Sep

ITM potential is back with increasingly domestic-hydrogen promises

Posted by admin Published in Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen

Remember the domestic electrolyser “breakthrough” that ITM capability was all extcited about a few months ago? Well, it’s back, and ITM is now describing how the rest of the domestic will function with the system. The basic notion is that the electrolyser will prepare hydrogen using “increasingly available from wind, wave, solar or hydro-electric power” (or, of course, normally-produced electricity) and water. The hydrogen could next be used in heating boilers, cooking stoves/ovens as well as a bi-fuel vehicle, or converted to electricity through fuel cells. The obvious question at that point is why convert electricity to hydrogen just to go back to electricity. Fuel cells can store electricity, but so can batteries. ITM claims its scientists at the Sustainable Energy Tehnologies Centre have “developed and patented new low cost materials which significantly outperform and undercut those currently being used by other firms involved in the production of electrolysers.” potential everything in your domestic using renewable energy and water? Cool. It’s a dream house, whether everything works as described. And that’s a big whether.

Read increasingly, direct from ITM, after the jump.

[Source: ITM Power]
Hydrogen at domestic in new green fuel revolution

A major breakthrough in hydrogen technology is set to offer the housing market a chance to move towards supplying sustainable and non-polluting capability.

A UK company, ITM potential plc, has developed a device which can generate hydrogen in the domestic to fuel central heating boilers and cookers while drastically cutting CO2 emissions. The development is a major advance towards the Government’s goal of achieving a zero carbon new housing market by 2016. Currently domestic consumers explanation for by 20 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions.

ITM Power’s electrolyser, which is set to go into production next year, can create its own hydrogen fuel from a totally ‘green’ supply now fitting increasingly available from wind, wave, solar or hydro-electric ability. Users could alternatively use low cost off-peak electricity or choose a green

tariff from their existing supplier to produce hydrogen.

The hydrogen produced can be stored and next used as a conventional gas to burn in new or converted central heating boilers and as a fuel for cooking. But, unlike gas and oil, when hydrogen burns it releases no CO2 emissions, merely water vapour, offering the opportunity to significantly cut Britain’s domestic carbon footprint. Stored hydrogen can plus be reconverted to electricity using domestic fuel cells or generators to capability lighting or other electrical appliances, removing the inconvenience of ability cuts for homes and serious supply interruptions for hospitals, schools and businesses.

Scientists at ITM Power’s Sheffield research centre made the hydrogen breakthrough when they developed and patented new low cost materials which significantly outperform and undercut those currently being used by other firms involved in the production of electrolysers.

In addition to its use in the domestic, hydrogen produced by the ITM electrolyser system can be used to ability a family car, and later that year ITM potential plans to unveil a hydrogen domestic refuelling station for the automotive market and a converted bi-fuel petrol/hydrogen car based on Europe’s best-selling model, the Ford Focus. The company aims to demonstrate that the car can be refuelled using hydrogen generated by a domestic electrolyser and can total an average daily commuting journey without the need to utilise petrol.

“ITM capability is developing products which will not only revolutionise energy sources for the domestic but produce a meaningful contribution to cutting CO2 emissions,” explained the company’s CEO Jim Heathcote.

“Hydrogen has an critical role to play in bringing ‘green’ technology to the housing market and our development work, which will reach the production stage next year, has ensured it will reach much sooner than many dreamed possible. With stored hydrogen’s ability to supply not only fuel for heating and cooking but capability, either through a conventional generator or a fuel cell, the prospect of energy self-sufficiency without the dependence on fossil fuels has moved dramatically closer,” he added.

Original post by Sebastian Blanco