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Hydrogen power. That great saviour of humanity.
Used in space, used in commercial and passenger vehicles. Clean, proven and reliable. The hydrogen goes into the cell, reacts with the oxygen, produces electricity and water is the byproduct.
Photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash
The biggest trouble is generating it cleanly and if it's not cleanly generated then doing the next best thing and tapping an existing dirty source to create it.
Another problem is usage. A while back Toyota opened up their early work on the hydrogen fuel engine for the world to adopt. As is usually the case in human history the world refused to embrace utopia and started down the path of adopting battery-powered vehicles made with lithium and cobalt mined by kids in the Democratic Republic of Congo (editor: you want to calm it down a little there, James?)
For a short amount of time, it has been considered that battery power was the way we were heading and that hydrogen would be relegated to commercial plants powering forklifts and perhaps commercial fleet vehicles. The infrastructure for hydrogen just wasn't there.
However...
Over the last few weeks, I've seen my feed become swamped by hydrogen news. Maybe it's just because I've been talking about it and my phone is listening to me so it keeps putting news articles about it to me. (another rant for another time)
Maybe there actually is a movement going on in the hydrogen space and maybe we need to pay attention.
First up is one that initially made me tense then slightly less so. I'm a nuclear energy fan. Always have been and always will be. Germany is choosing possibly the worst time to shut down their amazing nuclear plant network.
And moving to gas-fired plants. I know, right?
But if you read the German news (ten years of German in school paying off) then you'll see there's more to it.
Javier sums it up nicely...
Source: Javier Blas - X
Source: Dhaka Tribune
Now the conversion isn't easy (or possible apparently) but it's still there. The largest economy in Europe is on the way, slowly, and in my view clunkily, but it's still something.
While we're in Germany...
Source: Dhaka TribuneYou can skim through it at your leisure but here's the big quote:
According to BMW CEO Oliver Zipse, hydrogen engines are poised to play a significant role globally in the long term. The focus on fast performance, quick refuelling, and environmental sustainability aligns with the emerging priorities in the transportation sector.
Brilliant.
While we're in India...
Reliance is massive. 5000 trucks massive. Link here
The quote that matters: “We have had near zero downtime in the trials and we have found that H2 ICE powered hydrogen trucks are three times more efficient than diesel,” the senior company official said. “We will start introducing these in our fleet before rolling out the entire ecosystem for a hydrogen-powered economy.”
You had me at "hydrogen-powered economy"
Next up is Toyota, who just announced a deal to produce electrolysers with Chiyoda in order to meet demand.
Source: Hydrogen Insight
So, in short, yes there is plenty of news about hydrogen in the passenger and commercial vehicle space. The world is turning more and more in the direction of seeing hydrogen as a viable alternative.
News like this warms me right up. Production is great, as is retrofit. Where does it go from here? Imagine the same discussion about recharge stations people had when Tesla first started their journey. Same thing with hydrogen.
To find out more drop us a line. Stay safe and all the best,
James.
