Development of a solar powered hydrogen fueling
station in smart cities applications
*
Giorgio Dispenza
*
, Francesco Sergi, Giuseppe Napoli, Nico Randazzo,
Samuele Di Novo, Salvatore Micari, Vincenzo Antonucci, Laura Andaloro
National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Advanced Energy Technologies, Via Salita S. Lucia Sopra Contesse, 5,
98126, Messina, Italy
article info
Article history:
Received 9 May 2017
Received in revised form
19 June 2017
Accepted 7 July 2017
Available online xxx
Keywords:
Hydrogen fueling station
Hydrogen
Fuel cell
Smart city
abstract
This paper reports main criteria for design, realization and validation of a solar-powered
hydrogen fueling station in a smart city application relevant to an on-site hydrogen pro-
duction plant. The program has been developed by CNR-ITAE together with other industrial
partners in the framework of the Italian research project called i-NEXT (innovation for
greeN Energy and eXchange in Transportation). The i-NEXT hydrogen production plant is
located in the Municipality of Capo d’Orlando, Sicily, it is fed by a microgrid able to receive
energy from solar radiation by a 100 kW rooftop photovoltaic plant and connected with a
battery energy storage of 300 kWh (composed by 16 sodium nickel chloride high temper-
ature batteries). The plant is able to deliver hydrogen and electricity for an electric and
hydrogen vehicles fleet. The hydrogen fueling station includes four subsystems: a
hydrogen production system by electrolysis, a compression system, a high-pressure stor-
age system and a hydrogen dispenser for automotive applications. It is able to generate in
the hydrogen production subsystem through an alkaline electrolyzer of 30 kWh: 6.64 Nm
3
/
h of H
2
with a gas purity of 99.995% (O
2
< 5 ppm and dew point < 60
C). The compression
subsystem has a three stage compressor with a rated gas flow rate of 5,2 Nm
3
/h and a
delivery pressure of 360 bar. The compressed H
2
gas is stored in a high-pressure tanks of
350 L capacity allowing, in this way, a supply through a dispenser system of two auto-
motive's tanks of 150 L @ 350 bar in less than 30 min. This paper reports the design and the
development results coming from a first test campaign.
© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
The transport sector remains a major source of air pollutants,
it was responsible for about 30% of world energy-related
greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and for around a half of
all energy-related nitrogen oxide emissions (56 Mt in 2015) [1].
Hydrogen has the potential to aid in increasing the use of
renewables energy resources and to contain greenhouse
gases emissions by acting as an energy carrier. Then,
Nomenclature and abbreviations: GHG, Green House Gases; FCEV, Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle; FCHEV, Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicle;
BEV, Battery Electric Vehicle; BESS, Battery Energy Storage System; SOC, State of charge; DOD, Depth of discharge; VPN, Virtual Private
Network; PLC, Programmable Logic Controller; AC, Alternating Current; DC, Direct Current; HPPS, Hydrogen Production and Purification
Section; HCS, Hydrogen Compression Section; HSS, Hydrogen Storage Section; HRS, Hydrogen Refueling Section.
*
E-MRS 2016 - Advanced Materials for Fuel Cells and Electrolyzers Warsaw University of technology - Poland 18-22 September 2016.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: giorgio.dispenza@itae.cnr.it (G. Dispenza).
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he
international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (2017) 1 e10
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.07.047
0360-3199/© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Dispenza G, et al., Development of a solar powered hydrogen fueling station in smart cities appli-
cations, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.07.047