, the majority of hydrogen is actually produced from fossil fuels: namely, methane (natural gas) and coal.
Analysis shows that hydrogen is also currently inefficient and cost-prohibitive when compared with the approach to decarbonise the economy known as the electrification of everything, which would involve switching the majority of transportation and heating from burning fossil fuels to electricity produced increasingly by renewables.
All of this hydrogen hype raises a lot of questions.
What is hydrogen energy?
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and can be used as a way to store and carry energy much like a battery which is why it is appealing as a way to replace burning fossil fuels for transportation, heat and power.
North America’s hydrogen highway
AVL List GmbH - Official Sponsors of H2 View s Mobility Content
It’s 2004 and Arnold Schwarzenegger, then governor of California in the US, has just pulled up at the University of California, Davis’s (UC Davis) new hydrogen station in a fuel cell car. It’s the first publicly accessible station in California and Schwarzenegger refuels the hydrogen-powered car becoming the first member of the general public to use it. Declaring “this starts a new era for clean California transportation”, Schwarzenegger then signed an executive order to create a hydrogen transportation network throughout California by 2010 – a ‘hydrogen highway’.
By Molly Burgess2021-01-28T10:43:00+00:00
Air Products yesterday (27
th Jan) reaffirmed its commitment to hydrogen as it took part in a virtual panel discussion detailing the findings of the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association’s (FCHEA)
Road Map to a US Hydrogen Economy report.
“We believe world-scale projects, such as the NEOM project, are required to rapidly reduce the cost of green hydrogen and more quickly help the world reduce its carbon footprint,” Eric Guter, Air Products’ Vice-President of Hydrogen for Mobility Solutions said at the event.
Guter’s reference to the NEOM project refers to its partnership with ACWA Power and NEOM, through which they will build a $5bn world-scale green hydrogen-based ammonia production facility powered by renewable energy.
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LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Jan. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Air Products (NYSE: APD) vice president - Hydrogen for Mobility Solutions, Eric Guter, took part in a virtual panel discussion today detailing the findings of the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association s (FCHEA) Road Map to a U.S. Hydrogen Economy report.
The panel was part of FCHEA s northeast launch of the 96-page Road Map to a U.S. Hydrogen Economy report, which was created by a coalition including Air Products and 19 other major hydrogen, oil, gas, power, automotive, and fuel cell companies. The comprehensive report details how the United States can expand its global energy leadership by scaling up activity in the rapidly emerging and evolving hydrogen economy. The creation of the report was coordinated and managed by FCHEA.
Overview
Hydrogen has over the last century enjoyed repeated bouts of interest as a fuel source. Though these have repeatedly fallen flat, hydrogen-based production has recently enjoyed a renaissance, due to a trifecta of improving political, economic, and technological conditions. Importantly, hydrogen presents an answer to a major problem in the energy transition debate: decarbonizing fuel sources while maintaining energy security and reliability. While electrification has a first-mover advantage in certain areas (e.g., light-duty vehicles), hydrogen is seen as particularly viable in “hard-to-decarbonize” sectors such as heavy-duty transportation, which requires fuel supply for substantial distance and payloads.
These trends are still nascent. There has long been a small hydrogen market, primarily for industrial applications;