Henry Desmarais
- Joshua Giuntoli
Jesse Davis
- Greg Dasso
To
reduce the dependence on electricity generated from non-renewable, CO2
emitting, fossil fuel sources a strategy to implement retrofitted hydrogen fuel
cells into existing residential housing was extensively explored. The treatment
of conditions for consideration of this strategy were:
To
generate electricity a fuel cell requires a constant flow of pressurized
Hydrogen over a catalyst anode, which separates an electron from the
Hydrogen’s single proton. The proton is suspended for a short time in a
medium between the anode and cathode while the electron is utilized as
electricity. When the electron has finished its trip in the household circuit,
it is reunited at the cathode with the Hydrogen proton and an Oxygen atom forming
pure water. Ideally, a fuel cell would work in tandem with a solar powered
electrolyzer, which essentially breaks pure water into its constituent parts of
H2 and Oxygen, thus perpetually feeding the fuel cell a constant
flow of uninterrupted Hydrogen to generate household electricity.
Current
technology has prevented fuel cells from being used widely due to the lack of
efficient storage of hydrogen, though current applications using carbon
nanotubes, a form of graphite shaped into tubes 3 nanometers in width, has
shown that Hydrogen can be stored inside these tubes at incredible densities.
Development of carbon nanotubes will be the fuel cell’s holy grail as the main storage medium for Hydrogen.
The
cost of household Hydrogen fuel cells looks more promising every day; near past
prices for a 1kW fuel cell stack were approximately $19,620.00 but the near
future estimates are as low as $1500.00 per kW with an industry goal of
achieving a 1kW fuel cell stack of $500.00. Prices are being forced down as
demand and manufacturing efficiency increase and the per-house cost breakdown
shows the technology to be affordable for mid-income households. 1
Fuel cells are today being used widely in China, Europe, Canada and the United States and much research and development is being accomplished worldwide. NASA has been using fuel cells on Space Shuttle missions for decades and many municipalities have adopted for Hydrogen energy in small-sector projects. The Post Office in Anchorage, Alaska has the largest operating fuel cell system in the world and the first installation of fuel cells that contribute power to the grid. A UTC fuel cell in Japan has just passed 49,000 hours of continuous operation since 1992 and Fraunhofer ISE has even developed a micro fuel cell that will operate in mobile phones.
Projected Usage:
Due
to the expenses related for the initial investment, fuel cells should make
their mark in a more controlled situation as opposed to mass-market residential
use. This would be the future, but
to get the technology somewhat into the mainstream we should be targeting new
building codes in new development.
One way that it could be integrated could be when a new subdivision is
being constructed, link 4 houses to a single say, 7kw fuel cell with the home
owners taking a ¼ share of the unit.
Another application could be
by targeting municipalities. As
more low-income housing is built, use the above example for the whole housing
block. This technology will not be available to the low-income families, yet
with the housing authority cutting cost and even selling power back for
credits, the loop begins to shrink.
The idea to use fuel cells in
this capacity has many advantages.
A service team that works for the entity that supplies the fuel cell can
maintain and assist in one central area.
The training they receive will then
1. See economic breakdown
attachment A
make them very marketable as
more of this technology is brought to the average homeowner. This essentially begins the huge
process of training people to install and maintain fuel cells, which is
critical to the success.
Stationary units represent the beginning for integration into the American mainstream. Decreasing the power output required from heavy emitting power stations should be first on the list of things to do. They would be central for maintenance and move towards less dependence on the power stations.
Economic breakdown for
household Hydrogen fuel cells.
Greg’s average daily
power requirement: 863 Watts per
day at $1.28
Over the life of a thirty-year
loan, I will pay $14, 016.00 in electricity costs.
For a 1kW fuel cell stack at a
cost of $1,500.00, and given that the original fuel cell provides power for the
entire 30 years:
Cost for installation is
variable at $4,000.00
Cost for hardware is
approximately $4,000.00 dependant on manufacturer and make/model of hardware.
Itemized:
FC
coupled heating unit (Sound Geothermal Heatexchanger) $1,500.00
FC
coupled water heater (Paloma PH16FS) $617.00
Trace
phase inverter (Trace RV3012) $610.00
Grid
Tie (GTI GridTie Interface) $449.00
Elctrolysis Mod w/ PV array (Master 4W) $839.00
Total
$4,015.00
Total hardware and
installation costs for a residential 1kW system are projected to be approximately
$9515.00 for an estimated savings of $4501.00.
This model could easily be
modified to be even more energy efficient by adopting a 500W fuel cell rather
than a 1kW cell because the need to power household hot water and central
heating units will not rely on electricity generated by the fuel cell, but
rather the heat produced by the initial proton exchange. The potential cost and
energy savings are greater, but credits awarded by the power utilities for
excess power donated to the grid would offset costs for the original 1kW cell
even more.
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Fuel Cells in the Home
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Fossil Energy – How Fuel Cells Work. 2002
http://www.fe.doe.gov/coal_power/fuelcells/fuelcells_howtheywork.shtml
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j.birch@fuelcellstore.com
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