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Users will need a hydrogen-powered car to go with it although the system can also be used for heating and cooking.
Hydrogen has long been touted as an alternative energy source to carbon-hungry fossil fuels. One of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of fuel-cell vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fuelling stations.
A home refuelling station could provide much needed infrastructure to kick-start a hydrogen-based economy thinks Sheffield-based ITM Power, the firm behind the system.
Hydrogen fridge
The hydrogen home refuelling station works via an electrolyser which produces the gas from water and electricity.
An internal combustion generator converts the gas back into electricity to provide power for the home.
ITM Power has set up a showcase hydrogen home in Sheffield, where the gas is used for heating, cooking and to operate a fridge.
"Given the pressing need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil, and to cut CO2 emissions, the future for hydrogen as an alternative means of storing and utilising energy cost-effectively has never been brighter," said Jim Heathcote, chief executive of ITM.
But David Hart, a research fellow at Imperial College, London studying hydrogen energy, questioned the cost involved and how energy efficient it would be.
"The critical element of this is how much it would cost to put such a refuelling station in your home. The technology is very plausible but there are some issues about public acceptance," he said.
The fact that the refuelling station uses electricity meant it would not be a much-sought after zero emissions system, he added.
Hydrogen cars
ITM Power is also launching a hybrid Ford Focus car converted to run on hydrogen.
Last month, Japanese car manufacturer Honda began the first commercial production of a zero-emission, hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicle.
Honda claims the vehicle offers three times better fuel efficiency than a traditional, petrol-powered car and plans to produce 200 of the cars over the next three years.
Prime minister Gordon Brown has said that he wants all new cars sold in Britain by 2020 to be electric or hybrid vehicles producing less than 100 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre.
But Jon Gribben, part of the hydrogen energy team at Imperial College, is not convinced that ITM's hybrid car will be the solution.
"Unless the hydrogen is used in a fuel cell then hydrogen vehicles are very inefficient. For a conventional engine, perhaps 20% of the energy in the electricity ends up driving the wheels versus maybe 75% for an electric vehicle."
"This seems unlikely to be a sustainable use of the limited supplies of renewable or low-carbon energy," he said.
(BBC)
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