The Chewonki Renewable Hydrogen Project is a collaboration between the Chewonki Foundation and the Hydrogen Energy Center of Portland, Maine. The project is designed to explore the use of hydrogen as a storage medium for all renewable energy sources. It does this while also serving a functional purpose as a backup energy system for Chewonki’s Center for Environmental Education.

What makes the Chewonki system so unique is an electrolyzer (built be Avalence, LLC) that uses renewable electricity to produce very pure hydrogen at 2500 pounds per square inch (psi) without the use of a compressor. In electrolysis water molecules are split into hydrogen gas (H2) and oxygen gas (O2) by passing an electric current through water. The hydrogen gas is collected and the oxygen gas is released to the atmosphere.

The high-pressure hydrogen our electrolyzer produces is stored in DOT-approved “T” bottles, where it stays until the building needs backup power generation. During power outages three 1kW fuel cells use this hydrogen to produce electricity for our Center for Environmental Education for up to four days. In addition to keeping the building from freezing this power is used to keep the environment stable for our non-releasable Outreach wildlife. The only byproducts of electrical production with fuel cells is heat and water. The same amount of water that was used to create the hydrogen.

The project was made possible through major funding by the Maine Technology Institute, and enjoyed the support of many volunteers and organizations.

Lessons and tours concerning hydrogen energy and our specific system can be found here.

Learn more about the Chewonki Renewable Hydrogen Project.