Fuel Cell Future – Infrastructure

In order to ensure a flexible, demand-oriented supply of energy based on hydrogen, it will be necessary to establish an efficient infrastructure. But where will the hydrogen come from?

Pressurized gas tanks encased in carbon fibre store hydrogen in the vehicle floor at 700 bars.

Hydrogen offers the best development potential for use as fuel in those areas where the establishment of a supply infrastructure is both logical and feasible. In other words, it all has to start in major metropolitan areas. This plausible conclusion also emerged from a study entitled “Where Will the Hydrogen in Germany Come from by 2050?” The goal of the study, which was published in 2009 as the final report for the “GermanHy” project, was to draw up a hydrogen road map for Germany while taking into account factors such as resource availability, energy efficiency, costs, carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction potential, and import dependency. The report also examined the prospects for making hydrogen available as an energy carrier in Germany between now and 2050.

The study concluded that hydrogen offers tremendous potential as a fuel. According to one of the scenarios examined, hydrogen could cover 40 percent of Germany’s total energy requirement in the transport sector by 2050. The two other scenarios that were also examined assumed that hydrogen would account for up to 23 percent of energy production in this sector.

The researchers who came up with the scenarios assumed a pattern of distributed demand when making their forecasts. This presupposes the rapid expansion of the filling station infrastructure with low utilization at the beginning, followed by a rapid initial increase in demand in large metropolitan areas and along major highway routes. However, the authors of the study also pointed out that hydrogen must also become available in less densely populated regions if there is to be widespread acceptance of fuel cell drive.

Whether in the city or the country – the question is the same: How will hydrogen get to filling stations in the future? Will it flow through pipelines, be produced locally, or delivered by tank trucks? Several possible answers to this question will be offered in the near future. After all, there won’t be just one type of hydrogen infrastructure for fuel cell vehicles and other energy consumers. Instead, it’s more likely that infrastructure networks will rapidly develop parallel to one another in terms of technology and scope, whereby each will employ the most efficient solution for its specific requirements. This situation would offer a great opportunity because it would result in the development of different technical solutions for different requirements and locations.

Hydrogen from production to the tank: download pdf (1.3 MB) »

However, the refueling processes and the interfaces between the refueling station and the vehicle will need to be standardized. This objective has actually already been achieved with fueling pumps and a newly developed refueling technology, both of which operate in accordance with the most recent SAE standards (J2601, et al.). “The technical standard is in place; now we have to build an infrastructure suitable for the market,” says Markus Bachmeier from Linde, a company that specializes in engineering and gas technology. The company also develops the key components for modern H2 refueling stations. However, Linde is also active along the entire hydrogen value chain — from production with techniques based on conventional or renewable energy sources all the way to logistics and storage systems.

According to Bachmeier, hydrogen filling stations will mainly be supplied by tank trucks with liquid or gaseous hydrogen over the next few years. This is the delivery method used for one of the most modern H2 filling stations in Europe, which TOTAL opened in May 2010 in Berlin with the help of Linde and Statoil. The station is supplied with liquid hydrogen from the Linde production facility in Leuna. It stores the hydrogen on site in a highly insulated tank.

Hydrogen can also be produced onsite, of course. This can be done either with a steam reformer that makes hydrogen from natural gas or biogas, or with an electrolyzer, which produces hydrogen using electricity from conventional or renewable, fluctuating energy sources. The hydrogen is then compressed onsite and stored under high pressure. Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET) and an influential early proponent of a hydrogen-based economy, believes hydrogen offers an ideal solution for problems associated with the flexible storage of energy from renewable sources. At the same time, such a solution would ensure optimal energy availability (read the interview with Jeremy Rifkin).