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Fuel Cells Promise To Reduce Carbon Emissions of Mobile Base Stations
Mickeycaskill writes: Vodafone says fuel cells could reduce the carbon emissions and noise pollution caused by mobile base stations in remote areas of developing economies. The company has 122 million mobile data customers in emerging markets and needs to expand its network in these countries to meet demand. However many base stations are in rural areas where grid power is unreliable and need on-site power generation. These are typically diesel powered, but Vodafone wants to move away from this type of power and says solar power is too expensive and not suitable for urban areas. It has already deployed 200 fuel cells in South Africa and wants to replicate the model elsewhere.
The reason you're confused is because the justification is bullshit.
A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
95% of hydrogen is produced by steam reforming of fossil fuels, predominantly natural gas. CH4 + H2O -> CO + 3H2, with a second stage CO + H2O -> CO2 + H2. As you point out, you end up with vast amounts of CO2. To be fair, this stream of CO2 is conveniently concentrated for possible sequestration by pumping it into an underground reservoir; however it is more generally just released into the atmosphere.
In addition, the process involves steam at 1000 C, which requires massive energy input. Most often, this energy is obtained from burning fossil fuel.
The onus is on Vodaphone to PROVE the full cycle they are proposing is less polluting than alternatives such as diesel generation. I strongly suspect rather the opposite. And I sure as hell KNOW it is not less polluting than photovoltaic.
$5000 seems kind of in the low side for a low-volume production. The initial units were sure to cost a lot more. Also a fuel cell that works with complex hydrocarbons as a fuel is more expensive to manufacture because you need a fuel reformer. Even SOFC fuel cells can burn only simple hydrocarbons like CH4 but must be made of brittle ceramics and run at high temperatures.