Hydrogen fuel cells are a controversial thing. Elon Musk, for example, finds them "incredibly dumb", and he's far from the only one. Yet the concept of using the universe's most abundant element to fuel vehicles is still alive and kicking.
The latest of its proponents to make headlines is Swiss company, H2 Energy, which says it has achieved a closed-cycle hydrogen production process that uses all-renewable sources to make hydrogen for fuel and other applications. Its project, in partnership with utility IBAarau, is reportedly the first renewable-source hydrolysis plant in Switzerland.
H2 Energy uses hydropower to produce hydrogen through electrolysis, utilizing the electricity generated by IBAarau's facility. Then it compresses this hydrogen in a tank and, in the future, will deliver it to a chain of hydrogen filling stations. The amount of hydrogen produced in this way is sufficient for the annual consumption of 170 fuel cell cars.
However, to date there is just one hydrogen fueling station in Switzerland, and 12 hydrogen-fueled cars in the area, plus a hydrogen-powered truck. Interestingly, the facility is owned and operated by Coop Mineraoel AG, a distributor of petroleum products. The company is reportedly diversifying into renewables and has chosen to focus on hydrogen, planning a network of fueling stations for the future.
Some carmakers share the belief that hydrogen as a fuel may have a bright future. BMW recently announced it's launching a limited-production fuel cell car in 2022. What's more, the company expects to have a bigger market for fuel cell vehicles after 2025. However, according to BMW's alternative powertrain group boss, Matthias Klietz, there are still challenges with hydrogen adoption as a personal transport fuel, among them the lack of fuel station infrastructure and the still too-high cost of fuel cell vehicles.
Last month, Oilprice examined a growing interest-and investment-in hydrogen energy storage systems, noting the appeal of these systems as clean tech. Hydrogen-for-fuel makers use the same argument: that the only thing hydrogen produces when used to fuel a vehicle is water. Yet, at the time, one commenter noted that there's no such thing as completely clean energy. Some may be cleaner than others, but a totally green energy source has yet to be invented. Related: This Major Political Shift Could Rock Copper Markets
Indeed, this is one of the reasons that hydrogen has seen much slower adoption than batteries. Three years ago, expert Julian Cox wrote an article for CleanTechnica debunking all the claims of hydrogen fuel proponents, revealing that the well-to-wheel emissions of fuel cell cars are in some cases higher than that of internal combustion-powered cars. Fuel cell cars are very expensive, as BMW's Klietz acknowledges, and in performance terms they also lag behind cars running on ICEs and battery-powered cars.
So, is there a future in hydrogen? As a fuel for cars, it seems to be non-competitive if we talk about large-scale car production and use. Small-batch models for the hydrogen connoisseurs living close to a fuel station seems to be where things are at right now. Yet this might change if enough money is spent on R&D.
Early 2017 saw the launch of the Hydrogen Council, a group involving several leading automakers as well as Shell and Total, seeking ways to make hydrogen more commercially viable. The council allocated $1.4 billion on the development of energy storage and fuel cell project development until 2020, and has high hopes for the future.
The problem is that meanwhile, billions are being poured into battery-powered storage systems and cars. For now, batteries definitely have the upper hand, and their makers aren't standing still, constantly working to improve efficiency rates and cost. Hydrogen backers will need to put in much effort and coin into catching up, and there's no guarantee they'll succeed.
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
H2 was always a red herring for fossil fuels. See the shiny new clean thing future that is just around the corner and always will be. A distraction ensuring inaction.
For H2 to be viable, you would need some sort of magic catalyst that takes water and sunlight as inputs and spits out H2 at a rate higher than the equivalent PV-Battery-Car cycle.
At the rate of battery development, I can't see that magic arriving in time to compete with batteries.
H2 is all about creating a proprietary "fuel" that can be sold in a market controlled by a few players (sound familiar?). It should be no surprise that the extraction industry would latch on to this instead of batteries. The only business model they understand is selling fuel in a non-competitive market.
convert to hydrogen to then transport on entirely new delivery infrastructure into extremely costly vehicles boggles the imagination. As dumb as it gets. Can we finally put a fork into hydrogen fuel cells already?
https://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?article=3036
It makes the EROEI of TO and Tar Sands look positively sexy in comparison. Heck, even corn ethanol looks good!
As someone mentioned, it is a viable option for energy storage when there is an oversupply from intermittent renewable sources, BUT THAT'S IT!
Whoever employed this science illiterate to write about energy matters? Oilprice FFS!
That's why, if we're to use hydrogen, I'd say it should be combined with nitrogen to form ammonia or hydrazine. Ammonia is more difficult to store, but hydrazine is more dangerous.
Of course, Olah recommends methanol, and indeed a ferry powered by methanol fuel cells is cruising on Lake Baldeney at present. The only problem with methanol is that it contains carbon, and the Greens go into hysterics at the thought of global warming.
As to how to make the ammonia, or hydrazine, or methanol, I naturally believe breeder reactors should provide the energy. Certainly until we settle on a plentiful, reliable and sufficiently cheap source of energy, we'd be foolish to rock our present boat.