It all seems so simple. Take the most abundant element in the universe, literally the thing that there’s the most of, a resource which can never be exhausted and which, in some applications, can even be recycled as you use it. Take it and use it to replace fossil fuels.
Using hydrogen for energy is nothing new. At something of a distance, it’s how all life on Earth is powered, as the sun is essentially a gigantic burning ball of hydrogen, and it’s the sun’s energy – used for photosynthesis, and then locked up and stored initially in plants which eventually became fossils which ultimately became fossils fuels – that we’re still burning, and burning too much of, today.
The hydrogen that feeds the sun’s awesome power can also power the things that we need on Earth, and this is not even new technology. Hydrogen fuel cells – which chemically combine hydrogen and oxygen to create an electrical current – were first developed in the 1840s. More recently, it has repeatedly been shown that modern combustion engines can be run on a form of liquid or gaseous hydrogen, dramatically reducing their impact on the environment. So why aren’t we doing that? And why aren’t we using the hydrogen fuel cells that produce only water as an exhaust (effectively recycling the hydrogen which can then be extracted again later from more water)?
That’s a good question. So far, it seems, the issue has come down to energy input. Hydrogen is great, because it’s everywhere. It is the single most abundant element but getting hold of pure hydrogen is tricky because it easily combines with other elements, the most famous being its combination with oxygen to form water.
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Extracting that hydrogen, chilling it into a liquid or compressing it into smaller volumes, transporting it and putting it in a vehicle or any device that needs power, uses energy. Better, say the electric advocates, to put that energy directly into a battery, which is a more efficient use of resources – ignoring, for a moment, that batteries themselves use vast resources to be built, transported, incorporated into vehicles and buildings, and eventually recycled.
So, hydrogen, once the great energy hope, seemed to wither.
It may be having something of a renaissance. Big car makers are recommitting to hydrogen in a way that seems somewhat unexpected given the preponderance of publicity enjoyed by the battery electric vehicle. Hyundai is one of hydrogen’s bigger proponents, being as it’s one of the few companies, right now, which has a hydrogen vehicle – called the Nexo – in production.
Better yet, Hyundai has just shown off a next-generation hydrogen car, called the Initium, which goes into production next year. It boasts a 650km range on a full tank of hydrogen but unlike an electric car, which can take at minimum 25-30 minutes to charge up to 80 per cent of its capacity, the hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered Initium can be fuelled in a couple of minutes, just like a petrol or diesel car.
Jaehoon Chang, president and chief executive of Hyundai, used the announcement of the Initium as a way of reconfirming Hyundai’s vision for a hydrogen-powered future, saying: “Hyundai Motors’ clear, unwavering commitment to hydrogen over the past 27 years is rooted in our belief in its potential as a clean, accessible and therefore fair energy source for everyone. We are dedicated to pioneering a future where hydrogen is used by everyone, in everything, and everywhere. We invite you to join us on this journey.”
Hyundai is not alone. At the Paris motor show, Renault showed off the Emblème concept car – not merely a motor show pony but an exploration by Renault of how to reduce a car’s emissions by 90 per cent – that’s not just when it’s being driven, nor even when it’s being charged, but in total, from cradle to grave. Renault claims the Emblème would have a whole-life total emissions figure of just five tonnes of CO2, compared to the 24 tonnes of an electric Megane E-Tech hatchback.
The Emblème has an electric motor (the 220hp one from the Scenic E-Tech) and a battery (the 40kWh one from the entry-level version of the Megane E-Tech) which gives it a range, says Renault, of “several hundred kilometres.”
What about longer journeys? Well, that’s where hydrogen comes in. Renault, although something of a pioneer in the modern electric car game, has never quite given up on hydrogen and given the current flagging of public interest – in some markets anyway, notably Ireland and Germany – in electric cars, the French car maker might well be thankful for that bet-hedging.
Renault actually does have a production hydrogen vehicle on sale right now – a version of the new Master van – but the Emblème uses a 30kW hydrogen fuel cell as a range-extender for long runs. Fill it up with 2.8kg of hydrogen and the Emblème can drive for 350km before it needs refuelling, which takes just five minutes.
Of course, that relies on being able to find hydrogen fuelling stations along the way and that also assumes that any hydrogen on offer has been produced in a carbon-neutral fashion. Currently, hydrogen power remains very much on the “maybe” pile because it relies on huge investments in manufacturing, shipping, storing and refuelling infrastructure. It’s that investment, and the fact that electricity is already everywhere, which has seen eco-experts continue to shun the technology.
BMW too is becoming keener on hydrogen again, especially for parts of the world where electricity is less guaranteed than it is in Europe. Peter van Binsbergenis is the chief executive of BMW Group South Africa, and indeed is the head of everything BMW south of the Sahara. He told Business Ireland: “If you look at our country, we have these wide open spaces and we definitely don’t have the charging network that Europe has. So, we need to offer our customers the choice of vehicles that suits their mobility needs.
“BMW as a company is committed to electromobility and we’re busy with that here in South Africa too. In fact, we were pioneers of it, launching the i3 here in 2015. But you have to consider the challenges of Africa – as I said, wide open spaces and not much charging. There are customers out there who would love to drive on zero emissions but EV isn’t right for them. And so, the subject of green hydrogen is very, very topical in South Africa.”
Can Ireland be a hydrogen pioneer? Maybe so. Paul McCormack is the chief executive of Hydrogen Ireland, and he told Business Ireland: “We’ve moved now from looking at hydrogen at any cost to looking at hydrogen at the right cost. There is a hydrogen strategy developed for Ireland, while the Northern Ireland Assembly is putting together a hydrogen taskforce. That all fits in with the broader European vision, but there’s also a unique Irish opportunity.
“We can start by looking at the mobility question and then by moving on to look at hydrogen as a form of energy storage to help balance the electricity grid – a grid in which there’s little headroom for more usage but where hydrogen can help create that headroom.”
McCormack’s vision is that excess electricity production – largely produced at night by wind farms, which create power that is mostly wasted – can be turned to providing power for the electrolysis of water, which releases hydrogen, which can be in turn compressed and stored. It can be then used as a fuel in and of itself; it can be combined with carbon taken from the air to create liquid hydrocarbon fuel – synthetic petrol, basically – or it can be pumped into the national gas grid to supplant fossil-based gas.
It seems a tantalising opportunity, one which has often been just out of our collective reach and more often drifted further away than that. McCormack, though, is confident that hydrogen’s time has finally come.
“That wasted electricity is around 10-12 per cent of our total power,” he says. “It’s like building an 11-storey building and only using the first eight floors. We’re at a point now where we’re looking at a 15-year plan – five years to create greater efficiencies in how we make and use hydrogen; five years to enhance and create better, newer systems; and then five years to create long-term storage and grid solutions.”
