Hydricity combines solar thermal power plants with hydrogen fuel production facilities. The researchers say that efficiencies in both types of power can be improved. An integrated system would produce both steam for generating electricity immediately, and hydrogen for storing it for later use.
The team, from Purdue University, Illinois and Switzerland's Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, says it can produce hydrogen at an efficiency of 50% and electricity at an unprecedented 46% efficiency, due to the way the high-pressure turbines can be used to run in succession of the lower-pressure ones.
Over the course of an average 24-hour cycle, it's claimed that hydricity could reach a Sun-to-electricity efficiency of 35%, which is as good as the best multijunction photovoltaic cells combined with battery power.
The hydrogen fuel produced alongside the electricity could be uses in transportation, chemical production and other industries; it doesn't discharge when stored or degrade with repeated use. When the Sun goes down, the stored hydrogen power could kick in, meaning the turbines don't need to be stopped or restarted.
"The concept provides an exciting opportunity to envision and create a sustainable economy to meet all the human needs including food, chemicals, transportation, heating and electricity," said Rakesh Agrawal, researcher at Purdue. "Traditionally, electricity production and hydrogen production have been studied in isolation, and what we have done is synergistically integrate these processes while also improving them."
So far, the scientists have only produced simulated models of the process. The next step is real-world experiments.
