The world's largest photovoltaic hydrogen production project

The so-called photovoltaic hydrogen production is not a new concept, and its research mainly focuses on the thermochemical hydrogen production, photochemical decomposition hydrogen production, photocatalytic hydrogen production, artificial photosynthesis hydrogen production and biological hydrogen production. Among them, the technology of combining photovoltaic power generation and water electrolysis to produce hydrogen into a system is the mainstream development direction.

In the international market, photovoltaic hydrogen production has begun to be landed. The most famous is the Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Base in Japan, which is the world's largest renewable energy hydrogen production plant, covering a total area of 220,000 square meters. Among them, 180,000 square meters is the photovoltaic power generation area, 40,000 square meters is the hydrogen production workshop, and the system equipment has the hydrogen production capacity of 10,000 kilowatts.

Shi Yingzhe, a researcher, said in an interview with Securities Daily that energy storage and application scenarios have been one of the factors restricting the development of the photovoltaic industry. In terms of energy storage, it is recommended to focus on the R&D and application of related companies in the fields of high efficiency, high safety and large capacity energy storage, hydrogen energy and fuel cells, high efficiency photovoltaic power generation materials, new insulation materials, superconducting materials, wide band gap power electronic devices and other technical fields. In the downstream application, in addition to the power consumption market, the key areas of photovoltaic power generation application also include construction and transportation.

Distributed photovoltaic can be combined with buildings and charging facilities to realize the local consumption of solar power, such as parks, schools, hospitals, transportation stations and other public buildings, should be the first occasion to vigorously develop distributed photovoltaic. In terms of centralized photovoltaic power stations, the advantages of low cost of solar power generation in some regions can be utilized to carry out applications such as photovoltaic hydrogen production and photovoltaic fuel production, and the advantages of easy storage of hydrogen energy can be utilized to solve the problem of small space of photovoltaic power generation absorbed by the power system in the region and expand the development path of photovoltaic power generation.

In this paper, the relevant information of Fukushima Hydrogen Research Project (FH2R), the largest photovoltaic hydrogen production facility in the world, is reviewed for readers to have a deeper understanding of photovoltaic hydrogen production.

On March 7, 2020, the Japan New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions, Tohoku Electric Power Company and Iwatani Company held the opening ceremony of the Fukushima Hydrogen Research Project (FH2R).

The FH2R project was started in Namie in July 2018. By the end of February 2020, the construction and trial operation of the 10MW hydrogen production device will be completed. The 10MW electrolytic cell device can generate up to 1,200 cubic meters of hydrogen per hour, which is the largest photovoltaic hydrogen production device in the world.

The project covers an area of 220,000 square meters, including 180,000 square meters for photovoltaic farms and 40,000 square meters for research and development and hydrogen production facilities.

The whole hydrogen production plant is divided into four facilities, which are hydrogen production workshop, gas storage tank area, compression and shipment transportation station, and comprehensive management center.

FH2R project system overview

The FH2R project is equipped with a 20MW photovoltaic system and a 10MW electrolytic cell unit capable of producing up to 1200 Tm3 of hydrogen per hour (rated operating power). The project covers an area of 220,000 square meters, including 180,000 square meters for photovoltaic farms and 40,000 square meters for research and development and hydrogen production facilities. The hydrogen produced by FH2R will power stationary hydrogen fuel cell systems as well as fuel cell cars and buses.

On the one hand, the FH2R project is based on the downstream market supply and demand forecasting system for production and storage, and on the other hand, hydrogen production units can be adjusted to meet the regulation requirements of the grid control system. The most important challenge in the current testing phase is to use the hydrogen management system to achieve the best combination of hydrogen production and storage and the dynamic balance of supply and demand in the grid, without the need for batteries. To address this challenge, the tests will begin to determine the best operational control technology that combines grid demand response with hydrogen supply and demand response using equipment units that each have different operating cycles.

The FH2R project is located 70 km from Fukushima Prefecture, 100 km from Sendai City and 250 km from Tokyo City. Hydrogen will be delivered mainly to customers in the above areas via long tube trailers.

In the FH2R project, Toshiba will lead the construction of the entire project and develop the hydrogen energy management system. Northeast Electric will focus on energy management system (EMS) monitoring, data acquisition (SCADA) systems and grid-related matters; Iwatani will research hydrogen demand and supply forecasting systems, as well as hydrogen transportation and storage. The alkaline water electrolysis system is derived from the advanced chlor-alkali electrolysis technology of Asahi Kasei Company.

The prefecture is home to the Fukushima Daiichi and Daiichi nuclear power plants, both of which have been shut down since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused radiation leaks. The No. 2 nuclear power plant stopped generating electricity. Therefore, the name of "power county" has been in name only.

According to the Fukushima New Energy Society Plan, drawn up in September 2016, Fukushima will promote the widespread use of hydrogen energy. The construction of the hydrogen production plant is not only an important part of the post-Fukushima reconstruction, but also a major measure to restore the status of the "power county". This hydrogen production plant in Fukushima will become a symbol of replacing nuclear power with environmentally friendly and safe hydrogen energy, building a future-oriented energy production and supply system, and moving Japan away from the "nuclear power society" to the "hydrogen energy society".

Hydrogen car is the development of special vehicle, the tanks back to install tires, that is to say, hydrogen gas from the reservoir into the compressor after compression, direct infusion into transport tanks, and the truck body directly after tanks are attached, you can, without the need for the pump, the maximum guarantee the safety of hydrogen pump and transport.

The vehicle is 9.390 meters long and weighs 20 tons. It can be filled with 0.237 tons (2642Nm³) of hydrogen at a pressure of 19.6 MPa. The entire station can be filled with 12 hydrogen trucks at the same time.

Technical overview of FH2R project