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Promising hydrogen initiative |
Last year, the University of Birmingham announced it runs a fleet of hydrogen-powered cars, making it the only UK university to do so
 The cars, classed as Zero Emission Vehicles, ZEVs, are powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, making them pollution free – zero emission of CO2 and other pollutants per kilometer. It is virtually silent in operation, can travel up to 100 miles on a full tank of hydrogen (0.6 kg) and at speeds up to 50 miles per hour.
How it works
The electrical power is generated by a fuel cell, which combines hydrogen and oxygen through a membrane to produce electricity, heat, and water (water being the only exhaust product generated). The fuel cell produces electricity as long as fuel (hydrogen) is supplied.
A hydrogen fuelling station has also been installed on campus and a series of experiments has been performed to test it. 50 filling cycles have been completed using the Air Products refueller, transferring 0.6 kg of ‘green’ hydrogen (produced by water electrolysis) from the station at 400bar to the vehicle tank at 350bar.
The time required is three minutes and no excessive temperature excursions are observed. A number of tests have been completed to give preliminary results:
- Approximately 50 fillings without incident
- Filling time is 3 mins (max. fill rate is 100bar per minute for safety)
- Present range is 40 miles per filling at constant speed
- Fuel cell efficiency is 41 per cent
- Present fuel cost is 20p per mile
- Overall energy efficiency is 1 km/MJ which is three times better than a diesel internal combustion engine (ca. 0.3 km/MJ).
Research
The vehicles, designed and built by managing director John Jostins of Microcab Industries Ltd in Coventry, are being used in a study by the University’s Fuel Cells group (www.fuelcells.bham.ac.uk) to find out more about the viability of hydrogen in transport applications.
They are compared with the campus fleet of petrol, diesel and pure electric vehicles so that researchers can learn about their efficiency, performance and how they can be adapted in order to make hydrogen an attractive and cost effective option as a future fuel. Currently the cars carry out tasks on the campus including postal deliveries, recycling of materials and duties around the estate enabling the testing of car components for reliability, efficiency and cost effectiveness.
A hydrogen and fuel cell supply chain is currently being implemented in the West Midlands by Dr Bruno G. Pollet (www.hydrogen-wm-scratch.info) with 50 SMEs (e.g. WMFC, RDM, Westfield, Potenza, Tempus, Delta Motorsports etc) developing and manufacturing fuel cell and vehicle components for Microcab. Other local CV manufacturers are looking to ways of using hydrogen fuel cell systems for commercial transport applications.
Creating infrastructure
A hydrogen infrastructure has now begun as the University has a hydrogen refuelling station on its campus, with more fuelling stations coming into operation over the next coming months. The British Midlands Hydrogen Forum (BMHF) is to establish the Midlands Hydrogen Ring (MHR) – a series of fuelling stations across the region for hydrogen vehicle development and testing activity, which will link up with similar facilities in neighboring areas.
The hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are currently going through a Single Vehicle Approval (SVA) testing with the aim to have the cars road legal by this summer. Microcab Industries are aiming to start manufacturing this year with the intention of building 100 vehicles. The vehicles will be available to buyers towards the end of 2009.
The Hydrogen Fuel Cell Microcab project is part of the hydrogen energy project, which has received funding from the Regional Development Agency – Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change to develop the use of hydrogen energy as a ‘green’ fuel for transportation. The project is part of the UK government Science City Initiative. |
