Hydrogen in every home

How the Japanese are trying to slash energy use and CO₂ emissions—by installing fuel cells in people's backyards.

 

by Winifred Bird

Yasushi Kawamori shows off his new cogeneration unit.

Photo: Makoto Ishida

Yasushi Kawamori has a power plant in his backyard. Not the kind that belches clouds of CO₂ into the atmosphere, but the kind that's small (about the size of a refrigerator and a suitcase placed side by side), quiet (a faint thumping is just audible) and emits a fraction of the carbon dioxide a coal-fired plant would. The system uses a hydrogen fuel cell to convert natural gas into electricity; heat from the reaction generates hot water for himself, his wife and their two children. It's called a fuel cell cogeneration system, and Kawamori is more than happy to have it in his backyard. "We're making electricity at our own home, and the heat from that electricity gets used, so it's really efficient," he says. "I like that it's cost-effective and good for the environment."

 

The cogeneration system—also called a combined heat and power, or CHP, unit—at the Kawamoris' home is part of a trial underway at Osaka Gas, where Kawamori works. Since 2005, the company has been testing fuel cell systems made by Toshiba and ENEOS; so far, 224 homes are involved. Trials by companies including Panasonic, Ebara Ballard and Toyota are also underway at 3,000 more homes throughout Japan, while Korea, Germany and Denmark are among the other countries experimenting with the technology.

Until recently, hydrogen has been limited to powering systems on NASA's Space Shuttle. Now, fuel cells are at work in cars and, as these experiments show, hydrogen can work on a domestic scale, too. In fact, fuel cell technology could make energy independence for every home a real possibility, a crucial goal given the volatility of oil prices and the accelerating problems caused by climate change.

"Hydrogen is an energy carrier—energy is stored in its chemical bonds," explains John Turner, a principal scientist at the National Renewable Energy Lab's Center for Electric & Hydrogen Technologies & Systems in Golden, Colorado. "We know we can make enough hydrogen to power our society. In the future, hydrogen may be everything." With commercial sales scheduled for this year, and partnerships among gas companies, manufacturers and the government already in place, Japan is at the forefront of global efforts to get hydrogen fuel cells into homes. Last fall, the world's largest "hydrogen town project" kicked off in Maebaru City in southern Japan, with the installation of 150 residential fuel cell systems.

http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/62/japanese-fuel-cell/