INVITED PAPER Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense? Electricity obtained from hydrogen fuel cells appears to be four times as expensive as electricity drawn from the electrical transmission grid. By Ulf Bossel ABSTRACT | The establishment of a sustainable energy future is one of the most pressing tasks of mankind. With the exhaustion of fossil resources the energy economy will change from a chemical to an electrical base. This transition is one of physics, not one of politics. It must be based on proven technology and existing engineering experience. The transition process will take many years and should start soon. Unfortu- nately, politics seems to listen to the advice of visionaries and lobby groups. Many of their qualitative arguments are not based on facts and physics. A secure sustainable energy future cannot be based on hype and activism, but has to be built on solid grounds of established science and engineering. In this paper the energy needs of a hydrogen economy are quantified. Only 20%–25% of the source energy needed to synthesized hydrogen from natural compounds can be recovered for end use by efficient fuel cells. Because of the high energy losses within a hydrogen economy the synthetic energy carrier cannot compete with electricity. As the fundamental laws of physics cannot be chanced by research, politics or investments, a hydrogen economy will never make sense. KEYWORDS | Electrolysis; electron economy; energy; energy efficiency; heating values; heat of formation; hydrogen; hydro- gen compression; hydrogen economy; hydrogen liquefaction; hydrogen pipelines; hydrogen storage; hydrogen transfer; hydrogen transport; metal hydrides; onsite hydrogen genera- tion; reforming I. INTRODUCTION The technology needed to establish a hydrogen economy is available or can be developed. Two comprehensive 2004 studies by the U.S. National Research Council [1] and the American Physical Society [2] summarize technical options and identify needs for further improvements. They are concerned with the cost of hydrogen obtained from various sources, but fail to address the key question of the overall energy balance of a hydrogen economy. Energy is needed to synthesize hydrogen and to deliver it to the user, and energy is lost when the gas is converted back to electricity by fuel cells. How much energy is needed to liberate hydrogen from water by electrolysis or high- temperature thermodynamics or by chemistry? Where does the energy come from and in which form is it harvested? Do we have enough clean water for electrolysis and steam reforming? How and where do we safely deposit the enormous amounts of carbon dioxide if hydrogen is derived from coal? This paper extends a previous analysis of the parasitic energy needs of a hydrogen economy [3]. It argues that the energy problem cannot be solved in a sustainable way by introducing hydrogen as an energy carrier. Instead, energy from renewable sources and high energy efficiency between source and service will become the key points of a sustainable solution. The establishment of an efficient Belectron economy[ appears to be more appropriate than the creation of a much less efficient Bhydrogen economy.[ II. THE CHALLENGE The following examples illustrate the nature of the challenge involved in creating a hydrogen economy. It takes about 1 kg of hydrogen to replace 1 U.S. gal of gasoline. About 200 MJ (55 kWh) of dc electricity are needed to liberate 1 kg of hydrogen from 9 kg of water by electrolysis. Steam reforming of methane (natural gas) requires only 4.5 kg of water for each kilogram of hydrogen, but 5.5 kg of CO 2 emerge from the process. One kilogram of hydrogen can also be obtained from 3 kg of coal and 9 kg of water, but 11 kg of CO 2 are released and need to be sequestered. Even with most efficient fuel cell systems, at most 50% of the hydrogen HHV energy can be converted back to electricity. Manuscript received May 10, 2005; revised April 19, 2006. The author is with European Fuel Cell Forum, CH-5452 Oberrohrdorf, Switzerland (e-mail: [email protected]). Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2006.883715 1826 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2006 0018-9219/$20.00 Ó2006 IEEE
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
INV ITEDP A P E R
Does a Hydrogen EconomyMake Sense?Electricity obtained from hydrogen fuel cells appears to be four times as
expensive as electricity drawn from the electrical transmission grid.
By Ulf Bossel
ABSTRACT | The establishment of a sustainable energy future
is one of the most pressing tasks of mankind. With the
exhaustion of fossil resources the energy economy will change
from a chemical to an electrical base. This transition is one of
physics, not one of politics. It must be based on proven
technology and existing engineering experience. The transition
process will take many years and should start soon. Unfortu-
nately, politics seems to listen to the advice of visionaries and
lobby groups. Many of their qualitative arguments are not
based on facts and physics. A secure sustainable energy future
cannot be based on hype and activism, but has to be built on
solid grounds of established science and engineering. In this
paper the energy needs of a hydrogen economy are quantified.
Only 20%–25% of the source energy needed to synthesized
hydrogen from natural compounds can be recovered for end
use by efficient fuel cells. Because of the high energy losses
within a hydrogen economy the synthetic energy carrier cannot
compete with electricity. As the fundamental laws of physics
cannot be chanced by research, politics or investments, a
hydrogen economy will never make sense.
KEYWORDS | Electrolysis; electron economy; energy; energy
efficiency; heating values; heat of formation; hydrogen; hydro-
gen compression; hydrogen economy; hydrogen liquefaction;
To transfer the remaining hydrogen from the supply
tank into the receiving tank by a multistage compression,
the energy required is
W ¼ 1:54 MJ/kg:
This is about 1.1% of the HHV energy content of the
compressed hydrogen. Including mechanical and electri-cal losses of the small compressors installed at the filling
stations, this number may be closer to 3%. Moreover, to
transfer hydrogen from a large storage tank at 10 MPa
into a small vehicle tank at 35 MPa would require at least
4.32 MJ/kg or, including other losses, at least 3% of the
HHV energy content of the transferred hydrogen. Hence,
to transfer one unit of HHV hydrogen energy from a
10-MPa storage tank to a 35-MPa vehicle tank requiresat least 1.08 units of (electrical) energy for the transfer
against pressure.
At least 1.08 electrical energy units must be invested
to transfer 1 HHV hydrogen energy unit from a 10-MPa
storage vessel to the 70-MPa gas tank of a hydrogen
vehicle.
V. ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF AHYDROGEN ECONOMY
When the original report [3] was published in 2003, the
parasitic energy needs of a hydrogen economy had not
even been considered by promoters of a hydrogen
economy. The intent of the original study was to create
an awareness of the fundamental energetic weaknesses
of using hydrogen as an energy vector. Since then equa-
tions and results for producing, packaging, distributing,
storing, and transferring hydrogen have been checked byothers and found correct.
For selected hydrogen strategies, the accumulated
parasitic energy needs of all important stages can be
determined by multiplication or addition of the losses of
Fig. 8. Energy needed for on-site generation of hydrogen by
electrolysis stored at 10 MPa and subsequent compression to
40 MPa for rapid transfer to 35 MPa vehicle tanks relative to
the HHV energy content the hydrogen.
Bossel: Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense?
1834 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2006
the stages involved. Four cases may serve to illustrate the
point [3].
A) Hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, compressedto 20 MPa and distributed by road to filling
stations, stored at 10 MPa, then compressed to
40 MPa for rapid transfer to vehicles at 35 MPa.
Energy input to hydrogen energy delivered: 1.59
B) Hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, liquefied,
and distributed by road to filling stations, then
transferred to vehicles.
Energy input to hydrogen energy delivered: 2.02C) Hydrogen is produced by electrolysis on-site at
filling stations or consumers, stored at 10 MPa,
and subsequently compressed to 40 MPa for rapid
transfer to vehicles at 35 MPa.
Energy input to hydrogen energy delivered: 1.59
D) Hydrogen is produced by electrolysis and used
to make alkali metal hydrides. Hydrogen is
then released by reaction of the hydride withwater.
Energy input to hydrogen energy delivered: 1.90
The analysis reveals that between 1.6 and 2.0 electrical
energy units must be harvested from renewable sources for
every energy unit of hydrogen gas sold to the user. The
high energy losses may be tolerated for some niche
markets, but it is unlikely that hydrogen will ever become
an important energy carrier in a sustainable energy
economy built on renewable sources and efficiency.
Moreover, the delivered hydrogen must be convertedto motion for all transport applications. IC engines
convert hydrogen within 45% efficiency directly into
mechanical motion, while equally efficient fuel cells
systems produce dc electricity for traction motors. Fur-
ther losses may occur in transmissions, etc. All in all,
hardly 50% of the hydrogen energy contained in a vehicle
tank is converted to motion of a car. The overall efficiency
between electricity from renewable sources and wheelmotion is only 20 to 25%. In comparison, over 60% of the
original electricity can be used for transportation, if the
energy is not converted to hydrogen, but directly used in
electric vehicles [30]. Fig. 9 illustrates the energy flow for
transportation systems based on hydrogen or electricity.
The energy advantages of battery-electric cars over
hydrogen-fuel-cell-electric vehicles are obvious. However,
further work is needed in the area of electricity storage,converters, drive systems, and electricity transfer.
VI. HYDROGEN ECONOMY ORELECTRON ECONOMY
The foregoing analysis of the parasitic energy losses within
a hydrogen economy shows that a hydrogen economy is an
Fig. 9. Useful transport energy derived from renewable electricity.
Bossel: Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense?
Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2006 | Proceedings of the IEEE 1835
extremely inefficient proposition for the distribution ofelectricity from renewable sources to useful electricity
from fuel cells. Only about 25% of the power generated
from wind, water, or sun is converted to practical use. If
the original electricity had been directly supplied by wires,
as much as 90% could have been put to service. This has
two serious consequences to be considered in future
energy strategies.
A) About four renewable power plants have to beerected to deliver the output of one plant to sta-
tionary or mobile consumers via hydrogen and
fuel cells. Three of these plants generate energy to
cover the parasitic losses of the hydrogen
economy while only one of them is producing
useful energy. Can we base our energy future on
such wasteful schemes?
B) As energy losses will be charged to the customer,electricity from hydrogen fuel cells will be at least
four times more expensive than electricity from
the grid. Who wants to use fuel cells? Who wants
to drive a hydrogen-fuel-cell car?
Fundamental laws of physics expose the weakness of ahydrogen economy. Hydrogen, the artificial energy carrier,
can never compete with its own energy source, electricity,
in a sustainable future.
The discussion about a hydrogen economy is adding
irritation to the energy debate. We need to focus our at-
tention on sustainable energy solutions. It seems that the
establishment of an efficient electron economy should
become the common goal. There are many topics to beaddressed, like electricity storage and automatic electricity
transfer to vehicles, yet electric cars equipped with Li–Ion-
batteries already have a driving range of 250 km [32]. In
2010, Mitsubishi will commercialize an electric car with
260 hp on four wheels and a driving range of 500 km
(300 mi). It seems that by focusing attention on hydrogen
we are missing the chance to meet the challenges of a
sustainable energy future.The title question BDoes a hydrogen economy make
sense?[ must be answered with a definite BNever.[However, niche applications for the use of hydrogen
energy are abundant and should be addressed. h
REF ERENCE S
[1] U.S. National Research Council. (2004). Thehydrogen economy: Opportunities, costs,barriers, and R&D needs. [Online]. Available:http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091632/html.
[2] American Physical Society. (2004, Mar). TheHydrogen Initiative Panel on Public Affairs.[Online]. Available: http://www.aps.org/public_affairs/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=49633.
[3] U. Bossel, B. Eliasson, and G. Taylor, BThefuture of the hydrogen economy: Bright orbleak?[ in Proc. Eur. Fuel Cell Forum, 2003.[Online]. Available: http://www.efcf.com/reports/E02_Hydrogen_Economy_Report.pdf.
[4] L. R. Brown, Wind energy demand booming.[Online]. Available: http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=44451.
[5] J. Rifkin, The Hydrogen Economy. New York:Tarcher, 2002.
[6] Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Student44th ed. Cleveland, OH: Chem. RubberPub. Co., 1961.
[7] Properties of fuels. [Online]. Available:http://www.afdc.doe.gov/pdfs/fueltable.pdf.
[8] N. Brinkman, Well-to-wheel energyconsumption and greenhouse gas analysis, GMResearch and Development. [Online]. Avail-able: www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/fuelcell/fuelslides/Brinkman_GM_Session3%20Presentation.ppt#6.
[9] M. A. Weiss, J. B. Heywood, A. Schafer, andV. K. Natarajan, Comparative assessment of fuelcell cars, MIT LFEE 2003-001 RP, Feb. 2003.
[10] U. Bossel, BWell-to-wheel studies, heatingvalues, and the energy conservation
principle,[ in Proc. Eur. Fuel Cell Forum.[Online]. Available: www.efcf.com/reports, (E10).
[11] H. Audus, O. Kaarstad, and M. Kowal,BDecarbonisation of fossil fuels: Hydrogen asan energy carrier,[ presented at the CO2
Conf., Boston/Cambridge, MA, 1997,published in Energy Conversion Management,vol. 38, Suppl., pp. 431–436.
[12] E. Schmidt, Technische Thermodynamik,11th ed., vol. 1, p. 287, 1975.
[14] H. Quack, Die Schlusselrolle der Kryotechnik inder Wasserstoff-Energiewirtschaft. Dresden,Germany: TU Dresden. [Online]. Available:www.tu-dresden.de/mwiem/kkt/mitarbeiter/lib/wasserstoff/wassertech.html.
[15] R. Gross, W. Otto, A. Patzelt, and M. Wanner,Flussigwasserstoff fur EuropaVdie Linde-Anlagein Ingolstadt Berichte aus Technik undWissenschaften 71, 1994.
[17] H. Matsuda and M. Nagami, Study of LargeHydrogen Liquefaction Process. Kanagawa,Japan: Nippon Sanso Corp., 1997. [Online].Available: http://www.enaa.or.jp/WE-NET/ronbun/1997/e5/sanso1997.html.
[29] J. Theijssen, Viable and sustainable energystrategies grounded on source-to-service analysis.[Online]. Available: http://www.efcf.com/reports, (E19).
[30] U. Bossel, BEfficiency of hydrogen PEFC,diesel-SOFC-hybrid and battery electricvehicles,[ in Proc. Eur. Fuel Cell Forum.[Online]. Available: www.efcf.com/reports, (E04).
[31] BWind-to-wheel energy assessment,[P. Mazza and R. Hammerschlag: Institute forLifecycle Environmental Assessment, Seattle,WA, Proc. Eur. Fuel Cell Forum. [Online].Available: http://www.efcf.com/reports,(look for E18).
[32] Mitsubishi press release, Aug. 25, 2005.[Online]. Available: http://media.mitsubishi-motors.com/pressrelease/e/corporate/detail1321.html.
Bossel: Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense?
1836 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2006
ABOUT T HE AUTHO R
Ulf Bossel was born in 1936 in Germany. He
studied mechanical engineering in Darmstadt,
Germany, and at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich, where he received the
Diploma Degree in fluid mechanics and thermo-
dynamics in 1961. He received the Ph.D. degree
from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968
for experimental research on the production of
aerodynamically intensified molecular beams.
After two years as Assistant Professor at
Syracuse University, he returned to Germany to lead the free
molecular flow research group at the DLR in Gottingen. He left the
field for solar energy in 1976, was founder and first president of the
German Solar Energy Society, and started his own R&D consulting firm
for renewable energy technologies in 1979. In 1986, Brown Boveri asked
him to join their new technology group in Switzerland. He became
involved in fuel cells in 1987 and later (after BBC’s merger with Asea to
ABB) director of the company’s fuel cell development efforts worldwide.
After ABB decided to concentrate its resources on the development of
conventional energy technologies, he established himself as a freelance
fuel cell consultant, with clients in Europe, Japan, and the United States.
He has created and is still in charge of the annual fuel cell conference
series of the European Fuel Cell Forum in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Bossel: Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense?
Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2006 | Proceedings of the IEEE 1837