Every day, more and more encouraging stories are popping up on news tickers, saying that companies, cities, towns and entire unions of countries, such as the EU, want to step on the gas in terms of climate action, with hydrogen definitely playing a crucial role in their efforts. While people are still sparring over what production method we should focus on, I am sure green hydrogen will win out in the end. Though we may need some of that blue gas to get to green.
The world’s hunger for energy shows no signs of letting up. In fact, electrification is becoming ever more popular. But until we see the hydrogen and fuel cell market make a breakthrough on the world stage, providing energy for multiple kinds of applications, we will need to keep coal and gas power stations up and running. Obviously, steam-reforming blue hydrogen is not a zero-carbon business. However, the blue variant emits 70 percent fewer emissions than coal. In other words, we need to be completely open to new ideas and demand that governments take a long, hard look at all technology options on the table. Fuel cell and battery advocates could stop competing with each other, too, if we chose solutions according to suitability.
When Katsuhiko Hirose, once dubbed the ‘father’ of Toyota’s Prius, was asked why German automakers have yet to make use of their head start in fuel cell R&D, he replied: “I have no idea what their issue is. German businesses are dooming themselves.” Meanwhile, VW’s chairman, Herbert Diess, has been chastised by Bosch CEO Volkmar Denner for ignoring fuel cells altogether. Bosch, which is VW’s largest supplier, believes only hydrogen could help electrify several types of vehicles, trucks and buses among them. He expects the same to happen in the passenger car market eventually.
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read more in H2-international October 2020
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Author: Sven Jösting, written September 1st, 2020