Energy Storage: ‘Windgas’ could drive car industry
Bdlive.co.za | Horst Hamm | December 01 2015
FOR all the talk about the imminent end of the oil era, 99% of the cars, trucks and planes currently operating are still petrol-powered.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted that change is on the way: in 2011, she predicted that 1-million electric cars would be in use in Germany by 2020. Yet, as of January 1 this year, there were only about 19,000 electric cars registered in Germany...snip
An Audi is filled with e-gas which uses electricity from wind turbines to turn water and carbon dioxide into methane Picture: BLOOMBERG/JASPER JUINEN
..Superfluous ecoelectricity from wind turbines and solar panels can be used to produce hydrogen and relatively simple organic compounds, such as methanol and methane. These compounds can be used to power cars, either in a combustion engine, or with the use of a fuel cell that can transform the materials back into electricity.
This is precisely the alternative Audi has been exploring in Werlte, Lower Saxony, where it commissioned Etogas to build the first power-to-gas plant.
Power-to-gas is the process by which wind and solar power are transformed into hydrogen and methane, a technique developed at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Stuttgart...snip
MORE: http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/innovation/2015/12/01/windgas-could-drive-car-industry
E.ON Power-to-Gas facility in Falkenhagen with Hydrogenics technology
Dec 11, 2013
On August 28, 2013, E.ON inaugurated commercial operations at its Power-to-Gas (P2G) facility in Falkenhagen, Germany. The plant uses wind power and Hydrogenics' electrolysis equipment to transform water into hydrogen, which is then injected into the existing regional natural gas transmission system. The hydrogen, as part of the natural gas mix, can be used in a variety of applications including space heating, industrial processes, mobility, and power generation. The facility, which has a capacity of two megawatts, produces 360 cubic meters of hydrogen per hour.
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