Energy and land use impacts of sustainable transportation scenarios

This study compares the land use impacts of sustainable transportation scenarios. Energy efficiency is calculated for four hypothetical, renewable fuel cycles possible for light vehicles: (1) renewable electricity to electrolytic hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles, (2) renewable electricity to battery electric vehicles, (3) biomass gasified to hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles and (4) biomass liquefied to biofuel to fuel cell vehicles. A presumption of 200 W/m² nominal average insolation allows comparison of the fuel cycle efficiencies on a land use basis. The two electricity-based fuel cycles show much higher calculated efficiencies (and lower land uses) than the biomass-based fuel cycles. The use of hydrogen as an energy carrier improves the performance of the biomass resource, but does not show a distinct advantage in performance of the electricity resource. Finally, gross land use is calculated for the particular instance of the U.S. light vehicle fleet, for each of the four fuel cycles.     

Hydrogen island: the story and motivations behind the Icelandic hydrogen society experiment

The paper describes the background, motivations and action plan for an extensive experiment with hydrogen (H) as an energy carrier in Iceland. The energy consumption of Iceland is described as well as the role of fossil fuel imports in the otherwise renewable energy scenario. The paper goes on describing the academic/political reasons for the drive towards the H economy experiment and the international consortium created to herald the work. Finally the paper describes the ongoing projects in Iceland and the anticipated development of H research and development in the country.     

Partnerships in creating agile sustainable development communities

The key to clean, renewable and healthy futures for society(s) can be seen in the need to consider how all infrastructure areas such as water, waste and transportation, energy are treated. And to focus attention on the emerging commercial technologies (such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) that will be available regionally and then globally within the next five to ten years. Planning and investing now for that future will prove to be prudent and cost effective. Public-private partnerships, known as “civic markets“ can create and provide “funds” such as public bonds along with private sector innovation and markets on the regional, state and national levels. Similar bond funds have been passed by the electorate in California, most recently for stem cell research (USA$3 billion). Public support to promote funding for sustainable communities has also been demonstrated with bond funds for water, forests and land preservation.“Agile energy systems” are flexible and adapt to change effectively and efficiently for economic, environmental and social benefits, the triple bottom line. However, there needs to be collaboration between the pubic and private sectors in creating them. Such civic markets can from new associations of communities, cities and nation-states that might be useful to plan public policies and create the “government market“ in terms of procurement and coordination of public resources for renewable energy on-site and central grid power generation. One suggestion is to form an “Association of Agile Energy Cities or communities.”     

Hydrogen storage and distribution systems

Hydrogen storage and transportation or distribution is closely linked together. Hydrogen can be distributed continuously in pipelines or batch wise by ships, trucks, railway or airplanes. All batch transportation requires a storage system but also pipelines can be used as pressure storage system. Hydrogen exhibits the highest heating value per weight of all chemical fuels. Furthermore, hydrogen is regenerative and environment friendly. There are two reasons why hydrogen is not the major fuel of toady’s energy consumption: First of all, hydrogen is just an energy carrier. And, although it is the most abundant element in the universe, it has to be produced, since on earth it only occurs in the form of water. This implies that we have to pay for this energy, which results in a difficult economic task, because since the industrialization we are used to consuming energy for free. The second difficulty with hydrogen as an energy carrier is the low critical temperature of 33 K, i.e. hydrogen is a gas at room temperature. For mobile and in many cases also for stationary applications the volumetric and gravimetric density of hydrogen in a storage system is crucial. Hydrogen can be stored by six different methods and phenomena: high pressure gas cylinders (up to 800 bar), liquid hydrogen in cryogenic tanks (at 21 K), adsorbed hydrogen on materials with a large specific surface area (at T < 100 K), absorbed on interstitial sites in a host metal (at ambient pressure and temperature), chemically bond in covalent and ionic compounds (at ambient pressure), oxidation of reactive metals e.g. Li, Na, Mg, Al, Zn with water. These metals easily react with water to the corresponding hydroxide and liberate the hydrogen from the water. Finally, the metal hydroxides can be thermally reduced to the metals in a solar furnace.     

电解水制氢技术进展

氢能清洁无污染，并且高效，可再生，被视为未来最有潜力的能量载体。在目前的各种制氢技术中，利用可再生能源所产生的电能作为动力来电解水是最为成熟和最有潜力的技术，是通向氢经济的最佳途径。简要介绍了碱性电解槽，聚合物薄膜电解槽，固体氧化物电解槽的基本原理，研究现状，并对有关问题和电解槽的现状，发展趋势作了讨论。     

Advancing Towards a Hydrogen Energy Economy: Status,Opportunities and Barriers

Performance reliability advances and cost reductions have been achieved with hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in both the transportation and distributed energy sectors. This paper reviews the status of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, identifies key business and policy drivers for the hydrogen economy, critically examines key barriers to implementing the hydrogen economy, identifies and discusses key national initiatives to advance the hydrogen economy, and identifies and discusses key intergovernmental initiatives and activities to advance the hydrogen economy. Hydrogen and fuel cell technology advances, coupled with a reduction in costs and improvements in performance reliability, present new opportunities for developed and developing countries to achieve energy, economic and environmental security. Substantial national research and development investments in hydrogen production, storage, transport, end-use technologies (e.g., fuel cells), safety and public education underscore future opportunities. Intergovernmental bodies such as Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) provide a multilateral framework for development of a global hydrogen economy. While the pathway forward for the hydrogen economy is precarious alternative energy options offer substantially fewer public benefits.     

中国氢燃料电池车燃料生命周期的化石能源消耗和CO2排放

氢燃料电池车(FCV)具有运行阶段高能效和零排放的优点,近年来得到快速的商业化发展.氢能生产具有多种技术路径,不同路径的能源和环境效益存在显著差异.本研究采用生命周期评价方法,运用GREET模型对不同氢燃料路径下的FCV燃料周期(WTW)的化石能源消耗和CO_2排放进行了全面评价.选取了多种制氢路径作为评价对象,建立了中国本地化的FCV燃料生命周期数据库,在此基础上分析了FCV相对传统汽油车的WTW节能减排效益,并和混合动力车和纯电动车进行比较.结果表明,使用可再生电力和生物质等绿色能源制氢供应FCV能取得显著的WTW节能减排效益,可削减约90%的化石能耗和CO_2排放.在发展相对成熟的传统能源制氢路径中,以焦炉煤气制得氢气为原料的FCV,能产生显著的节能减排效益,其化石能耗低于混合动力车,CO_2排放低于混合动力车和纯电动车.结合对资源储备和技术成熟度的考虑,我国在发展氢能及FCV过程中,近期可考虑利用焦炉煤气等工业副产物制氢,并且规划中远期的绿色制氢技术发展.     

Cleaner production alternatives: Biomass utilisation options

The increasing price of energy, the security of supply, the reduction of green house gases, and the scarcity of oil and gas urge the use of more and more renewable energy. An important renewable energy source is the biomass which can be applied for heat, electricity, and transportation fuel production. The heat and electricity production are the so called “direct utilisation” alternatives and the transportation fuel production alternatives are the “indirect utilisation” alternatives of biomass energy. If efficient land use is considered, the alternatives can be compared on the basis of the utilisable energy produced from the biomass per hectare. It is shown that the bioethanol production from corn has about 89–99% less energy production capability than that of the direct utilisation alternatives. The cellulosic type bioethanol production technologies, since these partially directly utilise the biomass energy, have better energy utilisation potential, that is about 40–50% of direct alternatives.     

氢燃料电池汽车动力系统生命周期评价及关键参数对比

发展氢燃料电池汽车被认为是解决能源安全和环境污染问题的理想解决方案之一,为量化探究氢燃料电池汽车动力系统的化石能源消耗和排放情况,运用GaBi软件建模,以新能源汽车相关技术路线为参考,构建我国氢燃料电池汽车动力系统的数据清单并对其全生命周期化石能源消耗和全球变暖潜值情况进行定量评价计算和预测分析,对不同类型的双极板、不同能量控制策略和不同制氢方式对环境的影响分别进行了对比研究,并对关键数据进行了不确定分析.结果表明,预计到2030年我国每台氢燃料电池汽车动力系统生命周期的化石能源消耗量（ADP_f）、全球变暖潜值（GWP,以CO₂ eq计）和酸化潜值（AP,以SO₂ eq计）分别为1.35×10⁵ MJ、9108 kg和15.79 kg.动力系统生产制造阶段的化石能源消耗和全球变暖潜值均高于使用阶段,主要原因是燃料电池堆栈和储氢罐的制造过程.金属双极板、石墨复合双极板和石墨双极板的制造工艺中石墨复合双极板的综合环境效益最好.能量控制策略的优化会使得氢能消耗降低,当氢能消耗降低22.8%时,动力系统的生命周期化石能源消耗和全球变暖潜值分别降低10.4%和8.3%.相比于甲烷蒸气重整制氢,基于混合电网电解水制氢的动力系统生命周期全球变暖潜值高出53.7%[KG-*6],而基于水电电解水制氢降低39.6%.降低动力系统生命周期化石能源消耗和全球变暖潜值的措施包括优化能量控制策略降低氢能消耗、规模化发展可再生能源发电电解水制氢产业和聚焦突破燃料电池堆栈关键技术实现性能提升.     

Renewable hydrogen production: a technical evaluation based on process simulation

An evaluation of different hydrogen production technologies based on renewable raw materials and/or renewable energy is presented. The evaluation comprises alkaline electrolysis, steam reforming of both biogas and gasification gas, the coupled dark and photo fermentation as well as the coupled dark and biogas fermentation. Each technology is investigated with different plant layouts and/or different raw materials. All examined technologies are designed to produce hydrogen in a quality suitable for the use in mobile fuel cells. The presented evaluation is based on the hydrogen production efficiency and the energy efficiency of the processes.     

面向2035的节能与新能源汽车全生命周期碳排放预测评价

发展节能与新能源汽车是降低交通运输行业碳排放的重要技术路径.为量化预测节能与新能源汽车的全生命周期碳排放,利用全生命周期评价方法,以汽车相关技术路线和政策为参考,选取燃油经济性、整车轻量化水平、电力结构碳排放因子和氢能碳排放因子为关键参数,构建传统燃油汽车(ICEV)、轻度混合动力汽车(MHEV)、重度混合动力汽车(HEV)、纯电动汽车(BEV)和燃料电池汽车(FCV)的数据清单并对其全生命周期碳排放进行量化预测评价,对电力结构碳排放因子和不同制氢方式碳排放因子进行了敏感性分析和讨论.结果发现,2022年ICEV、 MHEV、 HEV、 BEV和FCV的全生命周期碳排放量(以CO₂-eq计)分别为208.0、 195.5、 150.0、 113.5和205.0 g·km^-1.到2035年,BEV和FCV相比于ICEV具有较为显著的减碳效益,分别降低69.1%和49.3%.电力结构的碳排放因子对BEV的全生命周期碳排放的影响最显著.关于燃料电池汽车的不同制氢方式,短期应以工业副产氢提纯为主供应FCV氢能需求,长期以可再生能源电解水制氢和化石能源...     

天津近岸海域赤潮监控区富营养化状况评价

根据天津近岸赤潮监控区2003年度到2005年度的海洋环境监测资料,利用目前较为通用的富营养化综合指数法对该海域进行了富营养化评价,结果表明:(1)该区域富营养化现状整体呈现逐步恶化的现状,由2003年度的仅有一个站位发生轻微富营养化迅速恶化到2004年度、2005年度的严重富营养化;海水水质已经由2003年度的二类海水,锐减到2005年度的四类海水水质.(2)该区域严重富营养化现状主要是由陆源高营养盐(DIN和DIP)输入造成的.     

Attributional life cycle assessment of woodchips for bioethanol production

Besides the apparent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, other important factors contributing to the renewed interest in biofuels are energy security concerns and the need of sustainable transportation fuel. Nearly 30% of the annual CO₂ emissions in the U.S. come from the transportation sector and more than half of the fuel is imported. Biofuels appear to be a promising option to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and the reliance on imported oil concomitantly. The interest on (ligno) cellulosic ethanol is gaining momentum as corn-based ethanol is criticized for using agricultural outputs for fuel production. Among many lignocellulosic feedstocks, woodchips is viewed as one of the most promising feedstocks for producing liquid transportation fuels. The renewable and carbon neutral nature of the feedstocks, similar chemical and physical properties to gasoline, and the low infrastructure cost due to the availability of fuel flex vehicles and transportation networks make (ligno) cellulosic bioethanol an attractive option. An in-depth LCA of woodchips shows that harvesting and woodchips processing stage and transportation to the facility stage emit large amount of environmental pollutants compared to other life cycle stages of ethanol production. Our analysis also found that fossil fuel consumption and respiratory inorganic effects are the two most critical environmental impact categories in woodchips production. We have used Eco-indicator 99 based cradle-to-gate LCA method with a functional unit of 4 m³ of dry hardwood chips production.     

CDM项目大气污染物减排的协同效应研究

为了CDM项目的优化开发和大气污染物的协同控制,就国内CDM项目的污染物减排协同效应进行了分析.在统计其项目年减排量、总投资额以及协同减排系数的基础上,按不同项目类型(零排放的可再生能源、生物质、甲烷废气回收、燃料替代、煤层气回收、水泥原料替代、N2O分解消除以及节能和提高能效)和不同项目所在地(华中、华东、海南、华北、东北、西北以及华南)分析了项目的SO2、NOx和PM2.5协同减排量和投资减排收益.燃料替代、煤层气回收、节能提高能效类项目的投资减排收益高,华中和华东地区的生物质能源项目收益较高,而风电、水电类项目收益较低.     

Modelling and optimisation for design of hydrogen networks for multi-period operation

Hydrogen management is a problem of increasing importance: hydrogen consumption of refineries is rising sharply with additional capacities of hydrocracking and hydrotreating units in order to comply with cleaner fuel specifications. Product Specifications for transportation fuels are becoming increasingly stringent to ensure production of environmentally more benign fuels. Hydrogen management techniques currently do not account for varying operating conditions of hydrogen consuming processes and assume constant operating conditions. A novel approach is developed for the design of flexible hydrogen networks that can remain optimally operable under multiple periods of operation. The proposed methodology for multi-period design of hydrogen networks can take into account pressure differences, maximum capacity of existing equipment, and optimal placement of new equipment such as compressors.     

Development and demonstration of fuel cell vehicles and supporting infrastructure in China

The demand for urban transportation in China, including cars, motorbikes, buses, and trains, is growing substantially. China’s transportation fleet is projected to expand from 16 to 94 million vehicles between 2000 and 2020, with liquid and electricity transport fuel demand growing from about 5 Quadrillion British Thermal Units (Quads) to over 20 Quads in 2035. In response to energy security, economic growth and environmental protection needs, Chinese government agencies, academia and the private sector have organized their programs and investments to advance development and demonstration of sustainable alternative transportation systems. This analysis surveys historic development of fuel cell vehicle (FCV) including fuel cell buses (FCB) technology in China, summarizes recent efforts to scale-up FCV development and associated infrastructure in major Chinese cities, and briefly addresses future directions in Chinese fuel cell and hydrogen energy technology development. Since the late 1990’s, Chinese universities, government institutions and the private sector have implemented research, development, demonstration and deployment programs for electric (EV), fuel cell (FCV), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). These efforts have advanced the feasibility of FCVs to be a part of sustainable urban transportation system, including technical performance, infrastructure, and customer acceptance. Three generations of FCVs, START I, START II and START III have been developed, demonstrated and deployed. Similarly, several generations of FCBs have been developed and demonstrated. Collectively, these efforts have demonstrated and deployed over 1,000 FCBs and FCVs in several Chinese cities. Large-scale, intensive-use FCV and FCB demonstration trials, including those during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai World Exposition (EXPO), have been successfully built and operated. Infrastructure, such as hydrogen production facilities, fuelling stations, and maintenance stations have been constructed and operated to support the fleets of FCBs and FCVs. Experiences learned from these FCV research, development, and demonstration activities are the foundation for scaling up infrastructure and fleet trials in a growing number of cities in eastern and western China. An aggressive research and development vision and 2020 technology performance targets provide a foundation for the next generation of EVs, FCVs and HEVs, and, options for China’s efforts to develop a portfolio of sustainable transportation systems.     

Energy modeling on cleaner vehicles for reducing CO2 emissions in Japan

This study is to evaluate the impact of cleaner vehicles on energy systems and CO₂ emissions in the transportation sector in Japan. The transportation sector has the characteristic of spending petroleum. Even when the cost of petroleum rises, conventional vehicles cannot switch fuels to alternative energy right away. Cleaner vehicles, such as fuel cell vehicles, would be one of the alternative technologies in the transportation sector. It is supposed to have excellent performance in fuel efficiency and has strong possibility to reduce CO₂ drastically. This paper uses a multi-period market equilibrium model to explore the impacts of cleaner vehicles on the passenger transportation sector in Japanese energy system out to the year 2040. A Btu tax is tentatively imposed to evaluate the effect of fuel cost on energy consumption in the transportation sector. Financial parameters such as capital cost and operating cost are considered to summarize the profit in taxation case. The result of this study shows that fuel cell vehicles have a great effect on reducing CO₂ emissions especially when Btu taxes are imposed, which in turn has the advantage of encouraging a more diverse set of technologies and fuels. The analysis that petroleum consumption can be reduced using fuel cell vehicles will have effects on perspectives on energy systems in Japan.     

Integrated assessment of CCS in the German power plant sector with special emphasis on the competition with renewable energy technologies

The study presents the results of an integrated assessment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the power plant sector in Germany, with special emphasis on the competition with renewable energy technologies. Assessment dimensions comprise technical, economic and environmental aspects, long-term scenario analysis, the role of stakeholders and public acceptance and regulatory issues. The results lead to the overall conclusion that there might not necessarily be a need to focus additionally on CCS in the power plant sector. Even in case of ambitious climate protection targets, current energy policy priorities (expansion of renewable energies and combined heat and power plants as well as enhanced energy productivity) result in a limited demand for CCS. In case that the large energy saving potential aimed for can only partly be implemented, the rising gap in CO₂ reduction could only be closed by setting up a CCS-maximum strategy. In this case, up to 22% (41 GW) of the totally installed load in 2050 could be based on CCS. Assuming a more realistic scenario variant applying CCS to only 20 GW or lower would not be sufficient to reach the envisaged climate targets in the electricity sector. Furthermore, the growing public opposition against CO₂ storage projects appears as a key barrier, supplemented by major uncertainties concerning the estimation of storage potentials, the long-term cost development as well as the environmental burdens which abound when applying a life-cycle approach. However, recently, alternative applications are being increasingly considered?Cthat is the capture of CO₂ at industrial point sources and biomass based energy production (electricity, heat and fuels) where assessment studies for exploring the potentials, limits and requirements for commercial use are missing so far. Globally, CCS at power plants might be an important climate protection technology: coal-consuming countries such as China and India are increasingly moving centre stage into the debate. Here, similar investigations on the development and the integration of both, CCS and renewable energies, into the individual energy system structures of such countries would be reasonable.     

Hydrogen storage methods

Hydrogen exhibits the highest heating value per mass of all chemical fuels. Furthermore, hydrogen is regenerative and environmentally friendly. There are two reasons why hydrogen is not the major fuel of todays energy consumption. First of all, hydrogen is just an energy carrier. And, although it is the most abundant element in the universe, it has to be produced, since on earth it only occurs in the form of water and hydrocarbons. This implies that we have to pay for the energy, which results in a difficult economic dilemma because ever since the industrial revolution we have become used to consuming energy for free. The second difficulty with hydrogen as an energy carrier is its low critical temperature of 33 K (i.e. hydrogen is a gas at ambient temperature). For mobile and in many cases also for stationary applications the volumetric and gravimetric density of hydrogen in a storage material is crucial. Hydrogen can be stored using six different methods and phenomena: (1) high-pressure gas cylinders (up to 800 bar), (2) liquid hydrogen in cryogenic tanks (at 21 K), (3) adsorbed hydrogen on materials with a large specific surface area (at T<100 K), (4) absorbed on interstitial sites in a host metal (at ambient pressure and temperature), (5) chemically bonded in covalent and ionic compounds (at ambient pressure), or (6) through oxidation of reactive metals, e.g. Li, Na, Mg, Al, Zn with water. The most common storage systems are high-pressure gas cylinders with a maximum pressure of 20 MPa (200 bar). New lightweight composite cylinders have been developed which are able to withstand pressures up to 80 MPa (800 bar) and therefore the hydrogen gas can reach a volumetric density of 36 kg·m^–3, approximately half as much as in its liquid state. Liquid hydrogen is stored in cryogenic tanks at 21.2 K and ambient pressure. Due to the low critical temperature of hydrogen (33 K), liquid hydrogen can only be stored in open systems. The volumetric density of liquid hydrogen is 70.8 kg·m^–3, and large volumes, where the thermal losses are small, can cause hydrogen to reach a system mass ratio close to one. The highest volumetric densities of hydrogen are found in metal hydrides. Many metals and alloys are capable of reversibly absorbing large amounts of hydrogen. Charging can be done using molecular hydrogen gas or hydrogen atoms from an electrolyte. The group one, two and three light metals (e.g. Li, Mg, B, Al) can combine with hydrogen to form a large variety of metal–hydrogen complexes. These are especially interesting because of their light weight and because of the number of hydrogen atoms per metal atom, which is two in many cases. Hydrogen can also be stored indirectly in reactive metals such as Li, Na, Al or Zn. These metals easily react with water to the corresponding hydroxide and liberate the hydrogen from the water. Since water is the product of the combustion of hydrogen with either oxygen or air, it can be recycled in a closed loop and react with the metal. Finally, the metal hydroxides can be thermally reduced to metals in a solar furnace. This paper reviews the various storage methods for hydrogen and highlights their potential for improvement and their physical limitations.     

利用有机质发酵产氢的影响因素与应用前景

煤、石油等化石能源的紧缺,使得氢气等可再生能源的开发与利用备受关注.生物制氢技术由于在获得清洁能源氢气的同时,还使得大量有机废弃物得到处理或净化,从而使得该技术成为当前研究的热点.总结了发酵产氢的微生物种类及产氢基质,阐述了不同有机物种类的发酵产氢机理,综述了温度、pH值、金属离子、气相条件及氧化还原电位等生态因子对发酵产氢的影响,并论述了生物制氢技术的发展方向和应用前景.