Hawaii's Energy Future: Unlocking the Power of Hydrogen

1. Nancy: Ssome more slides with possible useful stuff

2. Hawaii’s Energy Mix • Uniquely dependent on oil; • Island economy vulnerable to oil price spikes and shortages; • Susceptible to oil spills that could jeopardize tourism and natural beauty; • Significant untapped renewable resources.

3. The Big Picture:Fossil Fuels are Limited

4. Simplest and most plentiful element in the universe; H2naturally present only in trace amounts; Hydrogen atoms readily combine together, and with other molecules; Production of ‘free’ hydrogen requires input of energy to break chemical bonds. H H2 Gas H What is Hydrogen?

5. Reforming fossil fuels: Cheapest method; Used by refineries. Electrolysis of water: More expensive than reforming; Yields purer hydrogen. Gasification of biomass: Converts plants to CO2 and H2; Significant potential in Hawaii. How Do We Get Hydrogen for Use? HNEI reformation test equipment HNEI electrolyzer at the Fuel Cell Test Facility

6. Methane Hydrates • Methane hydrates are icelike mixtures of hydrocarbon gases (mostly methane) and water generated when methane and water coexist at certain pressure and temperature conditions • Methane hydrates represent a vast potential fuel reservoir. Estimated world resources contain twice the energy in all fossil fuel reserves and ten times that of known natural gas reserves. Burning synthetic methane hydrate • Methane hydrates are found within arctic permafrost and within ocean sediments along the margins of most land masses

7. Methane Hydrates • HNEI is engaged in thermodynamic and kinetic studies of methane hydrate • destabilization including development of • technology to release and capture methane • in-situ for subsea power generation Deep Sea Simulator • In partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory, HNEI is • studying methane hydrate resource characteristics and • distributions including development of undersea hydrate • detection technology, the role of methane hydrates in the • ocean carbon cycle, and characterization of microbial • processes that modulate methane levels in hydrate fields

8. What is a PEM Fuel Cell? • Electrochemical device; • Combines H2 & O2 into water producing electricity and heat; • Uses an electrolyte layer sandwiched between two catalyst layers to separate charge; • Clean, quiet, and efficient.

9. HNEI’s Fuel Cell Research Program Fuel Cells Alternate Development Testing Systems Fabrication • Initiated with grant from Office of Naval Research (2000) • Current focus on testing of single cells and systems modeling/testing (Hardware-in-the-Loop)

10. Fuel Cell Testing Fuel Cells Alternate Development Testing Systems Fabrication • Fuel purity – GM, UTC Fuel Cells, Ballard • Membrane characterization – Arkema Inc. • and Hoku Scientific • Stack testing scheduled for spring 05 – • mission specific FCV and UUV Cell Testing Stack Testing Durability Testing Membrane Characterization Fuels Purity Assessment Dynamic Static Static

11. Hawaii Fuel Cell Test Facility • Developed by HNEI in partnership with UTC Fuel Cells, Office of Naval Research & Hawaiian Electric Company • 4,000 ft2 facility opened in April 2003 with three test stands for large area PEM cells (up to 1,000 amps) • Demonstrated 24/7 operation • Initiated alternative fuel cell membrane program (DOE, 2004) • Initiated fuel purity study (DOE, 2004) Front view of test stand

12. HFCTF – Features • Full time engineering support • Extensive safety systems • Computerized process control and data acquisition • Secure lines for external monitoring and data transfer • On-site hydrogen generation • Wide selection of gases including trace impurities • On-line high resolution gas analysis • In-situ diagnostic procedures • Advanced water & thermal management Test stands Electrolyzer Gas storage

13. Example of CO Contamination on Cell Performance

14. Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) Testing • HNEI is adapting existing simulation models for use as HiL tools, • with the capability of including fuel cell stack and reformer co- • simulations or hardware as well as control hardware • HiL tools to be provided to cooperating users worldwide HiL: Replacement of a fuel cell system model by hardware

15. Hawaii Hydrogen Power Park • With DOE funding, the Power Park serves as a test bed for hydrogen production, storage and end-use technologies in a real-world setting; • First step in building a Hawaii hydrogen infrastructure; • Educates government officials and public about hydrogen technologies; • Stimulates hydrogen technology development in Hawaii; • Provide infrastructure to attract other R&D to Hawaii; • Identify barriers and solutions to codes and standards requirements. Hydrogen generation Hydrogen storage Hydrogen use

16. In a project led by ClearFuels Technology, HNEI is evaluating the feasibility of use of syngas and alcohols derived from biomass in fuel cells for generating electricity Research is being conducted in areas critical for cost-effective hydrogen production from biomass, including: Development of technologies to remove contaminants (e.g., K, S, Cl) from biomass Optimization of reformer design and operation Development of technologies for gas clean-up Hydrogen from Biomass Biomass conversion options

17. Biocarbons (charcoal) from Biomass • Charcoal is made by a UH-patented Flash Carbonization process which converts biomass or green wastes into commercial-grade charcoal • A commercial-scale reactor has been assembled on the UH campus to demonstrate this technology. When fully operational it will yield four tons of charcoal per day. • All of the campus’ green waste can be treated by operating the reactor for one eight-hour day per week. That could make UH a profit of up to $100,000 a year.

18. A 2-stage anaerobic digestor employed with continuous cultures to investigate simultaneous H2 and CH4 production A patented fermentation process has been developed for converting food wastes into bioplastics Enzyme fuel cell development is focusing on studies of charge transfer efficiency and enzyme immobilized electrode configurations Biotechnology: Energy Applications 2-stage anaerobic system

19. Development of CIGS Solar Cells • Objective: develop high-efficiency, high specific power density, large area CIGS solar cells for space applications • CIGS thin films grown by co-evaporation of Cu, In, Ga and Se onto various substrates – up to 14.1% efficiencies achieved

20. light O2 evolution Photoactive Film (e.g., WO3, Fe2O3, TiO2) Conductive Transparent Oxide (e.g., ITO) electrolyte Solid-state-junctions (e.g., a-SiGe:H) Foil Substrate Hydrogen catalyst H2 evolution The UH “Hybrid Photoelectrode” Photoelectrochemical H2 Production Water-Splitting Photoelectrode The basic concept: a generic planar photoelectrode, where sunlight absorbed in photoactive regions drives the hydrogen/oxygen release H2 O2 light Novel hybrid photoelectrode (UH patented) based on multi- junction amorphous silicon coated with photoactive metal oxides – early prototypes have demonstrated 1% solar to hydrogen efficiency.