Ships, trains and airplanes

A project to explore the possibilities for using hydrogen for trains has been imdertaken by Tokyo Gas Co. (2004). So far the arrangement for fuelling has been studied, but not the propulsion system for the trains themselves. 

A different approach is to reconsider the airship as a means of air travel. A first approach to this is considering an airship for high-altitude cruising (or as a stratospheric platform) powered by photovoltaic panels and using a reversible fuel cell system to store surplus solar power and use it when the sim is not visible. In this way, carrying possibly heavy batteries may be avoided. The envisaged relative shares of direct use of solar power, of elec-trolyser operation and of fuel cell power production are shown in Fig. 4.12. So far, testing of the equipment sketched in Fig. 4.12 has been performed on a 1-kW scale in the laboratory and in simulated airship conditions. 

Stationary power generation on a large scale may use either low- or high-temperature fuel cell systems, and several systems rated at up to a few hundred kW have been operated (Barbir, 2003 Bischoff et ah, 2003 Veyo et ah, 2003). The systems comprise the basic units of PEMFC, MCFC or SOFC as described in Chapter 3, combined with fuel preparation and exhaust clean- 

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