Fuel Cell Technology, Enabling a Robust Clean Energy Economy

本提案的理念是利用认真的、有重点的基础研究，使技术开发和商业推广都能实现，以努力提供能源技术的逐步进步，使工业发展有现实的可能性。这一重点通过参与欧洲氢和燃料电池平台的战略研究议程得到了充分的信息。我们的目标是提供一些必要的解决方案，实现新能源经济的愿景，如下所述。我们宁愿不选择核能;然而，只有在可再生能源和清洁能源技术能够很快证明确实存在可行的非核能解决方案的情况下，这才有意义，因为我们不能让核技术处于待命状态更长时间，以免我们失去能力。这也许是英国政府能源白色白皮书向我们的清洁能源共同体发出的挑战。到2050年，廉价石油将不再可用，欧洲的内部储备将耗尽。越来越多的一次能源生产将来自太阳能、风能、潮汐能和生物量等可再生能源，并可能辅之以核能、天然气和煤炭。我们必须依靠新的能源载体，如氢气、沼气或合成燃料和液体生物燃料。这些载体将补充电力作为能源载体，在当地和更大范围内实现一定程度的能源效率优化。一个分散的发电基础设施将由广泛的可再生和清洁技术提供动力，并具有强大的燃料电池组件。电力网络将主要基于独立的节点，每个节点由可再生和/或燃料电池系统组成。这种分散式系统的优势在于更低的传输损耗、更高的总能源效率和更好的能源安全性。这些节点将由一个高价值网络提供支持，该网络由先进的热能或核能系统、水电、缓冲风力发电和燃料电池系统提供动力。我们的作用是开发高温电化学技术，以有效地引入这种新的能源经济。我们的早期工作将寻求优化目前的燃料电池技术，提高耐用性和稳定性，降低制造成本，使其能够广泛推广。我们将开发新的阳极配方，以有效利用更复杂的燃料，从天然气和液化石油气到沼气，再到液体生物燃料和生物质。生物质的有效利用是新能源经济的核心，这将通过一系列机制来实现。燃料电池技术是生物质利用的一个特别重要的推动因素，它可以在相当小的单元尺寸内提供高效率的转换，是新的分布式能源经济的关键。如果能够保持良好的技术进步，固体氧化物燃料电池似乎肯定会在5-10年内为未来的能源经济做出重大贡献;然而，我们只看到这一技术的一个表现形式。未来的发展涉及高效电解、新型系统和碳中性燃料生产。高效电解生产清洁氢气对于在运输中利用可再生能源的可能性至关重要。类似地，具有仔细的热管理的可逆燃料电池可以为间歇性电源提供良好的缓冲。

The philosophy of this proposal is to draw upon careful, focused basic studies enabling both technical development and commercial outreach to try to provide stepchange advances in Energy technology that have realistic possibility to be implemented in Industrial Development. The focus has been well informed by involvement in the Strategic Research Agenda of the European Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Platform. Our objective is to provide some of the solutions necessary to bring to fruition a vision of the new energy economy as stated below. We prefer not to follow the nuclear option; however, this only makes sense if renewable and clean energy technologies can demonstrate fairly soon that there does exist a viable non-nuclear solution, as we cannot leave Nuclear Technology on standby for very much longer, lest we lose capability. This is perhaps the gauntlet that the UK government Energy White Paper threw down for our clean Energy Community.By 2050 cheap oil will no longer be available and Europe's internal reserves will be exhausted. An increasing proportion of primary energy production will be from renewables such as solar, wind, tidal and biomass possibly supplemented by nuclear, natural gas and coal. We must rely on new energy carriers such as hydrogen, biogas or synfuels and liquid biofuels. These carriers will complement electricity as energy vectors, enabling some degree of energy efficiency optimisation, both on a local and a larger scale. A decentralised electricity generation infrastructure powered by a broad spectrum of renewable and clean technologies with a strong fuel cell component will have been created. The power network will largely be based upon self-contained nodes, each consisting of renewable and/or fuel cell systems. The advantages of this decentralised system arise from lower transmission losses, higher total energy efficiency and improved energy security. These nodes will be supported by a high value network powered by advanced thermal or nuclear systems, hydropower, buffered wind power and fuel cell systems. Our role is to develop high temperature electrochemical technologies to enable the efficient introduction of this new energy economy. Our early work will seek to optimise current fuel cell technology improving durability and stability and reducing cost of manufacture to enable widespread introduction. We will develop new anode formulations to enable efficient utilisation of more complex fuels, ranging from natural gas and LPG through biogas to liquid biofuels and biomass. Efficient utilisation of biomass is central to the new energy economy and this will be achieved by a range of mechanisms. Fuel cell technology is a particularly important enabler for biomass utilisation offering high efficiencies of conversion in fairly small unit sizes and is essential to the new distributed energy economy.Solid Oxide Fuel Cells seem certain to make a significant contribution to the future energy economy in 5-10 years, if good technological progress can be maintained; however, we only see this as one manifestation of this technology. Future development relates to efficient electrolysis, novel systems and carbon neutral fuel production. Efficient electrolysis to produce clean hydrogen is of key importance to the possibility of utilising renewable energy in transport. Similarly reversible fuel cells with careful thermal management can provide good buffering for intermittent power supplies.