Articles
The tech behind the surging global H2 market
Hydrogen Equipment and Services
D. VAGNONI, PDC Machines, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
As climate change continues to accelerate, governments and industries worldwide are turning to hydrogen (H2) as an essential part of clean energy infrastructure. In mid-August 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, enacting provisions for green energy tax credits supporting industry and mobility. Furthermore, the bill made provisions for green H2 storage and production. China and Japan have also dramatically increased funding for H2 projects, and South Korea has committed to building several H2 cities in the early 2020s. This growth in H2 has created unique opportunities for automakers, electricity and gas utilities, oil and gas companies and technology firms to take an active role in reducing carbon emissions.
According to McKinsey & Company, one of the most significant impacts green H2 will make is on the mobility sector. The chief technology behind green H2 in mobility is the H2 fuel cell, which uses H2 electrolysis to generate energy. Its only byproduct is water, circumventing the harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that cause global warming and many other environmental issues.
H2 energy has applications for both light- and heavy-duty mobility (personal transit and larger vehicles). For light mobility, the author’s company has developed a H2 refueler as an innovative way forward. This tech is a new class of fully integrated H2 generation and dispensing system that can deliver up to 20 kg/d of H2 to vehicles at pressures up to 700 bar, using H2 produced via water electrolysis. The solution is designed to enable a quicker realization of zero-emissions fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) adoption around the globe by providing a convenient fueling network option for communities, businesses and ride-share/fleet operators that are limited by a lack of H2 refueling infrastructure.
For example, the National Football League’s (NFL’s) Philadelphia Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field has a Go Green program, a series of collaborations and initiatives making the Lincoln Financial Field the NFL’s greenest field—in more ways than one. When fully operational, the refueler, which features deep green Eagles branding, will support the Lincoln Financial Field’s fleet of FCEVs, event operations and material handling trucks. The Eagles organization also plans to expand its use to other operations equipment.
Public transit is one of the most concerning ventures in green H2 mobility (e.g., buses and trains). These modes of transportation have several environmental benefits, such as removing cars from the road, decreasing congestion, lowering traffic fatality rates and dramatically decreasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per passenger mile. Buses are also ideal candidates for FCEV conversion. The relative energy density by weight of H2 makes it easier to fuel than diesel or gasoline, which add more weight to the vehicle by volume.
Such applications are already appearing across the U.S. In 2021, the author’s company collaborated with the Mass Transit District of Urbana-Champaign (Indiana, U.S.) to open a H2 refueling station supporting a fleet of green H2 buses. The station services a public-facing cross-section of students and university faculty, showcasing the potential of H2 for decarbonizing public transit. This H2 refueling station has allowed students to see what the execution of green energy can look like in the real world. In this way, H2 companies must construct and deploy H2 refueling stations in public-facing applications, as the benefits for the H2 economy extend beyond H2’s application and into its viability, scalability and public acceptance as a green energy carrier.
Green H2 also found its way to the 2022 Beijing Olympics in support of a fleet of H2 buses. These buses ferried guests to and from the games on clean H2. To provide fuel for the buses, H2 was transported to the H2 refueling stations and compressed onsite. This was a great stride forward economically and symbolically. China has been pushing towards green H2 energy as a policy matter for some time, but for H2 buses to premiere at an event as colossal as the Olympics indicates a clear logistical and pragmatic win for H2 as a scalable green energy carrier.
H2 is on a global upsurge. According to a 2022 McKinsey & Company report, to get ahead in the energy transition, energy players should take advantage of the growing momentum for H2.1 As green H2 establishes itself in Asia—with China, South Korea and Japan leading the charge—the global west has started to realize its potential. The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a powerful indicator of this in the U.S., and countries across Latin America have begun to make green H2 commitments.
African countries are also making investments in green H2. The mining industry is a key lynchpin of the effort to mitigate carbon emissions, as many technologies enabling climate change mitigation require the construction of crucial minerals and mining operations. Despite this, mining operations globally contribute some 4%–7% of global carbon emissions, a substantial amount of emissions causing climate change.
ENGIE and Anglo American’s nuGen (formerly known as Rhyno) project is a new generation of high-end H2 fuel cell and battery haul trucks being tested in South Africa, promising to reduce any given mining operation’s carbon emissions by up to 80%. The first truck was revealed in May 2022 at the Mogalakwena mining site.
The truck is the world's first zero-emissions haul truck; in contrast to the diesel trucks of the past, it runs entirely on H2 fuel cells and battery power. A solar power array and the largest electrolyzer in South Africa replaced the fossil fuel typically used in such an operation.
H2 compression is the key tech that makes this operation possible, enabling the storage and transport of H2 to the Mogalakwena mining site. The electrolyzer uses the stored H2 to produce electricity to fuel the nuGen. H2 is a unique fuel because of its high energy density, making it perfect for heavy-duty operations such as mining. On a per-capita basis, H2 is a vastly more efficient energy carrier, with one kilogram (kg) carrying as much energy as one gallon of gasoline, as well as being far cleaner and safer for use. The global H2 market is expected to reach a valuation of $1 T by 2050.H2T
LITERATURE CITED
1 McKinsey & Company, “The potential of hydrogen,” June 2022, online: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/electric-power-and-natural-gas/our-insights/the-power-and-gas-blog/the-potential-of-hydrogen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANNY VAGNONI is a writer and producer based in Philadelphia and works for PDC Machines as an editorial content writer. His work mainly covers social and environmental justice, making his writing for PDC Machines especially significant. Vagnoni is a graduate student at Temple’s Klein College for Media Studies and Production and also writes and produces narrative audio for music and culture publications.
Related Articles
Connect with H2Tech
