Project doubles up on renewables: Wind energy will produce hydrogen fuel

[jpak]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4406859.html

BOULDER, COLO. — Amid gusting winds and spinning wind turbines, officials last week unveiled a $2 million research project to use wind energy to produce hydrogen fuel.

The technology proposes to take clean energy to a new level, using a renewable resource, wind, to make a nonpolluting fuel, hydrogen, in one of the nation's first attempts to combine the two energy resources.

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The concept is simple: Make hydrogen when the wind is blowing, then store the fuel for use whenever it is needed.

The science behind the concept is nearly as simple. Electricity from wind turbines is used to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is captured and stored, then used to generate power or as fuel for vehicles.

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[spag68]

1. This is not new

In Iceland, they use geothermal tubes to get the electricity to get the hydrogen. their whole island will soon be run by it.

[jpak]

3. They are doing it in Noway today as well

n/t

[kestrel91316]

2. Using anything OTHER than renewable energy to make hydrogen is

the worst sort of folly.

For that matter, using anything other than renewable energy for ANYTHING that doesn't absolutely require fossil fuels is the worst sort of folly. Too bad it has taken us so long to find out.

[jpak]

4. More info: Experimental Wind to Hydrogen System Up & Running

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=46867

An experimental system that uses electricity from wind turbines to produce and store pure hydrogen successfully went online last week. Developed through a partnership between Xcel Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the project links two wind turbines to devices called electrolyzers -- which pass the wind-generated electricity through water to split the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen.

The system is designed so that hydrogen can be stored and used later to generate electricity from either an internal combustion engine turning a generator or from a fuel cell.

"The project allows our researchers to compare different types of electrolyzers and work on increasing the efficiency of a wind to hydrogen system," said Dan Arvizu, NREL director. "And, it has the potential to point the way to a completely emissions-free system of making, storing and using energy."

Located at NREL's National Wind Technology Center in Golden, Colorado, several dozen journalists, environmental leaders, government officials and Xcel Energy managers toured the facility on December 15. On site is a new building that houses the electrolyzers and a device to compress the hydrogen for storage; four large, high-tech tanks to store the hydrogen; a generator run by an engine that burns hydrogen; and a control room building, where computers monitor all the steps of the process.

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