The Green Hydrogen Edition

Ryan Anderson (RJA) is a freelance marketing exec based in Atlanta, GA. He has written a whole bunch of WITIs, including Video Assisted Review, Semiconductors, Simpson’s Paradox, and Batteries.

Ryan here. Many years ago, I would get breakfast every Monday with some very smart professors and grad students at Georgia Tech. Hydrogen fuel cells (HFCs) were a very popular concept at the time, particularly as a potential powertrain replacement for internal combustion engines. The idea was simple: convert water to hydrogen via electrolysis and store that hydrogen, in various forms, to power cars and other things.

The problem was that it takes more energy to “charge” an HFC, or any battery for that matter, than it can send back into a system. Those pesky laws of thermodynamics strike again.

This is even more problematic for HFCs because electrolysis, the method for turning water into hydrogen, requires a lot of energy. With power generation dominated by coal and natural gas, the end result was that you were actually producing as much or more CO2 with HFCs than if you just used gasoline.

What has changed over the years is our ability to produce more clean energy than we can actually use. Residential solar panels are pushing 20% efficiency and some prototypes are approaching 50%. Turbines have grown larger, allowing them to capture more wind and produce more energy. When you add these per-unit improvements to the increasing amounts of solar and wind generation being deployed, you start to see things that would have been inconceivable even 5 years ago.

Why is this interesting?

On April 30th, California actually had to reduce solar energy production by 2,900 MW (slightly more than the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant capacity) to keep from overloading the grid. 99.87% of all power demand was being met by clean, renewable energy and there was still more to go around. While some of the battery types I discussed in my last WITI can work to store day-time energy for night-time usage, hydrogen offers even more possibilities.

For one, hydrogen storage can hold months’ worth of energy. While other batteries can sustain individual houses or even towns for 24-48 hours of crisis, with hydrogen you can build a huge reserve during the windy season, or the sunny season, and rely on it for months.

Image via FT

Additionally, hydrogen can be integrated into existing natural gas plants. Turbine manufacturers have been developing new options that will accept and burn hydrogen gas, extending the life of these plants and infrastructure while also reducing their greenhouse gas emissions related to fuel combustion to zero.

And finally, hydrogen can be easily transported. Not in its gas form, but once hydrogen has been converted into ammonia it can be transported via pipelines, including existing natural gas pipelines. That means we can make zero-emission fuel available across states, countries, and continents.

There are about 650MW of hydrogen production capacity coming online in 2022, and Shell recently announced that they are building a 200MW production plant powered entirely by wind off the coast of the Netherlands. 

If these projects all prove out, and the cost of renewable energy deployment continues to drop, we may have one of our best weapons yet against pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. (RJA)

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On trade, vaccines, and sustainable and inclusive growth. From the ways the pandemic affected global trade to vaccine access in emerging economies and what an equitable recovery might look like, this lively conversation with the World Trade Organization’s first African—and first female—director-general covers a lot of ground. Check it out.

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Ryan (RJA)

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