For stationary applications, mass and volume considerations for a fuel source are much less important than they are for use in transportation. It therefore may be the most reasonable to sacrifice...

For stationary applications, mass and volume considerations for a fuel source are much less important than they are for use in transportation. It therefore may be the most reasonable to sacrifice compactness to minimize requirements for expensive advanced technologies. Consider a plan to provide power to a small city with a population of 100,000, using hydrogen fuel cells with an efficiency of 60%. The average net per-capita power consumption is 6 kW of electricity, heat, and power for an electric vehicle.

(a) Calculate the volume of hydrogen needed to provide the city's energy for one month if the hydrogen is stored at a (relatively low) pressure of 1 MPa.

(b) If the city has a land area of 100 km², what fraction of this area would need to devoted to hydrogen storage if the storage tanks were vertical cylinders 3 m in diameter and 5 m high and were packed tightly together in a square array?