7. Hydrogen station

Hydrogen has a low carbon footprint. It could thus significantly reduce energy-related CO2 emissions and help limit climate change. Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) can provide the mobility service of today's conventional cars with potentially very low carbon emissions. Although the potential benefits of hydrogen and fuel cells in end-use applications are promising in terms of environment and energy security, the development of hydrogen production,


8. Conclusion

temperature (85%).

Author details

References

Youssef Naimi\* and Amal Antar

\*Address all correspondence to: youssefnaimi@outlook.com

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

Hydrogen Generation by Water Electrolysis http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76814 15

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

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

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.

Faculty of Sciences Ben M'sik, University of Hassan II Casablanca, Casablanca, Morocco

[1] United Nations. Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York: United Nations General Assembly; 2015; A/RES/70/1. Available at:

http://www.refworld.org/docid/57b6e3e44.html [accessed 22 April 2018]

volumes of high purity hydrogen, including the semiconductor and food industry.

popular electrode material due to its high activity and availability as well as low cost.

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

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

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 refueling stations is given in Table 2 [46].

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


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