Hydrogen-based mobile backup power

The significant increase in wind power in Sweden is dependent of a well-functioning electric grid. This yields a challenge since a large portion of the wind power is developed in rural areas, far from big cities and large electricity consumers. Another challenge is that large parts of the Swedish electricity production can be eliminated if central functions of the electricity grid is damaged in crisis situations like war or natural disasters. The project address this by investigating the opportunities for container-based facilities for producing and storing hydrogen directly at the sites of the wind farms, transport it to electricity consumers and produce electricity.

Within the project, a literature survey has been performed where state-of-the-art for mobile hydrogen solutions, including production, compression, storage and electricity production, have been mapped. Further, an analysis of sensor technologies suitable for embedding into composites and for observing mechanical properties, crack initiations, temperature and leakage.

The project has also manufactured samples for studying crack growth in laminates manufactured by cost efficient materials as well as samples with embedded piezo-electric sensors. The embedded sensors have been evaluated with very interesting results.

Based on the literature survey and the physical experiments, different alternative concepts for hydrogen-based backup power have been described and interesting research areas have been identified. In the end of the project, work was initiated to establish a consortium to apply for larger externally funded research projects.