The Council has, this week, published an invitation-to-tender document for a demonstration project of hydrogen fuel cell technology. This will (hopefully!) take the form of the conversion of one the existing passenger or tourist ferries in the Floating Harbour to run on hydrogen for up to six months.This is something that I've been working on for a couple of years now, since I chaired the Sustainable Travel Select Committee, and I'm delighted that we've finally got this moving. The idea is to showcase emerging hydrogen fuel cell technology in a way which respects and celebrates Bristol's waterbourne heritage.
Hydrogen has a massive potential as a clean fuel. (Here comes the science bit...) Fuel cells use a reverse electrolysis process to combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air to provide only water and electricity. There are therefore no pollutants and a waterbourne application means that the waste is simply tipped over board. Also, full life running costs are generally lower than for conventional engines due to their longer life. Hydrogen also has potential as a 'load balancer' for renewable energy, so that when your turbines/barrage/panels/etc aren't needed, they produce hydrogen through electrolysis, which can then be used to produce electricity back when needed.
Fuel cell technology isn't partic
ularly new, but it is starting to knock on the doors of mainstream transport applications due to its cleanliness. There has been a large project around hydrogen-powered buses in a number of major global cities, including London, which is now being rolled out. Even hydrogen powered boats are not unique (see picture left), with Hamburg already operating a passenger ferry (see above) and Amsterdam having one on the way. The University of Birmingham has converted a canal barge with a hydrogen fuel cell, but I believe that the Bristol ferry would be the first in the UK.The invitation-to-tender runs until the 15th April and we are hoping that a consortium of companies (ferry owner, fuel cell fitter, hydrogen supplier) will come forwards with a plan. There is a budget set aside, so, if the plan is viable, work should be able to start pretty soon.
UPDATE : did interviews today with Heart FM and BBC Radio Bristol. Rather strange exchange on the latter with Rob Salvidge from Bristol Ferry Boat company when he wanted to talk about tidal turbines rather than ferries!
2 comments:
All very well, but the Hydrogen has to come from somewhere - either natural gas or electrolysis. Fuel cells are nothing but a type of battery, albeit one with a poor cycle efficiency (i.e. lots of energy is wasted in charging and discharging them) compared to lithium-ion batteries. Their advantages are that their capacity is limited only by the size of the hydrogen tank, and the lifespan you mention.
Unfortunately many people seem to have been convinced that no 'emissions' at point of use means Hydrogen is a magic fuel.
I'm certainly not convinced that hydrogen is a magic fuel, but it is potentially a candidate for being a useful option in the long-term.
As I understand it, much of the hydrogen available at the moment is waste product from other chemical processes. So no extra emissions are being created - it would just be released up a chimney otherwise. In any case, there are good air pollution reasons for burning fossil fuels where they can be scrubbed and treated away from humans, rather than in a city centre in a diesel engine.
In the long-term, the big vision for hydrogen is that it is used for load balancing for large scale renewables. In other words, you create it when there is little domestic demand - e.g. using wind turbines at night. This would be emission-free hydrogen and could either be used for fuel or to create electricity.
There are big issues with the cleanliness of batteries, which I won't go into here. Hydrogen tank issues will disappear in years to come, with liquid or solid variants being developed at the moment.
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