Yorkshire has a new claim to fame. It is to be the first place in Europe to have a building fuelled solely by wind and “green” hydrogen power. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and in the global quest for renewable and sustainable energy sources, TNEI Services Ltd and the Pure Energy Centre are leading the way. The development, on behalf of Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, signals a UK first and highlights the potential for hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, to be used commercially as an energy resource.

 

The building, based on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, is designed to BREAAM excellent standards, the world’s leading system for assessing buildings and their environmental impacts. It has its own Hydrogen mini-grid and presents a vision of how commercial buildings could be powered in the future.

Dr Jason Stoyel of TNEI outlines the scope of the project and its impact on the industry. Generating energy close to where it is needed and the intelligent management of that energy is critical to the UK’s energy mix, now and in the future. Rising energy costs and the Government’s challenging target of 20% of all energy being delivered from renewable sources by 2010 – highlight the pressure the renewable energy industry is under to develop innovative solutions for sustainable energy generation.

These two factors coupled with concerns over the security of the west’s energy supply are leading the UK to pursue one energy route known as the Hydrogen Economy.

Problems surrounding fossil fuels are many and well charted and the environmental advantages of hydrogen are so significant, that the move toward a hydrogen economy is very strong.

• Currently, 80% of the energy consumed in the EU is derived from fossil fuels, oil, natural gas and coal. A significant and increasing proportion of this comes from outside the EU.

• This dependence on imported oil and gas, which is currently 50%, could rise to 70% by 2030.

• This will increase the EU’s energy insecurity with the threat of supply cuts or higher prices resulting from international crisis.

If some predictions are to be believed, over the next few decades there will be a major shift away from the dependence on fossil fuels towards a cleaner, hydrogen future. One of the biggest challenges facing the industry in the commercial use of hydrogen is its storage and on site generation and the race is on to develop viable and cost effective applications that resolve these issues.

To have a truly “green” hydrogen economy, the hydrogen must first be derived from renewable sources and not fossil fuels that would continue to release CO2. Leading the quest to find these solutions are TNEI Services Ltd, a leading renewable energy consultancy and the Pure Energy Centre, PEC, experts in hydrogen technology. Their efforts were galvanised by a commission from regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward to make history with its Environmental Energy Technology Centre, EETC building.

After a four way pitch, TNEI and PEC were awarded the £2.3 million project because of their existing skills base and corporate experience coupled with their dynamic approach to championing innovative projects.

From Yorkshire Forward’s vision to create a building of international, national and regional significance, the UK’s first hydrogen mini-grid was born. The building, the EETC in Rotherham, aims to place Yorkshire at the centre of the global drive to create a low carbon economy. Housed on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, the EETC forms the nucleus of Yorkshire’s plans to create a hub for the renewable and emerging energy industries. A world class office and workshop facility, the building will aim to attract companies working in the renewable or emerging energy industries and offer them the business and technical support they need to become established.

The building will be a beacon of energy innovation – from the energy that fuels it, to the companies working within, an international example of a low carbon, sustainable and high energy efficiency. Built to future building standards of “iconic” design, the building will have a very low environmental footprint and low energy life cycle costs.

At the heart of the building’s design is its innovative power system. Designed and currently under construction, the Hydrogen Mini-grid, based on a hydrogen fuel cell, will be the most technically advanced commercial fusion of renewable energy and state of the art hydrogen technology in Europe.

The energy generated by this installation will make the EETC one of the first truly Carbon negative, fully operational commercial developments in the world and demonstrate the important role Hydrogen has to play in providing a secure, reliable and renewable energy supply for the UK.

Carbon neutrality, an increasingly important business goal, will be achieved by the EETC as soon as it is launched, with surplus energy in the form of hydrogen being made available for a range of uses including storage, transport fuel, or for use in research and development by companies occupying the centre.

It is estimated that the Hydrogen mini-grid system will generate over 364MWh of electrical energy per annum from an onsite VESTAS wind turbine. This electrical energy will be used to provide power to the EETC building and displace the use of electricity supplied by the local network operator. This will potentially save around 130 tonnes of CO2 every year.

Excess electricity generated during periods of low demand will be used to produce hydrogen using a state-of-the-art high pressure alkaline electrolyser. This element of the design has been created by Pure Energy Centre specifically for use with renewably generated electricity and has a significantly longer lifespan than alternative, commercially available, electrolysers. This is due to the innovative electrolyser construction that minimises electrode degradation caused by the high fluctuations in power supplied by a renewable energy device.

Once generated, the hydrogen from the electrolyser will be compressed from 30 bar to 420 bar for storage at high pressure in state-of-the-art cylinders. This high pressure storage will allow the hydrogen to be used on site or easily sold or transported for use elsewhere.

Another commercial first will be this storage of large quantities of high pressure hydrogen on site, with over 200kg stored in purpose built cylinders, creating the biggest single store of “Green” hydrogen in the UK.

Once the storage capacity is full any further excess electricity generated will be fed directly to the existing distribution network as “green” electricity.

The project is being delivered in three key stages, the first design stage has been completed and the programme is gaining pace with phase two, the build stage well underway and scheduled for completion early in 2009. For the third and final stage, TNEI and PEC have enlisted the help of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds. Together, they will carry out a structured and comprehensive knowledge transfer programme – designed to build expertise within the Yorkshire region.

The focus of this knowledge transfer is to develop a pioneering Control System specifically for this project which will be implemented alongside the Hydrogen Mini-Grid. The knowledge transfer programme will last between 12 and 16 months with the aim being to develop a detailed working Control System that will optimise the whole system and enable Yorkshire Forward to derive maximum benefit from the renewable energy being generated on site.

All round control and simulation skills will be acquired through the Control programme – monitoring and controlling all energy input and output. This will enable the system to be used to its maximum potential whilst minimising energy losses. One interesting corporate development the Hydrogen Mini-grid has delivered to both TNEI and PEC is the job opportunities and career development the programme has created.

In addition to strengthening the skills set of existing staff members through their work with the University of Leeds, the project has also resulted in the potential for job creation now and into the future. Plans for phase 3 and beyond are currently being considered including the opportunities the Hydrogen Mini-grid could offer to TNEI and PEC and the wider community of Yorkshire when complete.

Once TNEI and PEC has delivered against the brief set by Yorkshire Forward, the team will explore the development potential and strategic opportunities for the business partnership in hydrogen economy into the future. The wider opportunities for hydrogen power are vast, but they have yet to be realized or pinned down. Currently no hydrogen infrastructure exists within the UK to support pioneering developments like the Yorkshire Forward project, which is and will continue to stall the development of the hydrogen economy.

TNEI and PEC are hopeful that when the Yorkshire Forward project is up and running, visionaries in Government and industry will recognise its ground breaking potential and start to invest and champion the developments that are so desperately needed to support what could be a burgeoning Hydrogen economy.

 

 

TNEI Services Ltd is an energy consultancy with offices in Newcastle, Manchester and Woking, United Kingdom. The Pure Energy Centre specialises in the delivery of renewable hydrogen systems. For more information: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it