ConstructionWorX DIGITAL
Hydrogen Lights up the Site Andrew Barker, Managing Director of CEA members TCP Group, explains how a paradigm shift looks closer now as we move energy vectors away from traditional liquid hydrocarbon fuels to cleaner less polluting alternatives.
As well as the question ‘what are manufacturers doing to move away from the internal combustion engine (ICE)?’ we need to look more closely at the practicalities of actually using electric and hydrogen powered equipment. Questions like:– ● How will a job site supply the power to recharge a whole fleet overnight? ● How will the power for recharging be generated – is it by renewable energy? ● Length of operating time of alternative powered equipment? ● Effects on power delivery of the equipment? ● Hydrogen specific – where will the hydrogen be stored on the job site? ● How will the hydrogen be packaged and be recharged? ● How green is the source of hydrogen? – i.e. brown, blue or green. ● When will fuel cell technology be scalable and affordable?
6 JUNE 2021
One positive outcome from a year of lock down and the personal losses caused by the Covid 19 pandemic is that the message of ‘build back greener and cleaner’ has moved up the political agenda and looks as though it is beginning to be realised and taken seriously. A paradigm shift looks closer now as we move energy vectors away from traditional liquid hydrocarbon fuels to cleaner less polluting alternatives. The first step is to always ask “is zero emission equipment available for the task?” and wherever possible, specify that equipment. Battery and Hydrogen are complementary technologies that are being developed for early adoption to eliminate the ICE in the up to 10kW power range. For many construction and support processes the energy efficiency of the equipment used is under constant review. There are significant numbers of Diesel Generators of all sizes that run under load or with low duty cycles, running site compound facilities that in energy efficiency terms look similar to the UKs remaining 1950/60s housing stock! This
