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)
