Hydrogen and the energy transition.

To justify and know why we need to use Hydrogen the author detailed the emission briefs which showed the emissions from natural gas decreased by 118 Mt in 2022 due to Ukraine war, coal grew to a new all-time high of all-time high of almost 15.5 Gt. Emission from oil grew also grew by 268 Mt in 2022. Around half of the year-on-year increase came from aviation as air travel continued its recovery from pandemic lows. Total transport emissions increased by 2.1% (or 137 Mt), also driven by growth in advanced economies. Nonetheless, emissions would have been higher without the accelerating deployment of low-carbon vehicles. Another challenge the world faces is the increasing energy consumption, therefore the need to increase the use of green renewable energy is vital. However, this also leads to the challenge of intermittency with these sources. Hydrogen is a key player in the world clean energy transition and major contributor to the UK Net Zero Future. H2 will play a pivotal role in achieving an affordable, clean and prosperous economy

Applications of minimal path set and dual fault tree approach for piecewise reliability evaluation of large-scale electrical power systems.

Reliability assessment techniques and programs handling is an important issue for both power systems planning and testing in existing power system configurations. The Assessment techniques are suitable for detecting weak points in the reliability assessment. The reliability study of bulk power systems indicates the ability of the composite generation and transmission system to satisfy the load demand at major load points. The major burden of the developed methods used is the computation time required to solve a large number of credible contingencies or outage states. This paper presents a novel approach capable of the reliability evaluation for real large-size networks using normal size computers. It calculates the reliability indices at individual load buses and reliability of the whole system. The effect of the loading factor between loads on reliability is also investigated. The proposed approach is expanded to calculate the reliability of composite generation and transmission system taking the following constraints into consideration: amount of reliability of system generation, amount of reliability of transmission lines, maximum system generation capacity, maximum transmission lines capacity and maximum connected load at each bus. The approach is based on the minimal path set and dual fault tree techniques. A new concept of "constant reliability region", which is utilized in the field of optimum operation of power networks, is introduced. A special program is developed for the proposed technique. The comparison between the proposed and the previous techniques confirms that the proposed method is more accurate and precise

Hydrogen producation.

Hydrogen has an energy density of approximately 120 MJ/kg, almost three times more than diesel or gasoline, while Natural gas has 53.6 MJ/kg. In electrical terms, the energy density of hydrogen is 33.6 kWh/kg versus 12.14 kWh/kg for diesel. Hydrogen is a source of clean energy that can replace natural gas with no carbon emissions when burnt, and can generate clean electricity through a Fuel cell with water heat as by products and no carbon emissions. Hydrogen can be used as an energy carrier, stored and delivered where needed Green H2 as a form of renewable energy storage, allows clean fuel for transport or for making clean power and heat while absorbing intermittent power inputs, thus enabling more renewables integration into the grid while eradicating energy wasting, constraint payments and costs of updating the electricity network capacity. It also allows an added stabilizing capability that support grid, reduce its need for spinning reserve, avoid load shedding, provide peak demand support, and reduce transmission and distribution burden

Optimization of hydrogen-based zero-carbon building scenario. [Image]

The image shows the Solar-Hydrogen Hybrid System proposed to feed the energy demands of a grid-connected building/campus to eliminate/reduce the carbon footprint associated with its energy consumption. This innovative system will accordingly contribute to reducing the building sector energy consumption carbon footprint. The implementation of this system would provide crucial contribution to achieving the 2050 net-zero carbon target. The ongoing growth in global energy demands and the associated catastrophic climate change has accelerated the need for setting net-zero carbon pathways. This project aims to employ green hydrogen as a pathway for empowering the low-carbon economy. The project proposes a state-of-the-art hydrogen system with zero-carbon renewable energy carriers' scenario to meet the electrical load demands within grid-connected complexes/buildings, thus eliminating/reducing their carbon footprint. The project work involves developing an optimization model for achieving the optimal sizing, cost, and energy management of the proposed Zero-Carbon Hydrogen-Based Grid-Connected Building Scenario so it could be replicated throughout the UK to minimize the building sector carbon footprint, thus contributing to the UK 2050 net-zero carbon emissions target. The implementation/validation of the proposed project will be carried out on the RGU campus to support the University's ongoing campaign towards achieving the 2050 net-zero target

RGU role in energy transition.

Robert Gordon University is contributing to the UK Energy Transition through delivering up-to-date accredited courses on Energy Transition Technologies to develop the needed skills. They also provide innovative focused solutions for enabling small and large-scale renewables implementation and integration and world-class simulators which can model and benchmark solutions for achieving the decarbonization of the power generation, transport and heat. They also funded an Energy Working Group (EWG) in October 2019, which aims to develop and implement concepts/projects that reduce the energy consumption and associated carbon emissions within RGU. This was the first H2 webinar hosted by Robert Gordon University and chaired by Dallia Ali

The impacts of the transmission line length in an interconnected micro-grid on its performance and protection at different fault levels.

Power systems, in recent years, have been experiencing a dynamic rise in the amount of power obtained from distributed renewable energy sources leading to the concept of microgrids to address the distributed power grid integration issues. Microgrids, a promising means of facilitating the green transformation of power systems, allow the union operation of distributed energy resources (DER) such as combined heat and power (CHP), renewables like photovoltaic (PV), wind and fuel cells (FC), energy storage systems, diesel generators, and controllable loads, either individually or in combination. The protection of DERs within microgrids can be considered as one of the main challenges associated with such phenomenon. Short and Long power transmission lines, in case of a fault, both have particular impacts on system parameters and may result into subsequent events threatening the microgrid and renewable generation units. On the other hand, The high penetration of microgrids not only can change the power flow within the power network, but it can also affect the fault current levels and may lead to their islanding in case of a fault. Before investing in microgrids, especially those in far places, this paper develops a tool to be used in investigating the influence of the interconnecting transmission line length as well as the type/severity of fault on the microgrid performance. The toolbox was developed using MATLAB/Simulink Toolbox. The developed tool was then validated on a case study microgrid and results show that the length of the interconnecting transmission line and the fault severity directly impact the microgrid performance (i.e. voltage and power deviations). In that case, interconnection or islanded mode is contingent upon the decision of the utility operator which also depends on the sensitivity of the equipment used in the microgrid

A simulation model for the dynamic analysis of a stand-alone PEM fuel cell.

The ever increasing demand for electrical energy and the rise in the electricity prices due to the recent instability of the oil prices in addition to the degrading of the air quality resulting from the emissions of the existing energy conversion devices has intensified research into alternative renewable sources of electrical energy. In this paper a dynamic electrochemical model is developed to simulate a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) system to allow the development and improvement of electrical energy generation systems using this new promising technology. Although other models have been produced but most of these capture the fuel cell (FC) steady state behaviour by estimating its voltage for a particular set of operating conditions. The proposed model allows the incorporation of effects of different dynamic conditions in load current, pressure of input reactant gases, fuel cell operating temperature as well as the mass/heat transfer transient features in the fuel cell body. Its capability of predicting transient dynamics will also prove useful when attempting to develop a control strategy. The proposed model strength is modularizing the fundamental thermal-physical behaviour of a fuel cell and developing a modular block that can be used as a part of any other schematic solution required for fuel cells' study. The developed modular block (prototype) exhibits most of the basic fuel cell properties and incorporates essential physical and electrochemical processes that happen along its operation, allowing its easily moderation to model fuel cells with different cell parameters and allow investigation of their behaviour for any operating or design configuration. The prototype can be useful in future in studying the integration of fuel cells into distribution power systems. The proposed modular block is implemented in SIMULINK and is verified by generating model results and comparing this to benchmark results for a Ballard NEXA TM Power module. The proposed model was also compared to another simplified model; sample results for a Ballard V PEMFC were generated for both models indicating that the developed model is more accurate in simulating the fuel cell especially at high operating current densities

Recent advances in fuel cells technology.

The 21st Century will be the Dispersed generation or decentralized power systems (wind turbines, photovoltaic, fuel cells FC) century. Fuel cell is an emerging energy efficient technology with zero carbon emission to replace engines and batteries saving millions of tonnes of carbon emissions. As Fuel cells reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, thus they have a significant environmental and national security. What is fuel cells and hydrogen technology? A fuel cell is a device that directly converts the chemical energy of a gaseous fuel (Hydrogen) into electrical energy, water and heat in a constant temperature process

Hydrogen Energy Storage

The dominating trend of variable renewable energy sources (RES) continues to underpin the early retirement of baseload power generating sources such as coal, nuclear, and natural gas steam generators; however, the need to maintain system reliability remains the challenge. Implementing energy storage with conventional power plants provides a method for load leveling, peak shaving, and time shifting allowing power quality improvement and reduction in grid energy management issues, implementing energy storage with RES smooth their intermittency, by storing the surplus in their generation for later use during their shortfall, thus enabling their high penetration into the electricity grid. Energy storage technologies (EST) can be classified according to many criteria like their application (permanent or portable), capacity, storage duration (short or long), and size (weight and volume). EST suited for short duration storage and low-to-medium power outputs are seen performing better in improving power quality, while those providing medium-to-high power outputs with long durations are seen better suited for energy management of electrical networks. With the growing deployment of renewable energy systems, EST must be utilized to allow the grid to absorb the increased integration of RES generation. The recent advances in hydrogen energy storage technologies (HEST) have unlocked their potential for use with constrained renewable generation. HEST combines hydrogen production, storage, and end use technologies with the renewable generation either in a directly connected configuration or in an indirectly connected configuration via the existing power network. This chapter introduces the hydrogen energy storage technology and its implementation in conjunction with renewable energy sources. The efficiency of renewable hydrogen energy storage systems (RHESS) will be explored with a techno-economic assessment. A levelized cost (LC) model that identifies the financial competitiveness of HEST in different application scenarios is given, where five scenarios are investigated to demonstrate the most financially competitive configuration. To address the absence of a commercial software tool that can quickly size an energy system incorporating HEST while using limited data, a deterministic modeling approach that enables a quick initial sizing of hybrid renewable hydrogen energy systems (HRHES) is given in this chapter. This modeling approach can achieve the initial sizing of a HRHES using only two input data, namely the available renewable energy resource and the load profile. A modeling of the effect of the electrolyzer thermal transients at start-up, when operated in conjunction with an intermittent renewable generation, on the quantity of hydrogen produced is also given in this chapter

Impact of integrating large-capacity hybrid renewable energy systems into Qatar's power grid.

The implementation of large-scale renewable energy systems (such as solar and wind) in the GCC is widely growing nowadays, particularly in remote areas generation applications where the grid extension is costly. The integration of renewable energy systems into the existing power grids, especially the hybrid ones like hybrid solar wind systems, not only provide a clean environmentally friendly supply of electricity but also provide a more reliable supply of electricity through the utilization of different energy sources