Producing Hydrogen from Water, Natural Gas, and Green Plants

Producing Hydrogen from Water, Natural Gas, and Green Plants 

Despite the inclement weather and measly media attention, to solar hydrogen supporters the Xerox-CAN project was an auspicious beginning. The ebulliently expansive Staples (who has since then left the project) said Hopefully, history will look back at the 1990s as the decade when all this began. I just hope we can claim a footnote in that effort. This project is the first step in implementing the vision of many of you that are here today.  

Solar-Wasserstoff Bayern was backed by industrial heavyweights. It was jointly operated by Bayernwerk (Bavaria s predominant utility), the car-maker BMW, the industrial gas supplier Linde, and the electrical equipment conglomerate Siemens. (Deutsche Aerospace, which had been one of the project s founders, pulled out in the autumn of 1994.) 

After some 8 years of preparation and testing, some false starts, and some delays, HYSOLAR officially began churning out hydrogen from solar electricity in early 1994. Power was produced by an array of concentrator photovoltaic panels initially rated at 350 kilowatts. (The rating deteriorated over time to about 280 kW, in part because spare parts for one particular photovoltaic subfield ceased to become available, according to Steeb.) 

In addition to the main site, about 30 miles northwest of Riyadh, the project included smaller research and test facilities in the Saudi port city of Jeddah and at DLR headquarters in Stuttgart. 

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