A Fuel Cell that Generates Electricity from Waste Plastic Hydrogen
The Tokyo Tech InfoSyEnergy Research and Education Consortium and the Tokyo Tech Academy of Energy and Informatics have unveiled a fuel cell that generates electricity from both hydrogen and waste plastic hydrogen.
The new system is designed for commercial and industrial applications and has a capacity of 100 kW. It is currently being tested a the Tokyo Tech Environmental Energy Innovation (EEI) Building, where it receives green hydrogen from a PV system and storage racks for hydrogen generated from waste plastic.
“The system is the first in the world to mix renewable energy hydrogen and waste plastic hydrogen, supply the mixture to a fuel cell, and connect it to the building’s air conditioning system for advanced use of electricity and heat,” said the Japanese consortium.
The demonstrator is designed to establish an urban hydrogen energy utilization model that appropriately mixes global hydrogen and local hydrogen.
The project uses fuel cell technology supplied by Toshiba – the H2Rex system. The Japanese company says the solid polymer fuel cells are capable of tracking load changes because of their ability to change power output, making them ideal for energy generation applications. The company said that the system can boot up in around five minutes.