The rise of Hydrogen It is light and colourless but can hydrogen – which forms a liquid at very low temperatures – derived from renewable energy develop into a commercially viable ‘green’ energy market for domestic and export markets?
IN RECENT MONTHS Chief Scientist Alan Finkel has been presenting the compelling case for a hydrogen industry based on renewable resources in a carbon constrained economy. Today natural gas accounts for virtually all – 96 per cent – of global hydrogen production. However cost reductions in renewable energy edge it to an increasingly feasible power source for splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Australia has the potential to build a hydrogen export industry worth $1.7b billion and provide employment for 2,800 people by 2030, predominantly in regional areas at sites of hydrogen production, storage and loading for export. Chief Scientist Alan Finkel
Taking the concept one step closer to fruition is a high level team of researchers within the Scientist’s department who are developing a National Hydrogen Roadmap. The document plots the path to clean hydrogen for use as an alternative to fossil fuels to power transport including cars, trucks, trains and ships; also for heating in commercial buildings and houses.
Hydrogen driven future And looking to a future in which electric vehicles are powered by hydrogen fuel cells rather than batteries, Alan Finkel says state and territory governments could start scoping the
potential for hydrogen refueling station infrastructure. The focus, he says, needs to be on heavy vehicles to help meet increasing demand for zero-emissions transport. “The technical challenges for a hydrogen powered future are not insurmountable,” says John Grimes of the Smart Energy Council. “Hydrogen holds the potential to unlock enormous opportunities not just in transport but also right across the industrial manufacturing sector.” Costs involved in hydrogen gas processes and storage are currently high, however the pendulum will shift once mass production and economies of scale kick in, he says, emphasising the benefits of hydrogen as well as being the most abundant element in the universe, the only by-product when used as a fuel is water vapour. “By using renewables in the electrolysis process you can have a completely clean cycle,” he says. “Australia has some of the best renewable energy resources in the world which is why the CWP Renewables project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region that plans to ship hydrogen overseas is so important.”
The Saratoga, California, True Zero hydrogen fueling station, filling a Toyota Mirai while the station is being refilled by an Air Products SmartFuel Hydrogen delivery truck. Image by Dicklyon
