Design, Construction and Commissioning of a Coal to Fuel Cell Grade Hydrogen Technology Package

摘要

One of the most important questions when considering the development of a hydrogen infrastructure is "where will the hydrogen come from?" It is up to each country to develop the options best suited to its own particular mix of energy sources. New Zealand has sufficient recoverable coal reserves to last for centuries and dwindling gas supplies. It relies heavily on hydro-electricity but this option is struggling to keep up with growing demand. Recognising the need for a wider range of supply options, the New Zealand government has invested in a six-year research project "Hydrogen Energy for the Future of New Zealand" to create the technological platform required to allow New Zealand to realise the benefits of moving to a hydrogen based energy economy and to demonstrate a small scale "coal to high purity hydrogen to electricity" distributed generation package at the 50 kW scale. This new energy technology package is now built and commissioning work has begun. This paper describes some of the features of the gasifier and syn-gas clean-up components of the technology package, some of the difficulties faced and means of overcoming them.