Stationary Fuel Cells
The compressed hydrogen is also used to feed a 12kW Hydrogenics PEM fuel cell installed by UPS Systems. This fuel cell feeds electricity back to the building during periods of restricted renewable electricity supply.
Fuel cells convert chemical energy in hydrogen and oxygen into electrical energy. They offer a clean, green alternative source of power. Other than water and heat, they produce no emission. A 12kW Hydrogenics PEM fuel cell is installed by UPS Systems. Compressed hydrogen (at least 99.99% pure with maximum pressure of 600 kPa) is fed into the anode side of the fuel cell, and oxygen, in the form of air, is fed into the cathode side, the fuel cell combines them to form water vapour and produces negative ions (electrons) which are captured at the membrane to generate direct current. The generated electricity feeds back to the Hydrogen Centre via DC/AC inverter during periods of restricted renewable electricity supply. The system demonstrates how renewable energy can provide a power solution that is quiet, clean, low-maintenance and reliable while helping reduce the centre’s overall carbon footprint.
The centre is mainly focus on investigating the development of stationary PEM fuel cell system design to enhance its operation when integrated with renewable electricity systems. Investigation and testing will look at intermittent system operation and in particular look at the development of control systems to optimise operation to achieve high efficiency under intermittent conditions.
The major recent research areas are:
- Fuel cell systems modelling and analysis
- Fuel cell subsystem and hybrid system configuration, integration and testing
- Efficient control strategy design for optimised operation of fuel cell system in integrated renewable systems
- Fuel cell demonstration projects development
