Real World Renewable Hydrogen Transport

Abstract: Hydrogen represents an excellent energy storage option as it can act as both a short and longterm energy store. As the UK Government is strategically moving the UK towards a low carbon economy, hydrogen can play an important role as a solution to make use of grid constrained ‘green ’ energy in transport. In the transport sector, green hydrogen produced from renewable sources offers one of the best opportunities to reduce green house gas emissions and significantly reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Use of zero carbon or ‘green ’ hydrogen derived from renewable sources in Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) is expected to lead to a 90% 95 % reduction in welltowheel emissions by 2020 when compared to existing internal combustion engines [1]. Described within this paper is a real-world case study that utilises grid constrained renewable energy (instead of discarding it) as a source of clean energy to produce ‘green ’ hydrogen for use in a transport application. A model that simulates hydrogen demand from transport has been developed. A Simulink model of hydrogen production, storage and cascade refuelling operations has also been presented. The modelling of a real world application of hydrogen transport technology demonstrates how an electrolyser could be sized to provide the daily hydrogen fuel demand for a real-world commercial hydrogen transport application