Hydrogen seen as future fuel
Big companies promote gas as a clean alternative
The sooner we get the hydrogen economy going, the better Toyota chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada
The most abundant element in the universe may supply almost a fifth of global energy by 2050, according to a group of industrial companies from Royal Dutch Shell to Toyota.
Fuel-cells running on hydrogen, extracted from water using wind and solar power, may be used to power everything from cars to factories, says the Hydrogen Council, a group that also includes the German carmaker BMW, mining giant Anglo American and the French energy company Engie. The group estimates that hydrogen has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 6 gigatonnes a year, more than the 5.5 gigatonnes the US released last year.
The group has been in Bonn this week for the United Nations’ annual climate meeting, to promote hydrogen infrastructure.
Fossil-fuel producers led by Shell are boosting their investments in the fuel, anticipating wider use in vehicles as environmental laws tighten worldwide. Investments of as much as US$25 billion ($36b) a year would be needed to support as many as 15 million cars and 500,000 trucks on the road by 2030, says the study compiled with consultancy McKinsey & Co.
“The world in the 21st century must transition to widespread, lowcarbon energy use,” Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota’s chairman and a co-chair of the Hydrogen Council, said in a statement. “The sooner we get the hydrogen economy going, the better.”
Hydrogen may have the potential to eliminate the need for about 20 million barrels of oil per day, radically reducing the need to transport fossil fuels around the world, says the group. It would also require significant investment in pipelines, storage and manufacturing plants needed to make it on a giant scale — not to mention the cost of perfecting cars that run on fuel cells using hydrogen.
Most commercial hydrogen is currently produced from natural gas. Electrolysis is emerging as a carbon- free alternative method to extract hydrogen from water molecules.
Generating the fuel to use as a source of electricity is increasingly seen as a way to store excess wind and solar power. And since it can be stored and handled similarly to petrol and diesel, oil companies find that using it is closely aligned with their current businesses.
“Policy makers should avoid picking winners in the race to decarbonise our transportation systems,” Mark Cutifani, chief executive of Anglo American, said in the statement. “We support, and I will continue to urge the government to support, hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to unlock the potential of this technology and reduce the likelihood of problems such as strain to national grids, that may be caused by an over-reliance on one technology.”
French rail-equipment maker Alstom last week signed a contract to deliver 14 hydrogen-powered regional trains to Lower Saxony, Germany, starting in 2021.
—Bloomberg