Hydrogen plant starts storing wind energy in Germany

[jpak]

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/06/14/hydrogen-plant-starts-storing-wind-energy-in-germany/

A plant that converts surplus power from wind turbines into energy-dense hydrogen gas started operating in Germany for the first time this week, the companies involved said.

The power-to-gas system, built by Canada-based Hydrogenics, is part of a major effort to make renewable resources into more reliable sources of energy, said E.ON, a German utility that contracted the plant.

The 2-megawatt facility takes advantage of the wind’s tendency to blow hardest at times when there isn’t a lot of power demand. It uses the excess power from wind turbines to fuel a chemical reaction that produces hydrogen from water, said Daryl Wilson, CEO of Hydrogenics, in an interview.

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The plant then feeds the hydrogen gas into natural gas pipelines, where it mixes with natural gas. The “green gas” displaces natural gas, resulting in less fossil fuels used, Wilson said.

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[phantom power]

1. that's interesting, I thought hydrogen required special gaskets, or sealants

[wtmusic]

3. HENG (Hydrogen-enriched natural gas) decreases the carbon output of natural gas

but gets dangerous if you take the percentage past 20%. Plus, as the article says,

While the hydrogen storage technology holds promise, it requires a lot of power to produce the hydrogen gas.

What you end up with is burning more carbon to create less carbon, technology which falls under the heading of RPPD (Rewewables-Promoting Pixie Dust). The oil industry relies on RPPD to keep the public distracted and its sales projections intact, which is why the article is sponsored by Statoil.

[PamW]

4. Thermodynamic Mismatch

Agreed! It's also a "thermodynamic mismatch".

A wind turbine gives you electricity, which is high quality entropy-free energy.

You turn that energy into hydrogen; you have a fuel. However, when you go to burn the fuel to get electricity back; you have non-entropy-free energy, and you have to take an efficiency hit courtesy of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics because you have entropy to deal with once again.

If you take your electricity from wind power, and store it as rotational kinetic energy in a flywheel, for example; then you would maintain the entropy-free quality of the energy, and not have to take an efficiency hit courtesy of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.

That's why it's a "thermodynamic mismatch".

PamW

[kristopher]

2. HENG

Hydrogen enriched natural gas.

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/51995.pdf