8th April 2009
Bojan Tamburic
HYPOTHESIS VIII
HYdrogen – POwer THeoretical and Engineering Solutions International Symposium
Lisbon, Portugal
1-3 April 2009
Organisers
Carmen Rangel, LNEG/INET, Portugal
Organised conference in Lisbon
Giuseppe Spazzafumo, University of Cassino, Italy
Organises HYPOTHESIS conference series
Presentations
Nejat Veziroglu, University of Miami, USA
Saga of Hydrogen Civilisation
Prof. Veziroglu has been working on H2 since 1962
He suggests H2 is the lightest, cleanest and most efficient fuel
He is/has been chair of:
 International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE)
 International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (IJHE)
 World Hydrogen Energy Conferences (WHEC)
 World Hydrogen Technologies Conventions (WHTC)
 National Hydrogen Association (NHA) in the USA
 UNIDO-ICHET program
Upcoming conferences:
 16-21 May 2010 – WHEC in Essen, Germany
Abstract (1,000-1,500 characters) deadline: May 15th 2009
 2011 – HYPOTHESIS IX in New Zealand
 2011 – WHTC in Glasgow, Scotland
Quiong Cai, Imperial College London, UK
Hydrogen Production through Steam Electrolysis
Quiong works in Prof. Brandon’s group
She is using a 1.3V solid oxide electrolyser at temperatures >1000K to produce H2
Does not measure H2 production rate, only current
Naga Venkata Konda, Imperial College London, UK
Optimal H2 infrastructure network
Venkata uses computational model to design optimal H2 infrastructure for the Netherlands
Model is demand driven
Key sensitivities are penetration of H2-powered vehicles and cost of H2 production
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Rui Martins, IDMEC, Portugal
Use of H2 to store energy on islands
Rui runs a pilot plant on Porto Santo (Portuguese island in North Atlantic Ocean)
Island has excellent renewable energy potential – solar, wind and hydroelectric power
Intermittent energy – surplus production stored as H2
H2 production will compete with desalination
Plant uses PEM electrolyser:
 Electricity from wind power
 7.5kW electrolyser → 2m3N of H2/h
 60l H2 storage tank at 30bar
Andreas Zuttel, EMPA, Switzerland
From metallic to complex hydrides
Atomic hydrogen storage in solids
Complex hydrides offer better volumetric and mass density than other materials
H2 run over metal complex and absorbed to form hydride → metal becomes powder
H2 desorbs upon heating – key is to desorb only H2 at reasonable temperatures
Some interesting options:
 LiBH4 – very unstable, easy H2 desorption, reversible process
 Al(BH4)2 – best H2 capacity, liquid at room temperature, not yet synthesised
Excellent presentation – have asked for slides
Giovani Pino, ISPRA, Italy
Optimisation of H2 production by CO2 and biomass
Investigates solar-thermal combustion of various Italian biomass
Very difficult to separate H2 from syngas
Andrea Schievano, University of Milan, Italy
Bio-hydrogen from recycled biomass
Typically uses fermenting bacteria to produce biogas (methane) from waste
Has added a H2 production process
Combined efficiency is higher than for just methane production
Methane and H2 processes do compete for substrate
Collaboration:
 Andrea can maybe use algae as feed – but needs to know dry mass percentage
 It may be possible to use his waste products (CO2, acetate) as our feed – but there
is a chance the algal culture would become contaminated
Inci Eroglu, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
Continuous H2 production by R.capsulatus
Major force in biohydrogen production along with Melis
Runs the “Hyvolution” (2006-11) project
Melis runs “Stairways to hydrogen” project at Berkley
They are looking to integrate dark fermentation and photofermentation
Currently working on 20l scale and 100l scale, have built a 300l outdoor reactor
They use flat plate reactors run in batch or fed-batch mode
H2 production results are quoted as:
 Production (g of H2/ml of culture)
 Productivity (mol of H2/m3 of culture per h)
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 Yield (g of H2/g of acetate)
Collaboration:
 The 20l system has a biomass feed and a CO2/H2 separating outlet
 It is effectively triple-integration ready for C.reinhardtii and us
 Ask for information on reactor design
Paula Marques, LNEG/INETI, Portugal
Biohydrogen Production from Glycerol
Paula uses the bacteria E.aerogenes for dark fermentation
Fermentation of pre glycerol or biodiesel production residues
Production: 2.3l of H2/ l of glycerol over a period of 14 days
Arnold Miller, Vehicle Projects Inc, USA
Supersonic H2 tube vehicle
Arnold is an inventor
Hydrogen economy in future, many H2 pipelines – run vehicles in H2 atmosphere
Can attain speeds of 3500 km/h – lower pressure drag, induced drag and rolling resistance
But safety implications are scary
Paul Scot, ISE Corporation, USA
Low Carbon Public Transport
ISE Corporation is responsible for building and maintaining London’s H2 bus fleet
Cost of a fuel cell bus is £1,000,000
Expect to deliver 50 buses by 2012
Posters
Ana Marques & Luisa Gouveia, LNEG/INETI, Portugal
BioH2 from cyanobacteria Anabaena
Blue-green cyanobacteria produce H2 – but less than C.reinhardtii
Difficult to compare results since quoted in mol H2/μg of Chl/h
They absorb different part of solar spectrum – possible integration
Collaboration:
 Test cyanobacteria samples in Sartorius reactor
 Investigate cyanobacterial absorption spectrum
 Get information for bioreactor design (they use very simple reactor – what would
they ideally want and how much would they pay for it?)
Maria Dieuzeide & N. Amadea, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Thermodynamics of Glycerol Reforming
Steam reform biodiesel residue to produce H2
Investigating thermodynamics, kinetics and reactor design
Eveline Wichter & Marek Laniecki, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland
Microbial H2 generation from waste glycerol
Use dark fermentation bacteria to get H2 from glycerol
6l of H2 in a 3l reactor, which looks like central vessel of our Sartorius reactor
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Collaboration:
 They are chemical engineers – exchange information about reactor design and
scaling-up
Contacts
Andreas Zuttel – presentation slides
Andrea Schievano - collaboration
Inci Eroglu – collaboration, reactor design
Luisa Gouveia – collaboration, reactor design
Maria Dieuzeide – reactor design
Marek Laniecki – reactor design
Bojan Tamburic
I have the book of abstracts and a CD containing the full papers for the conference
Contact me if you have further interest in any of the topics
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