{"id":14311,"date":"2020-06-02T10:16:01","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T08:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/?p=14311"},"modified":"2024-03-12T17:54:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T16:54:19","slug":"the-energy-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/industries\/heating\/the-energy-of-the-future_14311\/","title":{"rendered":"The energy of the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

A long time ago, when coal was still the top fuel and renew\u00adable ener\u00adgies were still long from being discussed, Jules Vernes made a predic\u00adtion in his 1874 novel \u201cThe Myste\u00adrious Island\u201d: \u201cWater is the coal of the future. The energy of tomorrow is water, broken down using elec\u00adtrical energy. The broken-down elements, hydrogen and oxygen, will ensure the earth\u2019s power supply for an indef\u00adi\u00adnite period of time.\u201d Almost 150 years after the French author wrote these words, his vision is still a long way from being achieved. However, given the chal\u00adlenges presented by climate change and the search for new energy sources, hydrogen, as an energy supply, is gaining increased atten\u00adtion from the world of poli\u00adtics, science and industry. After all, the bene\u00adfits are clear: when it is burned, only water is emitted, rather than harmful carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

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Using hydrogen in heating systems can signif\u00adi\u00adcantly contribute towards climate protec\u00adtion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The down\u00adside is that hydrogen almost always appears on earth as a compound. Obtaining it requires a lot of energy. As Jules Vernes outlined, this can be done using elec\u00adtrol\u00adysis, allowing water to be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen using elec\u00adtricity. This means that the fuel can only be climate-neutral if the elec\u00adtricity used comes from climate-friendly sources. This is where renew\u00adable ener\u00adgies come in.<\/p>\n

Devel\u00adoping them will make it ever more neces\u00adsary to store excess energy that cannot be fed imme\u00addi\u00adately into the grid over longer periods of time. After all, the wind and sun do not answer to levels of demand. This climate-friendly elec\u00adtricity can be used in power-to-gas plants to produce hydrogen, for example. As house\u00adholds produce a large propor\u00adtion of CO2<\/sub> emis\u00adsions, using hydrogen in heating systems could signif\u00adi\u00adcantly contribute towards climate protec\u00adtion. Producing it is still very costly, but the heating tech\u00adnology sector is raring to go.<\/p>\n

Hydrogen is gaining ground<\/h2>\n

Figure 1: The basic prin\u00adciple of the fuel condensing boiler also works with hydrogen, but only if the compo\u00adnents are adapted accord\u00adingly. Hydrogen burns differ\u00adently to natural gas. (Photo | ebm-papst)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Enriching natural gas with four to six percent hydrogen is already permitted, depending on the gas char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adistic values as per process sheet G260 from DVGW (the German asso\u00adci\u00ada\u00adtion for gas and water). But would it be possible to switch entirely to hydrogen? Several projects are under way to answer just that. For example, the British govern\u00adment has launched a program called \u201cHy4Heat\u201d to deter\u00admine which tech\u00adnical and logis\u00adtical hurdles need to be over\u00adcome in order to grad\u00adu\u00adally increasing the propor\u00adtion of hydrogen. Doing so would have a partic\u00adu\u00adlarly posi\u00adtive effect, consid\u00adering that 80 percent of house\u00adholds in Great Britain rely on gas, which is a partic\u00adu\u00adlarly high amount when compared with the inter\u00adna\u00adtional average.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s third largest city Leeds is plan\u00adning to move part of its gas network to 100 percent hydrogen in the medium term. Similar ideas can be found on the conti\u00adnent, or more precisely in the Nether\u00adlands. Here, resources from natural gas fields will soon be depleted. In Rozen\u00adburg, Rotterdam there are already field tests in place with 100 percent hydrogen enrich\u00adment. Yet, when it comes to power-to-gas plants, Germany is the country leading the way again. In test plants, researchers are inves\u00adti\u00adgating how to generate as much hydrogen as possible with the least amount of energy usage, and there are various studies on converting gas pipe lines into hydrogen pipes lines. In a nutshell: the market is on the move.<\/p>\n

Chal\u00adlenges for manu\u00adfac\u00adturers<\/h2>\n

That is why several manu\u00adfac\u00adturers are working on preparing their condensing units for clean energy supplies (Fig. 1). The aim is to achieve this with as few tech\u00adnical and construc\u00adtional changes as possible. The good news is that the current oper\u00adating prin\u00adciple can remain the same. However, due to the char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adis\u00adtics of hydrogen, several issues have been to consid\u00adered: leak require\u00adments, the compat\u00adi\u00adbility of mate\u00adrials and, most impor\u00adtantly, its flam\u00adma\u00adbility.<\/p>\n

Taking leaks into account, hydrogen is the lightest of all chem\u00adical elements with the lowest density. It has a higher perme\u00adability than natural gas through elas\u00adtomers and plas\u00adtics and, due to its slightly lower dynamic viscosity, it has a slightly higher leak rate than natural gas. The tight\u00adness of the compo\u00adnents in the fuel condensing boiler must be adapted accord\u00adingly and moni\u00adtored with rele\u00advant checks. The compat\u00adi\u00adbility of the mate\u00adrials must also be checked, and the flam\u00adma\u00adbility requires partic\u00adular atten\u00adtion (see table). The flame speed is eight times higher than with methane, meaning that manu\u00adfac\u00adturers cannot work with the same burners.<\/p>\n

The pres\u00adsure loss increases and the power of the blower has to be opti\u00admized. Mostly impor\u00adtantly, it has to be ensured that the igni\u00adtion does not happen too late. Hydrogen is very reac\u00adtive and ignites a lot better than methane. There\u00adfore, the combus\u00adtion controller has to factor in shorter igni\u00adtion times. Another sticking point is that the usual flame measure\u00adment proce\u00addures using ioniza\u00adtion cannot be imple\u00admented when checking and moni\u00adtoring the combus\u00adtion. As a result, heater manu\u00adfac\u00adturers have to test new sensors or ther\u00admo\u00adcou\u00adples.<\/p>\n

Table: Comparing the prop\u00ader\u00adties of hydrogen, methane and propane.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Another key issue is that hydrogen has a smaller lower heating value than methane but its Wobbe index, impor\u00adtant for the inter\u00adchange\u00adability of fuel gas, is almost as high. For an optimum mixture in the venturi, the gas\/air ratio controls have to be adapted accord\u00adingly. As a result, the inter\u00adac\u00adtion between the gas blowers, venturi and gas valve is of great impor\u00adtance.<\/p>\n

NRV 118 ready for H2<\/sub><\/h2>\n

Figure 2: The \u201cNRV 118 \u2013 Hydrogen\u201d is ideally suited to hydrogen use. (Photo | ebm-papst)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

The NRV 118 (Fig. 2) from ebm-papst is already designed for use with a hydrogen propor\u00adtion of up to 10 percent without changes being required. The engi\u00adneers at the Land\u00adshut site put the estab\u00adlished NRV 118 composite system through several inves\u00adti\u00adga\u00adtions and initial field tests to check its suit\u00adability for hydrogen. The result: with some changes, the composite system can be adapted for use with 100 percent hydrogen. The require\u00adment for the tight\u00adness of the gas valve and blower was increased and the plas\u00adtics and metals used were checked for their suit\u00adability.<\/p>\n

Another benefit became clear: thanks to special pre-mixture equip\u00adment, the NRV 118 is ideally suited to hydrogen use. The \u201cpre-fan-mix\u201d gas blower compen\u00adsates for the lower Wobbe index and hydrogen\u2019s smaller lower heating value in the suction oper\u00ada\u00adtion. There is no need for more complex control lines. Further\u00admore, higher modu\u00adla\u00adtions can be run because the gas valve can be opti\u00admally controlled by nega\u00adtive pres\u00adsure.<\/p>\n

Figure 3: It is still a vision, but hydrogen could replace natural gas in the future and take over heat gener\u00ada\u00adtion as a climate-neutral fuel. (Illus\u00adtra\u00adtion | ebm-papst)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

All in all, this means that manu\u00adfac\u00adturers can count on the \u201cNRV 118 Hydrogen\u201d when using 100 percent hydrogen. It will be some time before the clean fuel can be used exten\u00adsively for heating (Fig. 3). Yet, if devel\u00adop\u00adments in science, poli\u00adtics and industry continue as they are, Jules Vernes\u2019 fictional vision may become a reality before long.\u2002<\/p>\n

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What is impor\u00adtant for manu\u00adfac\u00adturers of fuel condensing boilers when converting to hydrogen.<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. The flame speed is eight times higher than with methane. The blowers have to be adapted to the burners\u2019 higher pres\u00adsure loss.<\/li>\n
  2. Due to the slightly decreased dynamic viscosity, leaks have to be consid\u00adered.<\/li>\n
  3. Hydrogen has a high perme\u00adability. Suit\u00adable elas\u00adtomer tools have to be used.<\/li>\n
  4. Flame measure\u00adment proce\u00addures using ioniza\u00adtion are not possible with 100 percent hydrogen. Manu\u00adfac\u00adturers have to test new sensors or ther\u00admo\u00adcou\u00adples.<\/li>\n
  5. Igni\u00adtion loads and igni\u00adtion times have to be kept as low and short as possible with pure hydrogen.<\/li>\n
  6. The lower heating value of hydrogen is smaller than methane. This makes a perfectly coor\u00addi\u00adnated gas\/air ratio control even more impor\u00adtant.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A long time ago, when coal was still the top fuel and renew\u00adable ener\u00adgies were still long from being discussed, Jules Vernes made a predic\u00adtion in his 1874 novel \u201cThe Myste\u00adrious Island\u201d: \u201cWater is the coal of the future. The energy of tomorrow is water, broken down using elec\u00adtrical energy. The broken-down elements, hydrogen and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blowers","category-heating"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14311"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14467,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311\/revisions\/14467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}