their cellphones, cameras and global positioning system
(GPS) devices. Using sodium silicide (NaSi) storage, the fuel cartridges
are activated by a small quantity of water and produce up to 4 L of
hydrogen gas. Sodium silicide is a pyrophoric material. The fuel
employed in the PowerTrekk is made of a specially formulated NaSi
powder that is easily handled, does not react with dry oxygen, and
absorbs moisture from air slowly without ignition.
Sodium silicide is a pyrophoric material that requires special storage
and handling. The fuel developed by SiGNa Chemistry, Inc.32 is made of
Na4Si4 powders that react rapidly, but controllably, with water to
produce hydrogen. The company has achieved the highest hydrogen
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Figure 4.27 The new myFC portable, water-powered fuel-cell charger PowerTrekk
can be used to recharge a smartphone. The PowerTrekk will be sold
initially for $299, and will be on sale in the USA from May 2012.
production yield of 9.5 wt%, i.e. 0.095 kg H2 per 1 kg fuel, according to

the reaction in Equation (4.2):

2NaSiðsÞ þ 5H2 OðlÞ ! Na2 Si2O5 ðaq:Þ þ 5H2 þ Heat B175 kJ mol 1 ð4:2Þ
In other words, the reaction produces five moles of hydrogen, almost

instantaneously, from the reduction of five moles of water and only two
moles of NaSi. As a result, sodium silicide provides greater power
density per unit of weight than amorphous, sol-gel silica doped with
sodium (Na-SG, Figure 4.28).33
At the heart of the fuel cell chargers is the FuelCellStickers pro-
prietary technology. Made from foils and adhesives, these ‘‘stickers’’ –
which are reliably and efficiently produced via a roll to roll, high
volume manufacturing process – are assembled into a flexible assembly
less than 2.75 mm thick. The company claims to be the world leader in
micro fuel cell, planar technology featuring power density over
600 mW cm3.
The modular and scalable FuelCellStickers can also be assembled into
‘‘Blades’’ (Figure 4.29), providing higher power and efficient perfor-
mance in a form factor less than 3 mm thick. These flexible components
can be easily integrated on to the front or back covers, lids, bottoms and
sides of mobile devices.
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144 Chapter 4
Figure 4.28 Production of hydrogen by the two SiGNa Chemistry materials.

Figure 4.29 Flexible ‘‘Blades’’, made by myFC, are fuel cell components with a form
factor less than 3 mm thick, ideally suited for customizable integration.
4.7 An Insight into the Solar Hydrogen Economy

Although the English term ‘‘hydrogen economy’’, to describe a system
of delivering energy using hydrogen, was coined by John Bockris, a
former professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University, during a talk
he gave in 1970 at General Motors, scientific interest in the solar
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Figure 4.30 In a famous 1912 paper entitled ‘‘The Photochemistry of the Future’’,
chemist Giacomo Ciamician foresaw the future energy transition from
fossil to solar fuels.
hydrogen economy goes back to 1912, to the famous paper of Giacomo

Ciamician entitled ‘‘The Photochemistry of the Future’’34 (Figure 4.30).
This paper emphasized the need for an energy transition from fossil to
solar fuels and foresaw that ‘‘our black and nervous civilization, based
on coal’’, would be followed by ‘‘a quieter civilization based on the
utilization of solar energy’’.
One hundred years later this prediction is eventually coming true.
Indeed, a solar hydrogen economy finally makes sense, even if there are
efficiency losses in storing (or liquefying) and delivering H2,35 because
the available solar power is virtually unlimited and, concomitantly, the
solar CSP and PV energy technologies, and the fuel cell and electrolyzer
technologies, are eventually becoming low-cost and ubiquitous. Given
that the sun delivers 5000 times our present global power needs, an area
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146 Chapter 4
as small as 500500 km2 is needed to supply the world’s energy needs (a

tiny fraction of the world’s desert area). Using mirrors, focused sunlight
can heat water viably to generate electricity via a conventional steam
turbine.
In a recent investigation based on order of magnitude calculations,
without referring to environmental arguments but focusing on economic

convenience only, Abbott has suggested that sunlight is the scalable
source of power on which our future energy needs must rely, using low-
tech CSP, where solar thermal collectors are preferred to PV solar
cells.36
The point about solar energy is that there is so much of it that you
only have to tap 5% of it at an efficiency as tiny as 1% and you
already have energy over 5 times the whole world’s present con-
sumption. . . There is so much solar that all you have to do is invest
in the non-recurring cost of more dishes to drive a solar-hydrogen
economy at whatever efficiency it happens to sit at.
Solar H2 obtained from water is the fuel of the future because it solves
the intermittency of supply of free solar energy, meeting one key

requirement of modern societies: incessant flows of energy. Human
activity and energy usage of course correlate significantly with the
delivery of radiation from the sun, and solar hydrogen produced by
water electrolysis is an excellent load-following clean technology.
For Abbott, combustion of solar H2 should be preferred to hydrogen
fuel cells because the latter are not scalable owing to the use of expensive
membrane technology as well as expensive metal catalysts (platinum).
By the same logic, CSP systems integrated with nanocatalysts are cap-
able of splitting water directly and will have an immense impact on
energy economics, because they require no electrolysis to provide
affordable, renewable solar hydrogen with virtually zero CO2 emissions.
Such plants can offer new opportunities to regions of the world that
have a huge solar potential, which can become important local produ-
cers of clean hydrogen.
We argue that the intrinsic versatility and the apparently endless
falling price trend of PV electricity supports the use of solar PV stations
to produce hydrogen locally from water electrolysis as the price of PV
modules approaches a historic low of $0.5 W1. If, for example, the roof
of a 250 m2 (ca. 20 kWp) solar station in Austria can produce 823 kg of
pure H2 per year, in regions such as Sicily, where PV electricity has
already reached grid-parity,37 this figure should be almost doubled (70%
more), further lowering the cost of solar hydrogen.
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Figure 4.31 This home in New Jersey runs on solar power and stored solar hydrogen
using only 56 solar PV panels on the garage roof and a small electrolyzer.
In 2007, when the system was installed, the cost of a PV module was
$7 W1. Today, the same module sells at about $0.80 W1.
Smil agrees that transition to new energy sources is unavoidable, but

remarks that even if a non-fossil world may be highly desirable, many
decades will be needed for solar energy to capture substantial market
shares on a global scale, because of the enormity of the requisite tech-
nical and infrastructure developments.39
Yet, low cost solar hydrogen will actually enable the shift to a dis-
tributed power distribution infrastructure, both in the developing
countries of Africa and Asia, where hundreds of millions of people will
start to use electricity and in affluent countries (Figure 4.31), where the
price of fossil electricity and heat has been endlessly increasing for more
than a decade.
Furthermore, new generation fuel cells and electrolyzers will be
nanochemistry-based, requiring ever lower amounts of platinum to
afford unprecedented performance in terms of power delivered and
power density, and using much cheaper and readily available metal
nanocatalysts such as nickel or molybdenum. It is perhaps not surprising
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148 Chapter 4
Figure 4.32 The tight-binding structure of APEs with high ion-exchange capacity for Ni-
based fuel cells. In the self-cross-linking design used, a short-range cross-
linker, tertiary amino groups, is grafted onto the quaternary ammonia
polysulfone (QAPS), so that the cross-linking process can only occur during
membrane casting. The self-cross-linked polysulfone is highly resistant to
swelling: even at 80 1C, the membrane swells by less than 3%.
that new platinum-free polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFC), comprised

of alkaline polymer electrolytes (APEs, Figure 4.32), have been invented
recently in China.40
In these innovative fuel cells the APE is as conductive and stable as its
acidic Nafion membrane (a trademark of Du Pont) counterpart, which
has been studied and used for decades in acidic fuel cells that use pla-
tinum catalysts. In detail, the new APEs are highly resistant to swelling
and show excellent ionic conductivity at 80 1C, i.e. at typical tempera-
tures for fuel-cell operation, which opens the route to low cost Ni-based
fuel cells for a wide variety of commercial applications.41
Fuel cells, after all, are already selling without subsidies in many
markets, and more than 700 000 fuel cells were sold cumulatively
between 2005 and 2011 (Figure 4.33).42 Portable, stationary and trans-
port applications are all exhibiting growth, with the different electrolytes
establishing their roles in the various sectors.41 When low cost, Ni-based
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Figure 4.33 Fuel cell shipments by application, 2007–2011.

catalysts are made available for alkaline fuel cells in the 10–200 kW
power range, namely that of scooters, cars, trucks and boats, expect the
transport column in Figure 4.33 to grow exponentially.
However, when are our global energy needs likely to be met using
sunlight as energy input and water as raw material? Very shortly, we
argue, within the next decade. This time, our argument is based on
economic and technological reasoning. Where is, for example, the eco-
nomic interest of countries such as China and the USA, the world’s
largest economies, to go ahead with dependence on foreign oil and
natural gas when both countries own huge desert regions that are
exceptionally suited to massive adoption of solar and solar hydrogen
energy? Many countries, furthermore, have an urgent need to reduce the
large public debt accumulated following public bailout of the financial
system, create new jobs and reduce import of foreign oil and natural gas,
which, even in a relatively small country like Italy, costs 63 billion Euros
per year.43
Thermochemical water splitting using free and unlimited solar energy
as the only energy input, via the highly scalable CSP technology coupled
to nanocatalysis (see Chapter 3), will be used to produce massive
amounts of carbon-free hydrogen by deploying very inexpensive solar
reactors and mirrors on acres of vacant, non-productive land. To
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150 Chapter 4
increase the scale of this system, it will be sufficient to add more solar
reactors and more mirrors. The very same reactors will also be available
to split carbon dioxide and produce carbon neutral solar fuels that can
be piped into the existing natural gas or oil infrastructure for everyday
use in homes, power plants, factories, and vehicles.
For almost a century, scientists have tried to split water cost effec-
tively by electrolysis to produce hydrogen and oxygen. Today, however,
using innovative nanochemistry techniques described in Chapter 2, low
cost electrolyzers and compressors are now available, along with low
cost PV modules, opening the route to economically viable distributed
generation using part of the overall roof surface of existing buildings.
Their products not only help to reduce CO2 emission but will also help
to produce electricity where it is needed, in the home. This also helps to
avoid the need for massive new power stations and new transmission
lines.
In a thoughtful and realistic analysis,44 dating back to 2007, of the
conditions that need to be met for the success of a hydrogen-based
economy (Figure 4.34), Marbán and Valdés-Solı́s concluded that, first,
Figure 4.34 Expectations for the hydrogen society in the distant future. Renewable
energies are intensified and hydrogen fuel cells are employed to achieve
higher efficiencies.
View Online
international organizations should be strong enough to enforce the

international agreements on global reductions in CO2 emissions via a
global emission market (an estimated cost of $50 per ton of CO2 was
estimated to be sufficient to force energy companies to adopt carbon-free
energy sources). Second, technological development should bring about
a reduction in the costs of H2 production, distribution, storage and

utilization.
The latter change is actually taking place, as we assist in the con-
tinuous reduction in the cost of solar energy and related solar hydrogen
technologies that goes along with the consistently high price of oil,
which remains at 4US$90 per barrel, despite the prolonged global
economic recession that started in 2008.45
Fuel cell prices, for example, are rapidly declining thanks to
improving technology and scaling up of production. The year 2011 saw
the first profitable fuel cell firms,46 such as Electro Power Systems and
Horizon Fuel Cells Technologies, mentioned above. The management of
both these companies understood that in terms of the fuel-cell binomial
it was the ‘‘fuel’’ and its availability on which they should focus their
efforts. Their fuel cell devices integrate a water electrolyzer and a safe
hydrogen storage system so that the user, by simply tapping water,

becomes the ‘‘hydrogen infrastructure’’.47
As a result of these (and forthcoming) advances, we believe that fuel
cells running on hydrogen will soon be found in many households,
where solar H2 will be produced locally using solar electricity.
As the number and reach of similar successful projects implemented
worldwide grows, the huge potential of solar energy, in both developing
countries endowed with ample solar energy, such as China, India and
Brazil, and wealthy countries such as the USA and Australia, will
become self-evident. We add to this our idea that further progress will
increasingly make use of alternative forms of finance whose focus is on
funding ethically and environmentally sound projects, and this will
naturally have a great impact on the solar energy business. This will
accelerate further widespread adoption of solar fuel energy that even-
tually will become the most economically and technically convenient
fuel option, replacing our dependence on fossil fuels.
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Subject Index
Note: Italic page references indicate that the topic is mentioned only in a
Figure or Table
Abbott, D. viii, 88–9, 146 Bakersfield CSP plant

accidents and disasters 19, 86, 87
21–2 Balzani, V. 26
Acta Energy 64 batteries
activated cathodes 52 in electric vehicles
activation energies 2, 129–30
44, 47 flow batteries 110–11

airplanes, hydrogen powered 28, fuel cell alternative 73–4, 137,
31, 32 141–2
airships 19 fuel cell hybrids 128–31
alkaline polymer electrolytes recharging 120
(APE) 148–9 safety 22
alkaline water electrolysis unsustainability of
(AWE) 42, 45–51, lithium-based 83
62–6, 68 battery electric vehicles
Alsterwasser boat 21–2 (BEVs) 129–30, 131
ammonia production 9 Bilgen, E. 59
Andrews, J. 53 biomass energy 14–15
anergy 25 Bloom Energy 134–6
Apple iPhone 28 BMW hydrogen-powered
Arcola Energy 68 vehicles 122–3, 125–7
Arezzo, Italy 75 boats, hydrogen powered x, 8, 9,
Austria 73, 146 21–2
automobiles, hydrogen BOC 68, 127, 137
powered x, 5, 6, 126–30 Bockris, John 144
see also FCVs boiling points 1–2, 4
automotive manufacturers 12, 33, Bossell, U. 84, 108
76–7, 121, 127–9 Bradford, T. 15
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156 Subject Index

burning, hydrogen in air water electrolysis 44, 48
concentration range 2, 5 see also platinum; redox systems
flame detection 20 catalytic converters 94, 121
highest temperature 2 cation exchange see PEM
hydrogen combustion electrolyzers
engines 16, 122–6, cellphones x, 28, 138, 141

128–9 central heating system
buses, hydrogen powered 29–30, boilers 25–6, 27
35, 128–9 ceria (CeO2) 96, 100–7
Challenger disaster 19
calcium oxide 106 China 33, 82, 90, 148–9, 151
California CHP (combined heat and power)
CSP plant 85, 88 schemes 28, 120
fueling stations 17, 29, 77 Ciamician, Giacomo 145
Telonicher Marine Clayton Falls hydroelectric
Laboratory 68, 70 plant 110–11, 112
Canada 72, 110 climate change mitigation
carbon aerogels 63 CO2 splitting 98–9, 105
carbon dioxide (CO2) hydrogen economy ix, 13, 24
atmospheric 105 public support 20

avoding emission of 5, 13, 132, closed material cycles 14, 50,
146 91–2
from hydrogen plants 11 closed reactors 91–2, 94
splitting 98–108 CO/CO2 see carbon monoxide/
see also emissions dioxide
carbon monoxide (CO) 10–11, coal use 82
98–100, 102–4, 105, 107–8 combined heat and power
carbon neutral solar fuels (CHP) 28, 120
98–108 compressors 68–72, 76, 77
carbon storage xi, 99 costs
Carlisle, Anthony 40 CSP projections 15, 88–9, 146
Carnotian efficiency ix, 25, 42 electricity and
Carpetis, C. 60 electrolysis 58–60, 67–8
cars see automobiles gasoline comparison 59, 62
catalysts hydrogen engine
carbon aerogels 63 conversion 123
cobalt 63 hydrogen fuel cells 121, 129–30,
CSP as a catalytic process 18 146, 148–9, 151
gas purifiers 52 hydrogen pipelines 133
nanochemistry 62, 147 hydrogen storage 84
nickel 7, 48, 62–3, 99, 147 installed hydrogen capacity 33
ortho-para interconversion 7 oil prices 10, 25, 82, 151
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Subject Index 157

peak electricity 112 The Economist 127
PV (photovoltaic) energy 15, efficiency
58–62, 146–7 Carnotian efficiency ix, 25, 42
CR5 (Counter Rotating Ring electric vehicles 130
Receiver Reactor exergy efficiency 25
Recuperator) 107 Faraday efficiency 69

CSP (concentrated solar power) fuel cells 73
cost trends 15, 88–9, 146 HARI project 113
oxide-based water hydrogen power plants 131
splitting 90–7 Schatz Solar Hydrogen
principles and status 82–90, 146 Project 69–70
PV and 16, 18 thermochemical
scalability 150 splitting 102–3, 107–8
steam turbines and 86–90 viability and 146
water and CO2 splitting 99–108 water electrolysis 11–12, 46,
52–4, 57, 60–3
Daimler AG 12, 31, 33, 128–9 electricity
decentralized generation see energy transportation
distributed generation advantages of 26–7, 108, 118
densities of fuels 4 generation from hydrogen 5, 6,

Department of Energy (DOE), 108–9, 131, 146
US 29, 59, 83 off-peak 76
deserts 85–6, 88–90, 146, 149 prices and electrolysis
deuterium (2H) 5 economics 59–62, 67–8
direct coupling systems 50, 52–7 prices and ‘peak shaving’ 112
direct water splitting see CSP Electro Power Systems 136, 151
dissipation 43–4 electrodes, water electrolysis
distributed generation 43–5, 48, 52, 62–3, 65–7
economic viability 72, 150 electrolytes
electrolyzer technology 72–8 fuel cell 136
hydrogen fuel cells 134–8 Nafion 48, 120, 148
off-grid power 75, 76, 137 water electrolysis 45
PV suitability 15–16, 18, 50 electrolytic processes
and the smart grid 109–10 applications and potential 68–78
doping, redox systems 96, 105 costs 58–62, 67–8
efficiency 11–12
economic viability emerging technologies 62–8
grid-parity ix, 17, 70, 146 fuel cells 18, 42
hydrogen power plants 133 high differential pressure
hydrogen powered electrolyzers 77, 128
vehicles 127–30 see also PV; water electrolysis
water electrolysis 58–60 ‘electron economy’ 108–14
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158 Subject Index

ElectroSelf system 136–7 examples 119, 121
embrittlement 5, 131–2 market and status 12–13, 30,
emissions, greenhouse gas 33, 76, 77
avoiding 8, 13, 92, 132, 138 potential 126–30
FCVs 121 sustainability 83
from hydrogen plants 11 filling/fueling stations see

nitrogen oxides (NOx) 5, 125–6 hydrogen (re)fueling stations
emissions market 150–1 flame, hydrogen combustion 4, 5,
energy 20
anergy and exergy 25 flammable limit 52
global power needs viii, 82, flow batteries 110–11
105, 145, 149 flux concentration ratio 85
hydrogen combustion 2 footprint see land area
water electrolysis 40–2, 46 fossil fuels
see also power coal use 82
energy densities 4–5, 123, 140 power densities 14
see also power densities see also hydrocarbon fuels
energy dissipation 43–4 France 31, 87, 97, 132
energy storage Fresnel technology 85–6
advantages of hydrogen for 12, fuel, hydrogen as

110 in internal combustion
yield fluctuations and 69, 72 engines 16, 122–6, 128–9
energy transfer 56 space vehicles 3
energy transportation Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy
advantages of electricity Association (FCHEA) 29
for 26–7, 108, 114 fuel cell vehicles see FCVs
advantages of hydrocarbons 98 fuel cells
advantages of hydrogen in accidents 21
for 25–8 in distributed generation
enthalpy 2, 40–2 134–8
entropy 26, 41–2 energy outputs 27
environmental factors 14, 24–5 flow batteries 110–11
eolic electricity see wind farms/ fuel cell engines 119–22
turbines history 8
European Hydrogen Association innovative technology 148
(EHA) 29 low-cost catalysts viii–ix
exergy 25 markets and applications 12,
explosive mixtures 5, 20, 94 119–22
processes in hydrogen-
Faraday constant 18, 40 oxygen 18, 47
FCVs (fuel cell vehicles) transportability 16
efficiency 121 see also FCVs
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Subject Index 159

Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint HARI (Hydrogen Renewables and
Undertaking (FCH-JU) Integration) project 48, 49,
29, 30 112–13
FuelCellStickers 143 HARP (Hydrogen Assisted
‘Future Project Hydrogen’ Renewable Power)
team 73 systems 110–11, 112

heating values 2–3, 55
Gammon, R. 114 heliostats viii, 85–6, 88, 91–2,
gas purifiers 52 95–6
gasoline Hempstead, New York,
cost comparisons 59, 62 scheme 77–8
physical properties 123, 125 high differential pressure
safety comparisons 21 electrolyzers 77, 128
see also internal combustion Hindenburg disaster 19
engines Honda
General Motors 127, 132, 144 refueling facilities 17, 18, 75–7,
Germany 127
hydrogen-powered boat vehicles 12, 33, 121
21–4 Horizon Fuel Cell
partnership projects 31, 70, 91, Technologies 138, 139, 151

97 H2mobility.org site 128
pipelines 132 H2stations.org site 33
power plants 133 hybrid systems 21, 128, 133, 134
PV peak shaving 112 hydrocarbon fuels
refueling stations 33, 129 as energy carriers 98–100
Gibbs free energy 40, 42 physical properties of hydrogen
Gibson, T. L. 57 and 3–5
global emissions market 151 safety 21
global hydrogen production 11 see also gasoline; natural gas;
global power needs viii, 82, 105, oil
145, 149 hydrocracking 9, 132
global warming see climate Hydrofill refueling station 138,
change 139, 141
Greece 16, 31, 70, 91, 121 hydrogen
greenhouse gases see emissions as an energy carrier 25–8
grid, electricity economics of electrolytic 58–62
balancing 72, 110 in internal combustion
using existing 108–9, 114 engines 122–6
grid-parity ix, 17, 70, 146 isotopes 5, 7
see also PV in portable devices 138–44
GridShift, Inc. 62 power plants 130–4
Grove, William 8 production and utilization 8–13
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160 Subject Index
hydrogen (continued) HydroPak back-up

safety and sustainability 19–25 generator 138–9
science and technology Hydrosol process 90–100
network 28–35 combined with CO2
solar, principles of 13–18 splitting 98–9
from solid hydrides and Hydrosol 2 pilot plant 91, 96–7

silicides 140, 142–3 Hydrosol 3D project 97
spin isomers, molecular 7 Hydrostik cartridges 139, 141–2
storage of x, 21, 84, 133–4, 140 HyFLEET:CUTE project 29, 32
structure and properties 1–8 Hymera fuel cell 137, 138
Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter HySAFER program (European
(www.hfcletter.com) 29 Commission) 24
Hydrogen Analysis (H2A) tool 59 HYsolar installation 70
Hydrogen Assisted Renewable
Power (HARP) ignition
systems 110–11, 112 concentrations 123, 125
Hydrogen Challenger ship 12 explosion risk and 19–21
hydrogen combustion see burning temperature of spontaneous 5
hydrogen economy thermal activation energy 2
‘electron economy’ and 108–9 imports x, 112, 149

environmental and social impurities, commercial
impact 24–5 hydrogen 119
viability arguments 84, 92, 98, insolation 85, 89
127, 144–51 internal combustion engines (ICE)
hydrogen fuel cells see fuel cells efficiency 73, 121–3
hydrogen pipelines x, 24, 75, 132 emissions 8
hydrogen powered see airplanes; hydrogen-fueled 122–6,
boats; vehicles 128–9
hydrogen (re)fueling stations International Association for
distribution of 33–5, 127, 129, 133 Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) ix,
electrolytic hydrogen 17, 18, 28–9
73, 77–8 International Association for
tabletop 138 Hydrogen Safety
wastewater derived 29, 30 (IAHySafe) 23
Hydrogen Renewables and International Journal of Hydrogen
Integration (HARI) project 48, Energy 29
49, 112–13 iron, mixed oxides 91, 96, 107
Hydrogen Safety Best Practices Italy
Manual 23 FCH-JU partners 31
hydrogenfuelnews.com x fuel imports 149
Hydrogenics 72, 73 projects 75, 112, 113, 130, 136,
HydroLAb 75, 76 149
View Online
Subject Index 161

Sicily ix, 146 ceria (CeO2) 96, 100–7
Venice 5, 6, 131, 132 mixed iron oxides 91, 96
ITM Power 65 water splitting using 90–7
methane 2–4, 11, 29, 99
Japan Hydrogen & Fuel Cell microgrids 110, 111
Demonstration Project 30 Millennium Cell 139–40

Joshi, A. S. 23 Miller, James 107
Joule heating 44 mirrors (heliostats) viii, 85–6, 88,
91–2, 95–6
Kell, N. A. 57 mobile phones x, 28, 138, 141
KOH (potassium Mojave Desert CSP plant
hydroxide) 46–8, 49, 67 85, 86
Konstandopoulos, Athanasios G. molten carbonate fuel cells
xviii, 97–8 (MCFCs) 121
molybdenum 65–6
land area, PV and CSP viii, 57–8, monolithic reactors 94–5, 102
85, 88–9, 145–6 motorization see vehicles
leakage 20, 24 multivalent metal oxides 90–7
liquefaction 1, 5 myFC 142, 143–4
liquid hydrogen
as a fuel 3, 31, 32, 123 Nafion electrolyte 48, 120, 148
properties 1–3, 7, 23 nanochemistry
for storage 5, 89, 140, 145 Hydrosol monolithic
lithium batteries 83, 130 reactors 94–5
low heating values (LHV) 2–3 metal nanocatalysts
low temperature electrolyzers 50 62, 147
Luz Industries 85, 86 National Solar Thermal Test
Facility (NSTTF) 107
Marbán, G. 150–1 natural gas
market segments 72, 138 distributed generation 135
markets reforming 10
FCVs 12–13, 33 safety comparisons 22, 24
fuel cells 28, 148–9 net calorific value 2
global emissions 151 Nicholson, William 40
hydrogen 10 nickel catalysts 7, 48, 62–3,
mobile phone chargers 138 99, 147
maximum power point/tracker nickel cathodes 52, 62
(MPP/T) 52–3, 54–5, 57 nickel oxide anodes 136
Mercedes FCVs 119, 120, 128 nitrogen oxides (NOx) 5,
metal oxides 125–6
carbon dioxide splitting noble metals see platinum
using 106 group
View Online
162 Subject Index

off-grid power see distributed fuel cell requirements 83,
generation 121–2, 146–8
oil palladium and rhodium xi,
imports 127, 149 44–5, 121
prices 10, 25, 82, 151 poisoning 119
production 30 polarization curves 54

online resources polymer electrolyte membranes see
hfcletter.com 29 PEM electrolyzers
H2mobility.org site 128 polymers (‘solar plastics’) 99
H2stations.org site 33 portability, fuel cells 27–8
Hydrogen Safety Best Practices portable devices 138–44
Manual 23 potassium hydroxide
hydrogenfuelnews.com x (KOH) 46–8, 49, 67
onsite power generation see power densities 14, 143, 147
distributed generation see also energy densities
Ontario electricity utility 72, 73 power plants 130–4
ortho-hydrogen 7 PowerPukk fueling cartridges 142
overpotentials 44–6, 52, 63 PowerTrekk fuel cell charger 142,
oxidation-reduction processes see 143
redox prices see costs

protium (1H) 5, 7
palladium catalysts xi, 44–5, 121 proton exchange membranes see
para-hydrogen 7 PEM electrolyzers
Paul, B. 53 PV (photovoltaic) energy
‘peak shaving’ 111–12 costs 15, 58–62, 146–7
PEM electrolyzers CSP and 16–18
high pressure 63–5 degradation with use 70, 71
inidividual applications 69, emerging technologies 62–8
136, 138–9, 142, 148 installed capacity 112
metal catalyst issues 83, 120–1, introduced viii
148 power densities 14–15
performance and PV assisted water
efficiency 52–4, 57 electrolysis 50–8
technology outline 45–6, 48–50 pyrophoric materials 142
phase diagram 2, 3
phosphoric acid fuel cells QuantumSphere 62
(PAFCs) 121
physical properties of Raney nickel 48
hydrogen 1–2 RE Hydrogen 65, 66, 67–8
platinum group metals reactor design
alternatives 67 combined water and CO2
as catalytic electrodes 44–5 splitting 98–107
View Online
Subject Index 163

thermochemical water Solar Hydrogen Station
splitting 90–6 (Honda) 75–7
redox processes 90 solar tower systems 85, 88, 91, 103
redox systems solid oxide electrolyzers
ceria (CeO2) 96, 100–7 (SOWE) 45–6
doping 96, 105 solid oxide fuel cells

Hydrosol 90–7 (SOFC) 135–6
regeneration 90, 93–5 solid polymer electrolyte (SPE)
stability 102 systems 45–6
renewable energy sources solid polymer membrane
electrolysis using 12, 50, 68, systems 63, 65
71–7, 112 solid state hydrogen storage 140
power densities 15 space program
solar as 13, 15 electrolysis cells 42
see also wind electrolyte technology 48
Riviera 600 (boat) x, 9, 73, 74 hydrogen fuel cells 27, 119, 136
Romm, J. J. 14 use of hydrogen 3, 19, 31
Russia 30–3 Space Shuttle 3, 4, 5, 19
Russian 31
Sabatier process 99 Spain 70, 85, 87–8, 91, 97

safety of electrolytes 48, 49 FCH-JU partners 31
safety of hydrogen 19–25 specific energy 12–13, 50, 131
Sandia National Laboratories specific heat capacity 7–8
107 spin isomers 7
Schatz Solar Hydrogen steam electrolyzers 46
Project 68–70 steam turbines 86, 90
sensors, hydrogen 20 Steinfeld, Aldo 90, 97,
Seville, solar tower plant 85, 100–3, 105
86 Stirling engines 89
ships, hydrogen from 12 storage of electricity viii, 50
Sicily ix, 146 storage of energy 12, 69, 72, 110
Sierra Sun Tower 88 storage of hydrogen
SiGNa Chemistry Inc. 142 costs 84
smart grid 109–10 safety 21, 22
Smil, V. vii, 147 solid state x, 140
societal benefits 25 underground 133–4
sodium borohydride 140 submersibles 31, 121
sodium silicide (NaSi) 142 Sun Belt 87–9
Solar Energy Generating Systems Sun Catalytix 63
(SEGS) 86 ‘sun’ units 85
solar hydrogen economy see surface area see land area
hydrogen economy sustainability 24–5, 82–3
View Online
164 Subject Index

synthesis gas (syngas) 11, 99, hydrogen fueled x, 122–6
103–4, 106 hydrogen powered 126–30
see also automobiles; buses;
telephones FCVs; hydrogen (re)fueling
communication towers 137 stations
mobile phones x, 28, 138, 141 Venice 5, 6, 131, 132

Telonicher Marine Volta, Alessandro 40
Laboratory 68–70
temperature wastewater 29, 30
control, Hydrosol reactors 95 water, density of hydrogen in 2
ignition 5 water electrolysis
operational, fuel cells 119 applications and
specific heat capacity and 7–8 potential 68–78
terawatt level generation xi current technologies
thermal activation energy 2 45–50
thermochemical water splitting economics 58–60
Hydrosol approach 90–7 market segments 72
principles 82–90 principles 40–5
reactor design 104–5 PV assisted 50–8
water and CO2 see also electrolytic

splitting 98–108, 149–50 processes; PV
see also CSP water splitting see CSP;
thermodynamics of thermochemical water
electrolysis 43 splitting
toothpaste analogy 26 websites see online resources
Toyota 128 Weimer, W. 90
transport see airplanes; boats; wind farms/turbines 12, 71–2,
vehicles 77–8, 81, 133
turbines 5, 16, 86–90, 131, 146 Winter, C.-J. 14, 26
turbines, wind 12, 77–8, 81, 133 World Hydrogen Energy
Conference 29
units, flux concentration ratio 85 worldwide see global
Valdés-Solı́s, T. 150–1 Zn-ZnO systems 90, 91, 106

vehicles
battery electric 129–30, 131
energy requirements 84, 124

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Published on 24 May 2012 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781849733175-FP001

Fuel of the Future

r Mario Pagliaro and Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos 2012

All rights reserved

Published by The Royal Society of Chemistry,

Registered Charity Number 207890

For further information see our web site at www.rsc.org

Stay away from books that appear in fashion-chasing clusters:

This warning advice from Vaclav Smil, a leading authority in energy

Solar Hydrogen: Fuel of the Future

route to a number of practical applications using solar hydrogen energy.

thermore, in contrast to what some people might tend to think, solar

technologies required – CSP, PV and water electrolysis (Chapter 2) – are

Hydrogen energy: the abundant clean energy for humankind as a

Attentive readers, however, should not be misled by this apparent lack

energy ﬁlling station and no more rechargeable batteries will be needed.

are homes whose owners simply use an electrolyzer and PV modules to

Ongoing research in solar thermochemistry has also provided

Mario Pagliaro, Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos

Association, commenting on the study SET for 2020 (2009). See

7. Y. Hou, B. L. Abrams, P. C. K. Vesborg, M. E. Björketun, K. Herbst,

We would like to thank our collaborators, especially Giovanni Palmisano,

In addition, thanks are due to the European Commission for its

Mario Pagliaro, Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos

Chapter 1 Hydrogen and Solar Hydrogen 1

1.1 Hydrogen: Structure and Properties 1

1.3 Solar Hydrogen 13

Chapter 2 Water Electrolysis with Solar Electricity 40

2.1 Water Electrolysis 40

Chapter 3 Thermochemical Water Splitting 82

3.1 Concentrating Solar Power for Heavy Energy

Solar Hydrogen: Fuel of the Future

Chapter 4 Solar Hydrogen Utilization 119

4.1 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Engines 119

Subject Index 155

About the Authors

Mario Pagliaro is a chemistry and manage-

research focuses on the development of

xviii About the Authors

Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos is the Founder

and member of the Board of Directors of

neering consulting experience in the design, modelling and testing of

About the Authors xix

Prize for excellence in research (1992). Dr Konstandopoulos is currently a

Hydrogen and Solar Hydrogen

1.1 Hydrogen: Structure and Properties

further reported in 1781 that it produced water when burned. In 1783,

Solar Hydrogen: Fuel of the Future

Table 1.1 Selected physical properties of hydrogen. (Reproduced from Ref. 3,

Thermal conductivity 0.1805 W m1 K1

increased to a maximum of –240 1C, through the application of

Hydrogen and Solar Hydrogen 3

Hydrogen 141.86 kJ g1 119.93 kJ g1

Table 1.3 Properties of hydrogen compared with those of other fuels.

Hydrogen 20.3 71 0.08

hydrocarbons, hydrogen gas has a good energy density by weight

Hydrogen and Solar Hydrogen 5

Alternatively, to increase its volumetric energy density, liquid hydro-