The Economist July 24th 2021 pp50|Business|The hydrogen business|”Burning clean” “Japan Inc wants to become a H2 superpower”
In the march for a carbon neutral footprint, hydrogen power has been overshadowed by the rapid adoption of batteries to power vehicles but during the current Tokyo Olympics hydrogen-gas power has gotten some limelight. First the Olympic torch was powered by colorless hydrogen gas (H2) flame and hundreds of cars and buses made by Toyota are shuttling athletes and coaches around the city and between venues. The beauty of H2 is that as a power source H2 is consumed and combined with ambient oxygen to emit only water, some heat and no greenhouse gases.
Image from electropages.com
Producing H2 is one of several challenges facing the widescale adoption of H2 commercially. It is readily made by stripping H2 from methane, CH4, to yield carbon and H2 but carbon as a byproduct is also “planet hearting.” The cleanest and moderately priced alternative for making H2 is by electrolysis “making clean H2 from H20.”
Image from researchgate.com Energy to power hydrolysis can come from any source shown here is by battery. Battery power can be produced by green sources and carbon-based sources.
The process of electrolysis of course requires electricity and generating that should be carbon neutral as well. Now “an Australian investment firm, [will] develop 30 solar farms down under that would combine renewable energy with battery and hydrogen storage.” Getting H2 to Japan is then another challenge but “Kawasaki Heavy Industries recently won regulatory approval to build the world’s largest liquified hydrogen cargo ship.” Vessels like that would help “export green hydrogen to Japan.” Hopefully they too would be powered by green energy as cargo ships currently are a significant source of pollution.
Meanwhile, to vie for a larger market share practical improvements like making automobile compatible fuel cells cost competitive and providing more refueling stations is essential.
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