Hydrogen production and storage at Renova – A preliminary analysis
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Sustainable energy systems (MPSES), MSc
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Hellström, Andreas
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Renova will test a fuel cell powered refuse collector/back loader truck in order to decrease emissions in the Gothenburg area. The truck requires compressed hydrogen as fuel and this report investigates the possibilities of refuelling the truck as well as producing and storing hydrogen for a single truck as well as for a future fleet growth in fuel cell trucks. The expected demand to refuel the hydrogen driven refuse collector/back loader is around 28 kilograms of hydrogen per day. At the start of the project, there were no hydrogen refuelling stations capable of refuelling at a pressure of 350 bar that were located within close proximity of Gothenburg. Due to the increase in interest from actors such as Renova, there are however plans to open two hydrogen stations within Gothenburg. There are various techniques that are used to produce hydrogen today, but those are primarily used in industry and the hydrogen originates from steam reforming of fossil fuels. In this project, the type of technology that is investigated to supply hydrogen is instead, electrolysis which requires, demineralised water and electricity input from the customer. Renova has multiple locations with buildings that could be used for solar cell installations which in turn could help supply the electricity needed for the hydrogen production. As the goal of Renova is to solve its refuelling issue a complete hydrogen refuelling station (HRS) has been investigated and companies that offer such a solution have been analysed. Among one of the operations that Renova has is a waste to energy (WTE) plant that due to lower demand of district heat (DH) during the summer, the plant needs to use cooling towers to cool the district heat to both meet the customer’s demand but also allow for optimal operation. An opportunity is seen to try to utilise this low-grade heat and produce electricity that could be used to supply the electrolyser. The technology that is analysed to see if there is a possible connection point at the WTE plant is the so-called Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). From the visits and analysis of the various locations that are owned and operated by Renova it can be seen that the potential electrical supply from solar cells being installed is greater than the calculated yearly demand of a typical HRS that would provide 28kg/day of hydrogen. Nevertheless, knowing that the interest from Renova has sparked an expansion of HRS in Gothenburg it would be advised to maybe wait and see how the hydrogen powered truck actually performs, if it meets the expected goals and in the meantime refuel from the HRS that is expected to become available in the summer of 2020. Due to the size and nature of the project, any major section from the energy recovery potential at the WTE plant, or rooftop solar cell installations or even the HRS itself is not seen as interlocking to the degree that an implementation would require every mentioned aspect to be met first. This means that the future work that would be needed could solely focus on each section. For example, for the solar cell installations the next advisable step would be to follow the solar cell guide from the Energy authority of Sweden. A possibility to better match the core goals of Renova and the hydrogen supply could be by investigating gasification of waste were both parts of the company, energy production and logistics could be involved.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
hydrogen , production , storage , ORC , Solar PV’s , turn-key HRS