Sustainability and heritage 45
Moving closer to a
greener economy
Hydrogen fuel cells hold real promise in delivering low-carbon and sustainable energy solutions, while preserving our natural resources and the environment. Our Sustainable Energy Technologies (SET) Research Group is working closely with industry to accelerate market take-up of this impressive, but highly complex, technology.
Hydrogen is the simplest, lightest and most abundant element in the universe. As a pollution-free and highly-efficient source of energy, it is an ideal fuel for powering virtually any type of engine. In the not too distant future, hydrogen fuel cells could be commonplace in cars, motorcycles, boats, commercial aircraft, home energy systems, and even mobile phones. In the shorter term, one of the major challenges for industry in achieving wider adoption is advancing the technology in terms of its performance, safety and production costs.
Our Sustainable Energy Technologies Research Group, led by Dr Rajnish Calay, has been active in this field since the early-2000s. Much of the Group’s research and development work centres on fuel cell design and manufacturing issues for transport and stationary power generation applications. The automotive and aerospace sectors are a particular focus, as a result of the University’s significant engineering expertise and historic ties with these industries. To optimise solutions for success in the real-world, the Group considers a whole spectrum of possibilities, such as implementing new materials, refining production processes and verifying component parts.
Dr Calay is currently leading a number of projects, funded by industry and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), on developing hydrogen- fuelled vehicles. These involve investigating hydrogen generation, on-board storage and fuelling issues, as well as modifying an engine to run on hydrogen.
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‘The broad challenge for the automotive industry is to produce a fuel cell that is highly power- dense, light, durable and above all inexpensive. This combined with novel methods of onboard hydrogen storage will allow for long-distance travel. There has to be some form of electrical storage device in order to provide rapid acceleration and to power onboard auxiliary devices,’ explains Dr Calay.
Building on these research and development activities, the SET group is also working as a consortium member of the European
Union (EU) Sustainable Hydrogen Evaluation in Logistics (SHEL) project. The wider aim of SHEL is to evaluate the market-readiness of sustainable hydrogen in the logistics industry – starting with a pilot project involving ten fuel cell fork lift trucks at three demonstration sites around Europe. Our Group’s role is to focus on supply chain development, and to provide support through advanced engineering and manufacturing design, for both vehicle development and material analysis of critical components.
‘This project tests the technology in operational conditions that are absolutely real. We expect it to demonstrate that substituting conventional technology with a hydrogen fuel cell leads to greater cost efficiency throughout the life of the product. The fact remains that although hydrogen fuel cells may be virtually market-ready in terms of technological development, their high cost can be a drawback. Pilot projects such as SHEL are key to demonstrating the advantages of these technologies and bring them into the mainstream,’ explains Dr Calay.
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