The European Commission has selected the Northern Netherlands to become the leading European hydrogen region and supports establishment of a complete local (green) hydrogen ecosystem covering production, storage, distribution, refueling and final use of hydrogen (Cordis, H2Valley, 2019). In line with the European recognition, the Dutch government has set the goal to establish a hydrogen ecosystem by 2025 that would further expand to Western Europe by 2030. Yet before the European Union nominated the Northern Netherlands as European Hydrogen Valley, the key stakeholders in the Northern Netherlands – industry, SMEs, knowledge institutions and government – committed to the long-term cooperation in development of the green hydrogen market. Subsequently, the three regional governments of the Northern Netherlands, - Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, - prepared the common Hydrogen Investment Agenda (2019), which was further elaborated in the common Hydrogen Investment Plan (2020). The latter includes investments amounting to over 9 billion euro, which is believed will secure some 66.000 existing jobs and help create between 25 thousands (in 2030) and 41 thousands (in 2050) new jobs.However, implementation of these ambitious plans to establish a hydrogen ecosystem of this scale will require not only investments into development of a new infrastructure or technological adaptation of present energy systems, e.g., pipelines, but also facilitation of economic transformation and securing the social support and acceptance. What are the prospects for the social support for the developing European Hydrogen Valley in the Northern Netherlands and its acceptance by inhabitants? The paper discusses the social support and acceptance aspects for a hydrogen ecosystem in the context of regional experiences of energy transition, including the concerns of energy justice, safety, and public trust that were raised in the recent past.
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Author supplied from the article: Abstract A temperature compensated hydrogen sensor was designed and made capable of detecting H2 within a broad range of 100–10.000 ppm while compensating instantaneously for large (±25 °C) temperature variations. Two related operational constraints have been simultaneously addressed: (1) Selective, and sensitive detection under large temperature changes, (2) Fast warning at low and increasing H2 levels. Accurate measurements of hydrogen concentrations were enabled by matching relevant time-constants. This was achieved with a microchip having two temperature coupled palladium nanowires. One of the H2 sensitive Pd nanowires was directly exposed to hydrogen, whilst the other nanowire was used as a temperature sensor and as a reference. A drop forging technique was used to passivate the second Pd wire against H2 sensing. Temperature effects could be substantially reduced with a digital signal processing algorithm. Measurements were done in a test chamber, enabling the hydrogen concentration to be controlled over short and long periods. An early response for H2 sensing is attainable in the order of 600 milliseconds and an accurate value for the absolute hydrogen concentration can be obtained within 15 s.
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In this manuscript we present the results of a four-year monitor among a representative panel of Dutch citizens on the knowledge, awareness and opinions regarding hydrogen. Hydrogen has the potential to play an important role in the energy transition and therefore receives a growing attention. At the start we wanted to know how the Dutch population felt upon hydrogen and its applications. By knowing how the Dutch feel about hydrogen, we could design campaigns to inform the public better and make these campaigns more tailored on the questions or worries the public has regarding hydrogen. In this contribution we present the results of these four studies.
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The Power to Flex project aims to promote the development of storage possibilities from sustainable energy sources. Hydrogen is opted to be a feasible energy carrier, which can also be stored for prolonged times without further losses and can be transformed into electricity and heat when needed. Producing hydrogen from electrolysis processes has a low CO2 footprint, however the efficiency at both the system, stack and cell level still increases due to further research and development.Electrolysis is conventionally performed with direct current, of which the energy is usually supplied from the grid. Rectifiers are necessary to provide the energy source for electrolysis, which unfortunately waste some of the efficiency, albeit becoming more efficient. Although it is known that distortions, harmonics and ripple, in the current supply can cause decreased performance of the electrolysis, a fundamental understanding is often not provided in published research. Controlled modulation of the electrolysis process can however form a possibility to enhance the performance of electrolysis
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Decentralised renewable energy production in the form of fuels or electricity can have large scale deployment in future energy systems, but the feasibility needs to be assessed. The novelty of this paper is in the design and implementation of a mixed integer linear programming optimisation model to minimise the net present cost of decentralised hydrogen production for different energy demands on neighbourhood urban scale, while simultaneously adhering to European Union targets on greenhouse gas emission reductions. The energy system configurations optimised were assumed to possibly consist of a variable number or size of wind turbines, solar photovoltaics, grey grid electricity usage, battery storage, electrolyser, and hydrogen storage. The demands served are hydrogen for heating and mobility, and electricity for the households. A hydrogen residential heating project currently being developed in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands, served as a case study. Six scenarios were compared, each taking one or multiple energy demand services into question. For each scenario the levelised cost of hydrogen was calculated. The lowest levelised cost of hydrogen was found for the combined heating and mobility scenario: 8.36 €/kg for heating and 9.83 €/kg for mobility. The results support potential cost reductions of combined demand patterns of different energy services. A sensitivity analysis showed a strong influence of electrolyser efficiency, wind turbine parameters, and emission reduction factor on levelised cost. Wind energy was strongly preferred because of the lower cost and the low greenhouse gas emissions, compared to solar photovoltaics and grid electricity. Increasing electrolyser efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction of the used technologies deserve further research.
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Hydrogen (H2) is a key element in the Dutch energy transition, considered a sources of flexibility to balance the variable renewable energy sources, facilitating its integration into the energy system. But also as an energy carrier. Both the gas and electricity transmission operators (TSO) have the vision to interconnect their networks with H2, by distributing the green H2 produced with offshore electrolysers into high pressure gas pipelines to relive the overload electric network. The planned compressed H2 pipelines cross the north of North-Holland region, offering a backbone for a H2 economy. Furthermore, at regional level there are already a big number of privet-public H2 developments, among them the DuWaAl, which is a H2 production-demand chain, consists of 1) An H2 mill, 2) 5 filling stations in the region and 3) a large fleet of trucks and other users. Because of these developments, the North-Holland region needs a better insight into the position that H2 could fulfil in the local energy system to contribute to the energy transition. The aim of this research is to analyse these H2 economy, from the emergent to settled, by identifying early and potential producer- consumer, considering the future infrastructure requirements, and exploring economy-environmental impacts of different supply paths
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This paper proposes a Hybrid Microgrid (HμG) model including distributed generation (DG) and a hydrogen-based storage system, controlled through a tailored control strategy. The HμG is composed of three DG units, two of them supplied by solar and wind sources, and the latter one based on the exploitation of theProton Exchange Membrane (PEM) technology. Furthermore, the system includes an alkaline electrolyser, which is used as a responsive load to balance the excess of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) production, and to produce the hydrogen that will be stored into the hydrogen tank and that will be used to supply the fuel cell in case of lack of generation. The main objectives of this work are to present a validated dynamic model for every component of the HμG and to provide a strategy to reduce as much as possible the power absorption from the grid by exploiting the VRES production. The alkaline electrolyser and PEM fuel cell models are validated through real measurements. The State of Charge (SoC) of the hydrogen tank is adjusted through an adaptive scheme. Furthermore, the designed supervisor power control allows reducing the power exchange and improving the system stability. Finally, a case, considering a summer load profile measured in an electrical substation of Politecnico di Torino, is presented. The results demonstrates the advantages of a hydrogen-based micro-grid, where the hydrogen is used as medium to store the energy produced by photovoltaic and wind systems, with the aim to improve the self-sufficiency of the system
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The intermittency of renewable energy technologies requires adequate storage technologies. Hydrogen systems consisting of electrolysers, storage tanks, and fuel cells can be implemented as well as batteries. The requirements of the hydrogen purification unit is missing from literature. We measured the same for a 4.5 kW PEM electrolyser to be 0.8 kW for 10 min.A simulation to hybridize the hydrogen system, including its purification unit, with lithium-ion batteries for energy storage is presented; the batteries also support the electrolyser. We simulated a scenario for operating a Dutch household off-electric-grid using solar and wind electricity to find the capacities and costs of the components of the system.Although the energy use of the purification unit is small, it influences the operation of the system, affecting the sizing of the components. The battery as a fast response efficient secondary storage system increases the ability of the electrolyser to start up.
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Excess of renewable electricity from wind turbines or solar panels is used for electrolysis of water. To store this renewable energy as methane, the hydrogen is fed to an anaerobic digester to stimulate biological methanation by hydrogenotrophic methanogens. These work packages focus on the best ways for hydrogen delivery and the community changes in a biomethanation reactor as a result of hydrogen supply.
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