Project Title: Renewable Energy Hydrogen Based System for Off-Grid Applications
DRI Faculty: Roger Jacobson (PI), Rick Purcell, and Curt Robbins
Dates: Sept. 2004 – Feb. 2008
Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Collaborators: Collier Technology
Total Budget: $482,470
Objectives: Nevada is estimated to have over 10,000 locations that require electrical power, but are not connected to the State’s power grid. Most of these locations produce their own power via a generator operated by an internal combustion engine (ICE) that runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The objective of this project is to build a modified genset that can operate on either LPG or H2, and to demonstrate the utility of this approach in a real-world, off-grid setting.
Results/Conclusions: A portable, renewable energy power system was designed and built inside a 12-foot trailer. This trailer contains a dual-fuel genset (LPG and H2), an electrolyzer, low pressure H2 tanks, an inverter, a small battery bank, and a computer control system to monitor and control the operation of the complete system.
This trailer system was operated successfully at two field sites. In each case, renewably-generated electricity (from wind and/or solar PV) was available to power the electrolyzer and re-charge the battery pack. The system was operated in a manner meant to represent a typical residential load profile. Whenever possible, the required power load was satisfied directly by the renewably-generated electrical power (wind turbines and/or solar PV). When excess renewable power was available, it was used to generate H2 and re-charge the battery pack. When insufficient renewable power was available, the genset was operated on H2 (if available) or LPG (if H2 was not available) to re-charge the batteries and satisfy the power load demands of the simulated residence.
Considerable engineering and control system modifications were required to integrate all components into a complete system that could perform reliably without user intervention. Due to this intensive customization effort, the current version of our off-grid trailer system is not highly cost-effective. However, through this R&D project, we have gained valuable knowledge that would enable future development of an improved system.
Presentations:
