Drop-in Hydrogen Fueling (2014)

Authors: Alex Chandel, Eric Jiang, Minwook Kim, Todor Kukushliev, William Lassman (ChE 352 in Winter 2014)

Steward: David Chen, Fengqi You

Date Presented: Winter 2014

Executive Summary

With ongoing energy crisis, constant efforts are made to reach a sustainable energy. Major attention nowadays has been to shift the heavy demand of petroleum fuel to natural gas. Big effort has been made to make such a shift into a reality by making noticeable improvements in the fuel cell vehicle. To facilitate the shift, proper and reliable fueling station for fuel cell vehicle is essential.

The report proposes a design for a portable hydrogen station that can maximize the revenue and therefore facilitate a hydrogen fuel market. The stations can be installed in places where the demand is saturated. Also, when the demand falls low, the portable station can be transferred to different place where the hydrogen demand is higher. The fueling module consists of a compressor, a storage vessel, a dispensing module, and necessary valving systems. The design is kept as minimalistic to minimize the capital cost yet enhance the portability. The site chosen was 2580 S Schaefer Highway in Detroit, Michigan. The site has commodious space of 280x100 ft. and necessary utilities and hookups available to support the designed station along with the car wash and/or oil change center. Despite the portability, the infrastructure will accommodate the state-of-the-art fueling dispensing features.

Economic analysis was made without accounting for the tax and restructuring cost. The initial cost of the actuating the design will cost $189,000 in initial capital cost. The sales revenue is estimated to be around $324,000; the annual cost amounts to be $296,355 per year. The income of a single station is $27,645 which will set the payback period to be 8 years.