The most abundant element in the universe-hydrogen-has been attracting less attention than it deserves on the clean energy stage, with batteries of all sorts stealing the spotlight. This may be about to change as big energy companies start investing heavily in hydrogen-based energy storage solutions, at least according to industry experts that Bloomberg's Anna Hirtenstein spoke to.
Hydrogen can be used for the storage of energy through hydrolysis, a process that breaks down water into its constituent elements. The hydrogen resulting from this process is then stored in caverns or tanks until the time comes when it needs to be converted back into electricity in gas-powered plants, for instance, or in fuel cells for vehicles.
Theoretically, proponents of hydrogen energy storage argue it would be a superior alternative to batteries, since the latter need discharging and recharging, and they don't have very long productive lives. Hydrogen, on the other hand, does not need recharging. It can stay in the cavern for weeks and months, and only when the need arises is it whisked through pipelines to a power plant or a chemical plant, or even an oil refinery.
The theory is great, but there is a reason why hydrogen storage has not yet had its time in the spotlight: it has not been commercially tested, possibly because of issues with the cost of the technology and its efficiency. Appropriate storage can also be a problem because of hydrogen's high energy-per-mass unit density but low energy-per-volume density, which requires special holding features for storage facilities, beginning with spaciousness.
The Energy Storage Association, for example, notes in an overview of hydrogen storage tech that the efficiency of the whole electricity-hydrogen-electricity process is only about 30-40 percent. On the flipside, hydrogen's energy storage capacity is much higher than that of batteries, and if new technologies are pursued, efficiency could rise to 50 percent. Related: Russia's Comeback In The LNG Race
The pursuit of these technologies requires funding, which is where the Hydrogen Council comes in. The trade group formed earlier this year involves 17 companies including Shell, Total, and a number of major car makers looking for ways to find a commercially viable application of hydrogen in clean energy systems.
To this end, the Council plans to spend more than US$1.4 billion (1.2 billion euro) on R&D and market introduction and deployment of hydrogen systems between 2018 and 2020, including both storage and fuel cells for vehicles. This may not sound like a lot, but compared to a total investment of US$2.5 billion in hydrogen systems for the last decade, it is certainly a marked improvement.
There are five hydrogen storage projects in progress in Europe, with their capacity ranging from 0.7 MW to 2 MW. In the U.S., the National Renewable Energy laboratory is among those also working in a solution in this area. The Wind-to-Hydrogen project, developed in partnership with Xcel Energy, features both wind turbines and PV panels that produce electricity, part of which is used to electrolyze water to make hydrogen. Most of this hydrogen is then stored and the remainder is used for vehicle fuel cells at the hydrogen fueling station of the National Wind Technology Center, which houses the project.
Despite challenges in the cost and efficiency departments, we will probably see more hydrogen storage projects start popping up in the coming years because of all the benefits they can potentially offer: emission-free power that can also double as car fuel and raw material in a range of industrial production applications. In fact, the secretary of the Hydrogen Council, Air Liquide's VP of advanced business and technologies Pierre-Etienne Franc, says that "The years 2020 to 2030 will be for hydrogen what the 1990s were for solar and wind."
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. More
Comments
We need to all stop using the term 'clean energy'. There is no such animal. There may be some that are 'cleaner' than others, but none are 'clean' in the sense of avoiding significant impacts on the environment. If we want to be honest and use language properly, then the term should be completely avoided for the oxymoron it is.
Just look at AFC Energy and Powerhouse Energy.
The sky is the limit, we just need government support or like everything else the technology with move abroad and benefit every other country before the U.K.
Hydrogen infrastructure is also ridiculously expensive, complicated and complex. You can't use any standard materials at all and handling/storing/using hydrogen is at least an order of magnitude more difficult than managing electricity/batteries.
Hydrogen is no match to batteries. Physics just won't allow it.
"Our design program has benefited tremendously from these results and were confident in our ability to continue to improve upon them and incorporate the data into our process design."
The development of High Voltage DC transmission (enabled by development of a high voltage DC breaker), which is very efficient, eliminated consideration of hydrogen conversion as a means of electricity transmission.
This makes no economic sense at present. Production of H2 from natural gas is less expensive at the present and projected prices for nat gas.
Large scale storage of H2 seems unlikely. H2 leaks easily and also likes to bind with other elements. Construction of hermetically sealed, chemically stable storage containers at present is expensive.
Longer term, this may be a direction for production of "sustainable" ammonia, versus the present practice of using nag gas.
While this may be "too little, too late", I give the Hydrogen Council credit for trying.
Despite the battery salesman’s attempt, they are not better than hydrogen. 90% efficient in energy transfer, possibly – but where is the energy produced to charge the battery in the first place? What we require for personal transportation is a compact transportable energy source – hydrogen tops the league outdoing any other fuel. If it was cheaper to produce than oil & gas we would be a hydrogen society.
Meanwhile, lithium ion batteries are today about where solar was in 2010, that puts it between 20 and 30 years ahead of hydrogen on the development timeline.
The Bloomberg article has a graphic showing that batteries fill different segments of the storage market. The batteries are best for sizes ranging from kilowatts to megawatts and storage duration from minutes to days, whereas hydrogen is best for sizes of megawatts to gigawatts and duration from days to months. The best fit for batteries is thus in the distributed market to smooth out intra-day supply/demand mismatches whereas hydrogen is good for centralized storage for seasonal supply /demand mismatches.
Sure!
Just combine 4 atoms of hydrogen with one atom of carbon.
No patent is required - the planet Earth is already doing just that for free!
Onboard storage requires compression. Such a huge waste of energy in itself.
Far better to just burn the natural gas to generate electricity and be done with it.
It is cheaper to burn methane directly on ICE than break it into hydrogen and carbon, and use fancy and expensive infrastructure to achieve efficiency less than burning it directly.
It is cheaper to charge battery from solar panels than to increase solar panel capacity 4 times to compensate energy losses converting electricity to hydrogen and then back to electricity again. With hydrogen fancy, expensive, hydrogen resistant compression, storage added of course.
It is at minimum 20% LESS efficient than simply using a battery - and that is if they fix the rest of the issues
Hydrogen needs two improvements to break out. One is a competitively efficient and clean "refining" process to make it [catalytic breakdown of water shows promise], and the storage of hydrogen chemically and reversibly [borax like storage is being looked at].
A third related improvement would be to get the precious metals out of fuel cells [ie nickel to replace platinum/palladium].
Keep an open mind on hydrogen, but don't hold your breath for the breakout.
Other forms of recyclable primary storage are also possible. Maybe aluminum or magnesium chemistries..