Hydrogen Quality Issues for Fuel Cell
Vehicles
Introduction
Developing and implementing fuel quality specifications for hydrogen are
prerequisites to the widespread deployment of hydrogen-fueled fuel cell
vehicles. Several organizations are addressing this fuel quality issue,
including the International Standards Organization (ISO), the Society of
Automotive Engineers (SAE), the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), and
the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)/Japan
Automobile Research Institute (JARI). All of their activities, however, have
focused on the deleterious effects of potential contaminants on the automotive
fuel cell or on-board hydrogen storage systems. While it is possible for the
energy industry to provide extremely pure hydrogen, such hydrogen could entail
excessive costs. It is the objective of this task to develop a process whereby
the hydrogen quality requirements may be determined based on life-cycle costs of
the complete hydrogen fuel cell vehicle "system." To accomplish this objective,
the influence of different contaminants and their concentrations in fuel
hydrogen on the life-cycle costs of hydrogen production, purification, use in
fuel cells, and hydrogen analysis and quality verification are being assessed.
Approach: Hydrogen Quality Working Group
We have assembled a DOE Hydrogen Quality Working Group (H2QWG) to obtain
input from a broad spectrum of involved groups and organizations. Members of the
H2QWG include DOE Hydrogen Program's Technology Development Managers; U.S.
automobile companies and fuel cell developers (DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General
Motors, UTC Power); energy companies (BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil,
Shell); and DOE National Laboratories (Argonne, Los Alamos, National Renewable
Energy Laboratory). Argonne is helping to coordinate the activities of the
H2QWG.
To develop the process for assessing the effects of hydrogen quality
specifications on costs and energy usage of the fuel cell vehicle over its life
cycle, the H2QWG has:
- Developed a draft roadmap to help define the work of the group;
- Held in-person meetings three to four times a year to obtain input from
fuel cell developers, hydrogen suppliers, analytical chemists for gas
analysis technologies, and developers of the DOE-sponsored H2A hydrogen
production and delivery model for costing methodologies;
- Initiated a database of critically assessed relevant literature;
- Worked with model developers at Argonne and other organizations to help
develop and validate performance and life-cycle cost models; and
- Provided briefings and updates to various FreedomCAR and Fuel
Partnership’s Technical Teams and other groups involved in related work.
Approach: Correlating Hydrogen Quality with the Cost of Hydrogen
Hydrogen is currently produced in large quantities at central facilities such
as refineries and chemical plants, which are also consumers of hydrogen. The
demand of smaller consumers is generally met by transporting the hydrogen from
these central production plants. It is anticipated that the refueling needs of
hydrogen-fueled vehicles will be met by installing distributed hydrogen
production facilities at (existing or similar) gasoline refueling stations.
While the long-term hydrogen pathway will be based on renewable energy, the most
likely near-term pathway is expected to be from a process based on a natural gas
steam reformer followed by a pressure swing adsorption system. Argonne has
developed a model of this process, using a detailed PSA model, that can
correlate the efficiency of the combined process with the level of impurities
(CO, nitrogen, etc.) in the product hydrogen, for a variety of process
assumptions and conditions (e.g., temperature, pressure, steam-to-carbon ratio,
type of sorbents, etc.) These results can then be used within DOE's H2A economic
analysis tool to correlate the cost of hydrogen with the levels of impurities
present in that hydrogen. These cost factors will then be used to calculate the
sensitivity of the life-cycle cost of vehicle ownership as a function of the
impurity level.
Contact
Modeling
Shabbir Ahmed
ahmeds@anl.gov
Working Group
Romesh Kumar
kumar@anl.gov |