8. Conclusion

transport, and distribution are difficult. Although the first VECFs were developed in the 1960s, it is only in the last 10 years that the technology of using hydrogen as an energy carrier has

2015 2020

• Electrolysis, liquid H2, LNG & biomass reforming, photocatalyst, etc.

• Air Product Co., Stuart Energy Co. etc.

• Reforming of naphtha, gasoline, LPG, LNG, diesel & methanol, COG, electrolysis, LH2, etc.

• Tokyo gas, Nippon Sanso, Cosmo oil, etc.

• Electrolysis [4], LNG reforming [3], LH2 [2]

• Production by reforming of LNG, LPG & naph-

• SK Co., KIST, KIER, KOGAS, GS Caltex

Alternative energy, bus • Compressed H2 & LH2 • BP Co., Linde Co.

• Compressed H2 & LH2

• Compressed H2

Toronto, etc. [6] • Electrolysis of H2O (alternative energy) • Compressed H2 • Hydrogenics

> tha • Compressed H2

Generally, hydrogen station consists of hydrogen production process including desulfurizer, reformer, water gas shift (WGS) reactor and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) apparatus, and post-treatment process including a compressor, storage, and distributer [45]. Research on the development of the hydrogen station is actively conducted in advanced countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe. An overview of existing and planned hydrogen

Currently, more than 79 hydrogen stations are operating worldwide and others are planned in the future. Table 3 summarizes the current status of hydrogen station research and develop-

begun to develop. Also, some automakers announce the launch of FCEV.

Country or region Existing hydrogen refueling stations Planned stations

Europe 36 ~80 ~430 Japan 21 100 >100 Korea 13 43 200 United States 9 >50 >10

Table 2. Existing public hydrogen refueling stations and targets announced by hydrogen initiatives [46].

ment programs and demonstration experiments at home and abroad [45].

Nation Program H2 station Hydrogen production method

etc. [14]

[32]

Goal of MOCIE 1stage (03-05):1 2stage (06-08):10 3stage (09-12):50

CA, IL, MI, NV, AZ, eastern, etc. [25]

Tokyo & Yokohama,

refueling stations is given in Table 2 [46].

14 Advances In Hydrogen Generation Technologies

USA SCAQMD project, CaFCP & freedom CAR etc.

Japan WE-NET program, JHFC

Canada Hydrogenics & Canadian,

Korea MOCIE, H2 & FC Project MOST, 21C Frontier Profect

project, and new H2 project, etc.

Transportation FC Alliance, etc.

EU CUTE and ECTOS Projects, etc. Framework (FP5)

Table 3. R&D situation of hydrogen station in worldwide [45].

Hydrogen economy is a promising instrument for the transformation of the energy system. Hydrogen, ideal fuel for fuel cells, can have several provenances (electrolysis of water, cracking or reforming of petroleum products). The production of hydrogen by the water electrolysis technique gives the concept renewability because it can use a non-greenhouse gas energy source (renewable or nuclear energy). This technique provides applications that require small volumes of high purity hydrogen, including the semiconductor and food industry.

Acid solutions are good electrolytes in water electrolyzers because acidic media show high ionic conductivity and are free from carbonate formation, as compared with alkaline electrolytes. But the acid needs the use of noble metals as electrocatalysts for OER. Consequently, potassium hydroxide is most commonly used in water electrolysis, avoiding the huge corrosion loss caused by acid electrolytes, and the use of noble metals as catalysts. Nickel is a popular electrode material due to its high activity and availability as well as low cost.

PEM electrolyzers are characterized by their very simple construction and their compactness with an electrolyte protons exchange membrane (PEM) is simple. During the twentieth century, several major innovations have significantly increased the energy and faradic efficiencies of electrolyzers.

Solid oxide electrolyzer, operating at high temperature, allows decreasing the electric consumption because with the increase of the temperature offers an additional part of the global energy; which allows high operational efficiencies in the solid oxide electrolyzer. Thus, the efficiency of the electrolysis at high temperature is higher (92%) than that obtained at low temperature (85%).

Research on the development of the hydrogen station is actively conducted in advanced countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe. Currently, 70 hydrogen stations are operating worldwide, and demand is expected to increase rapidly in the future.
