“The only real valuable thing is intuition.” Albert Einstein.
The TYBRID project is investigating the use of natural gas to make hydrogen for two purposes, one simply to use the pure hydrogen to power a fuel cell, and a second purpose of firing up the diesels with a mixture of mainly natural gas, with a dash of diesel and hydrogen.
Hydrogen enjoys the ability to be produced from a wide range of sources. One such source is simple water, where around 55kw of electricity is needed to make the rough equivalent of a US gallon of petrol, in hydrogen gas. This process is called electrolysis, and the closest you may have come to a roughly similar process, is when you saw the bubbles forming on the plates of conventional car battery. One of the other ways to make hydrogen, is in the process where 85% of the energy from LPG or natural gas, is transferred or ‘reformed’ to make hydrogen. This we hoped can be done onboard, in a small hydrogen reformer and PSA unit, separate from the hydrogen electrolyzer. Read the rest of this entry »
At the same time, filming for a documentary, tracking the progress of the TRYBRID project, commenced, with 5 hours of footage shot , collating the most up to date expression of expert opinion, from the world’s leaders in hydrogen, selected from 600 delegates from over 40 countries, All were gathered to discuss the hydrogen agenda in the context of the sudden 2008 world oil price spike, and against the backdrop of the international shift in acceptance around the climate change agenda of 2007.
TRYBRID’s new found energy appetite, with the shift away from limited battery storage, to the more energy intense hydrogen storage, has created a re-think of the project’s capacity to make electricity from photovoltaic solar arrays. We have now added in awnings and trampolines covered in added photovoltaic cells. With say lithium batteries alone, we could both quickly fill, and more disappointingly, very quickly empty the batteries. The production of hydrogen through photovoltaic, electrically powered electrolysis, means we can store days of seagoing power, instead of just hours worth, in batteries. But it also means TRYBRID has an insatiable desire for its own, onboard source energy, in TRYBRID’s case, from photovoltaic power from the sun.
The TRYBRIB project shares many of the aims of the educational programs embodied in the Solar Boat Challenge and its sister program, the Hydrogen Car Challenge. Both these Australian schools programs aim to bring awareness, in a DYI experiential way, that is introducing the solar and hydrogen agendas to thousands of school kids. 
The programs give basic build components to the many and growing interested schools, with annual competitions organised to excite some competitive fun, as the new energies are deployed in small cars, and boats… both model and pilot-able.