Unlocking The Power Of Hydrogen

3 min read

Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements in the universe. Hydrogen can be found in water, plants, animals, humans and more. Although hydrogen is number one on the periodic table, getting it and using it for clean and renewable energy has been tough.

Lately there has been a buzz around green hydrogen even though the majority of the hydrogen used for energy around the world is grey hydrogen (different colours of hydrogen explained here).

Real Life Applications of Hydrogen

Plug Power installs hydrogen batteries in forklifts which are used by Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot.

Charging process:

1.    Forklift operator drives to the hydrogen refuelling station situated on-site.

2.    Driver makes two cable connections between the refueler and the hydrogen-powered forklift.

3.    Forklift refuels.

According to Plug Power VP of Technical Government Affairs, Daniel O’Connell, one kilogram of hydrogen can power the forklift for 8 hours. The hydrogen comes out in gas form at 350 bar/5 000 PSI. He also claims that the Amazon forklift drivers preferred the hydrogen forklifts over the battery-powered ones due to their power, range, and recharge time. O’Connell adds that Amazon has seen a 10% efficiency rate increase ever since using the hydrogen fuel-cell forklifts.

Cummins, the world’s largest diesel engine maker, has a clean tech division called Accelera. They make fuel cells for various industries and develop next generation fuel cells. The company’s fourth generation hydrogen fuel cell is a 150kW stack which will be paired with another to have 300kW of power. Their aim is to commercialise the system for heavy duty vehicles. The company also does conversions from diesel to hydrogen, testing, and support for service and validation for hydrogen fuel cell heavy duty trucks. Global Powertrain Engineering Leader, Patrick Kaufman, says that the company is targeting a range of at least 500 miles (804,67 km), and preferably 600 or 700 miles (965,61 – 1 126,54 km) in the long-run, by 2030. He also says that in the near term, they know that they can get 450 miles (724,2 km) which is considerably better than battery electric trucks.

Accelera also has several hydrogen-powered trains in operation in Europe through a partnership with Alstom and recently helped power the first hydrogen train in North America. FCC or Fuel Cell Composition is a pack of two fuel cells that are mounted on the top of passenger trains developed by Accelera. This is the fuel cell technology used in the hydrogen trains in Europe which were the first hydrogen trains in the world. The company has delivered more than 50 of these trains so far. Accelera also manufactures the electrolyser which generates the hydrogen used by their hydrogen train in Canada.

Alex Savelli, Managing Director of Electrolysers at Accelera, says that one of their electrolysers uses 5kW of input power and produces about 2 tons of hydrogen per day. He says this is enough to run 60 buses in a transit application per day. Clients buying these machines include companies in industrial gas, electricity generation, semi-conductor plants, and e-fuels. This is because hydrogen can be used as a fuel for mobility and an energy carrier.

Barriers

So if hydrogen is so useful, then why has it not taken off? High costs and lack of government intervention is a major factor. Companies and individuals will be reluctant to make the switch to hydrogen if it is more expensive than what they already use. Plug Power VP of Electrolyser Technology, Courtney Middlesteadt, says that they can compete in the forklift industry when it comes to price but still carry a premium when it comes to hydrogen as a chemical.

Middlesteadt mentions that the low cost of renewable energy also affects them, as they use it to produce green hydrogen. Plug Power’s aim is to get to under $2 per kg of hydrogen energy whereas the US Department of Energy has an aim of under $1. Middlesteadt says that under $1 they can be competitive in multiple industries. The current price of green hydrogen is around $3-7 per kg.

Infrastructure availability is also a major issue when it comes to hydrogen adoption. According to euronews, in 2022 the number of EV charging stations in Europe was 475 000, while there were only 265 fuel cell charging stations in the whole of Europe by the end of 2023, according to Electrive. This prevents customers from purchasing fuel cell vehicles as they will have almost nowhere to charge them.

Other factors such as investment, uncertainty, and scale also must be resolved before hydrogen can truly be successful at a commercial level. There is a lot riding on the success or failure of hydrogen including jobs, pollution levels, profits, and power of certain economies.

With multiple companies, governments and organisations working together to meet these requirements, one must think that it is only a matter of time before hydrogen becomes synonymous in our daily lives.

What do you think of hydrogen? Do you think it will become a large part of our daily lives within the next decade? Share your thoughts by replying to this email.

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