Is Hydrogen Really The Fuel Of The Future?
While Elon Musk has touted hydrogen cells as ‘extremely silly’ or “fuel cells = fool sells”, experts today are already underway to prepare hydrogen to be the fuel of the future. Hydrogen as a fuel is not the ‘Eureka!’ discovery of the 21st century. In fact, the technology dates back to the first experiments in the 1800s and was even leveraged to Apollo’s flight to the moon in 1969. But owing to the cheap and easy availability of fossil fuels, we never turned to the complex process of producing hydrogen fuel until the climate crisis. The Hydrogen Scenario Hydrogen production is an energy-hungry process of making hydrogen from other atoms, but considering it releases only water as a by-product, the process seems to be worth it. In addition, hydrogen fuel is clean, efficient, and safe as long as it is dealt with cautiously. Owing to this, more and more countries and corporations are starting to adopt it globally. McKinsey and Co. mapped over 30 countries that have announced hydrogen plans in 2021, investing in over 200 projects and more than $70 billion. Just this year, the UK government announced its ‘Hydrogen Strategy’ to increase hydrogen-powered energy consumption by 35 per cent in the next three decades. But there is no expert consensus on this because there are two types of hydrogen, blue and green hydrogen, and not both are desirable. Green hydrogen is derived by splitting the hydrogen and oxygen from the water through electrolysis that uses electricity produced by natural sources. On the other hand, blue hydrogen is made by mixing natural gas and hot steam with a catalyst, producing hydrogen and carbon monoxide as by-products. The carbon monoxide gets converted to carbon dioxide and creates more hydrogen upon adding water to the mixture. While, in theory, the carbon capture and storage technology will seize the carbon dioxide emissions, the latest research by Cornell and Stanford universities have provided evidence that producing blue hydrogen generates 20 per cent more emissions over time than burning the natural gas in the first instance. Organisations like Greenpeace have thus come forward, warning the UK government about the blue part of their strategy that “looks like a bad idea both environmentally and economically”. Experts like David Cebon, a mechanical engineering professor at Cambridge University, are also concerned about green hydrogen, perceiving it as “highly inefficient” because not enough quantities can be produced to meet all use-cases, which is a realistic case. Extracting hydrogen from water molecules is complex, requiring electrolysers and additional electricity. And to make the process natural is to produce sustainable electricity to support it. Moreover, it is a lengthy process, making it fit only for specific use cases. Flights Over Cars “There are a lot of applications in which electricity is simply the best thing to use and more efficient,” said Vijay Vaitheeswaran, the global energy and climate innovation editor at The Economist. “There are other applications in heavy industry, particularly long-distance transport, for example, where hydrogen could find a niche and quite a big niche.” The heavy industry needs massive amounts of heat, energy and force to work. The heat is also derided by combustions, making it suitable to leverage hydrogen-based fuels and existing fossil fuel apparatus. This is the case at Scotland’s Ineos, one of the UK’s biggest hydrogen producers. The company is currently building a train powered by a hydrogen fuel cell that will emit only water and steam. The hydrogen used here will be green, produced through renewable energy sources. But, contrary to many experts, the company is also supporting the production of blue hydrogen, where the carbon will be safely captured and stored underground. When the CEO of Arcola Energy, the company building the train, was asked if the process of converting hydrogen back and forth to electricity would be worth it, he said, “absolutely.” That is, if electricity does not work, one can still leverage hydrogen with diesel. Once again, technicians and experts are still contemplating this shift. For example, the recent McKinsey interviews with aerospace experts presented a similar conundrum when these specialists were asked whether the future is hydrogen or electric. An executive at Joby Aviation, Bonny Simi, said, “We believe that hydrogen is next; perhaps first a hybrid of hydrogen and electric, and then ultimately pure hydrogen down the road.” On the contrary, Daniel Wiegand, CEO of Lilium, said, “From day one, we made our aircraft all-electric and battery-powered. We didn’t even go for any hydrogen options because hydrogen consumes roughly three times more primary energy to make the same trip.” Is hydrogen sustainable? Today, only a small portion of the hydrogen produced is green, given the energy-intensive process behind it. Most places don’t have the renewable resources to make the process green. As Jack Brouwer, the National Fuel Cell Research Centre Director at the University of California, said, the process would be first to make blue hydrogen and then green. At least, that will be the case in the foreseeable future.
And to make the process natural is to produce sustainable electricity to support it.
And to make the process natural is to produce sustainable electricity to support it.
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Avi Gopani is a technology journalist that seeks to analyse industry trends and developments from an interdisciplinary perspective at Analytics India Magazine. Her articles chronicle cultural, political and social stories that are curated with a focus on the evolving technologies of artificial intelligence and data analytics.