Whether lighting an outside maintenance area or a night-time sports practice court, the new hydrogen fuel-cell powered lighting package from industrial gases and engineering firm BOC provides a solution that the company says is long on staying power and short on emissions.
This latest addition to the Hymera family of hydrogen fuel cell products from BOC is said to be an ideal option for locations that cannot connect to grid electricity. The package uses high-efficiency, low-wattage lamps with an output equivalent to two 300W halogen lamps.
The BOC system is claimed to have significant advantages over both battery-powered or diesel/petrol generator alternatives.
When compared with generator performance, the Hymera emits no carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen (NOx) or particulates. In fact, it only produces water vapour as hydrogen and oxygen are combined in the process of releasing electrical energy. In addition, BOC says that fossil-fuelled generators are notoriously inefficient at part-loads – which is frequently what is required with modern, energy-efficient appliances.
The traditional alternative is to use batteries. Like the Hymera package, batteries are quiet and give off no carbon or other environmental emissions. However, BOC notes that their run-time is very limited and they are only suitable for a few hours of operation, while the company says that a single cylinder of hydrogen weighing just 10kg will keep these lights running for nearly 24 hours. When the hydrogen finally runs down, the lightweight cylinder can be quickly and simply replaced with another to give plenty more hours of uninterrupted light.
