Green hydrogen steps up with 3 new upcoming projects in the US

Dr. Aparna Deshpande

The global atmosphere is now expected to have reduced carbon emissions with the launch of 3 new green hydrogen projects. The concept of green hydrogen envisages the use of renewable resources for its production. Coal and Gas remained the only major feedstocks for hydrogen until now. But the upcoming water electrolysis technology makes green hydrogen a more viable option instead of fossil fuel exploited hydrogen generation. The other renewable resources for hydrogen include biogas, organic wastes, and industrial wastes, but electrolysis happens to be a standalone inexpensive hydrogen generation process.

As per one school of thought, the use of electricity generated from renewable resources should be directly used by grid power rather than using it for water electrolysis. Well for some cases the stored hydrogen can be a better option as compared to the grid electricity. As hydrogen can be generated by wind and solar-generated electric power it can result in sustainable hydrogen production. Thus, a concept of a sustainable hydrogen hub is now being explored in which existing energy infrastructure will be used to scale up green hydrogen production. Texas, Utah, and Mississippi are exploring the hydrogen hub idea however the giant project is run in southern California by the SoCal group. SoCal estimates that around 25% of their present gas consumption will be replaced by the green hydrogen technique. The high-power-consuming diesel generators and truck engines will be hydrogen fuel enabled shortly. Also, SoCal is aiming to convert its 4 natural gas plants to green hydrogen plants.

The automation market happens to develop an infrastructure that will support the transposition of green hydrogen with all these new projects ramping up. The demand for decarbonized fuels has ramped up the production of green hydrogen growth providing a sustainable alternative to climate-aware consumers. SoCal also aims to run fuel-cell-based air crafts. Along with SoCal 4 leading global stakeholders — Airbus, CFM International, GE, and Safran Aircraft Engines have formed a joint venture aimed at rapid scale-up in that area. For the demonstration, an A380 flying testbed having liquid hydrogen tanks prepared at Airbus facilities in France and German will be used.

Sea route transports of Navy ships are also planning to be equipped with hydrogen fuel. The major fuel cell stack manufacturers ABB and Ballard have developed fuel cells of 3- a megawatt range. This is presumed enough power for Sea transport systems. DNV has approved the project and the duo aims at providing fuel-cell-based sea transport options soon.

ABB and Ballard have just formed a partnership that scales up fuel cells to the 3-megawatt range, or the equivalent of 4,000 horsepower. That’s enough to power a ferry or other larger ship with electricity, or provide auxiliary power for one of those colossal ships that ply the oceans. Stay tuned for more news on S&T digital as Railways are also considering to be green hydrogen-powered along-with air and sea sector.

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(cleantechnica.com  Feb,25 2022)

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Dr Smita Chaturvedi
Smita is an experimental condensed matter physicist. The quest for multifunctional materials motivates her. Smita finished her PhD from RDVV Jabalpur and BARC Mumbai in the year 2002 and worked as a research associate in IIT Mumbai and Oakland University, Michigan. Smita was awarded as a Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional excellence fellow in 2018-19. Smita holds more than a decade of research and teaching experience. She possesses good knowledge about education system and research opportunities in India as well as abroad. Music and gardening are her mindful meditations.
Dr. Priyadarshini Karve
Dr Priyadarshini Karve has worked in the areas of household energy, decentralised waste-to-fuel technologies, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable and climate-ready urbanisation, etc. She runs her own social green enterprise Samuchit Enviro Tech in Pune, focused on enabling access to sustainable products and services. She is also a co-founder of OrjaBox, a startup promoting solar thermal technologies. Dr Karve is a Founder Member of Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN - a multi-state society of decentralised renewable energy practitioners and entrepreneurs) and Cleaner Cooking Coalition (CCC - an international organisation focused on promoting user-centric cooking energy technologies that are good for health as well as climate). She is also the National Convener of Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change (INECC - focused on climate justice issues and working to bring people's voices in policy choices). Her work has been recognised by several national and international awards and honours.
Sanjay Khare
Sanjay Khare ,after his graduation in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1986 has been associated with major Japanese & European Automotive OEMs in Indian Subcontinent for 35 years . Widely travelled across Europe & Asia , he has held positions across diverse functions of Automotive Corporations.
In his current role as Board Member and Vice President at Skoda Auto Volkswagen India , he is Chief Sustainability Catalyst to guide actions at Skoda Auto Volkswagen India along with the sister brands Audi, Porsche & Lamborghini.
He leads an active Climate Resilience program where the automotive major in India has already achieved Zero Waste to Landfill, Water Positive & Zero liquid Discharge Certification, Zero Accidents , targeting an 18.5 MW of installed Roof Top Solar plant at a single Automotive site in India in 2021 and fully Carbon Neutral Production by 2025.
Sanjay has done his Executive MBA from Management development Institute ,Gurgaon specialising in Strategy & Marketing . He has active interests in driving Cultural Change, Competency building , Human Motivation topics while adopting/ innovating the technological advancements and total quality revolution.He is also a Qualified Independent Director registered with Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India. An active speaker on Automotive & Sustainability topics on National & International forums.
In personal life, he is an Endurance Cyclist having participated in many adventure ride expeditions . He also spends his time in developing mastery on Indian Classical Music instrument Sitar.