Powerhouse Energy Share Discussion Threads

[rathean] 24/9/2018 12:06

Good contract win for EQT over in the States. Makes you wonder how long this 'proof of concept' will last before Powerhouse finally gets independent sign-off for its tech?They're missing out on a huge market, at the moment they are being left behind and run as a lifestyle company imo dyor ofc.

[linesal2] 23/9/2018 10:02

Great post NT.

[new tech] 21/9/2018 15:21

European Nations Backing Hydrogen As Viable Alternative
By Jon LeSage
Sep 20, 2018, 2:00 PM

Hydrogen is seeing support grow in Europe as an alternative to oil and gas, and over renewable energy such as wind and solar.

On Tuesday, 25 European nations backed a measure to increase hydrogen use to power factories, drive vehicles, and heat homes. A non-binding agreement was signed in Linz, Austria, that delved into increasing research into the technology and using existing gas grids to distribute hydrogen.

The coalition sees it as an alternative to fossil fuels to cut the continent's carbon emissions, and to solve the problem for electricity generation caused by fluctuating supply of renewable energies.

Advocates of the "hydrogen economy" have been pushing the fuel for decades. Yet support has been slow and instead, lawmakers have backed other technologies like electric vehicles. Oil and gas continue to be dominant in power plants, vehicles, and heating systems. Natural gas continues to grow as a cleaner and safer fuel over coal and nuclear for electric power, and is seeing more support for liquefied and com-pressed natural gas technologies in commercial vessels and vehicles.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen as an alternative power source does have growing business and government support in Europe, the U.S., Japan, and China. While fuel cell passenger vehicles are much smaller than even electric vehicles in sales, hydrogen is gaining global support for energy production and storage, heating systems, and fuel cell vehicles in the transport and public transit sectors.

Miguel Arias Canete, the European Union's top climate and energy official, said hydrogen could help Eu-rope meet its obligations to cut carbon emissions under the 2015 Paris accord. Canete told reporters it could also contribute to energy security by reducing imports of natural gas, much of which is shipped from Russia and countries outside of Europe.

Hydrogen advocates say that using more of it can stabilize energy prices and supply that can be erratic from fluctuating supplies of wind, solar, hydro, and other renewable energies. Converting electricity gen-erated by renewables into hydrogen means the energy can be stored in large tanks and released again when necessary.

They say hydrogen fuel cell vehicles become just as clean as EVs, which need large lithium-ion battery packs to store their energy. Fuel cell vehicles generate power on board, taking away the range restrictions EVs face; and the fueling can be done in less than five minutes versus a half hour or more for recharging an EV.

Trains and transit buses are seen as a growth area, but it is at an embryonic phase. The world's first com-muter train service using a prototype hydrogen-powered train began in northern Germany on Monday.

Sources of hydrogen vary from fueling station to station, coming from techniques such as electrolysis and hydrolysis, and gases such as methane. Japan continues to lead the world in hydrogen fueling stations, and aims to have 160 of these stations opened by March 2021 to support a fleet of 40,000 fuel cell vehicles. That beats out California, which aims to have 50 of these stations in place by 2020. Japan expects to see the number of hydrogen stations grow to 900 by 2030, supporting a fleet of 800,000 FCVs.

Europe has about 80 hydrogen fueling stations in operation, and China is only just starting to deploy sta-tions.

California (and eight other U.S. states backing California’s policy) and China support hydrogen stations and fuel cell vehicles through their zero emission vehicle mandates.

Japan sees it as part of its economic growth, with two of its local companies, Toyota and Honda, leading the charge. Much of the appeal in Japan came forth out of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The country has shut down almost all its nuclear reactors since that time, and has been importing hydrogen, oil, coal, and liquefied natural gas since then.

Toyota continues to lead the fuel cell passenger car market with its Mirai sedan. Along with Toyota, other global automakers have made commitments and vehicle launches in fuel cell vehicles — including Honda, Hyundai, Audi, BMW, General Motors, and Mercedes-Benz.

The Japanese automaker also sees commercial trucks as a viable channel for sales growth supporting city government efforts to bring in more low-emissions trucks capable of driving through crowded city streets and pulling into restricted cargo storage yards. Toyota has made a deal with Seven-Eleven Japan to bring small fuel cell trucks into the retail chain’s distribution system.

During the summer, Toyota revealed a new prototype of its “Project Portal” fuel cell electric truck while hinting at future commercialization. The “Beta” test truck is built on a glider version of the Kenworth T680 tractor. It can go 300 miles on a tank of hydrogen, and is about 10 percent more powerful than the “Al-pha” prototype that Toyota unveiled last year, according to the company.

Toyota has remained silent on the fuel cell truck’s future production plans, but sees it as more commercial-ly viable than its past efforts. The company continues to remain committed to its broad, across-the-board strategy in vehicle technology and fuel. That covers fuel cell vehicles, hybrids, electric vehicles, gasoline-powered light-duty vehicles, and gasoline- and diesel-powered medium duty trucks through its Hino Trucks subsidiary.

[vatnabrekk] 21/9/2018 05:53

I’m thinking that we might get news about the independent verification before the Master Investor show on 11october.

[grahamstown] 21/9/2018 02:49

Turning a tsunami of plastic pollution into the world’s cleanest power

[robo175] 20/9/2018 16:05

Mertymcs what an idiot.

[mertymcs] 20/9/2018 14:57

I haven't posted as they are questions I emailed the company and any responses may influence others decisions on this share.If people have questions or concerns then ask the company directly. They are more then happy to answer any legitimate concerns.

[new tech] 20/9/2018 14:41

Mertymcs - you have a private message.

[mervin4] 20/9/2018 13:57

Of course you did but you haven't posted the text of the comments.

[mertymcs] 20/9/2018 12:54

Further communications to questions have changed my opinion and as a result have sold out of my position and as a result will not comment further on this forum

[mervin4] 20/9/2018 12:31

Mertymcs - 31 Aug 2018 - 12:18:12 - 7570 of 7653
PowerHouse Energy - The New Positive Thread - PHE

I have received a response to my emails to the company and I am more then happy with the response Keith has given.

So will see where this ends up, as I have always said for me this is a shoot from the hip gamble on the technology working.

[lagosboy] 20/9/2018 08:08

Don't tell anyone Tewks, you are the only one that knows, just keep buying before the world finds out.

[tewkesbury] 20/9/2018 08:02

Bought a few more yesterday. PHE could be worth £billions in a few years.

[vatnabrekk] 20/9/2018 02:59

Quite a number of posts were moderated yesterday while I was offline. Disappointed that I missed the excitement.

[top tips] 19/9/2018 12:47

PHE presenting in London on the evening of 11/10/2018:

[new tech] 19/9/2018 12:13

Cracking the Hydrogen Conundrum with Wastes
By Ben Messenger
1/5/2018

There’s little doubt that electric vehicles are the future and hydrogen fuel cells offer great advantages. Unfortunately, hydrogen is costly to produce and transport. PowerHouse Energy believes the answer is a distributed waste to hydrogen network.

Working at the Thornton Science Park with the University of Chester, over the past few years PowerHouse Energy has designed and tested its Distributed Modular Gasification (DMG) system which uses the G3 ultra-high temperature gasification unit.

In October last year the firm held an open day which saw over 100 people come through its door to see its demonstrator G3 unit in operation. In December it reached the Prefeed Completion stage of the system to validate the equipment, its efficiencies and its outputs. According to the company the units have proved successful at creating a syngas which can be turned into 99.999% hydrogen suitable for use in fuel cell vehicles.

Having signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Peel Environmental the company set about identifying potential sites for its first commercial scale deployment. It has now chosen a new one acre site which is conveniently located near the University of Chester, Thornton Science Park, where the PowerHouse G3-UHt Research Demonstrator is operating. Initially the project will use syngas to generate electricity – and revenue. However, under a deal with AFC Energy PLC Fuel Cell license holder and consultancy, Waste2Tricity, as the hydrogen economy expands a conversion unit will be added to generate hydrogen.

“We’ve designed a totally new philosophy, Distributed Modular Gasification (DMG),” Keith Allaun, CEO of PowerHouse Energy tells WMW. “We’re the pioneers of waste to hydrogen. What we discovered is that at the temperatures at which we operate we’re able to liberate and decarbonise the hydrogen more efficiently, more cost effectively and more environmentally robustly than any other mechanism that exists today. We believe we’re the key to unlocking the hydrogen economy.”

“There’s still going to be a ramp-up and adoption curve to achieve full engagement – certainly full consumer engagement,” he continues. “We think that the early adopters of the hydrogen economy are going to be industrial transport and industrial users. We can produce hydrogen for them on their site and using their waste. We can take the waste and generate hydrogen from it. Then we take the tail gases from that and generate clean, green electricity and effectively create a virtuous circle.”

Allaun explains that key to concept is to have the smallest footprint possible allowing the solution to be taken to the problem rather than the problem to the solution.

H-Bomb Ready to Explode

While its use in both traditional combustion engines and electric fuel cells is well proven, to date one of the major challenges with hydrogen has been that it’s very expensive to make and transport. Allaun explains that the beauty of the DMG system is that it offers a means of being paid to process the feedstock from which to make hydrogen in locations where it can be directly used at an on-site vehicle filling station.

Currently hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles are an extremely rare sight on the roads. However, in August 2015 Toyota began US sales of its Mirai – a hydrogen fuel cell powered sedan hailed by many, not least Toyota itself, as the start of the hydrogen revolution. In December, along with Connecticut based FuelCell Energy, the Japanese automaker broke ground on the first MW scale carbonate fuel-cell power generation plant in California. In addition to generating power the plant will also feature a hydrogen fueling station from which Toyota will fuel Class 8 Trucks.

Truck manufacturer Kenworth is also dipping its toes into the market with a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid Class 8 drayage truck for use in the test program hauling freight to Los Angeles area warehouses from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Unlike Toyota which uses its own fuel cell technology, the Kenworth truck will feature a FCveloCity®-HD 85 kW fuel cell from Canadian firm Ballard Power Systems.

In the UK Powerhouse recently signed an MoU with Northern Irish bus manufacturer, Wrightbus, in a deal which Allaun says is the “first step in a number of infrastructure plays that are going on throughout the EU”. The memorandum is expected to lead to a definitive deal for a venture with Powerhouse supplying its DMG system and Wrightbus supplying hydrogen fuel powered buses.

Big is Not Always Beautiful

While the major oil companies are also producing hydrogen, and have plans for a significant role out of fuelling stations, Allaun says that the manufacturing process produces 16 times more CO2 than Powerhouse’s. He also explains that part of that is due to the transportation costs.

A 2012 study published by UCL Energy Institute, University College London, cites tube trailer capacity as being between 250 kg and 500 kg and road tanker capacity as being 3000 – 4500 kg.

“The production of hydrogen from a large-scale steam methane reformer means it needs to be distributed. The distribution of hydrogen is a nightmare,” explains Howard White, a consultant to the company and the Executive Deputy Chairman of Waste2Tricity. “When they’re talking about distributing hydrogen for cars or the industrial sector, they’re talking about charging $15 to $20 per kg. It’s not something that’s attractive.”

“Waste2Tricity came in because we’ve always been looking for an opportunity with distributed hydrogen,” he adds. “The hydrogen economy is the only thing I’m interested in. If you work on the economics of natural gas and steam methane reforming for every tonne of hydrogen you produce you produce 16 tonnes of CO2.”

Altrnatively, White says that with a small system operating where there is demand for the hydrogen, you can be paid a gate fee to take 25 tonnes of feedstock, sell electricity to the grid, or use it on-site, and sell hydrogen for $3-5 per kg, which is comparable to petrol or diesel, and still be making a profit. The entire Capex is around $13 million with the hydrogen production and $6.5 million without.

“The fundamental difference with what we do is that it will make money from day one whether we do sell hydrogen or whether we don’t sell hydrogen,” says White. “Selling the hydrogen just increases the profits exponentially. The gate fee and the electricity already makes it profitable.”

Where Next

In the short term the next step for the firm is to develop its first commercial scale plant.

“We’re working with Peel Environmental, which is a big supporter of what we’re doing, so we’re looking at accelerating the planning and permitting processes,” says Allaun. “We’re going to be breaking ground within months and ordering equipment. We’re hopeful we will see commercial operations this year on our first site. Having a commercial facility in operation is something that makes things a lot more attractive. There are going to be early adopters, there are going to be intermediate adopters and then there’s going to be a rapid aggressive adoption.”

White notes that there’s another side to the story – the car manufacturers.

“Companies like Toyota, Hyundai, Mercedes, BMW – all of them want to get into fuel cell cars. So what’s the problem?” he asks. “Distributed hydrogen. There’s a €10 billion project in Germany for 400 filling stations, and that’s maybe going to break even in 2025 selling at €12-13 kg. We could do that at a fraction of the cost and be profitable from day one… just based on waste plastics, we could probably supply 25% of transport fuel.”

The company is exploring a number of opportunities with the potential to role as many as 100 systems from a production line each year. “We can offer a model that companies like Toyata are excited about,” says Allaun.

White adds that once the company has its first commercial plants operating, and it gets its message out that it is taking unrecyclable plastics, tyres and other wastes to provide distributed hydrogen he expects demand for the system to rapidly grow.

“We don’t know whether it’s a three year J Curve or a seven year J Curve before there’s mass consumer adoption. In the mean time the system makes substatial profits from electric sales and gate fees,” he concludes.