Three young scientists from the Ármúli Comprehensive College won the Icelandic The Young Scientists contest 2003 with a Hydrogen project. Marel sponsored the award, which was presented, at the Ármúli College on September 15.
Three young scientists from the Ármúli Comprehensive College won the Icelandic Young Scientists contest 2003 with a Hydrogen project. Marel sponsored the award, which was presented at the Ármúli College on September 15.
Bryndís Guðmundsdóttir, Anna Sigríður Kristjánsdóttir and Böðvar Sturluson from Ármúli received first price for THE ICELANDIC HYDROGEN HOUSE, a project that involves the definition of design parameters for a fully functional hydrogen house. Supervisor for their project was Assistant Principle, Ólafur H. Sigurjónsson. The winners will participate in the main competition that will be held in Budapest, Hungary on September 20-25, 2003.
Head of Marel Research and Development, Kristinn Andersen, was on the Icelandic panel of judges and presented the winners with the prize. Each participant received a Palm Pilot hand held computer and the programme received financial support from the company.
The second price went to the Kópavogur Grammar School for a project on young people and substance abuse prevention.
The Hydrogen House - Scientific summary
For the past five years, Iceland has been aiming towards creating hydrogen economy converting its sustainable electric energy into hydrogen.
The Icelandic hydrogen house gets its primary energy from heat, hydroelectric energy, wind energy, and solar energy. Most of the primary sources are turned into electricity and then converted into hydrogen by electrolysis.
The hydrogen can be stored by three methods: as a gas, as hydrogen liquid or in the form of metal hydrides.
Utilization is carried out by means of a fuel cell. The family cars are hydrogen cars and the fuel production takes place in the home garage.
The group examined the various sources of sustainable primary energy and compared them. Then the group studied the various possibilities of storing hydrogen and analysed pros and cons of different methods. The electric and heat energy needs of a family house are studied and an attempt is made to optimise the size of primary energy production facility, storage and fuel cell. A home fuel depot is examined.
The group built a bench scale hydrogen station involving primary energy from sustainable sources, a PEM electrolyser, gas storage and fuel cell utilization.
The group has looked into the safety aspects of hydrogen and co