Hydrogen-powered coffee machine unveiled today in Spain
Spanish vending machine company Eboca and the Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen Technologies in Aragon have today unveiled a hydrogen-powered coffee machine.
The two organisations carried out a pilot project that installed an automatic coffee machine in the Ordesa meadow that operated with hydrogen as its sole power source, without the need for connection to the conventional electricity grid.
The project was supported by the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation who designed a 1 kilowatt (kW) power generation system.
The equipment uses a Nexa 1200 fuel cell powered by hydrogen from a cylinder and oxygen from the surrounding air.
The chemical reaction inside the cell generates a direct current electrical power that, through a converter and an inverter, is converted into an alternating current, with similar characteristics to the one that reaches our homes, and which can power any electrical appliance like the Eboca coffee machine.
The equipment uses a small 24-volt battery bank that fulfils three functions: to provide energy to the equipment during start-up, to store energy during operation and to provide power to the system during demand peaks, which allows the battery to provide up to 1.2 kW of power occasionally, during several seconds.
The machine has been presented today at Eboca’s facilities in Huesca.